I was wondering if any other Akita owners, or large breed owners have similar experience as me? I often run into people, while walking my dogs, who will tell me about their Akitas, past or present, or their friends, and how much these dogs weighed. My guess is “if” they are telling the truth then most of these dogs are overweight. I had one who weighed 120-125lbs, he was tall and lanky. When he was younger and before he had a bad shoulder he weighed less. I think 115 to 120 max was a good weight for him, but at 120-125 he was by no means fat. I had someone tell me that their long coated Akita weighed 160 lbs a few days ago. I run into a 5 year old female Akita sometimes who’s owner says she’s 100 lbs, but she’s not as tall or long as Bandit, and he’s only in the low 80’s.. and he looks bigger. I guess they think it sounds impressive to say how huge these dogs are.. but most must be lying or have very obese dogs. I know from personal experience that a very big dog can have joint problems, and thats no fun. Luckily for me Bandit is not a huge chow hound and is more on the thin side, and I will try and keep him that way!!
I can't speak for Akita but I do know with Shar-Pei there is a terrific variation in weight. I've owned two, both of whom were the average 18 inches in height but my first one only weighed 35 lbs and the one I have now is 37 lbs. It's not unusual however for some Pei to weigh around 70 lbs and not be obese. Most will weigh between 45 and 55 lbs. My girl has an enormous appetite and by the amount of food she consumes every day she should be as fat as a pig but she isn't. She's perfectly healthy, just naturally slender.
My dog is over 100 lbs and is fat. I'm not sure of his ideal weight, but a loss of 5-10 lbs would probably make him a good weight. My last dog was around 60-70 lbs and was thin as can be. Weight really doesn't much matter like that. It's a number.
In any breed there will be weight variations, depending on the individual dogs build, height, and bone, fat to muscle ratio, etc.
Yup. A dog can be 60 lbs and be too thin, just about perfect, or too fat. It just all depends. So don't pay attention to the numbers people give out. They really don't mean anything.
My point was that I think people exaggerate the weight, to sound more impressive, or the dogs are overweight. I understand that within each breed, or crossbreed, there will be a wide variation in weight, and some dogs will be smaller or larger then the weights listed as breed standards. From a quick look Akitas can weigh 70-130 lbs, on average. My experience with talking to random people I meet is that they usually tell me their or their friends dogs are on that heavier side, or even larger than 130 lbs. Although some may be larger than that high end number, the law of averages would say that it shouldn’t be the amount that I hear about.. I have had only one person say that their past Akita was on the smaller side... as saying bigger sounds more impressive I suppose.. My point is that many are bragging, telling untruths, kind of like but not as extreme as a former member on here..
Yeah I don't get the bragging about weights. American Bully owners tend to do that as well. And again, many of them are chubby like my boy. It's weight but it isn't healthy weight so it doesn't matter. Doesn't really make any sense to me. They brag about how much food they feed as well. Again, have no idea why. Like for me, my dog is not very active and though he weighs a hundreds something pounds, it would be absurd to FEED him what the bags say to feed a dog his weight. He needs WAY less than that. Bragging about weight and the amount a dog eats or whatnot makes zero sense. And yes many are probably lying... Much like said previous member lol
I’ve had 5 dogs over the years and I’ve never fed what it says on the bag. I let my first 2 dogs (brother and sister) get overweight and they weren’t too happy to have their portions reduced. My previous dog got a bit heavy after one of his shoulders went bad (due to me letting him jump out of the back of my truck I think) and as he exercised himself less after that he put on weight. By the end I took very long walks with him, covering very short distances.. Luckily my current dogs seem to self regulate, I free feed for about 20 minutes twice a day. I’ve basically figured out how much they eat now so that food doesn’t get wasted. I think bandit could be a bit heavier and still be healthy but he doesn’t want more, which is fine as it costs less!!
What a dog weighs is really of little importance. I think that we can tell whether or not our dogs need to be fed more or less and the same with exercise. Weight charts are only the very vaguest of indicators as they can't take into account all the factors that go to making our dogs a healthy weight for each individual
Its a proven fact that the ladies are impressed by the weight of a guys dog. Its real science, just like magnets lol. Kidding or course. My female Akita is about 76lbs and is plenty big enough for me. I have to keep a close eye on her weight though as she has E.P.I. She need enzymes in every meal for the rest of her natural. A lot more costly than I would have hoped, but I wouldn't trade her for the world. I feed her x2 cups per meal x2 meals per day with Taste of The Wild Pacific stream from Chewys.com. Amazons dog food is not stored correctly and the pellets can come in all manner of sizes because they have been too warm or too cold during storage. Chewys dog food is top grade and every bag looks the same when you open it. Also in case anyone's dog is or may be affected with EPI, enzymediane.com is where I get the enzymes ($150 every 2-3 months) which believe it or not is a very good price, and excellent quality too.
I’m curious what was going on with her that led to that diagnosis (wondering if that could be the cause of my girl wanting to double digest her food..). She is lucky to have you. I feed a different taste of the Wild food, pine forest. It’s protein is 3% higher but fat % is same as what you feed. I get mine from a local pet food store, and is actually $5 less than Chewys. Both my dogs eat about the same amount as your girl, but eat about twice as much at night as in morning.
I have had similar experiences. It's really not impressive to me that they have an obese dog or totally off standard or even mixed bred dog (claiming pure bred of course). It's all really sad.
If you start listening to ALL people opinions you'll finish in the grave . personally I consult with my vet and that's it. Think, it's the same like with human weight and remember, most people, including me, are attention seakers
She was doing fine as a pup right up until she turned 11-12 months, then she seemed to get taller but skinnier, she was something like 45lbs at 12 months and she dropped 10-15lbs. We tried everything, rice and chicken (which has never calmed any of my dogs stomachs to be honest) and 2 vet visits. She was pooping out something that a cow would leave behind, just a yellow "pat" every time for about 2 months. Absolute nightmare to try and pick up with a poopy bag I can tell ya lol. Then the doc had an idea and we tested her for EPI, she was positive. Her pancreas has just stopped working and atrophied, which means she is completely unable to digest Carbohydrates, Fats or Protein. Meaning she would starve to death no matter what kind or amount of food was available to her. So many dogs have this and they are needlessly put down when the pain gets too much for them because the owners are trying to be humane. Or people accused of starving their dogs to death and a lot of times it was Endocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency (E.P.I.). So I have to put the enzymes she is missing, into her food and soak it for no less than 30 mins, for every meal. Within 24 hours of first giving it to her though, her poop basically normalized, and within a week she had put on 5lbs and had a ton of energy. 6 months later she is 78lbs and strong as a bull, and just as stubborn too. I think she may be a little overweight because I really can't feel her ribs no more. Before they were literally visible through her coat, and her butt bone made me think of those steers in westerns, 2 bony humps where her hips should be. I had lost a husky of 8 years a few months before we got Luna and I thought I was going to loose her at such a young age too. Terrible times when you have a sick pet, just terrible.
That’s sounds very scary, so glad your vet figured it out!! I can relate to the sick pet. I had to pts my almost 12 year old Akita due to his good shoulder giving out, his other shoulder was damaged from being 120lb dog jumping out the back of my 4wd Toyota pickup. Bandit arrived 5 weeks later and 12 hours after I picked him up at the airport he was at the emergency vets at 2am diagnosed with parvo. It was very touch and go the 8 days he was there and really didn’t know if he’d make it until the day he came home. He was a 16lb, 11 1/2 week old sack of bones when he came home. I was completely miserable, wasn’t sleeping, looked like crap while he was in an isolation room. Thanks for sharing that. I hope she is with you for many happy years to come!!
