Kishu Ken

Kishu ken Born: 12/7/11 Pups at 4 weeks old.

shishiinu — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 20:01:07 -0500

Well after keeping track of Koyuki on her pregnancy, she all of a sudden started giving birth earlier this afternoon. So far she gave birth to 5 beautiful pups but unfortunately one pup did not make it...

She just gave birth to her 5th pup 20 minutes ago so standby on more info!

Whiskey Photos

Whiskey — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 13:15:50 -0500

Here are a few photos of Whiskey!

napping on some toys ...

Just posing...

Yushoku Kishu (another pic added 4/11)

TheWalrus — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 00:13:38 -0400

Just a short clip of a Yushoku (colored) Kishu I've seen several times at the regional Nippo shows. In my opinion not necessarily the best sample of a colored Kishu, but since there's so little footage out there I thought I'd upload it.

Personally I think the dark masking in her face, and uneven body color are less than what I would like.

Koyuki (aka #2, aka Yuki) up date.

shishiinu — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 20:32:36 -0500

Well not a real update since I cant get crap to wor for me to post photos.

She is probably the hardest pup I have had to work on. She is a firecracker and just want to do her own thing. She just got her shots and after a fecal test we found out she has some round worms so she's gonna be staying away from the other dogs for a few weeks. Oh and did I mention she has a attitude of a dog 5 times her size? She is one fierce mofo for sure. I just got her to calm down and learn basic stuff like sit, down, come, and working on stay.

She is right a about 11 lbs and a stalky little girl. She is just rutheless on the wild boar skin but is very loving and just want to play....all the f'n time. One of my friends found a live wild hog piglet so I may take her over for a little test. Other then that she is doing great and I am confident that she will be a great hunting dog. Just a little bit longer on the spam.

Our Kishu-Yuki Okami

awolfamongsheep — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 08:15:32 -0500

Here are some recent pics of our Kishu Ken-" Yuki Okami" About 4 months here.

The Kishu

TheWalrus — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 06:34:38 -0500

The Kishu Ken is one of the six, native, Japanese spitz type dogs. The breed originated in the area known as Kishu (modern day Wakayama and Mie prefectures). Primarily a large game hunting dog, they have traditionally specialized in hunting wild boar and deer. While the Kishu originally included coat colors similar to the other Nihon Ken, due to genetics and breeder preference the majority of Kishu today are white.

A shiro Kishu male

Legend has it that the Kishu are descended from wolves. The story goes that a hunter took pity on an injured wolf he found by the side of the road. All he asked for in return was for the wolf to one day give him one of its pups. The wolf kept its promise, and the pup grew to be a great boar hunter and the forefather of the Kishu. The Kishu is known as a fearless, relentless hunter, and today is still used to hunt deer and wild boar.

The Kishu has also been called the Taichi Ken and Kumano Ken, names taken from areas they originated, but the breed became known as the Kishu Ken after it was declared a Natural Monument. The Kishu has been treasured by the local hunters for hundreds of years. Local paintings from over 700 years ago depict these dogs hunting wild boar. The Kishu managed to survive the changes the country experienced during and after World War 2, protected by the area's isolated mountainous terrain, and by the hunters who prized them for their hunting prowess. The Kishu was declared a Natural Monument in 1934.

A yushoku Kishu female

Originally the breed was comprised primarily of non-white dogs at a ratio of around 7:3. The trend toward white dogs started due to the popularity of the Ouchiyama line of white Kishu. This line of white hunting Kishu was so impressive that it was bred from extensively. Due to the popularity of these white Kishu, and the nature of the white gene in the breed, today there are very few non-white Kishu left.

The FCI Kishu standard describes the breed as: “A medium-sized dog, well balanced and muscles well developed. The dog has pricked ears and a curled or sickle tail. The conformation is strong, well boned and compact.” The Kishu once came in many color variations, including 'buchi' (spotted or pinto). Today however three colors are recognized: white, red, and sesame. Dogs stand at 49-55cm and bitches at 46-52cm (NIPPO, JKC). The breed has a slightly more muscled, heavy set appearance when compared to the other medium sized Japanese breeds. Like all the Nihon Ken, the Kishu has a double coat made up of coarse outer guard hairs, and thick fine under coat that is shed seasonally.

A shiro Kishu male

The Kishu is a powerful, athletic, and alert animal. Like most Nihon Ken they are independent thinkers, and have a very strong desire to hunt. A Kishu should be fearless, but not aggressive. They can be territorial and may make good watch dogs, but are not by nature guard dogs or protection dogs. The Kishu as a breed tends to be slightly more approachable by strangers than the other Japanese breeds. They are a rare breed even in their native country with an estimated population of around 10,000-13,000, and yearly registrations of between 700-900. The main breed registry is run by the Nihon Ken Hozonkai.

Kishu Crazy

Crispy — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 23:01:36 -0400

So it took a while, but after my boyfriend and I spoke more and more about it, we decided out of all the Kai, Kishu, and Shikoku, the Kishu had really grabbed us the most.

Between videos, pictures, and descriptions, BOTH of us started to fall in love with the breed and even though a Shikoku introduced me to the world here, I've gotten a chance to email and speak to Carleen at Kishu Ken-nel a handful of times and she said she could put me on a waiting list even though I probably won't be looking to add another dog until next spring (though, if I feel ready enough to do it before then and I have the opportunity, that'll be great too - I'm just not holding my breath).

She's trying to get in touch with some Kishu owners close to my area because I'd REALLY like to see a Kishu in person and see how they act with their "people" and just generally... BEHOLD one, I suppose, before it comes time for a puppy. I can't even REMEMBER all the questions I asked her, but she was very nice every step of the way and tolerated my rambling (I'm horribly awkward on the phone) so well. :)

So... there's that. I just wanted to announce something happy since my last post was gross. o/

Kishu Inus

jmaxwell — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 12:12:55 -0500

I was looking on the internet yesterday for more info on Hokkaidos and Kishus and I actually found a breeder for the Kishus. Her name is Carleen and she is from Texas. I emailed her and told her about this forum so hopefully she will come and talk to us more about the breed. They seem pretty similar to the Kai Ken and Hokkaidos except they come in all white. Here is her website:

http://www.kishuken-nel.com/

Young female Kishu Ken available for adoption...

brada1878 — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 19:31:01 -0500

I have received word that there is a 10 month old spayed female Kishu Ken available for adoption.

She was sent back to the breeder due to not getting along with another female dog in her family. I have been told she should go to a home with one male dog or no other dogs. She is said to be very sweet tho, just maybe not so great in a home with another female.

If you're interested, email me. My email address can be found on my profile page: @BradA1878.

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White Shiba or...

Crispy — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 15:34:16 -0400

I was looking through Petfinder and found two dogs that were courtesy-listed by the Shiba Rescue in TX being adopted out by the owner.The owners wrote that both dogs were purebred Shiba they got from two different breeders. The second (a black and white dog) looked like it could be a Shiba cross but the second... well...

Blurb from the owners:
"White Shiba approximately 50 lbs- 6 years old. He has not been neutered and has always been an outside dog with an igloo to sleep in. He is very calm and gentle. He has not been worked with much as far as leash training but is very responsive if someone had time to spend with him. He has been living on a 5 acre ranch for the past 4 years. He escaped once and was run over- broken leg, but healed well and no health problems. We bought him from a breeder in Oklahoma and have had him since he was about 12 weeks old. He has no bad habits- loves attention. We have a smaller black Shiba who is the alpha and manages Buster's every move." (Petfinder page)

I've never seen a Shiba THAT big and his shape/coat type don't look too much like the Shiba I'm familiar with... I know it's very unlikely, but could this be a Kishu/cross? Or do you think it's a not-to-standard Shiba (or possibly some other mixing)? Anyway, I thought he was interesting! I think the listing is old, though? It says they needed to go before Jan 1st - I don't know if that's of next year or this year. If so, I hope they found homes and the listing was just neglected.

Breeders?

Brego_mellon_nin — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 04:47:09 -0500

Do any of you know any kishu breeders outside Japan?

I seem to be able to find breeders for all the other NK outside Japan, but not kishu. Maybe they just don't have a website - or I suck at finding them...

New(er) pictures of Kaia (Kishu)

dilly — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 18:37:28 -0500

http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/9122046/1/Kaia?h=585707

Fun in the snow

shishiinu — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 22:18:01 -0500

So a nice Alaskan cold front blew through socal and took the kids, Hana, and Koyuki out to the snow for a little play time. Every thing was going great until my son puked half way up the mountain and so I spent a good deal of time doing the father stuff. One thing that I cannot tolerate is puke. No matter how small or who does it, if theres puke I start heaving.

Yes I can gut a animal without any issue or handle stinky bums all day long but when it comes to puke, thats my weak spot. So after about a half hour of just trying to keep my lunch down, I was able to clean my son up with the help of my daughters.

enjoy the pics.

Yu-Shoku Kishu Pup

TheWalrus — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 12:34:04 -0400

Cute little bugger. I was offered a Yu-shoku Kishu pup from an absolutely drool worthy bloodline of hunting Kishu the other day and it's all I can do to say no. This isn't that pup, but I'm feeding my addiction by watching Youtube videos of Kishu.

Koyuki's sisters

TheWalrus — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 03:37:16 -0500

Gen's Kishu Koyuki's litter mates on their first boar skin.

New addition to the pack!

shishiinu — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 23:30:59 -0500

Ok so I'm over loaded with puppy cuteness right now so I will make it brief. just added a new female Kishu pup to the pack of jackles. Because my kids really liked Yuki, I was out voted an so her name is Yuki #2. Stand by for pup spam...

What's a Kishu like

okiron — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 19:09:56 -0500

I don't really know much about the Kishu. The threads in the Kishu section seem to describe a completely different dog than I see from Shigeru and Gen's threads. So Gen, Shigeru and anyone else that wants to pitch in, what's a Kishu like? Would you recommend them for someone who doesn't want to hunt? Someone with kids? Someone with a shiba? Someone with a flamingo? Someone who's never owned a dog? (Yeah I'm making these sample questions up)

Happy Birthday to two special Kishus!

shishiinu — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 21:43:07 -0400

Looks like two special Kishus named Baron and Taro just passed their first birthday! I believe both dogs are growing into fine pig hunting dogs and I'm sure Shigeru will post up on Barons progress. I havn't posted much on Taro lately cause I been slammed with work and I been forgetting my camera the last 5 hunting trips. He's doing really well and is proving to be one of the best hunting dogs I have ever owned.

Happy birthday boys and many more years to come with great days afield!!

Now if i can figure out ow to put a photo....

Shibui Kishu

TheWalrus — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 12:30:15 -0400

I like this Kishu.

Snakes

TheWalrus — Tue, 18 May 2010 04:03:14 -0400

So I had a bit of an ironic moment yesterday when out with the dogs in the mountains. After a day of exercise chasing boar around, I was leading the dogs down toward the car. We just had a thread on snake proofing dogs the other day... Well Momo and Baron were walking just in front of me, and in about 5 seconds Momo had jumped into the grass, grabbed a snake, crushed its head, and killed it. Of course Baron thought Momo flailing the snake around looked fun, so came to see what was going on. Haru knows better.

It was a non poisonous grass snake, but either way, it was over so fast I think that even if it was poisonous there was no hope for the snake.

New Kishu Momo

TheWalrus — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 03:58:17 -0400

On the 11th I picked up my new Kishu, Momo. She's a 3 year old female, from the same dam as Baron's mother, so I guess she's kinda Baron's aunt. She was sent to me from down south as her previous owner decided to stop hunting.

She's been an outside dog her entire life, and came to me in not the best of shape, but I'm working on that. I was actually surprised that she warmed up to us pretty fast, but we're still working on her and the other dogs. Amazingly enough she and Haru get along great.

She's a semi-trained boar hunter, so was sent up to me to help bolster Haru and Baron as they're both still very inexperienced. She really seems to like women, and she warmed to my wife right away. I've been sleeping with her, it's something I do with every dog/pup I get as I feel it helps create a bond faster.

She's doing great in the house, and is so quiet it's easy to forget she's here. Very calm indoors but when she gets outside and catches a whiff of something she really goes nuts. She has had 0 training so I have my work cut out for me there. Thinking of pulling out the good ol' clicker as she's very food motivated.

I'm attaching a rather graphic picture in the hopes that is serves as a reference/warning to others shipping or just crating unsupervised dogs. Momo was shipped up to me in a wire crate. Pretty standard heavy duty crate, but definitely not what you'd want for an unsocialized dog travelling in a plane. When she arrived the cargo area was abuzz and I was called in right away as she'd pretty much destroyed the crate. There was blood everywhere, she'd lost a tooth and cracked a few others. She was very calm, head and shoulders sticking out of the crate where she'd chewed open a gaping hole when I first saw her. I had to ask for a pair of pliers to pry her out of the crate.

Her mouth is healing well, but she'll never get those teeth back. All in all it was a learning experience. If you're shipping a dog, make sure it's in a proper IATA approved crate, and that the dog has been crated before. I guess this would mostly apply to adult dogs travelling for the first time, rescues etc, as I can't see a puppy doing that type of job on a crate.

Either way, Momo is here, and I feel like it's going to be an interesting challenge to transform a non-socialized un-trained hunting dog into a well balanced companion. I'll try to update this thread as things progress with her. First off she has a few medical issues that need attention.

Tomoe updates with spam!

Kenshi — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:28:01 -0500

First, I finally sorted through my photos from the snowpocalyse last month. Here's some good ones:

Kishu Baron thread (picture added 3/14)

TheWalrus — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:38:12 -0500

Long weekend, long story. Hello new puppy.

Will add more to the post later.

####################################################################

So the longer version:

As you all know, I hunt. I've been at it for a few years, but didn't have a dog for the first few. Since we've had Haru I've been taking her to the mountains with me. Hopefully she'll pan out and make a good hunting companion.

For a while I've been friendly online with a group of hunters down south in Kyushu. They hunt with several types of dogs, and in there they have some Kishu from the Hosoda line.

When I was first looking for a hunting dog, and had decided to get one of the Japanese breeds, I looked at the Kishu. However, at the time I wasn't decided if I was only going to hunt boar, and the fact that there weren't any good hunting lines around that I could find dampened my interest.

I decided on the Kai, as they are a more versatile hunting breed (albeit not necessarily the best boar hunters). Each of the Japanese breeds has its own hunting style, and even in the breeds different lines have different 'gei' (translated it basically means artistic style/performance/skills). Some lean more towards 'hoe-dome' (baying), others toward 'kami-dome' (catching), but all Nihonken pretty much use a variety of both. Some range farther from the hunter, others hunt close. It's an endless subject, and the search for the 'perfect' hunting dog continues.

Every hunter has his own style, and a different set of skills he looks for in a dog. Being a novice, I hadn't really even thought about exactly what I was looking for. I just wanted to get out there and see how far Haru and I could go.

Realistically, the odds of having a dog that can hunt solo and get results is pretty low. You basically have to win the dog lottery. Recently I received a mail from one of the hunters in Kyushu saying that his lead dog had a litter that was larger than anticipated, and saying that if I was interested he'd be open to the idea of giving me one. The vet thought there were 4 puppies, but there ended up being 10!

I was very interested, but hadn't planned on adding another dog for at least another 6 months. I had also thought the next dog would be another Kai. I was pretty torn, but the chance to hunt with one of their Kishu was very tempting. Thus began a long series of mails discussing Kishu, the Hosoda line, and different hunting styles.

I've leaned toward baying dogs in the past as I was told by some(and also assumed) that there was less risk of injury. Kishu tend to lean more toward the catching side of the spectrum. There was only one way to sort this out, so I mailed my friend in Kyushu and asked if I could head down at his convenience to talk dogs, and see how they hunt down south.

I got a mail the next morning saying that they were all getting together in 3 days to hunt in Oita prefecture from the 1st-3rd of October, and I was welcome to join them. Schedule wise this was a bit harsh, as Kyushu is 1500 kilometers away, and I had work until 10pm on the night of the 31st, but chances like this don't come along that often.

So I scrambled to work out the details, and ended up walking out of my workplace at 10pm, straight into the car, and onto the road to Kyushu. I drove my 'mountain car' a 660cc jeep with a max speed of around 90km for just over 24 hours to make it in time for the 2nd. I think I got around 6 hours of sleep total over 2 nights.

Up bright and early at 6am, I got to meet everyone face to face for the first time. They're a terrific bunch of guys, and pretty bad ass hunters. We went at it all day long till sunset, and it was an amazing learning experience. They hunt on a totally different level than I'm used to seeing, and being able to experience 'nagashi-ryo' firsthand was incredible.

There were a few let downs, as I didn't get to see some of the battles the dogs had on the day with a few of the larger boar (I was in a different part of the mountain), but all in all a great day. We had dinner and drinks at night, and talked on into the night about hunting and dogs.

I stayed in a hotel that night and finally had a good 8 hours of sleep, totally missing the check out time. I had to head back to Chiba as Haru was acting up a bit with me gone, so another 1500km run was on. My friend with the litter told me to stop by his house on my way back so we could talk a bit more. We managed to find time in his schedule, and talked for several hours.

I was honestly not planning on bringing a pup back with me. I had mentioned the idea to my wife, but she was not getting on board. There were many reasons for this, and I'd basically agreed to wait on the idea till we could figure everything out. However, after seeing the dogs in action, and talking with the hunters, I realized that this was the type of hunting I wanted to do, and the dogs for the job. When my friend said if I was interested in running Kishu, he'd be happy to let me have one, I jumped at it and said yes.

The trip home took longer as I had to stop every three hours to feed and toilet the little man, but he was very well behaved. His mother had been going to the mountains by car everyday while pregnant, so the pup didn't seem to bothered by cars or motion sickness.

When I finally got back home, there was a lot of explaining to do to the wife. She naturally ripped me a new one, but fell in love with the little polar bear. He hadn't done anything wrong, I had, so she played with him all night and took care of him the next day when I took Haru to the mountains to expend her pent up energy that had accumulated while I was gone.

The wife has sort of forgiven me, and I'm getting bits of sleep here and there, but the pup is definitely worth the trouble. He's a little fire cracker, and very mouthy, but Haru has been great with him from the get go. They play together very well, and he even puts her in line when she goes over the top. He's been tentatively named 'Baron' by my wife (like all our pets he's named after a Ghibli character), though I would have preferred something in Japanese.

He's extremely outgoing, not an ounce of fear in him, and pees like no one's business.

Taro in the U.S.

shishiinu — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 23:38:35 -0500

Hi every one. I just got back yesterday and I'm super jet lagged. Taro is getting used to the pack but Riki is having no part of the new man in the house. A few runs on some pigs together should bring them together. Still waiting for the ears to stand but he's already hitting the pig trails hard so no worries on the ears.

enjoy the photos.

Riki and Taro finally getting along.

shishiinu — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:58:40 -0500

Well took Taro and Riki out to see my mom and her dogs with all the kids. Man do we have a storm brewing in socal or what! The dogs did some running around at my moms property and I started building a pig pen in her yeard for training.

Riki is now 100% deaf in both ears and I keep saying that he's going to retire but man he still acts like as if he's just got into his prime. My moms been wanting to get her dog Shiro (whippet X) into chasing pigs so I maybe training her also on the og I'm going to be getting. So we shall see how that goes.

Enjoy the photos.

Some standing ears!

shishiinu — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 00:06:04 -0500

Well Taro's right ear is now standing up, just waiting on his left ear. Yay!

More to come.

Kishu Ken Hello Kitty Pen

Kenshi — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 02:15:48 -0500

Before you ask - don't; there may very well be Shikoku, Kai, Shiba, etc version of these but it's like pulling teeth getting my wife to do web research for things. :)

http://www.amazon.co.jp/あすなろ舎-【ご当地キティ】和歌山限定-ハローキティ紀州犬バージョンシャープペン/dp/B002APSKCI

Copying and pasting that will go down best if you have Japanese fonts enabled and stuff.

Tomoe update

Kenshi — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:58:15 -0500

Tomoe is 5 months now, and she's getting her stuff taken out next week. :/ I'm honestly not looking forward to her having to wear the lampshade.

So how is she doing? At 21 weeks, she is still alert and prey-driven as ever. She still loves her backyard, but is a bit wimpy about the temperatures we are having right now, and she has not suddenly decided that being outside in the rain and going to the bathroom is awesome.

She is still very quiet and barks seldom. She loves hopping into her crate, especially if there is a small treat provided.

We still can't trust her by herself out of the crate. She really thinks the tile floor by the sliding glass doors is her bathroom.

She is still hyper-friendly with people and dogs, and mouthy, though she seems to know that people don't like being mouthed on...she just can't help it.

The biggest challenge is recall and attention. She won't come when you call her unless there is REALLY nothing better to do. And while she will focus on you with the intensity of a laser indoors when it is "training game" time, take her outside around even the mildest distraction and its like "I'll get to you in a minute."

She slipped her easy-walk hanress a couple weeks ago when my wife had her out for a walk in the deep snow, and slipped out of a standard puppia mesh harness just last week and went after a large mutt. She ignored me and dodged when I first reached for her, but thanks VERY MUCH to the help of the mutt who simply stared at her until she stopped strafing and let me sneak in and grab her, we got her under control before anything bad happened. And the Sporn harness I picked up at PetSmart seems to be really escape-proof.

Puppy kindergarten, I wouldn't consider very successful. She learned sit/down/stand fairly well, and she targets. The drills we were taught for basic stay and come, I can't even do those right. Class time after about the first three sessions was essentially all wasted, because I spent 95% of the class hours trying to get her to focus on me and stop fussing about the other puppies.

I am looking at another place to take her for training, a school that does everything outside, says they use no-food training techniques, and claims to focus on high-drive breeds.

Question for you Shika owners: Tomoe is 23.6 lbs at 21 or 22 weeks. The breeder estimated she'd be around 42 lbs when fully grown. Really? Do the medium-sized Japanese breeds pack on that much muscle in months 6-12, or does the breeder's estimate seem high?

My new hog killer!

shishiinu — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:43:00 -0500

Well Taro is.....well almost here. I will be bringing him back from my parents house in Japan during the first week of January.

Taro is a litter mate of Shigeru san's Baron and the parents are both dedicated pig dogs. He's still a bit too young for full training but after he becomes some what obedience trained I think I will startt him on pig skins and small live pigs.

I cant load the photo's, any one know how?

Tomoe is here!

Kenshi — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 01:53:19 -0400

I am still learning how to use my camera. She has a little grey in her fur, and a totally white mask.

Picked her up at BWI, which is not the best airport to pick a dog up from. There is no place to let them stretch their legs and pee. I busted out the camcorder to capture the moment and Saki was like "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" lol...too much stuff going on, people everywhere, noise. We just grabbed her and offered her some water and pedialyte before taking her home, which is only about 10 minutes away.

One of her littermates was purchased by a young lady who lives not too far from us, but we didn't stop to chat much.

More stories and pics later. She really really loves our yard, it took her awhile before she was interested in food, and I STILL don't know if she's had any water to drink. We have been dosing her with pedialyte all night. Also, she seems pretty scared of me, I'm obviously way overbearing.

And the cat is like..."Uh...so...you're taking that thing back tommorrow, right?"