Akita/Japanese Akita confusion.

[AkitaGo]

Hi everyone, bit of rant I guess! Would be interested to hear your thoughts.

I have a Japanese Akita Inu, called Jiro. As you probably know, the Akita and the Japanese Akita are two seperate breeds in most countries. Japanese Akita are the slightly smaller, more gregarious ones that only come in red/white, pure white and brindle. Akita (also called American Akita) are the larger, more protective breed that come in pinto and all the other colours and often have black masks.

Anyway, I was talking to another Akita owner today while out with Jiro, he said he had a black and white Japanese Akita Inu with a black face. I told him that Japanese don't come in that colour and he got funny with me and said that my dog obviously wasn't a pure bred Japanese Akita! (I had to laugh...)

Why can't people tell the difference? They don't even know which breed their own dog is! :confused:

I'm not on of those "Japanese Akita nazis" that look down on Akita's, I like both breeds, but they're very different and I think they should each get the respect they deserve!

[skunkstripe]

That does seem odd that someone who owns an Akita doesn't know the difference between the Japanese Akita and the American Akita. Who knows, maybe the person you ran into thinks that any breed of dog that is named "somethingoranother Inu" HAS to be Japanese because of the name(?).

[AkitaGo]

skunkstripe, yes, I think that's the thing, they just assume it has to be Japanese if it's an Akita.

Also, Jiro's breeder was telling me it's because of the way the KC split the two. The Akita is a lot more popular in the UK (there are only 100 approx Japanese Akita Inu in the UK right now) and when they approved the breed split the Akita owners/breeders used to call their dogs Japanese, but they got changed to just "Akita" and our Japanese became the Japanese Akita Inu. I can see how that gets confusing for people, but it doesn't take much research to realise they're seperate breeds, which is why I find it odd that so many owners mislable their dogs!

Also, the AKC don't consider the two seperate breeds unlike most other countries, so I guess that confuses people.

[skunkstripe]

Also, the AKC don't consider the two seperate breeds unlike most other countries, so I guess that confuses people.

That's interesting. I just checked the AKC website and found this for accepted colors in the Akita:
Color
Any color including white; brindle; or pinto. Colors are brilliant and clear and markings are well balanced, with or without mask or blaze. White Akitas have no mask. Pinto has a white background with large, evenly placed patches covering head and more than one-third of body. Undercoat may be a different color from outer coat.
http://www.akc.org/breeds/akita/index.cfm

And this is what the FCI has to say about it:
COLOR : Any colour like red, fawn, white, etc; or even pinto and brindle. Colours are brilliant and clear, and markings are well balanced, with or without mask or blaze. White dogs (solid in colour) have no mask. Pinto have a white ground colour with large, evenly placed patches covering head and more than one-third of body. Undercoat may have a different colour from the outer-coat.
http://www.canadasguidetodogs.com/akita/akita_fci344.htm

Then there is the "Japanese Akita Standard" from the JACA:
COLOR: Acceptable coat colors are red, brindle and white. All colors except white must have "urajiro" (light cream or white markings or shading) on the sides of the muzzle, on the cheeks, the underside of the jaw, neck, chest, body and tail, and on the inside of the legs. Color should be clear and bright.
http://www.akita-inu.com/standard2.htm

So who has the final say?

[AkitaGo]

Yeah, the countries that consider them the same breed judge both types under the "Akita" standard. I've heard that it's near impossible to find a pure Japanese Akita Inu in the US because the two have been mixed, most people import their dogs. Jiro's breeder said even in the UK the quality of Japanese Akita Inu is so poor because the breeds were split fairly recently and until then they were mixed. Jiro's parents are Finish and Italian imports.

I think it's such a shame for the countries that don't recognize the them as two different breeds. You only need to look at the two next to each other to see that they are vastly different. This image says it all I think!

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u253/Jensonbunny/OneAkitaIMAG001.jpg

[howldaloom]

explains bruno i suppose, he is a cross between an akita, gsd and husky but is small considering his breeds so he was probably an jap akita not an american