Akita for water fowl

[mainer_in_ak]

I've been putting ducks in the freezer for years without a retriever becauase I never had any time for a dog. Now that I do.....my wife and I just bought an Akita. My main reason for the Akita was to have a powerful, protective dog in the house, and to have a dog with a thick coat to handle the ice fishing and snow machining trips my family partake in every winter. Just out of curiosity I'm considering training him to retrieve ducks and take him on a few trips out to the blind with me just to see if he could possibly catch on. His paws are large and webbed. Does anyone think he may have potential?

[AKpegleg]

Akitas

Loved our Akita, one of the best dogs we ever had. She was not a great Swimmer, not sure if this is most of them or not. Had to Rescue her twice in the water. Make sure you associate them with other dogs at a young age also.

[mainer_in_ak]

Akpegleg,

That akita of yours is a beautiful dog. She has the coolest looking dark face and is built pretty stout for a female. Mine is a dark face one too. Did she ever retrieve any ducks for you? Or flush any upland birds? Again.......that is one of the coolest akitas I've ever seen.

[AKpegleg]

Thanks Mainer, She was an awesome dog. That was a pic of her as a pup. She got to be 95 lbs. Too bad Cancer got the best of her last year(10 and half yrs). Your Akita will be a great protector for your house and family. Retrieving, not mine but I would be interested if you do get yours to. She was never trained to but did not see potential for it either. Akitas have a mind of their own! Did flush some birds out, but not on purpose.

[Wetland Retrievers]

Maybe...........
if you develop the dogs prey drive. If your pup has any. Try to get your pup into chasing moving items. You can tie a plush toy to stick and dance it around in front of the pup. If there is prey drive you might be able to work with it to have the dog start to work for you. Such as retrieving birds.
But going this route will be hard. You are going to have to be very patient. Akitas aren't exactly bred for an inherited retrieving ability.
I once trained a guys German Sheperd to pick up birds. But this dog had a lot of prey drive. Loved to fetch tennis balls. So I took what he liked to do and transferred it over to birds.

[Linda]

Shepherd upland dog : Believe it or Not.

According to my friend Marvin, some of the best pheasant hunting was in Detroit. Marvin’s dad owned and operated a gas station and repair shop in North Detroit in the 40’s and 50’s surviving the 60’s. After the riots and fires, businesses and white flight left Detroit with no one to rebuild. The gas station dog was a mix but, from the photo he showed me a, shepherd mix. In the evening they would walk the vacant lots around what had been a neighborhood, where weeds and other volunteer domestic field crops had started growing, spontaneously. The police were scarce in that part of town so a gun shot was no big worry.

In the photo the Shepherd sat with 5 pheasants and a few quail at his feet. Marvin’s dad, over under shotgun on his shoulder, was leaning up against a Studebaker bumper at the gas station. It was one of the last “hunts” Marvin’s dad took before he died.
That was how Marvin told it in 1999 anyway.

www.alaskadognews.com

[Burke]

Check their water tolerance

I had a St Bernard mix who had great prey drive but resisted water like the plague. I think it had something to do with her instinct to stay warm, therefore dry. The coats were not meant to be wet. They matted down and became very heavy, the weight made swimming difficult.
I wonder if this might be the case for Akitas too.

[Huntress]

We have two bullmastiff's who love to retrieve our birds, but not water fowl, the bullmastiff isn't the greatest swimmer in the world. So anything is possible.

[stetsoncoltoutdoors]

haha i got ya'll beat my dads got a austrailan shepard that will pick up doves and he trained her to drop them in the bucket

[akcowgirl]

I lived in a place in Alaska that you had to take a boat where ever you wanted to go and if we would leave either of the a Akita's at home they would just start swiming after us. They were good swimmers too.