Our
History in Akitas
Our Beginnings and Thoughts About Akitas
Michael Sanders
I saw my first Akita in 1974, an old female of California breeding owned by my friend and then co-worker, Sandi Soto of Sajo Akitas. Originally, Sandi and I combined our breeding programs (we have long since pursued, amicably, separate breeding activities) and coined the kennel name Miisan (Michael and Sandi combined with an extra "i" to make it appear more oriental). Otherwise the kennel name, pronounced MEE-sahn, has no Japanese connotation.
In 1975, I received a 9-month-old black & silver male of Akita Tani and Triple "K" lines. His name was Dai-Okii and, though he was sold to his original owners as a "show prospect," an early injury to his hip, and an ear that failed to stand, qualified him for a pet's life instead. He was a very large dog--28" and robust in mind and body. Unfortunately, he developed Addison's disease (secondary adrenocortical insufficiency)--a condition that would eventually result in his being put to sleep at the age of 6 years.
Dai-Okii's good nature, intelligence, dignity, and innate "Akita-ness" committed me for life to the wonderful Akita breed.
My first show dog was a solid white bitch produced by Nancy Harper of Shibui Akitas, Ch. Shibui's Yukihime. We called her "Haiku." She was a "spoiler" for someone new to purebred dog showing like me, as she was innately extremely showy, rarely lost and finished her AKC championship (owner-handled) very quickly.
Bitten by the "purebred dog bug," I then purchased several Akitas from Fran V. Wasserman (then Date Tensha Akitas, later Frakari). "Auntie" Fran, as I called her until her death in 1999, was my primary mentor (indeed, we joked, my "dog mother") in Akitas and our friendship greatly deepened over the 25 years we knew each other. Fran was a breed pioneer. She transformed me from being just an "Akita person" into a "dog person." That alone, leaves me forever in her debt. She is greatly missed.
Some of my first Akitas were Ch. Date Tensha Blithe Spirit, Ch. Date Tensha Chocolate Chip and Ch. Date Tensha Dream Weaver. All were owner-handled to their AKC championships by me. I also finished some of the limited offspring produced from these early dogs. Additionally, I have shown to their championships Akitas owned by others. I am not a "professional" handler, and prefer, these days, to stay outside the show ring. Although we currently show very little (I own a private cardiovascular fitness consulting facility which occupies most of our extra time), our dogs are handled exclusively by Donald Plummer.
All of these early dogs were closely linebred on Ch. Fukomoto's Ashibaya Kuma, ROM, the popular stud dog on the East Coast during the 60's and 70's. However, I was not satisfied with the type of dogs I was producing from that stock. First, I wanted stronger genotype for brindle coat color (my favorite marking pattern). Secondly, even then, I preferred a more "refined" and artistic Akita than I was able to produce from the lines I had then. I decided to seek a new foundation bitch of unrelated breeding.
This decision would present a more difficult challenge than I expected.
I have long sought to avoid, whenever possible, dogs that descended from a single popular stud dog of the 70's and 80's, Ch. Okii Yubi's Sachmo of Makoto. I avoided this dog in my breedings not because of any of his inherent faults (all dogs have faults), but because I, and others, have long believed that healthy, genetic diversity has been compromised in our breed by this dog's excessively intensive use in the US and abroad.
(Anyone interested in or involved in breeding Akitas should read the interesting account of the negative effects on purebred animals that "popular stud syndrome" can cause in purebred animals by going to the Links page and selecting "Genetic Diversity.")
I realized, early on, that in order to obtain healthy "outcross" breedings (mating two dogs of unrelated pedigrees), I would have to seek out the signally limited number of American dogs not related to this popular dog, or select Akitas related to him only incidentally. Registration of imports (which are by definition, unrelated, except distantly, to American foundation dogs) was not an option because, until recently, such dogs weren't registerable with the AKC. That inhibition, fortunately for the breed, was changed on April 13, 1992 with a reciprocity agreement between the American Kennel Club, Inc. and the Japan Kennel Club.
Through reviewing photographs of early dogs and seeing their descendants, I determined that I wanted a bitch descended strongly from two particular foundation imports: Jap. Gr. Ch. Teddy Bear of Toyohashi Seiko, ROM and Jap. Gr. Ch. Haruhime, ROM. I was impressed with many of their offspring and descendants, which included such notable dogs as Ch. Sakusaku's Tom Cat-Go, ROM, Ch. Sakusaku's Tiger Lily, Ch. Sakusaku's Uncle Louie, Sakusaku's Diamond Lil, Ch. Tusko's Kabuki and, most notably, the famous brindle Int. Am., Can., Mex. Ch. Gin Gin Haiyaku-Go of Sakusaku, ROM ("Chester"). Obviously, I appreciated greatly the eye for a dog and breeding skills demonstrated by Joan Lindermann of Sakusaku kennels. Many of these beautiful, elegant dogs of the 60's and 70's are pictured in her book, The Complete Akita, which I highly recommend.
In 1986, Fran Wasserman found for me a perfect fawn bitch (genotypically, anyway) bred in California. "Sumi" was tightly inbred on the two old Japanese imports mentioned above and likely carried strongly the quality brindle genes I wanted to secure. She was bred twice and produced puppies of uniform consistency in each breeding. Her first breeding, to Ch. Frakari's Detective Mike Hammer, produced an all brindle litter. This litter included group-placing Ch. Miisan's Enter the Dragon. In her second breeding, to Ch. Tanoshii Kuro Neko-Go, ROM, she helped us to achieve a significant program goal: oriental color and marking patterns. Many of the puppies demonstrated the "import" marking patterns which I was seeking--richly-colored self-masked brindles & white-faced reds (urojiro markings) and lacked the black mask so common in American Akitas. It was during this period, that Donald Plummer came to know and love the breed and to actively participate in the purebred dog hobby. He has become a serious and knowledgeable student of the breed in the 14 years thereafter.
We also own a dog fully from current Japanese import lines . He was bred by Northland Akitas, Loren and Cristina Egland of Antioch, CA. Northland's Cirrus of Miisan (AKC/JKC/Akiho) *Willie," along with our existing, carefully selected American foundation Akitas, will propel our small but dynamic breeding program into the future--and will exemplify our goal of combining the beauty and elegance of the Japanese imports with the strength, substance and soundness of carefully-selected American bloodlines. This has already been proven by our Winter 1999 breeding, which producedfour exceptional specimens. One of them, Wayne-O appears on opening site page.
We are most excited about what the the future holds for the Akita breed.
Thank you for visiting our site. We will add new material and photos regularly so check back soon. We'd appreciate your comments or questions. Please visit our "Feedback" page or email us at miisan@inu.com.
We strongly recommend that you read
the "Akita Breed History" page
on this site
for an accurate narrative of the development of the Akita breed.
This is very important information for those new to our breed.
Remember: most histories (including much "official" information) of the Akita breed are not factual. The truth is far more interesting than the common Akita myths!
© 2000-2003 Miisan Akitas