Yamamichi Sou Shikoku

11/03/2024

We had a great time at the show put on by the Kennel Club of Riverside in CA last weekend! We got to meet some great people, and our sweet boy Kintaro go Aoiyama Sou, co-owned with his breeder Aoiyama Sou Shikoku, won BOB and FSS group 4 on Saturday Oct 26th! He's starting to catch on to the "game" of showing and he showed a lot of improvement in his confidence in the ring!

And thank you to Brittany and Benji Jacobs-Wall for providing great competition with their boy Raikou and for getting great photos of our boy!

10/16/2024

Happy first birthday to our handsome boy Kinta (Kintaro go Aoiyama Sou) 🎂🥳 And we wish his siblings a happy birthday as well!!

10/16/2024

Fig is looking lovely at little over a year and a half old. 🥰

04/21/2024

An awesome co-own opportunity, especially someone interested in showing Shikoku! We love our boy from Aoiyama Sou, and can't recommend them enough!

11/27/2023

Despite being at an age that is typically super awkward, she seems to be taking after her mom and is still looking lovely at almost 9 months old.

11/24/2023

Happy Thanksgiving! We had a nice, relaxing day and we'll be celebrating our Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday. 🦃

We're hopefully closing in on Juniper's second, and final, litter. We're just waiting on her next cycle! Due to the size of her first litter, we'll be holding off accepting anymore deposits until we actually have puppies on the ground.

08/20/2023

We've got a family of mice living under our porch/mudroom currently, and it's driving Juniper crazy! She's got a great nose for tracking, but unfortunately at the end of the day she doesn't have the full set of ratter skills (or size) to get into the small spaces these guys are hiding. We'll probably have to order some humane traps (the only ones I've had success with) to get these guys out of here.

Shikoku were originally bred to hunt boar, specifically. We often see a lot of prey drive as a side effect of those roots, and that can drift to other animals. They will often scent or chase just about anything they perceive to be prey. Prey drive and true success as a hunter are separate items, however, and with so many years being bred for show often means our high prey drive Shikoku are still lacking many of the skills that would be needed to hunt the large, dangerous game they were bred for.

There is an excellent blog post about Nihon Ken and hunting from an experienced Nihon Ken owner and breeder, as well as hunter, in Japan. He mentions that the breeds were "well rounded hunters" despite having been bred for regional, large game.
http://www.nihonken.co/2014/03/hunting-and-nihon-ken.html?m=1

We're planning to try Juniper in some barn hunt again in the future since she gets a lot of enjoyment out of sniffing out rodents. The last time we tried she unfortunately DQd after peeing in the ring, so we'll start off with some classes again. 🤣 It's not what they were bred for originally, but it's a fun outlet for their prey drive, and sports like scent work and barn hunt are great for giving their noses and brains a job.

06/11/2023

Food? 😂

05/11/2023

Branch (permanent name still TBD!) went home with his new family today! We miss him already but will hopefully have some opportunities to see him in the future! We're so excited to see him grow up and if his health testing and temperament turn out good he may help contribute to the population in the future! 🥰

04/24/2023

Working on puppy evaluations (structure, type, and temperaments) over the next few days. 😁 They'll be 8 weeks old on Friday! The time has absolutely flown by.

04/19/2023

More experiences! Twig went to the coffee shop today and for a quick ride in the car yesterday, and I brought home a snuffle mat for them to explore too!

04/17/2023

It's been hard to keep up on updates because of some personal health stuff here in the house (everyone is ok now!) but puppies and mom are doing great! Juniper has settled into enjoying being a mom, although at 6 weeks she's nearly weaned them completely. Weaning is funny to watch with a good mom, there's no corrections, growling, or nipping at this point and instead she'll try to redirect them from trying to nurse by instigating play. If they persist, she just jumps up on the couch where they can't reach her. Eventually when they're bigger she may utilize more firm, but fair, corrections for invading space but they're still young and have more "puppy license."

We're still introducing at least one new experience or stimulus for them every day, and although we've seen some caution or startles from them along the way, they mostly approach novelty now with enthusiasm.

Potty training has also been very successful. We've held off on going to the yard because it needs some attention after a winter covered in snow. But both puppies are avoiding pooping in their litterbox that's in their pen and prefer to wait until we take them out and use the litter box in the living room. We're using alfalfa pellets to help associate elimination with grass. We're seeing very few accidents now, though puppies still won't have great control until they're much older.

03/30/2023

The puppies got their first "puppy social" today thanks to some wonderful friends! 🥰 They were so tired by the end of it, and it's really fun to see their individual personalities developing!

03/18/2023

Yesterday the puppies started showing signs of trying to play with each other. Shikoku tend to play rough and it looks like it's starting early.

After this video Juniper came in and looked like she was trying to join in but still isn't sure how to play with them. The puppies ended up mobbing her with tiny paw slaps and mouthing her before passing out again. 😂

They're also starting to engage with us a little, and we're getting into some of the most fun weeks! They've been getting different toys and objects to experience up until now, and since they've begun walking a few steps it's time to set up some potty pads in the whelping box.

03/15/2023

I had fully intended to break out my camera and take some nicer photos along the way, but I've been way too tired to bother, so please enjoy phone photos for now! 😂

03/15/2023

The litter names we gave the puppies are "Twig" and "Branch" 😉

Twig's eyes started opening yesterday! Branch has been pushing himself up onto his legs and Twig started yesterday, and today both of them have been able to take a few steps here and there!

03/11/2023

03/06/2023

Puppies are growing well, especially the boy who hit 542 grams today. Right now one of the best indicators that they're doing well is growth so this makes me happy.

This has been very hard on Juniper all around and we're continuing to struggle in some areas, which warranted another vet checkup just to be sure everyone is healthy. Juni's calcium levels are actually good which is reliving because low levels can be dangerous and not just problematic for her behavior. So now we're hoping that time and extra puppy nannying from us will help her mothering instincts catch up.

Speaking from a very emotional and exhausted point of view here - I don't think breeders and rescue puppy raisers get enough credit for these early stages. I know not every litter is this hard, and I know in a couple of weeks it will feel absolutely worth it. But it's a lot, even when you know it's going to be a lot of work, it's still somehow more. I respected the hell out of my breeder and rescue friends before this, but it's at a whole new level now.