Akita Inu

This courageous breed was named after the Akita prefecture on the island of Honshū where the dogs originated in Japan in the 1600s. These dogs were originally found in the snowy mountains and were referred to as snow country dogs by the natives before they were named Akita. There is a debate about the name between the United States, Canada, and the rest of the country. According to the US and Canada, there is only one breed of this dog and there are two types, the American and the Japanese Akita. However, the rest of the world considers these two as separate breeds. The Akita Inu Hozonkai Society of Japan was founded in the late 1920s and the breed was designated as a national treasure to Japan in 1937. The reason for this decision was the loyalty of the famous canine, Haichiko, who met his owner at the train station every day at a certain time. Haichiko continued to go to the train station every day to wait for him for almost a decade after his owner died. The first Akita in the United States was given as a gift to Helen Keller from the Japanese government while she was there visiting. Her name was Kamikaze-Go. However, the American Kennel Club did not officially recognize the breed until 1972, almost 40 years later. This strong dog comes from the Northern Spitz breed. The original purpose of the breed was to hunt large animals such as elk, bear, deer, and wild boar. The hunters had the dog flush out and corner the game until they were able to come and shoot it. Some also trained their canines for fighting by mixing them with a fighting dog breed, called the Tosa. After a fatal outbreak of rabies in the early 1900s where over 3,000 of the dogs died, that tradition was stopped. Several years after Helen Keller received her canine gift, soldiers in World War II smuggled many of these dogs home from war to save them from being killed for food or shot.