She was shipped from Poland. Born in November 2006, her parents are U Sato from Wolki, and Doris Twierdza Samuraja. Both parents are show champions. U Sato's parents are also show champions, and he is the father of the 2006 World Champion, Ninja. Both Doris' parents were also show champions. This is the website for Kirin's breeder.
Photos of Kirin as she grows up.
Various photos
She arrived via LOT Polish on Jan.19/07, and I didn't get her home until about 9:30pm. That was a very very long day in a dark, pee soaked crate, and I can imagine she was quite scared and stressed for the entire trip. I set her crate down on my garage floor, and opened the door. Out came this hesitant little girl, wagging her tail and licking my hands. First thing she did when she got into the house, was poop on the carpet. You'd never be able to tell she just went through all that trauma.
I could tell by the expressions on Georgie and Taro's faces that they weren't impressed with the newcomer. Georgie had done the same thing when Taro first arrived, so that was to be expected. I knew she wouldn't be a threat. Taro on the other hand, looked like he wanted to hurt Kirin. I picked her up and showed him her "parts", to let him see it was a little girl. Then I let him know that she wasn't to be harmed. As the pup ran around sniffing everything out, he followed her, and I followed him. Taro was posturing to her that he was the man of the house, but being a scatterbrained 8 week old puppy, Kirin took no notice to that. I put her in a dog bed, and gave her a belly rub. This is a dominance exercise for me practice on her, but to Taro it looked like she was turning up her belly to him. He was satisfied that he got his message across, but remained stiff and sort of dangerous looking for the rest of the night. Kirin had to spend the night in a "colossal" sized crate in the kitchen for her own safety. She cried a lot that night, but what could I do? I cannot lock Taro away and put the pup in the bed because that may create resent. Thankfully, by the next day, everyone was tolerating her very well, but they ignored the poor little girl as much as possible. On day 4, it snowed and the temperature was only around zero Celsius (warm by Canadian standards). We all went for a off leash romp on the property, and Kirin was extremely frisky, tearing around like mad. Finally, I saw a glimmer of playfulness in Taro as he took note of the pup and he started racing around too.
2 months to 6 months
Within a couple of days, slowly everyone started playing together. Kirin would chase after the other two as they played fetch, and she would just prance around, being her frisky puppy self. Then about day three, she just jumped on Taro, growling like mad. She had him by the ears, jowls, legs, and the loose skin on his neck. She bites him in the head and eye area too, wherever she can think to grab, sometimes locking on, sometimes trying to shake a dog that has about a hundred pounds on her. He tolerates all this, and Georgie humping him from behind. I allow her to wrestle with him, but not to the point where they start running around and Taro pounces on her. She hurt her leg twice when play got too rough. Georgie took a little longer to come around, but by the end of the first week, the two girls were snuggling up together a lot, and they enjoy playing tug-o-war.
Potty training presented some new challenges for me, given the size and layout of the new house we're in (and wall to wall carpet to boot). The house is a raised bungalow, so from the front hallway, there's 5 steps going up into the living room. She was able to climb the stairs from the start, but doesn't seem to want to go down them. I set up one of my Petstep ramps on the stairs and trained her to go down that way. That worked great, she would head towards the door whenever she needed to go potty. Then one day, I came into the hallway, and I found two presents there for me. I guess I didn't notice her going down the ramp. So, I went to the local hardware store, and purchased a motion detector door chime (not a security alarm as that would be way too loud). I set this up in the hallway in such a position that any movement at the doorway would set off the bell. Works great, except that this device sometimes has a mind of it's own. I considered her fully potty trained at about 10 weeks old.
Obedience training is done whenever I remember, maybe 5 minutes at a time, 3 times a week. The most important lesson was the recall since I have no fencing on my property yet, and I don't use leashes around home. I stand on the porch and when I see her going too far away, I call to her, and she responds readily. The only thing is, that actually getting back to me takes a while, because there's so many interesting things to check out along the way. By 12 weeks old, she knew Sit, Down, Shake Paw, No, Leave It, and what the leash and harness are all about. It's been far too cold for her to go for walks, but as soon as it warms up a bit, we'll be practicing with the leash. When she's scolded, she flattens her ears, wriggles like mad and comes at me pawing, and looking for a hug.
Why, why, why does she whine so much? She whines when she wakes up, when she's settling down for a nap, before mealtime, when she doesn't see me, when she does see me. In the car, she whines when we first start off, and each time the motion stops. When she's chewing something, she whines too, but that I understand because she's teething. She sounds more like a monkey sometimes, walking around hmmm hmmm hmmm hmmmmmmm, or the wheels on a subway car as they go around a corner heeeeeeeee. Maybe nails on a blackboard too. She doesn't bark that often, but it's more than either of the other two. She's extremely vocal, especially compared with the "man of few words", Taro.
At 5 months old, she had her first trip to the dog park. For the first 15min, she was very uneasy with all the dogs checking her out, hair up on her back and tail kept low. I kept her on leash and we walked all around the 2 acre enclosure. She was very interested in all the dogs tearing around obviously having a lot of fun. Then all of a sudden, it was as if she were a different dog. Someone kicked a soccer ball, and off she dashed after the ball and the two dogs chasing it. She lightened up completely, and started checking out the other dogs and frisking around. Since then, I've been dropping her off at a daycare in town once a week while I do my shopping. The staff there said she's getting along wonderfully with the others. I watched her play with the other dogs and it didn't surprise me that she favoured a male English Mastiff who was at least twice her weight.
So as we near the 6 month mark, things have been fairly uneventful. Her and I have been occassionally to the dog park, and always the same routine, where she's uptight at first, then the puppy brain takes over. She's shown no signs of aggression, but she is the first to go on high alert due to noises, or seeing something outside. It's hard to remember back to when Taro was this age, but she's more responsive to my commands (higher "please drive"). Then again, the environment Taro was raised in was totally different. There has been practically no "head butting". She is very affectionate and submissive with everyone we've met so far, and some friends commented that she has a much softer expression than Taro.
6 months to 1 year
Her first swimming lesson was just as she turned 6 months old. It went much better than Taro's experience. I put a life jacket on her and supported her a little, but she figured out the dog paddle right away. She didn't seem thrilled with the water, so before the summer is over, I'll have to take her to a beach where dogs are playing in the water.
A neighbour down the road has a very old, female Collie X dog. Their yard is fenced at the front, and one day, we saw this dog napping close to it. When we passed by, the dog showed some aggression, and Kirin began a "fence fight". All I had to do, is say her name sternly, she broke it off immediately and came beside me in her apologetic posture.
She's actually a very pushy dog, craving attention all the time. If Taro or Georgie are getting attention, she will come over and basically walk all over them or push them out of the way. When I'm patting her, she butts me with her snout as if to say "more, more, more". She tries to lay on my lap most times when I'm sitting on the sofa. She has no concept of personal space, although I've been trying hard to communicate that to her. In the morning just as I wake up, everybody gets pats and rubs for about 5 minutes. She stepped in Taro's belly, on Georgie's head, and on my arm.
1 year to 18 months
So, I've got a few things to talk about now. She's had a few more trips to the dogpark, and still very tense when she goes in. However, she changed a lot after her first trip, now her tail is tall and stiff along with the hair on her back. I've heard her give little growls at a few very frisky pups she's met. As if to tell them to calm down before they greet her. She's had one more fence fight, and a couple bickering sessions with Georgie, but hasn't harmed anything.
For a couple of months there was a young adult male (neutered) German Shepherd mix left at large in the neighbourhood. He's since been tied up to his doghouse. The 3 dogs were having a ball, ripping up the neighbourhood! Anyone would be hard pressed to find 3 dogs who got along so well. He did an excellent job of tiring out my two.
Taro got into another fight when an unneutered male Husky mix was charging us out in the road. For a second she looked like she might have joined in, but I shoved her to the side and yelled at her. She stayed back after that.
As she turned around 14 months, and the weather got a little less severe, I've trained her and Taro to bike with me on flexi-leashes. We change the routine from day to day. One day we'll go 4km, another day 6km, and some days 4km twice. They don't run (that would be dangerous for me with the leashes looped on the handlebar) but they go at their fastest trot. Kirin has a more ground covering pace than Taro does, so he's always lagging behind. She also uses the treadmill. It's got the largest belt I could find for a mid-priced machine, but it's still too short for a Tosa to run. So, she does very fast walking while I gradually increase and decrease the incline up to 10%. I'll be starting to use a backpack with about 5lbs of weight soon.
Her enthusiasm for food has had me a little frustrated. As I'm preparing a meal for them, Georgie and Taro sit in one spot and wait quietly. Kirin paces frantically all over the kitchen and living room, drooling and whining as she goes. So, for months I've been trying to get her to stay in one spot like the others. Always, she breaks the down-stay and no matter how many times I bring her back and try again, she walks away. I tried locking her out of the area, using a leash to tie her to one spot, feeding her last...nothing worked, she just didn't get it. Finally, I hardened my heart and didn't feed her dinner one night. She sat by her empty food stand, poked her nose at it a few times, then looked at me. Went all around the feeding area trying to scare up some crumbs. Followed me around for a bit...that was hard not to feed her. But guess what? Breakfast the next day, I asked her to do a down-stay, and she stayed. Mind you, she still manages to thrash around and whine quite a bit, but she stayed down, and she stayed within a foot of the area I asked her to.
March 2008, I took her to her first conformation lesson. I'm really not holding my breath about showing her. She doesn't have the attitude that Taro does, I can't seem to get her to stack properly as she slouches her shoulders making her butt stick up, and she's far too interested in the food the other dogs are getting.
One thing that I am very impressed with her for, is her extreme weather endurance. She's been through one very hot summer, and one hellish winter. Never once did she slow down or complain. We've been for walks in the snow, in temperatures of -20C and colder. Taro is in his Muttluks, and only once did I see her look at her paws.
At 14 months she went through her first major heat cycle. The first one was very short when she was 9 months. Her temperament was very much the same, but this girl sure can flirt! For the first 12 days, there was a bit of bleeding, but that isn't the peak hormone time. Taro was still controllable, but she just wouldn't leave him alone. She was flagging like crazy, pulling up her butt to expose herself more, and doing this little dance in front of him. It was hilarious! By about day 13, the hormones really started to kick in, and the two had to be separated at all times. Taro spent most of that time at Supernanny's place as the whining and howling started to grate on my nerves...it wasn't funny anymore.
Health
Two days after she arrived, she woke up from her afternoon nap with a raging bladder infection. I had to keep her blocked off in the kitchen because she was going pee about every 30 seconds. The vet gave me some Clavamox, even though I couldn't collect enough urine for them to analyse. She was much better in about 3 days, but when I did manage to get a proper urine sample into the vet, they said she had struvite crystals. More on that here.
She's got a small amount of puppy acne on her abdomen, for that I rub the area with Surolan at night and it seems to help quite a bit. Georgie had a bad case when she was a puppy, but I'm hoping that by having a better diet, Kirin's will never get to that stage. For treatment, I gave her 1 colustrum capsule with each meal, and also evening primrose with vit.e added. Within 1 month, all acne had cleared up.
Her nose has gone quite pink. The breeder said that he had seen puppies lose nose colour when placed in very cold climates. Will see if her nose darkens when summertime comes. A pink nose is a fault in the show ring, so I'll keep my fingers crossed.
Mid summer now, she's almost 8 months old, and her nose has darkened considerably. Still not jet black, but not that obvious. My vet also said that he'd seen a few dog with light noses, where the colour corrected with maturity.
Her lower adult canines had erupted on the inside of the puppy teeth, and at first it appeared as though the teeth would grow through the roof of her mouth. Within a month they had repositioned and corrected themselves with very little trauma to the upper gums. She also had a bit of an overbite, but it seem to be slowly correcting itself. Her bite is not looking too bad now.
February 2008, we went back to the vet for her shots and a minor check up. The vet called her "a typical healthy dog", robust and well muscled too. No bloodwork was done, I'll wait until 18 months or maybe even 2 years for that. Since the winter started, her nose went lighter again.
Feeding
From 8 weeks to 6 months, she was fed mostly a mashed potato/ground beef mixture (50/50), supplemented with the appropriate amount of Innova Evo (only 1 cup/day). I also gave her a can of Sardines in spring water a couple times a week, and everyone gets a handful of beef liver every other day. On Sundays, everybody gets and egg or two, done sunny side up. Diet is further supplemented by human grade Joint Support (msm, glucosamine and chondroitin), Vitamin C, Kelp tabs, Evening Primrose Oil, Probiotics and Digestive enzymes. She's growing at approximately 1/2lb a day, which I feel is a safe growth rate. This diet is very high protein and fat compared to commercial dog foods. She loves to chew, and the only edible chews my dogs get, are Bullwrinkles and smoked tartar or marrow bones.
After she turned 5 months old, I stopped with the potato and use brown rice instead as it's so much easier, especially considering the volumes I'm preparing.
Due to time constraints, at about 6 months old, I switched to Canidae Lamb based food which Georgie is on also. That is still supplemented with cooked chicken or beef, and some finely chopped veggies. Her growth slowed to around 2lbs a week.
Questions, comments? sdyke@hotmail.com