When we first got into she Show World, we had a lady come to our house to inspect our yard and home. She was a close friend of the breeder that lived locally, and she became a mentor to us in getting into Showing. Introductions are huge when first starting out!!! That puppy had a contract that was several pages long. He was a nice dog to start out with, but nothing close to being a top quality dog. Our next puppy came from CA and we had met them at dog shows, and where friends with them on FB. Since they already knew us, and thought we would be a home that would show their puppy, we where given pick of the litter. That little girl became the number 12 overall Akita in the country, and the number 2 female Akita. She won 14 Best of Breeds in a row, which was really something!!! This was our most complicated contract. They where co owners, they had to agree to who we bred her to, and they got second choice of the litter after she was bred. This was also our worse experience in dealing with a breeder and dealing with their PRIORITIES over what we felt was best for the dog and her puppies. Even though they had nothing to do with raising her, or showing her, or feeding her, or training her, they shared in her success, which sort of bothered us.
That's when the top people in the Akita World started to notice us. One of the ladies that created the AKC Breed Standard for the Akita had a breeding with 18 year old frozen semen up in Saskatchewan that had a show quality puppy that she wanted to place with us. This was huge because the breed has changed in the last couple of decades, and he reflects what is called "the old breed" of Akita. And he really is unique with nothing like him anywhere else in the country. His brother is in Spain and his sister is in Canada. The contract was very straight forward, and just a single paragraph on one page of paper. He has been a very good show dog and is currently number 5 in the nation. He has been in the top 20 for the last 3 years. He has beaten the number one dog multiple times, and could be rated a lot higher if we sent him out more, but we only go to the big shows, and usually just once a month. To be number 1, you have to show every weekend. But we also know that he has his flaws, and it's doubtful that he will ever be higher then number 5. We are probably going to stop showing him and focus on his daughter and the new puppy.
The contract for this new puppy is also very straight forward. We own her outright. No co owner, no restrictions, no limits on what we do with her. The breeding was a huge secret and we where the only people contacted about a puppy. The owners each kept a puppy, and we got pick of the litter.
Every single one of these puppies cost us the exact same amount of money. At the higher end of things, they are not as interested in making money. They have been doing this so long that they are more interested in what the home is like that their puppy goes to, and if it will be shown at a high level.
We took a few more pictures of Spicy yesterday. She is really different then what we've had before. It feels like we have moved up a level in quality, which is very exciting!!
