Akita in harness

Today I want to introduce you to a training programme with our Akitas. Since we more or less regularly met husky and malamute dog owners at training camps, we naturally did not want to be left behind with our Akitas. After watching a few times, we were very keen to take part. We provided ourselves with a Sacco-Cart (because you can co-drive here and thus the orders are quicker to learn) and slowly began, getting the dogs used to the cart. Well, yes... every beginning is hard. The Akitas stood harnessed and bewildered.... amazed... bewildered, but they didn't pull a metre. But with a bit of patience, they quickly came to what we actually want from them - namely that they are supposed to pull and run. After a couple of weeks it was going so well that we decided to take part in the Association Championships (VNH) in February 1998. At that time we said to ourselves "Just participate - that's it" we just hoped that our dogs would be able to endure the whole stretch of about 15 km (of which 4 km steeply uphill). Because we all know that if an akita doesn't feel like it .... it just stops! There was tension before the start - barely bearable. Our son Jonas, then 15 years old, was quite nervous in contrast to the dogs who showed no interest in what was going on. We were the only ones running with the akitas in this race - and finally.... the starting shot - and it started! Jonas got off to a good start.... and all that was left was to wait....After about 1 hour, they finally reached their goal - and as expected of akitas - with pride and dignity. Maszer Jonas took 3rd place with both akitas! Meanwhile, Jonas regularly harnesses 3 of our 4 akitas and is then always 2 to 2.5 hours on the road. Running by the cart is really fun for the dogs. Training should only be done in the cool seasons. In summer, if the temperature allows it, we go for long walks and mountain hikes - then the dogs on the running harness pull us, quite nicely uphill. So you can really undertake a lot with akitas - with patience and love you will lead each of them to do everything for us.
Thea Hopf – February 2000