kai ken in our eyes

Kai ken is very interesting breed – no wonder that when people get meet and know Kai
- they get hooked.
You may have already read that Kai ken pick their own person..? Personally, I would say they really do that. I have experienced it myself, I have been ”elected” as well as ”rejected”.

However, that doesn’t mean you wouldn’t be nothing for this dog if he didn’t choose you. But if a dog has the option of doing things with the person of his choise, he does just that.
Normal day life things they do with whole family but that happiness and even the slightest desire to please is detached only for that own person.

Kai ken’s are also known how to dissatulate people who they don’t like very much. They are able to make a person ”vanish” very easily and ignore him or her wholly.

Kai ken’s are very owner loyal, some even jealous of their own people. I haven’t met aggression – and it shouldn’t be – mostly that above-mentioned dissatulate behavior. They also can stare disturbingly and show that YOU are close to MY person now…
This owner loyalty thing is also a difficult thing when a dog for some reason as an adult has to be placed in a new home. Settling in can be really challenging.

Kai ken’s are very sensitive dogs. They sense your feelings very strongly and they read your micro actions very strongly and may reflect you a lot. For example, it you don’t like some person but you’re just polite, your Kai ken may avoid that person or he won’t even go close to that person.

Kai ken’s are very feline at times as well. That same independent than cat’s, stubborn head and way to work with things. There are many concrete examples as well, many kai ken’s dont like water/won´t swim, they play like cats, Kai ken’s are very clean dogs too – like cats. And some of our dogs often sleep on the back of the couch…
Most of the time at home they do their own things quietly and could go hours you even can’t see the dot. They keep an eye on what’s going on at home but don’t hang at the center of it all the time.
They are a bit even stiff and independent dogs. Of course with theis own family they know how to be relaxed, have fun etc, but we’ve seen often that when someone comes to visit to us, Kai ken’s become correct and very polite. Excitement feature :)

So we have three Kai ken’s at home; Japanese import’s male Urkki and female Karma and USA import male Garou.
Rest of my imported dogs; Misa, Hikka and Banjo are in the co-homes here in Finland. My own bred keepers Fiini, Uni, Iita and Rilla are also in co-homes.
All of there dogs are quite different from each other. I try to write a more detailed story about them to their own pages.

Urkki lives outside the house. He is very independent dog.
Garou is my little favorite, my sweet boy who sleeps in my bed. I know I know……! :) He is totally just my dog. He can do things with anyone else do, but he doesn’t want to. With strangers he is reserved at first but when you get to know him at his own speed he is very lovable, polite and correct dog.

Urkki is definitely Jussi’s dog. It’s treatable etc with other people as well, but clearly it doesn’t care about anyone else than Jussi.

Karma is very nice and interesting dog. She is absolutely most open-minded Kai ken who I ever met. She was really brisk as soon as she arrived and it take like half an hour to settled into our pack!
Of course she has own problems as well…nobodys perfect.
It’s mainly related to ”being”, because she climbs out of every place. It we keep her outdoors, kennel must have a roof etc. She knows how to pinch herself out of nowhere…Houdini???
With children all our dogs can be nicely, we have children ourselves too.

Kai ken's also have a pray drive, for this reason we do not recommend keep them offleash, except at most in a far away foffest etc where is no danger from cars etc. Or in a dog parks of course. I quess these are as social as any other dogs who has taken to a lot of different places and situations, met people and animals. Many of our co-home dogs live in the city, some of them in appartments and they go often dog parks. Some of them are excellent with other dogs and some of don´t. It is very individual thing, just like any other dog breed.

Kai ken’s health

I often get questions about breed health in general. I always try to share all my knowledge and experience openly with other honest people.
The breed is mostly healthy but on the other hand the right answer is certainly that time will tell. It is unfortunate that these have not been research in any way in Japan – in which case it can be said that there are no diseases. And this information is also wrongly relied in Western countries. In Finland we do health checks to our dogs.

So what has been found from Kai ken’s?
- hip + elbow dysplasia
- patellar luxation
- cross-knee problems
- achilles tendon luxation
- eye diseases (glaucoma, PRA, corneal dystrophy)
- allergies
- epilepsy
- megaesophagus (esophageal dilation)
- heart murmurs
- tooth and biting defects
- missing testicals
- the hubs

The above are at least diseases and defects that have already been found, some individual cases as well. But I would still not go talking with a healthy primitive breed any more than other breeds.
Eyes is mainly the thing which I myself have worried. Both PRA patient and lots of carriers have now been found in USA and Europe, both; Japanese and US-lines.

We have done DNA tests on our own imports and own bred dogs so that we can exclude all latent individuals from breeding.

How that saying goes – Knowledge creates pain? It’s a bit like that, but on the other hand without those cases for example I myself might not have been so alert and would examine my dogs really carefully.
With Japanese imported dogs, there is always a lottery about what a dog’s health consists of, what it inherits etc. Because they are hardly checked in their home country (I can’t stress this enough).

In fact, I’m with my cooperation breeders made a decision that we take a dna sample from every puppy we bred before they leave from home. So we can collect thecertain data and to pay serious attention when making breeding plans.

I feel that females are more clever and sly than males.
Both males and females can be territory conscious, and often Kai ken does not necessarily get along with outsider of the pack. It's a fact.
In general, compared to many other breeds, Kai ken is not is not bribable, you cannot buy his/her attention. Females in particular.
Personally, I like female more than males, even though they sometimes feel more awkward.