Emilia & Martta, Juno, Jasmin 2005

Information about the Breeder

I’m a 22 year old young woman and just starting to breed this wonderful breed called Akita. I’m working in my father’s company in Econocap Engineering Oy four days a week. My fifth working day of the week goes in Lappeenranta’s work health centre. I do office work at both of these firms.

I have always liked dogs and animals. My first pets were 2 gerbils. While taking care of the gerbils I got 2 hamsters. After a couple of weeks these hamsters produced more hamsters… and suddenly I got 4 hamsters and 2 gerbils. After the hamsters had been passed away I got a small aquarium and a female rat, too. The rat didn’t get enough attention because right after getting her I got what I had always wanted, a dog. This dog was Jasmin, a long haired Akita female and my first Akita.

At present I have five Akitas, but only three of them is living with me. Nowadays I also have a 200 liter aquarium and 2 hamsters.

I think my fascination for dogs started when my best friend and I got familiar with two long-haired dachshunds (father Mysi and his son Masi) when we were kids.

In the fall 2003 I passed the Finnish dog breeder course with my friend. Right after that I got a right to apply for a kennel name. The response to this application arrived in the spring 2004: the name Viribus Unitis was approved. So my kennel is called Viribus Unitis There are currently 3 litters under that name. Two of the litters are raised by me and one litter is raised by my friends Minna and Harri.

I got familiar with this Akita breed while I was just searching every possible dog book and reading all about all breeds that could live outdoors in a kennel. Big dogs have always fascinated me so I started to search for more information about big dog breeds like Akita, Alaskan malamute and Samoyed. But the more I read the, more I liked Akita. I was 13 years old at that time. My mother rang to a Finnish Kennel Club and asked for Akita puppies and they said there is one kennel where a litter was born… After a short conversation and begging, my parents and I went to see these puppies and few days later I got this cute long-haired female (Jasmin).

I was only 13 years old when I got my first dog/Akita, i.e. Jasmin. She comes from a Finnish kennel called Palokin (in finnish only). I liked the owner of the kennel very much and also the look of the kennel’s dogs.

As a puppy Jasmin was an extremely cute teddy bear because she has a long coat. The coat wasn’t a problem for me because I didn’t want a show dog but just a pet. Amongst Akitas the long coat is false and thus a long-coated Akita does not have permission to participate in dog shows. Instead the shows I had many other hobbies with Jasmin, for example finding objects from the ruins, tracking, agility and obedience. There was even a little success in obedience for us and I even went to a few official competitions.

A few years after getting Jasmin I realized I needed a friend for her. So I got in touch again with the owner of the Palokin kennel and bought my second female, Juno, from there in 2001. Jasmin was 3 years when Juno came. The one reason for getting Juno was also that I wanted to go to dog shows.

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Juno was a perfect puppy. She was quiet, stubborn but much easier than Jasmin. Juno kept growing and we started to go dog shows. Our first show was the Finnish Winner Show on 8.12.2001. The judge was Matti Tuominen from Finland. Mr. Tuominen liked Juno and finally Juno won the competition of the puppies being the best of the breed (BOB) puppy! Juno grew more and got easily two CC:s and a year later in the Finnish Winner dog show 8.12.2002 she was BOB but now in the adult series. The judge was Mr. Tomio. Because of the win Juno got the W-02 title. Juno couldn’t get the third CC because we already had two and the third could only be taken at the age of two and Juno wasn’t yet two years old.

In 2004 Juno had a wonderful litter with the Japanese import male, Fuji (Fujimaru Go Seaside Nakagawa). Juno had five puppies; four females and one male. They were all red coloured. Nowadays the four of these puppies have a red coat with black on their back. I left one female (Martta) with me to continue my breeding work.

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Martta was quite a typical Akita already during the puppy age. She was very noisy and bossy. My older dogs Jasmin and Juno lived together outdoors in a kennel and when Martta was about four months old she tried to get higher in the leadership hierarchy. So Jasmin and Martta fouhght few times in that winter (Martta was the initiator every time). Fights weren’t bad and that’s why I didn’t do much anything. I also kept keeping the dogs in a same kennel, so end of the winter Jasmin had said the final word and Martta believed it. Now they are very good friends with each other. There were never problems between Jasmin and Juno so this was new to all of us. These three females live together now very peacefully without any conflicts.

Roughly said I will breed one litter in a year. I try to breed healthy and good temperamental dogs and I use only good dogs for breeding. My aim is to get one female for me from every litter so any of my females wouldn’t need to have many litters. If the female’s first litter gives me a female to continue with then I carry on my breeding work with her.

Martta had a litter in the summer 2006 with the Japanese import, Goshi. I had a trip with my cousin Henna and my dog Martta to Spain. We visited Silvia’s house to cover Martta and Goshi. It was a wonderful trip and for home comings Martta had seven puppies! This litter (called E litter) was a success. Now I have a female (Hilma) from that litter to continue my breeding work.

Im a member in Finnish Akita club, Finnish Kennel Club and Finnish Dog Breeders Club. I was in breeders class in 2003. First Viribus Unitis litter was born in a year 2004.

Even though I have just started to breed Akita I’ll try to achieve best possible result in healthness, temperament and looks. Healthness is very important and I don’t use sick dogs for breeding. This is sometimes difficult because of the breed’s autoimmune diseases. There is always a risk to get sick descendants until there is a way to test dogs.

My breeding dogs have always official certificate of eyes and hips results. Temperament is very important matter and I try to achieve good, strong and happy Akitas. I do not use very aggressive or shy dog for breeding.

Im an open person and I like to tell if there is some problems in my dog’s lines. So every person who purchace a dog from me will know everything from its backrounds and the dog itself. I will publish in my websites if any of my dog of their descendants gets sick with SA or UDS (VKH). I think that will help other breeders too, because we don’t have too many different bloodlines.

Every litter I make is ment to give something good for the breed. I leave a female to me from every litter to carry on the breeding. My goal is not to have many litters with 1 female, but with several females. And I want to continue the bloodline of my foundation female (Palokin Like A Dream). If there are a very good litter with good health and look, then I will try to use 1-3 of them for breeding.

I co-operate in breeding with Minna-Riikka Jarvinen. She and I own together a japan import male (Homereunshou Go Yamahan). Minna breeds her own litters and some of them are registered under my kennel name (Viribus Unitis). Im so glad for this opportunity because I can get information and support with a ”colleague”. Minna’s foundation female is Viribus Unitis Antevorte.

>> My litters at Finnish Kennel club’s breeding database

Foundation female
Kennel’s foundation female is Juno (Palokin Like A Dream). Juno has extremely good temperament and very dark red coat. Juno is Finnish champion and Winner 2002 under a japanise judge Tomio Fujihata. Juno has A hips and healhty eyes.

Juno’s (and the kennel’s) first litter (A-litter) was born at 2001. There was 1 male and 4 females in that litter, all red. Two of the litter’s females has own litters.

Juno don’t have siblings, half siblings, parents or descendants with SA or UDS (VKH). Juno’s mother Nijiyaka-Go has 4 litters with different males and no SA or UDS. So I assume that she is clean of these diseases.

Kennel’s male
Sulo (Homareunshou Go Yamahan) is imported from Japan. Sulo has been healthty as has been his descendants (Minerva-litter). I hope to get good puppies from him that are health and has good temperament. Sulo has the perfect temperament. Sulo has D hips because of the low ”hips bowls”. Al though his movements are perfect. Sulo’s son has A/B hips. I hope to achieve healthy puppies from him.

Breeding dogs
Martta (Viribus Unitis Angerona) is Juno’s daughter from A-litter. Martta lives with me. She has A hips and healthy eyes (she has little lens changes that are not disease or inheritable, it doens’t affect her sight in anyway) and she is a Finnish champion.

Martta has 1 litter (E-litter) with Japan import Goushi Go Yahata. Unfortunately there is UDS-sick male at this litter (Viribus Unitis Eiyuuteki). So I think I will not use Martta for breeding anymore.

E-litter has 7 puppies, 2 males and 5 females, all red. Two of them have long hair. Im very satisfied with this litter. There are good red colour and pigmentation. Few puppies has black on their backs. I co-own a female (Viribus Unitis Eikyuusei) from this litter, she lives elsewhere (at Kotka, Finland).

Siiri (Viribus Unitis Antevorte) is from Juno’s daughter (A-litter). Siiri is healthy female with clear eyes and B hips. She is finnish champion. Siiri has 1 litter (Minerva-litter) with our male Sulo (Homareunshou Go Yamahan). Siiri born 2 male and 4 females, 2 brindle and 4 red. This litter has very good temperament and colour. Siiri has black on her back, but only 1 female has black and the rest 3 are red. This litter has been healthy. Red male died as a puppy in his new home because of an accident.

My foundation female (Juno) has sensitive skin. I need to watch what Im feeding to her or she starts to itching. Juno’s father has very sensitive skin. Otherwise Juno is very healthy.

I know that there is few "risk dogs" behind Juno when we are talking about autoimmune diseases ((Eri Of Tokyo Takryuh & Daiji Of Kisarazu Shirai Kensha). Although the dogs are in Juno's pedigree from 3rd generation. I do not think much of a risk for these dogs because I think that Juno's mother is clean (she has 4 litters with different males and no sick puppies).

>> Heredity visualized There is shown every possibilities what specific compinations can produce

>> http://wuac.info/SAStudieE.htm SA info is presented at WUAC (World Union of Akita Clubs) homepages. I hope that in the near future we would have a test available for our breeding dogs. Everyone should support this research by sending blood sample from sick dog or its sister/brother/parents. The research is confidential. There is also pedigrees of sick dogs needed.

>> Finnish Akita club’s list of sick dogs with diagnosed SA or UDS.

Luckily I can say that most of the part my line is healthy. There are 2 dogs who has sensitive skin. Big problems has only Viribus Unitis Eiyuuteki with his UDS.

Breeding requires lots of research and taking risks. Every litter is make is always a litter where I would take a puppy for my self. And I hope of course that the litter has a long and good life. My aim is breed beautiful, healthy, good temperament dogs who is a joy for its owner. Every now and then there are problems but I hope I can manage them. 

I will take a female from every litter. When the time passes I know my litter extremely well I can avoid sickness. My goal is just ”on paper” now but Im going forward slowly. I attend to get new blood to my line from the males I use. I won’t combine two dogs with too close relatives in the backround because I want to maximize the multiply in litters genotype.

Autoimmune system disorders the body organism attach to itself distroying healthy cells. Im trying to fight back by supporting dogs immune system. Feeding is a markable for this and that’s why I feed raw food to my dogs and litters. I take help from homeopathic to any problems and I have very good results with it. I attend to ”keep the vet away” from my dogs and so far it has went great. Any skin problems or problems with feeding I turn to ask for help from homeopath. There is huge differens even with new feeding plan to make dog feel better!

>> Information about immune system disorders