Outcross Breeds and Why We Chose Them

Now, I have to include OUT-CROSSING as this breed uses out-crossing to keep the breed healthy with that hybrid vigor.

F-1's will not meet this criteria for the most part, but then again some come very close.. one must include the other breed
or 'out-cross' into the calculations.

F-2's are much closer to the breed standard as i have described. The litter will be split and i will see some barkers,
talkers or some more hyper than what I like which is 'silence' for the most part. There maybe three in this litter nice enough
to go forward...

F-3's i will get about 7 out of 10 that are nice enough to be kept for breeding.

F-4's are just about the same as a pure bred and one can not tell much difference, but there will be slightly more barking or
talkativeness, or maybe some fetching or retrieving? in some.

F-5's are really Alsatians for the most part.

I hope this explains it all for you, if you have any more questions, just email me... Lois Schwarz

We outcross into other breeds to keep our stock healthy and long in life.  Below are some of the Breeds we have used or  are considering to use.   I do not like to use a pure bred dog, but would rather use an F-1 cross of two different pure breds. Click on the pure bred dog that you would like to read up on to see why I would choose that particular breed of dog to outcross with.

What I like about the breed for out-crossing into: HARD DOGS, EARS, BODY, GIRTH, HEAD, SHORT TAIL.

I have bred several Akita's into my lines since 1987 and this one was the worst as i was not the one that picked up the pups.
I had a friend in Sacramento that saw an add in the newspaper for Akita x Malamute pups. They went to see them and chose 2 pups, a male and female and brought them to me. I raised them and scored them and only used the male to breed with. There were a lot of health issues that were unseen until the pups came from our first out-crossing.

• As usual, the breeder lied. They may not have known the crap that their dogs produced. This was the third time i had seen this particular pairings pups in the paper. I pity those that got the other pups from this backyard breeding. Needless to say. I have corrected the issues through selective breeding.
  
• The very first Akita i bought for my lines was a complete litter from a backyard breeder in Oxnard California back in the 1980's. I did see the paperwork and the mom and dad. Very nice lines and not a bad breeding pair. I sold all of the pups except 2 brindles and used them for breeding into my Shepalute Lines. I brought in stability in the Girth that is lost when breeding as 'girth' is recessive. I did bring in a few unwanted things (curled tails which are dominate and small feet, dominate).
  The temperament of the first Akita's i put into the lines was great. Nice tempered Akita's which is hard to find. These are 'guard dogs'. Though they are devoted to the family, acceptable to strangers ( in a standoffish way) they are aloof as i needed, watchful as i needed and quiet as i needed.
  Now the Mal x Akita is NOT a breeding i would EVER say to breed as both the Mal and the Akita in a mix are a very BAD outcome temperament wise. You will get some very MEAN and aggressive dogs. Don't breed the Saint with the Akita or the GSD with the Akita either. All these dogs together can make for some law suits for the owners or the adults will need to be put to sleep. So how come my dogs came out so nice? First of all, i diluted the Akita lines down to about 2%. You do NOT want a lot of Akita in any dog. Akita's are a strange animal breed. Unlike companion dogs (as they are NOT) they are ATTACK protection and guard dogs. The males in the Akita breed are especially aggressive where as the females are more loving. Why are the males more mean? 1.) the size and 2.) the breeding of hundreds of years as guard and protection dogs in Japan.
  When you breed for size and girth and do not keep sweet dogs, you will always get dogs that 'KNOW' that they can intimidate a human being. These dogs (the Akita's) are more likely to assert their dominance in pack members and will fight to the death. Being only dogs with a very high predatory and prey drive, if the right people do not or can not control this dog, the dog reverts back to its natural instincts. Most of these dogs in this breed are very aggressive and put that together with the size, girth and head you get one heck of a fighting machine.
  
• Now, when you breed this dog to any other breed bred for guard and protection, you get hybrid vigor in this field. Because i had already diluted my dogs lines down to NON PREY DRIVE and the sweet dispositions of kind and loving lap huggers, it was easy to separate aggressive dominate pups and keep only those pups that wanted human companionship.
  
• Always testing for prey drive so that i could eliminate it from my lines, it took me about 5 or 6 generations to get out of that Akita domination. There were a LOT of dogs/pups i passed up. If you had DNA'd my dogs after 8th generation you would not even have seen that i had bred the Akita into my dogs, so why put them back into my lines in 2015?
  It had been YEARS since i used the Akita and i wanted more girth in the skull and cheeks. Since i had done it before i knew i could do it again. But....... This line of Akita x Mal out of this back yard breeder was a mess. I didn't even use the female i bought and the male i only used once.
  
• The first litter of out-cross was a disaster and i kept the only one i could tolerate. I used him once, neutered him and got rid of him asap. The pup out of that (f-2) i bred once and chose the best pup and sold all the rest. And then the pup out of that one,(f-3) was a lot more tolerable, praise the lord!
  Once again it has taken me a long time to dilute the stuff i brought in. Why do it then? 1.) Because i needed small ears, shorter tails, quieter dogs with aloofness. 2.) Because i needed more variety and more genetic diversity. Yes, there was a lot of work for me to do in selecting the right pups and then the years it took to breed all the undesirable stuff out, but this is part of the course for getting the end results.

Test Scores: 1 (low Bad) - 10 (high Good)

Our tests are rated 1-10 on our AA standards for companion dog excellent in temperament.

Tests Scores:

Intelligence (process of thought) 6 The Akita was not bred for brains

Pitch of/Vocal sounds 8 most had too high a pitch

Barking 2 Way bad when young, surprisingly quiet when mature

Whining and talking back 3 Way bad when young none as an adult in my Akitas

Prey drive 2 when mature, this breed doesn't care about fetching

Chewing 4 likes to chew as a pup mature, these dogs will chew bones

Swallowing stuff 8 as a pup 10 as an adult

Dominance/aggression towards humans 1

Challenging owner/trainer 1

Child friendly 1

Dominance/aggression towards other dogs 1

Dominance/aggression towards smaller animals 1

Soft/hard bite (mouth) 1 hard bite

Touch sensitivity 3

Emotional sensitivity 7 most Akita's don't have the brains nor do they care.

Sound sensitivity 8

Ease of training for the average person 3

Velcro (not wanting to wander) 3

Genetic hyperness or Energy level (pacing the fence line) 5 not too bad

Investigative or inquisitive (independence) 5

Stubbornness (doing what it wants instead of what you want) 1 One of the most stubborn breeds

Eating of feces 9

Sanitation - pooping in the designated spot 9 a clean dog

Sloppy drinking 7

Age of life 10

Heath issues 6

Retrieving or carrying objects 10 doesn't

Digging 1 all the time

Conformation 9

girth 9

Eyes 8

Ears 10

Nose 10

Girth of Skull 10

Length of Tail 10

Feet 3 too small

Neck 8

Topline 8

Gait 4