Dan with Santa 2011

Pictured above @ 3 years and the last at 10 months

For more pics of Dan click here

DOB:  08/08/2008

Why that name?  Koudanshi is the translation for the word "handsome man".

AKA: DANDAN, Dancakes, Dan the Man or My Meathead!

Weight at 1 1/2:  95lbs (with wiggles) with 2 1/2 more years of growing to fill out

Coloring:  Silver/brown underlay and white pinto with black mask and overlay

Coat:  Pretty much perfect!  Thick, dense, slightly longer, medium coarseness

Tail:  Absolutely PERFECT - nice and full, perfect curve, hangs correctly.

Character:  Dan is a LOVER!  He immediately won over his first handlers with his charisma and charm.  He loves absolutely everyone he meets.  Starting at the very beginning of his show career, his handlers were getting text messages from their friends asking when and where Dan was going to attend shows at.  He had a big following on his first trip out.  We were also told that Dan was the "favorite house dog" while with his handlers and that he played well with their other client dogs.

Dan is the kind of dog that you can run up to and grab him by the cheeks and just molest him and he is THRILLED.  He has always been this way.  He is very outgoing with other dogs as well.  He has never met a female dog he didn't like.  He loves to play chase, which must be genetic, because his sisters Blaze and Asia love to chase him.  They will run doggy Nascar laps around the backyard over and over to the point of exhaustion and then get up and do it all over again. 

Dan loves to use his paws.  He is a hugger and always gives me excited hugs when I enter the room.  We wrestle and I grab his head and wrestle him around and wave my hands around as he smacks me back with his own paws, I think he secretly admired a boxer at a show and decided that way of life would be most fun for him!  Overall, Dan is pretty much the perfect dog, other than the fencing issue, he is a joy to own, happy, beautiful and has the perfect temperament.

Conformation:  Absolutely outstanding- his show career speaks for itself in this regard.  At 7 months old he won the first show we sent him to and he had only been leash trained for a matter of minutes given his age.  He won every weekend he went out from that point on until the very lat time he was shown, his only major appearance, which was in Texas and he lost to a more mature male at this Specialty.  See details below:

As a dad:  Dan has sired some gorgeous puppies but more importantly so spectacular companions with awesome temperaments just like him!  He has mad a huge impact on our breeding program as we kept his daughter by Katana, Keeper and his daughter by Brook, Brooklyn!  Watch Dan's amaizing kids and eventually grandkids grow up and impact this amazing breed in and out of the ring.

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Show Career:  Dan took to the show ring well.  I had not even had the opportunity to leash train him yet other than an hour or so working with him before he left with handlers to enter his first shows the following weekend when he arrived on the east coast.  He took Reserve on his first day out and the following day won.  From that point on he took WD at basically every show he went to and took Breed once as well.  His last show was a major show but he did not win and that was the only major his handler took him to.  Therefore, he has all of his singles lined up and as soon as we find him some majors he will be good to go!  Right now hard earned rest and relaxation is the name of the game!  His Best of Breed picture below is taken at 10 months and the picture after it is his first Best of Winners at 7 months.  The two pictures following are from his first weekend out in the ring, learning how to show with Lori and Bradley.

 

   

Awards and Points Number of Points:  9 Total Number of Judges:  8

For the points listed above he was first shown by Lori Wilson and then by her partner, Bradley Buttner.  Unfortunately, Dan was only taken to one major show, which he did not win, and then he returned home for his first birthday so he did not have the opportunity to finish his Championship.  Many thanks to Team Lori and Bradley for training Dan well and making his experience in the ring a good one because now he loves it!...

... Then at 3 years of age, Dan reenters the ring out of coat, a bit underweight, and without any practice since he was 10 months old AND as if that wasn't enough he was stung in the left eye during grooming for pre-nationals and had a swollen eye for the whole week AND STILL wins the open class at 2011 Akita Club National Specialty and Pre-National shows as pictured below handled by Kristina Rickard.