My motto is "Our Akitas are members of our family until they become a member of yours."

    We are Charlie and Melissa MacLeod.  The MacLeod family has been Akita lovers since about 1981 when we adopted a pregnant retired Champion , Tisha who was 2 years old.  It was love at first site.  We kept one of the puppies from one of her two litters (Total of 6 puppies ever), Orca.  Charlie and Orca grew up as brothers.  They both lived to be in their early teens and then Charlie got another Akita.  This is when I met my first purebred Akita, the puppy Charlie got while we were dating. 

    I had always been a rescuer, springing various dogs from shelters and pounds.  I had three pounds puppies and a dog that I rescued at 5 weeks of age whose mother was a pitbull lab mix and the father was an Akita.  Poor plop was plagued with every major ailment that Akitas are known for.  At 6 months of age he was diagnosed with, at the time, the most severely dysplastic hips the vet had ever seen.  He also had sebaceous adenitis, separation anxiety, ear hematomas from chronic ear infections due to the making of his inner ears, thyroid problems, severe allergies to just about everything and later in life got SARS which caused complete and sudden blindness for about 6 months which went away only to be replaced with a cancerous tumor that blocked his nerves leading to the muscles under his brow which control chewing, ending his ability to chew, and then finally being done in by a massive stroke.  Plop had a mighty large file at the vet's office as trouble seemed to always find him but he taught be valuable lessons about dogs and breeding and more importantly, planning. 

    When Charlie and I began dating, I bought him another Akita puppy for us to nuture together, Kabuto.  I was in awe of Kabuto and although we already had Plop and a female Dane, Paris, when I was told by my vet about a male Akita at the pound, my rescue roots kicked in and Charlie and I decided to spring him from jail, Diesel: that was the beginning of my Akita addiction.  From  then on, we have been Akita addicts if you will.    We find them alto be irresistible.  I did not set out to breed but as we fell harder for the breed, we wanted to be more involved in it.  Then we rescued two Akitas from tough situations, and probably death, which started our desire to get back into  rescue as well.  We don't breed every Akita that we own; we have altered some of them.  However, every Akita we have, in-tact or not, is a member of our family.  We do not have "breeding stock".  We have Akitas that we love that we occasionally breed .  All of our dogs, spoiled rotten as they are, our house pets (minus the safety precautions we take due to the number that we have).  Below is a little bit about how we breed our Akitas.

    We live in a modest home, located in rural area, about 30 minutes from downtown Phoenix, allowing our dogs rooms to play and have fun.  If you are expecting to find a wealthy breeder with huge kennels then look elsewhere.  Our dogs co-exist happily in our home.  Owning as many dogs as we do, breeding them, showing them and making room to rescue more is a very expensive hobby that will never pay for itself so unless you are independently wealthy before you begin, you certainly won't be afterward.  Our dogs are, however, quite happy and have plenty of room in a clean environment with non-stop love and affection and of course a plethera of squeaky toys.  We are supported by our well known vet who has been a vet for decades and assists us as needed strengthening our own abilities that much more.

    We will not knowingly sell a puppy  with health issues of any kind.  We prove that to you by providing a health guarantee.  (See the contract section for details.)  We strive to give our dogs the best so that they may be the best they can be and allow for the best life with you as their new owner.  Therefore if you decided you no longer want the dog/pup you get from us, for any reason, we would appreciate the opportunity to take the dog back.  We promise that we do not judge your circumstances.  We believe it is more honorable to agree that you cannot handle a situation that you have been put in than to try to make it through at the Akita's expense 

    What is AKC to us:  the strictest proof required of a breeder to provide an adoptive family with that they are receiving a purebred dog.  Is this full proof?  Absolutely not!!!  Our own breeds are a perfect example.  AKC and CKC (Canadian) still promote the American Akitas and Japanese Akitas as one breed; the Akita.  They are obviously not, even to the "beginner" Akita lover.  They don't even look alike.  However, AKC is the best we have to offer, in the United States, to prove that our dogs are "pure".  Also the papers are only as good as the person inputting the info into the computer - the breeder.  Therefore, we DNA every in tact male on our property whether we breed them or not so that you can have undoubted proof of the parentage of your dog.  We started this years ago when we heard stories about people buying dogs and finding out they weren't sired by the dog on the papers.

    What are our feelings on health testing and clearances?  They are minimum proof that the breeder can provide that the litter was pre-planned and not an "accident" (although we don't believe in "accidents" when it comes to our Dams' health).  Can a pup be created by parents that tested clear on elbows, hips, eyes, and thyroids and end up with a health problem in one or more of those areas?  Certainly!  Testing is a minimum.  It shows that we are thinking through our litters to create healthy pups.  You should still find a breeder that is honest with you about the health records and how often they keep in touch with their pups new owners to maintain the accuracy of those records.

    What are our thoughts on showing?  We do not believe that a dog has to go through conformation shows to "prove their quality".  It is a very expensive hobby so it must be one that you and your dog both have fun doing!  We have dogs that show and some that don't.  Our first question to our handler is always "are they having fun?" and when the answer is no, its time to stop!  We believe that quality is proven in temperament, longivity, overall health, agility, and what they give back to their family.  We believe that our dogs are pets first!!!!!!!!! and anything else second.  If we have an exceptional dog and a handler that matches then we get delight in winning like anyone else but only if the dog truly gets happiness from the sport!  We support anyone who wants to show our pup and will help them make the right decisions to the best of our abilities.  If our abilities are lacking, we will point you in the right direction.  We prefer that our pups are owner/handled or that the owner is directly involved in the show to make showing a more rewarding experience for all.  We have owned an example of what happens to an Akita (Tisha) when it is owned strictly for showing and never learns how to have fun.  Of course not all show dogs are this way, and the best way to avoid it is owner involvement.  I intend to let one of our more accomplished dogs teach me how to handle at local classes one day so that I can enjoy the experience with them more than waiting for a phone call to find out how they did.

    We promise that we will be around for you to ask questions to throughout the life of your Akita.  Our scores of references available to view online are proof of this!  We want to be an information source for you as you dog develops.  We want to hear about how your training is going and offer advice if we can.  We want pictures of you and your dog as you grow together.  A smile is worth a thousand words...  We believe your dog smiles too.

    We care about the Akita breed standard.  With time we have gotten better about choosing what dogs are a part of our breeding team as we learn, unfortunately by experience, which lines carry genetic disorders, even if they are Champions and by trial and error, very expensive lessons are learned as these dogs are altered and elimated from our breeding team, allowing us to produce only the most healthy pets possible that are beautiful products of the breed.  For this reason, we only breed dogs that will give back to the breed for generations.  We are selective about who we let our dogs mate with so that only positive traits are passed through Akita lines that are held in AKC records.  We are devoted to and love Akitas just as much now as when we got our first in 1981.  Ultimately, we do whatever we believe is best our pups and for the breed.

Your Akita Breeder,

Melissa

   

Why Not A Pet Store?

  Many people ask me why they shouldn't get a dog from a pet store.  If they have been educated about pet stores a little bit, then they ask:  Don't those dogs need saving too?  - even actress Denise Richards was quoted saying something similar about saving her dogs from pet stores at the mall.  Below is my answer!!!

(You can find the exact definitions of my terminology used on the internet with vet little surfing, or just check the AKC website, but here are the cliff notes...)

    Animals at pet stores, including but not limited to the mall, usually come from "brokers".    Brokers are people that shop breeders all over the country or sometimes by a territory close to where they live.   Their job is to find breeders or puppy mills that will sell them puppies that they can place in pet shops.  They pay the breeder a fee for the pups and then charge the pet shop a little more and the difference is their profit for being the middle man.  Then the pet shop adds on a lot more and the final price is what they charge you for the same dog you could have bought directly from a breeder.  But here is where it gets interesting....

    Breeders that want to be known as "reputable and responsible" have educated themselves about puppy mills and brokers and pet shops.  They have said no to all of the above and will only sell puppies directly to the person that is supposed to love their puppy/dog for their entire lives.  This is why responsible breeders have questionnaires and contracts; we want to screen out buyers that we are not quite as comfortable with.

    No here is where it gets really ugly.....

    If the "responsible and reputable" breeders have said they will not sell to brokers, puppy mills and pet shops, then where do the dogs at pet shops come from....draw your own conclusion but it is safe to say that those pups come from not-quite-as-reputable people.  The pet stores have made a business out of making money off of animals. 

    Back many years ago, when other crops weren't doing so well in the US, the government gave incentives for a new kind of crop.... purebred dogs.  Primarily in the Midwest, where farm land was plentiful and inexpensive (of course the mills have branched out since then to other states), farming dogs became very popular.  No matter what the initial intentions were regarding how these dogs would be cared for, it has turned into a puppy warehouse. 

    Puppy mills now produce hundreds or more puppies as a business, operating on a business license and through the USDA, to breed in mass quantities.  Dogs are kept in unhealthy and nasty conditions and breed continually to pump out more and more puppies.  They are not given affection or love and are usually just caged for their lives, or at least as long as they can breed and then you can guess what happens.

    Now, think of a day care.  One child gets chicken pox...what happens to the other 55 kids at that day care....they get chicken pox too.  So what if one of these pups at the mills get kennel cough?  They all do and the ones that get shipped out anyway go to Pet Stores and infect the dogs their too.  Just as a note, when I have looked at the sad pups at the pet stores, there have always been dogs that cannot be held because they are "sick today".

    So what is the bottom line - if people stop buying the dogs at the pet stores, it will put the brokers out of business, who then won't be able to buy puppies from mills etc so eventually these horrible places will go out of business.  Everyone needs to do their part to help.