Griffin May Be A Ringer! Updated!)

SO, Grif is just below the Hokkaido size range. Auntie Sue, my dog trainer friend, agreed he is not Shiba.  Further research at  JapanDogExport.com makes me wonder:

Kishu-Ken??

If he is, how did he wind up in the US??

KishuKen-nel has more information on the breed.  Again, one picture in particular, the on "on alert" dog, is a double for Griffin.

Correspondence is in order to them, too.

Shhhh!  Griffin doesn't care.

I was feeling a tad under the weather this morning, and also had a book to get mailed for the PaperBack Swap club. (A good deal if you want to get new books to read without the new book price! Just pay for shipping when you send a book out to another member!) About all I felt like doing was browsing books.  I wound up getting a book on cats, and two about American Eskimo dogs. (I thought I'd like to know a bit more about Benny.)

I started poking around a bit in the Shiba Inu part of the collection. I've found that, while the club may have a book listed. it may or may not be available (they have an Amazon link for every book); and it may not have a description. I've gotten in the habit of clicking the Amazon link, and reading the book description there. I found this one: Shiba Inu (Comprehensive Owner's Guide) Hardcover – February 1, 2005   by Andrew DePrisco. I started browsing the contents, and read the bit on Shiba coloration. He recites the AKC standard - red, sesamie, and black and tan.  He also mentions the English Kennel Club's standard, which comprises "red, black, black and tan or brindle. White, with red or grey tinge."

The latter  - white with the red tinge, fits Griffin to a tee. But, Griffin is significantly outside the normal size range for a male Shiba. That standard is somewhere around 25 pounds. When Grif had his shots last week, he weighed in at 40.  He's also a bit taller at the shoulder, pushing 18". Finally, and most telling (to me) is his willingness to come when called. Neither Suzu nor Dakota have/were ever so willing to come, unless they were absolutely sure food was involved.

What set me off on this new tangent was the picture and caption in the corner of the page:

(Screen cap from Amazon's book preview)

The handsome Hokkaido-Ken there looks quite like Grif!  So, off I went to look up Hokkaido-Kens. I found several sites of interest. The first is the Hokkaido-Ken Information Website, which has a page of wonderful pictures! PetMD gave me size ranges,  weight of 45 - 65 pounds, and height of 18" - 22".  Their picture of Kenta could pass for a picture of Grif:

(Kenta, from PetMD)

My current working theory is that Grif is either a) a smallish Hokkaido, or b) a largish Shiba. I'm going to contact the Hokkaido Association of North America (HANA) and see what they might suggest to resolve this particular question.

Hokkaido or Shiba, I couldn't love Griffin any more.