Akitas date back to the 1600s and are named after the Akita a province in northern Japan. The breed was originally used to guard Japanese royalty and to hunt large fowl and game, including bears. Akitas came to the UK via Canada in 1937 but weren’t internationally known until the early 1980s. The UK and US bred Akita is larger and more robust than the Japanese Akita Inu, which is sometimes mistaken for the Shiba Inu. [Read More]