It's great to hear that your Akita is doing so well with the protection work. Of course there is no comparison between Akitas & Rotts & Shepherds; I think that was my point. I would be real interested to learn more about the Akitas used by police & in protection work in Japan. I have heard that said on various American Akita sites, but so far, have not been able to locate anything at all on the web about the use of Akitas as police dogs by the Japanese. I did find something about Japanese police using GSDs. Also found something about the Japanese using GSDs in the military during WWII. If you know of any sites, please send the links along as I'd love to read more about it. I did ask a Japanese student of mine, and she said she's never seen Akitas used as police dogs, that they mostly use the same type of dogs as American police use. She also said that most Akitas in Japan seem to be in the northern provinces. I DID hear of one Akita used in airport security here, actually, in the international terminal at JFK. That one was actually spotted by one of my sisters. I have heard, also, of exactly one Akita used as a seeing eye dog, that at the request of the person who needed the dog. I don't doubt that Akitas are capable of most work done by other dogs; but, I think most Akitas are tempermentally less well-suited to many of these things than the breeds that typically do them...which is probably why those breeds are the ones typically used
