Exactly four year ago, while judging at a Dog Show and staying in beautiful St. Petersburg, some amazing magic happened. Seeing Shiba Inu puppy for the first time, Senad completely fell in love with the breed.
As stubborn Leo, he was insisting on getting Shiba Inu puppy into our, already big Dr. Wolf American Akitas family. Myself, contrary, as the biggest American Akitas fan and eternal lover of the breed, was not impressed with the idea, considering international experience of judging this breed all around the world, with quite unstable temperament, short feats and numerous other challenges. Being a behavioural biology and phylogeny expert, I found these things not appealing at all.
However, as time went on, Senad kept talking about Shibas on a daily basis. Me, on the other side, with all the weakness for him decided to surprise him with this puppy and finally make his wish come true.
That is the short story on how Lava joined our family. Day by day I began to understand the specifics of the breed, and slowly fell in love with it. Lava stole my heart! Since I really enjoy challenges in life, breeding shiba was a scientific challenge for me: how to choose the right one from so many types and staying closest to the standard.
And that’s where the agony begins. In Shiba breeding in Europe, opinions about the type are quite divided among breeders: on one side many prefer only the head and Japanese expression, slanted eyes, while others go to the extreme of overweight dogs. In addition, majority of the breeders are very stingy and stiff in sharing information and their personal experience, as challenge quite applicable to breeders of all breeds.
Meanwhile, I contacted many breeders from Europe to USA and Japan, asking about additional first hand information and specificities about the breed, always ending in a dead end. Arrogance and restraint, scarce information, wrong directions. Other, money at first. To be honest, I got so much disappointed with while Shiba Inu community at that point, since I was looking for a mentor who could guide my way into healthy and standard based breeding Shiba’s, and all I could get was wrong breeding motifs.
Although I lost all the hopes Senad persuaded me to embark on this journey all alone, since life tough us these lessons: we built everything on our one, with rarely few around us who supported and trusted the visions we had. Somehow, we knew that Universe had some great plan with us! Last year, very suddenly I received a message from Leslie Ann Engen on Facebook, where she praised our work with Akitas. When I entered her profile I saw Shiba’s as I envisioned them. I saw countless amazing dogs, one by one filling my heart with joy and happiness.
My connection with Leslie from the very first moment was like we’ve known each other our whole lives. I felt love and equal passion for Shiba’s in her texts and within each conversation. Through informal chats I gained knowledge, and more importantly, philosophy. Everything that was unclear and blurry to me, Leslie was sharing with me through her experience without any interest or selflessness. From type, anatomy, breed philosophy, puppy shiba rearing, temperament, colour inheritance, etc. After some of her messages, I knew to be silent for days and analyse what has been said in silence. Leslie showed me that love and a pure heart really do open all the doors, and that only with a clear visualisation can desire come into the material world.
10 months after, one stunning and adorable boy came to Sarajevo straight from Washington DC. Special in so many different ways, Kensho, our new family member, stole our hearts. Firstly, as so long waited addition, and secondly, because Kesho is an ideal combination of type, anatomy, great temperament and, more importantly, love. Kensho is a combination of the physical and the metaphysical we have been looking for year. Kesho is love itself! There are no words we can say to express how thankful we are for this boy. There is no money in the world that can pay for the knowledge and feelings we got with the arrival of Kensho.
Leslie, hats down! You are an example of how a real breeder should work and thank you for bringing that shinny spark into our vision and our home. In addition, huge thank you goes to dear Tia McLaughlin who was preparing Kensho for shows and nurturing him for months so we could be the happiest two people in the world at this moment, and thank you for each video you’ve sent us these months so we could be part of his life since earliest days.
Dear world meet San Jo Come Fly To me aka Kensho. With you, Dr.Wolf got the wings. We love you!
