About Us

You’ve heard of the crazy cat lady? Okay, we admit it. We’re Judy and Steve and we’re a crazy Japanese Akita couple. Nearly all our spare time revolves around our dogs. Our social life consists of family and old friends who put up with us and our dogs, and spending time with other Japanese Akita or Shiba-inu enthusiasts. And we love it. We wouldn’t have it any other way.

Here at Junketsu Kennels, we have our own set of core values for our breeding program. We try to be good examples for dog owners and dog breeders alike. We adhere to the strict terms of membership of the Akita Inu Hozonkai (AKIHO) and the code of ethics of the Japanese Akita Club of America (JACA) in order to preserve, promote and improve the breed conscientiously. Unlike puppy mills or backyard breeders, we don’t breed irresponsibly. Our studs and bitches have just a few litters before we neuter or spay them. We don’t even try to re-home our dogs after they’re done breeding. They stay here with us where we can further spoil them!

The Junketsu breeding program can best be defined as follows:

First and foremost, we want all of our pups to go to good homes where they will be loved and looked after for the duration of their lives, so we take a lot of time and ask a lot of questions in our prospective-owner screening process. We want to make sure you know what you’re getting into, especially if you’re a first-time Akita owner, but we also find that it’s a good way for you to get know us as well. Some may feel our screening questions are a little intrusive. It’s not that we’re nosy; we sincerely want to ensure that our puppies go to the right people who are able to make a commitment to care for a loyal companion for 10+ years.

Of equal importance, we want to give our puppies an optimal start in life health-wise. Rest assured that our breeding stock consists only of dogs who are structurally sound and have good temperaments at the time they’re being bred (but also keep in mind that it’s up to you to continue what we started by scheduling regular vet visits, adequate grooming, and socialization and training). We won’t even consider breeding a dog without good to excellent results in OFA and CERF. We also begin de-worming and vaccination protocols before the puppies are ready to leave.

Next, we offer a contract that protects you, the puppy and our reputation. On rare occasions, we’ve seen our friends have to take back or help to re-home a puppy from a litter they’ve bred before the first year is up due to an owner’s unexpected health issue or because of unforeseen life changes such as military deployment, job transfer or losing a home. Our contract keeps the puppy’s well-being at the forefront and is based on common sense; however, it is not meant to bail out an irresponsible owner.

Finally, whether you’re getting a show dog or a pet dog, we encourage our puppy buyers to get involved in the clubs that we’re involved in. In fact, we feel so strongly about the benefits of belonging to these two organizations that we pay for your first year of membership to JACA and AKIHO. After that, you can decide whether or not you want to continue (most of our previous puppy buyers remain members). In this way, you will have a supportive network of knowledgable veterans, experienced owners and novice owners who will oooh and ahhhh at your puppy spam photos (even when your friends and family are over it), commiserate with you through potty training, late night crying and every disgusting or disturbing behavior you’ll encounter, respond to your questions about training methods, health issues, dog food, your need to dress up your dog and so much more.

If you think you’d like to join the Junketsu family, drop us a line!
We’d love to hear from you if you’re serious about owning a Japanese Akita.