Am/Can CH. Dune’s Duncan Idaho
x
Can CH. Suno-jo’s Kisaki
1987-1999
OFA Good/ACVO cleared
Every breeding program has a beginning and a dog or dogs that shape that beginning. After several false starts, we were lucky enough to obtain Gummy for our fledgling-breeding program and to say the rest is history would not be melodramatic. Even his initial acquisition was steeped in magic and fortune as we had gone to meet his breeder, Susan Norris-Jones, with the intention of looking at a totally different dog.
Gummy brought to our breeding program a lovely Sachmo linebred pedigree and a type we were really looking for with a huge head piece, tons of bone, phenomenal shoulder assembly,
an effortless movement and massive chest that to this day was his distinction. But the biggest contribution he made, that is still being strongly felt today 6 and 7 generations later, was his fabulous temperament. In an era when temperaments had not evolved to the breeds’ current overall good nature, Gummy was the hallmark of confident, calm, people adoring temperament. He took mushy dog and baby kissing to new heights and yet still retained that arrogance that makes an Akita like no other dog.
His report with people was truly magical.
My favorite Gummy story, and there are hundreds of them, was from one of the years we showed Gummy at the Cow Palace. The show part was unimportant, I can’t even remember whether he won or not. But the Cow Palace venue is as close as the West Coast gets to Westminster; intense crowds, noisy loud speakers, barking dogs that are all required to stay in
a certain platform “benching” area all day, and the whole environment bordering on chaos. This particular year, at the end of a long weekend, when everyone was tired of questions and pushing and shoving, and the continual barrage of noise, above the din, erupted a screeching that had all the dogs barking at a new fevered pitch. As the screeching came closer and closer, we could finally see it was an older child, obviously handicapped on many levels, in a special stroller and at the end of her tolerance. Her poor beleaguered mother was nearly in tears and trying to get free of the crush of people as quickly as possible. At the end of the aisle, where we were benched, it was obvious from the frantic searching she didn’t know which way the exit was and appealed to us for directions. We were pointing her towards the main exit, as it was impossible to hear words when the screeching noise suddenly stopped, so abruptly and dramatically that it was as if the sound in an action movie instantly failed. All eyes went to the child of course and there stood Gummy with his huge head in her lap and her small hands clenched around his ears so tightly, her knuckles were white. For a second we all stood frozen and staring, and before we could go rescue them, the mother her child and us poor Gummy,
the hands unclenched and smiles appeared on the child’s red face. Gummy didn’t move, his big head stayed in her lap and his face was as blissfully happy as I have ever seen a dog. Magic? I’m not sure but his already famous, child-adoring temperament reached new levels of fame that day.
And it is this foundation that has built us a dynasty of stunning dogs with temperaments that border on magical. We will never be able to replace this exceptional dog whose passing was one of our saddest days but we don’t have to…. he lives on and on and on…. as long as there is a Minda dog, there is Gummy.
