I cannot remember a time in my life when there was not a dog by my side. My first remembrance of our family dog was a purebred Boxer by the name of Robbie. Robbie was my protector and he was also the "top dog" in the neighborhood. He often came home with war wounds and my mother would patch him up. As Robbie aged his role as king of Rocky Butte waned. The wounds became more serious and harder to heal. I sat with my mother one
day and held Robbie's head while he went to sleep for the last time. I was 7 years old.
My mother then became very involved in German Shepherd Dogs. I spent many hours in the whelping box with puppies and leash training the same at the local Safeway store at Jantzen Beach in Portland. Back in those days you could take dogs into grocery stores. Those days I will always remember as I believe they helped me become the true dog fancier that I am today!
At the age of 10 I started showing the GSD puppies and dogs for my mother in AKC matches and 4-H. My older brother handled them in the shows. It was not until I was a young adult that my mother entrusted me with the lead at AKC shows. I do believe she was pleased as I had become a pretty good little handler learning from the best in the Northwest -- "Bob Hastings, Hank Wilcox, Carroll Overby, Ann Mesdag and Charles Krueger" to name a few. My mother was most influential in my ability to have an "eye" for a good dog. She taught me so much for which I will always be grateful.
In 1978 my mother was given her first Pembroke Welsh Corgi by Charles Krueger. His name was "Fox". Schaeferhaus
Quick Red Fox. I LOVED that dog and so did my mother. She finally agreed to let me show him and Fox and I became
quite a team. He produced a nice litter for my mother out of a beautiful bitch she acquired from Robert Simpson. Her
name was Vanguard The Last Chance, affectionately
known as "Prune". She is another story in herself!
The puppies were beautiful!
While at a match in Eugene Oregon with
my mother, my young family and a van
full of GSD's and PWC's I saw my first
Akita. The year was 1978.
My life has never been the same...
That beautiful, black on black,
huge, fluffy Akita puppy I saw at
that match became my first Akita.
I learned so much from her – the
ears never came up, she had
severe entropion, she was
bilaterally dysplastic by 10
months of age and she was
just not a very good example
of the breed. Sound familiar? Her breeder finally did agree to take her back.
I learned so much and made many new friends in the world of Akitas in the PNW. Back in those days we would have picnics at the shows, share our experiences with each other, talk dogs and had a great time at all the shows supporting each other in every win and loss. Those were the good old days!
Werner and Veldta Oetmann of Asahi Yama Akitas were my first mentors and offered me a lovely opportunity to own pick bitch from a
litter sired by Ch. Kin Hozan’s Toklat out of their Hanna. There were two girls and nine boys!! I took my lovely pinto, later to become
Ch. Asahi Yama No Hotaru. She was not Vel’s choice, but she was mine! It was the right one! That was in 1979.
In 1980 I bought a lovely young male puppy, later to become Ch. Tiger’s Eye Syoen, from Jan Voss of Tiger’s Eye
Akitas. I wanted a Ch. Stormy puppy so bad but alas I had to settle for a boy from her daughter, Ch. Elsa. It was
a nice breeding that produced my sweet boy, Syoen. We picked him up from the airport on my birthday.
Ch. Hotaru and Ch. Syoen produced one litter in 1983. This breeding produced Ch. Subarashii’s No Doshi- Go
and Ch. Subarashii’s Yuki Tenshi (Best Junior Puppy in Sweeps at the 1984 ACA National from the 6-9 class).
Also, one of my better brood bitches, Shina, came from this breeding. This litter was the beginning of my
original breeding program. I did not breed many litters in the following years but we did produce some nice
Akitas that did well in the ring and in their homes as family dogs. Unfortunately, I started to run into some
issues that I could not continue on with so I ended this breeding program in 1996 with a litter out of
AM/CAN/INT Ch. Subarashii’s O’So Zarii.
My husband and best friend, Mark, married into the dogs in 1997. He has made it possible for me to pursue my passion for the Akitas and purebred dogs. He shares in my love for the dogs and supports my involvement in the Sport of Purebred Dogs and Dog Shows.
After 45 years of showing, training, raising and studying dogs the natural progression has taken me to another level of the Sport. In 2008 I became approved by AKC to judge my breed, the Akita. I now am approved for Alaskan Malamutes and All Breed Junior showmanship.
I am an AKC Breeder of Merit and also an AKC New Exhibitor Mentor. I am a mentor for the Akita.
Over the past 34 years many friendships have been made that are because of a mutual love – the Akita. We look forward to continuing those precious friendships and making new friends, too.
I hope you will take the time to enjoy the Akitas on these pages as they are the new beginning for Subarashii! They are the future and we will move forward slowly always mindful of breeding to protect and preserve the Akita of today and to breed dogs of sound bodies and good minds so that we can be sure they will be exemplary ambassadors for the Akita and great family companions!
If you are a new Akita owner or are considering bringing the Akita into your life we are here to answer questions or help in any way we can. We have included on our “Links” page some resources for you to research. The best advice we can give to anyone new to the Akita as a family companion or as a show/breed prospect is to educate yourself. Yes, listen and learn from your breeder, mentors, trainers, judges and fellow Akita owners but please do your homework and research. Enough said.
Sincerely,
Wendy Sorrell
CH. Prune and Wendy
