Although Kato “tolerates” little puppies, he has always been a great leader to the pups once they become 8-10 weeks old, showing them direction, keeping them in line, working with them to learn how to be good and to keep them safe while out in the world. He has been a friend and a companion to many children over the years - even those who were initially scared to death of him. He has spent hours helping children to learn how to read, study and be consistent. He completely differentiates between a child with special needs & a “brat” (sorry parents).

Retired

“Kato” Black/Red Stock Coat Male 27” (68.6cm). 0730

OFA Hips Good GS-60443G30M-PI  SEE PEDIGREE

Kato is our foundation male. He came to live with us in December 1998 and has been an astonishing dog throughout his life. Kato has always been everything we could want in a male. His confidence is amazing, his willingness to try new things, move forward through adversity and overcome obstacles have always been intense. Kato has always been jovial - he finds joy in things that many dogs don’t - when he was young, he found pleasure in “scaring” teenage girls, by running out to bark at them - however he was never interested in actually biting - it was more of a game to him... how quickly could he “spook” someone and what would be their reaction.  However, as soon as he saw that the girl was actually frightened, he would start wagging his tail and attempt to say he was sorry for scaring her.

Kato has literally saved Taylor’s (my boy) life on three different occasions. The first time Kato was still “new” to us - he was just over a year old and we were at the river. Taylor (1st grade) and his friends were swinging from the rope swing into the deep waters on the other side of the river from where “the adults” were.  Kato had spent hours towing children back and forth from one beach to another. Finally, about 4 hours after we had been there, the kids (and Kato) all came back to our side of the river to eat lunch.  After lunch, some of the other parents allowed their children to go back to continue swinging from the rope into the water. I did not allow Taylor to join in right away as he had just eaten. Kato was asleep on the beach and I was treading water - I had towed the older kids across so Kato had some time to rest.  While in the middle of the river Kato jumped up and began running along the rivers edge... Taylor had gone into the water, no life jacket and no permission and was caught in a current, heading downstream. I swam as fast as I could, Kato beat me to Taylor and had him by the arm, I put Taylor’s arm through Kato’s harness and he pulled him to shore. To me, this was the first of MANY reasons Kato gave me that he should be bred.