Talk:Japanese Spitz/Archive 1

Photo Caption
"An unusual 18 year old japanese spitz..."

What makes it so unusual?


 * They are one of the breeds of dogs that don't have long lifespans compared to other breeds. That looks like a spitz in that image. The Japanese spitz is smaller.-- Dakota  ~   °  05:38, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

Hi I've uploaded 3 photos. 2 of them showed the overall features and appearances of the dog. 1 of them is a close up shot and show the facial features in detail. I've also expanded the article. Hope you like them. Oidia 12:14, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

Same breed?
Is there a difference between a Japanese Spitz and an American Eskimo? Could they possibly be the exact same breed that had been brought to different countries? American Eskimos and Japanese Spitz are classified as rather small, full of energy, intelligent, yappy, easily mixes with other animals, don't need too much excercise, good with children, easy to groom, make good watchdogs as well as companions, and have pretty much the same features. As far as I can tell, they are exactly the same. Schlumpff 06:38, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

I believe that the dogs are different breeds. On the CKC (Canadian Kennel Club) website, the American Eskimo has its own entry, though it was broken when I tried to access that entry. In general, I don't believe that the Japanese Spitz is all that yappy. Maybe both breeds heve been bred down from Samoyeds. Fylar 13:15, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

As the owner of Japanese Spitz ("JS") that came in to our home 3 years ago after a lot of research the JS is different from the American Eskimo ("Eskie") in at least a couple of observable ways that would suggest they are different breeds: 1) the JS has hair as opposed to the Eskie's fur, which I believe accounts for the lack of "dog" smell and the hypoallergenic rating the breed is known for; and 2)the JS' skull structure is routinely different from the Eskies', most noticably when comparing the angle and length of the forehead.71.102.124.14 (talk) 22:21, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

At least my Japanese Spitz has a very Japanese character: he flourishes with the kind of attention that the modern Japanese might give him but tough Eskimo like sledge dog style treatment would force him to a rebellion. He has a very kind but also extremely strong character. Here is a picture of him: File:JapaneseSpitzMarch2009Finland.JPG InsectIntelligence (talk) 06:11, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

So I think that the strongly Japanese character of Japanese Spitz ought to be mentioned in the article, kind of recommending the breed just for those who have an interest in the modern (not samurai) Japanese culture with its (Buddhist?) respect for all living beings and tendency to treat the dog as a human being and a real friend. InsectIntelligence (talk) 06:18, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Last Litter
"Before buying a Japanese Spitz try to find out when the last litter of pups were" Why?? Fylar 13:28, 3 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Because some Japanese Spitz can have various genetic disorders that can give the owner a very hard time. The reason here is because some "pure breed" of Jap Spitz are bred from parents who are siblings to each other. This can be very problematic. Also many Jap Spitz puppies can have very bad habits until they fully grow into adults. Hence be observing the last litter the owner can determine whether if this litter would be suitable have as pets. Oidia 23:10, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Further improvements needed
Hi people. As you can see I've improved the article quite a lot. I've found lots of information on sites and I reworded most of their sentences in the article. Please help expand the article further if you can :) Oidia 05:16, 18 June 2007 (UTC)
 * btw can we get a review of the article's status? Oidia 12:06, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

GA review
First, it's good to see someone working on dog articles on wikipedia, as it looks like this is one area that is lacking and could use improvement. Anyway, the article is well written and well organized. The references are overall reliable, though the format should be changed to include full citation information in the inline cites, not just an external link. It should, as much as possible, author, title, publisher, date of publication, and date of retrieval (if a web link is used). It might also be nice to see some book sources, instead of a bunch of links (see WP:CITE for more information here).

Some information about the history of the breed ('history' section?) needs to be included prior to GA status. Perusing through some of the links, I think there's some information there, but please don't just cut-and-paste (paraphrase). Probably best to include a little bit of historical information from several sources.

The overall tone of the article should be improved a bit to sound a little bit more like an encyclopedia article and less like a new owner's 'how to care for' guide. This is mainly evidence in the 'care' section. It might help to review some of the other dog articles on wikipedia to see how they are organized. Probably the best article to look at as an example would be the Beagle article, which is currently listed as a featured article (there's no dog articles that are current GAs as far as I can tell.

I'll put this on hold for five days (until September 7, 2007) and re-review it again after that period. Hope this helps improve the article. Cheers! Dr. Cash 19:34, 2 September 2007 (UTC)


 * This article looks good now. Still, the lead could be expanded a little, and the new information about moulting needs a reference. But I think the article meets the GA criteria as it stands currently. Good work! Dr. Cash 19:02, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

The Lead
According to the guidelines of WP:LEAD, the lead for this article should be 2 paragraphs long. The contents within those 2 paragraphs should give an equal summary for the article's main body. So this is the format I'm proposing: Please discuss. Oidia (talk) 12:20, 13 January 2008 (UTC)
 * 1st paragraph
 * The history
 * The appearance
 * 2nd paragraph
 * The temperament
 * The Lifestyle
 * From WP:LEAD: The lead should be able to stand alone as a concise overview of the article. It should establish context, explain why the subject is interesting or notable, and summarize the most important points...The lead should contain no more than four paragraphs...editors should avoid lengthy paragraphs...Because the lead will usually repeat information also in the body, editors should balance the desire to avoid redundant citations in the lead with the desire to aid readers in locating sources for challengeable material.


 * There is no need for a lengthy, two paragraph lead for a short article like this one, especially since all of the information is immediately repeated below, and no one is going to challenge that the article is about a breed of dog. However, the Appearance section should be first a brief overview of what the dog basically looks like, and then all the technical details added in subsections.

Links
I removed a link, http://www.japanesespitz.com.au/FAQs.htm because it is a kennel ad, but it has a nice FAQ page.

Contradiction with American Eskimo Dog article?
There is a tag posted on the article about a contradiction between the American Eskimo Dog and the Japanese Spitz articles.

There is no contradiction, they are different breeds with possibly related ancestry. At some point in the past they may have been crossbred, but there are no clear records of such an event and and changes to either breed have not been noted. Different breeds cannot be lumped together just because they have similar ancestry.

Japanese dog breeders in the early 1900s were as dedicated, skilled, and knowledgeable as any in the world. Remaining records there are quite clear about what breeds were used to develop the Japanese Spitz, and they were all breeds of the small pet dog German Spitz type, bred to please their national needs and as someone above said, show a "strongly Japanese character." --Hafwyn (talk) 16:44, 7 March 2009 (UTC)