Our motto is "Our Akitas are members of our family until they become a member of yours."

   I am Melissa MacLeod.  The MacLeod family has been Akita lovers since about 1981 when we adopted a pregnant retired Champion , Tisha who was 2 years old, from the Graves family also known as Willowdeen Akitas.  It was love at first site.  We kept one of the puppies from one of her two litters (Total of 6 puppies ever), Orca.  They both lived to be in their early teens and when they passed we got another Akita, Kabuto, in addition to the rescues I had at the time.  I had always been a rescuer, springing various dogs from shelters and pounds so shortly after moving to Arizona from Virginia in 2004, when my vet told me about a male Akita at the pound, my rescue roots kicked in and I decided to spring him from jail, Diesel: that was the beginning of my actual Akita addiction.  From  then on, I have been an Akita addict if you will and began producing my own again.  When I decided to breed again, I wanted to get back to the look of our original dogs which lead getting dogs associated with what was previously Willowdeen lines.  As they say, the rest is history!

    Next came my Shiba obsession.  I got my first Shiba, Baxter, and fell in love with the breed but was not able to show him because his breeder never followed through giving me his AKC papers.  He is quite the ladies' man but prefers his women around 80 pounds heavier than himself :-)  Baxter hooked me on the breed.  I kept being told that Shibas were higher maintenance than Akitas but this has not proven to be the case for me.  I then accidentally found another breeder, Rhonda Sluder, Miasia Shiba Inu, trying to downsize her kennel as her human family grew as I was trying to learn more about the breed.  That lead to Misty and Kota, followed by Roki and finally Oki.  I do not have plans to get any more Shibas because this is a very manageable number for me but I will probably keep my own offspring to show!

    We live in a modest home, located in rural area, about 30 minutes from downtown Phoenix, allowing our dogs room to play and have fun.  If you are expecting to find a wealthy breeder with huge kennels then look elsewhere.  Our dogs co-exist happily in our home with several hundred toys, some de-stuffed littering the yard near several puppy pools at any given time.  Owning as many dogs as we do, breeding them, showing them and making room to rescue more is a very expensive hobby that will never pay for itself so unless you are independently wealthy before you begin, you certainly won't be afterward.  Our dogs are, however, quite happy and have plenty of room in a clean environment with non-stop love and affection and of course a plethora of squeaky toys.  We are supported by our well known vet who has been a vet for decades and assists us as needed strengthening our own abilities that much more.

    I don't start breeding our females until they are 2 years old, usually allowing them to have a maximum of 3 litters prior to being retired and spayed.  The reason for this is to allow for them to skip cycles, as there are usually two cycles a year, between breedings to keep them healthier and allow them to live longer.  At that time, some of our females are adopted to comfy couch potatoe homes to famlies that appreciate the joy an adult can bring without the work of trianing a puppy, if we believe we have a great prospect for them and that they are a good candidate to be rehomed.  We allow the same for our stud dogs once they are retired at approximately the same age.  All adults are spayed and neutered prior to being rehomed to allow for better health and longivity.

Melissa MacLeod

melissaakitalady@gmail.com