Mika - ADOPTED
Hi, everyone! I'm Mika!
My foster parents say I'm the best foster they've ever had! However, that doesn't mean I'm easy-peasy. I'm up for anything, but I will need to be an active part of your pack. You'll see that my personality is so infectious, that I cannot be put aside!! I am polite and respectful; I stay off the furniture unless I'm invited up, and have great leash manners. And I'm super smart - I set a record in my foster home for learning how to use the dog door and "out of the kitchen". I love all sorts of playtime: tug-o-war, chase, wrestling, even a couple rounds of fetch! Car ride? Yippee! When I'm fired up I'm kinda talkative – my foster mom says they must have left all the weird husky vocal sounds in there when they bred the AKK. I have not been cat-tested, but get along well with dogs of all sizes/sexes and also goats! My foster mom has seen that I have very high prey drive with rabbits and mice, so cats may not be a good fit for me. I'm not afraid of anything: lawn mower, fireworks, thunder.
I need to get out & about every day on some sort of walk, slow bike ride or light run. And my foster family says I get the "zoomies" 2x/day for 5-15 minutes. Aside from that, I'm content to hang out inside or outside. When you're home, I'll let you know when I'd like a few pets or some extra attention.
When a new person approaches the gate or door, I can be protective of the house. My foster mom practiced by putting my leash on and introducing me to the new person and I settled down in just 2 minutes. She says she's confident that I'll quickly learn how to properly greet people just like I've learned all the other house rules. I love my crate, but prefer not to be locked in. I'll go there when I need a safe, quiet place to rest, but like to be free to come & go. If you need to lock me in, just explain it to me and I'll oblige pretty quickly. I can be shy with new people at first, but it usually only takes a few minutes – I warm up faster with women. Mostly I want to make sure I'm not going to get stepped on - people are so much bigger than me!
Mika found her way to us after first being given up by her original owner, and then her new owner after a year. Her original owner's children had grown and they decided they wanted to travel, so they rehomed both Mika and her daughter Cloudy with a young family in Colorado. Unfortunately, this family had never owned dogs before and they were unprepared for the strong personalities and quirkiness of AKK. Cloudy was brought into AKKNR last summer, and was adopted by the rescue coordinator and her husband. Mika stayed for another year, but the family finally decided that it was not a good fit so back we went to pick her up. She has been enjoying her time with her new foster family who can really appreciate Mika's personality.