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Tosa Inu: Characteristics, Grooming, Health, Training

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About Tosa Inu

Country of Origin, History of Tosa Inus

The Tosa often was referred to as the "Sumo wrestler of the dog world." It has been bred for hundreds of years in Japan. It was developed between the period of 1868 and 1912 by crosses with the Kochi (a local Japanese breed) and native Shikoku fighting dogs.

Tosa Inu Tools

Breed Selector Tool - is the Tosa Inu the right breed for you?

Is the Tosa Inu the right breed for you and your family?

Find out by using our Free Dog Breed Selector Tool

Check Your Tosa Inu's Learning Style

Are you aware dogs also have a learning style that can greatly affect their ability to housetrain as well as be trained correctly. Evaluate your Tosa Inu's learning style and personality using our free Learning Style tool so that you are better able to provide him with the proper Tosa Inu training methods.

Is your Tosa Inu dominating over you?

Does your Tosa Inu bark unnecessarily? Does your Tosa Inu come to you when you call? Download a FREE Report on Dog Dominance for you and your Tosa Inu and learn how to control your dog.

Do you make these mistakes with your Tosa Inu?

Are you inadvertently snow-balling bad behavior in your Tosa Inu? Evaluate your Dog Training Style from our Free Tool and learn how best to deal with your dog.

Tosa Inu Calorie Calculator

Do you know how many calories your Tosa Inu needs every day and how many cups of food you should be giving it every day? Click here to use our Tosa Inu Calorie Calculator.

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A General Description of the Dog

The Tosa is a stately, massive, athletic, agile dog, with a broad skull, fairly abrupt stop, and a moderately long, squared-off muzzle. The skin at the neck forms a dewlap. The ears are fairly small and pendant, the eyes small, dark and almond-shaped, with a dignified expression. The long tapering tail is very thick at the root.

Coat

The short-haired, weather-resistant coat is dense, harsh and comes in solid red, black, yellow, black & tan, fawn, brindle or multi-colored.

Height: 62 – 82 cm

Weight: 36 – 61 kg

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Tosa Inu Personality Traits

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Temperament of the Breed

The Tosa is brave, fearless, bold, sensitive, protective, loyal, exceptionally quiet and patient. The dog is very affectionate towards their family members and more reserved with strangers, but will accept newcomers if properly introduced. Both males and females make excellent home and family protectors and companions. Good with children, other dogs and pets when raised with them from puppyhood. They have a very high pain tolerance due to their fighting origins.

Tosa Inu Activity Level

How active is the breed?

Though they can take care of most of their average exercise demands, they need to be taken out for walks and jogs daily. An inadequately exercised Tosa might display behavior problems. This very intelligent dog is eager to learn and does remarkably well in obedience and working sports. The Tosa needs an experienced, consistent trainer/owner.

Suitable for apartment living?

The Tosa will do fine in an apartment, close to its owner, if it gets enough exercise. It is relatively inactive indoors and a fenced, average-sized yard will. This breed is not suitable for kennel life and families with small children or other dogs of the same sex, size and temperament.

Grooming

An occasional brushing to remove dead and loose hair is all that is needed to keep the coat of this light shedder looking good. Muzzle area should be cleaned as necessary as this breed does tend to drool extensively. The Tosa should be bathed only when necessary.

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Free Tosa Inu Training Secrets

Free Course on Tosa Inu Training & Obedience
Stop All Bad Behavior, Excessive Barking and Biting

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Health and Care

Prone to bloat, disorders of the hip and elbow, eye infections.

National Breed Clubs

Life Expectancy: About 10-12 years.

Group: Mastiff.

AKC Popularity Ranking:Foundation Stock Service

Also Known As: Tosa Inu, Tosa Ken, Tosa Token, Japanese Fighting Dog, Japanese Mastiff, Tosa Fighting Dog.

Train Your Tosa Inu To Listen To You

Get Instant Access to Your Training Now - For Free

Sign up for our Free Tosa Inu Mini Course to have a housebroken, obedient dog that happily comes to you every time you call.

You'll learn new commands to obedience-train your dog as well as how to housebreak your dog in 6 days or less.

You'll also learn how to eliminate bad habits like barking, nipping or biting, jumping, or pulling on the leash.Here's just s small fraction of what else you'll learn in the course:

  • How to lead and think like a pack dog - the new psychology.

  • 3 dangerous mistakes that most Tosa Inu owners make when they are trying to potty train their dogs.

  • The 2 main reasons why your dog barks excessively and how to control its excessive barking.

  • How to obedience train your Tosa Inu to permanently end behavioral problems like Jumping, Aggression, Pulling on Leash.

  • A surprisingly easy way to teach your dog cool new tricks.

  • How to improve your dog's lifespan and keep it from getting overly heavy with a healthy and nutritious diet.

  • Getting Pro help fast - how to get access to our expert trainers when you need them most.

  • One hidden psychological trigger that all Tosa Inus have... that practically allows you to "analyze" and "control" your dog's every action.

  • Priority access to the free online seminars conducted by our training experts.

Whereas other dog training related web sites and books offer generic information for dogs in general, ours is the ONLY web site that offers Tosa Inu information specifically, from a renowned panel of experts - because as you probably know, Tosa Inus have their own special training requirements that other dogs don't have.

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Our Dog Experts

The Tosa Inu training information you will read here was developed by a panel of renowned dog training experts whose combined wisdom represents nearly 100 years of specialist experience training dogs.

Here are a few of our experts:

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