We have been involved in Nihon-Ken for over 8 years now. Our passion for Nihon-Ken started with our first Shiba Inu, Maui. Our interests, and our pack, quickly grew as we started to learn more and more about the unique characteristics of each Nihon-Ken breed. Since our introduction to the Nihon-Ken, we have grown to love all the breeds; however, we have a specially affinity for the Shikoku Ken and Kai Ken. Over time we started to see a need to preserve the bloodlines and native characteristics of these breeds in North America; thus, we have devoted our lives, home, and time to helping to preserve these amazing breeds.

Here at Yamabushi Kennel, humans and dogs live together as family. Over the years, we have made wonderful friends and connections, and, through these connections, as well as experience, have been able to learn *some* of the secrets to living in a pack. We are constantly learning as we spend more and more time with our pack of Nihon-Ken, something which we treasure dearly. The learning process will never stop, and that is what drives us and helps us provide the best quality of life for our dogs. On the weekends, our Akita Inu, Shikoku-Ken and Kai-Ken enjoy hiking, packing, and mushing with us in the mountains around our home – our two Shiba Inu enjoy snuggling with us on the couches and playing in the yard. We take our pack on regular trips into town where they get to interact with the local dogs and humans.

We actively involve ourselves in several of the Shiba Inu rescue groups and run a Nihon-Ken rescue network. We are interested in saving every aspect of these wonderful breeds.

If you have any questions for us, or would just like to share a picture or story with us, please feel free to email us at info@YamabushiKennel.org! We love to hear from other Nihon-Ken enthusiasts and owners!


Our Practices
Our breeding practices are straight-forward:

• We will never breed a breed we feel we cannot help improve, and we will never breed a breed that we feel does not need a greater genetic diversity.
  
  
• We never repeat breedings. This means that all of our puppies are unique in physical appearance and personality.
  
  
• All our dogs are health checked, and their health is guaranteed. We never breed an animal that has not passed our rigorous temperament and health tests and we will never breed a dog younger than 2 years old.
  
  
• All of our dogs live with us as family members, or some of our dogs live with other families. We do this in order to make sure all of our dogs live happy family lives and get the love and interaction they deserve and need to be balanced animals.
  
  
• Our dogs do not live their lives in kennels, they are free to coexist with other dogs in as a family and have loving families that care for them. We feel this helps to produce happier dogs and, therefore, happier puppies.
  
  
• We screen all prospective owners, rigorously, and we temperament check all of our puppies before placement to ensure each owner gets the right personality for their situations. If you do not like being asked personal questions about your life and ethics please do not contact us for a puppy - a screening is a requirement to even be considered for a puppy from Yamabushi Kennel.
  
  
• If for some reason, no matter what the reason, an owner of a Yamabushi dog has to give up their dog/puppy, we require that they give the dog back to us, and only us. We will always take back our dogs, and they are always welcome here.
  
  
• Receiving a puppy from Yamabushi Kennel is a lifetime commitment and relationship. We are here to answer your questions for the life of your pet and beyond.
  
  
• Our kennel is run as a non-profit organization. The money we receive in donations to our kennel is put directly into the feeding and care of our dogs and the upkeep of our kennel. At the end of the year, if there is ever money left over from our breeding operation, it is donated to the rescue systems to help save all the millions of dogs in need.
  
  
  

The Anderson Dog Ranch
Our dogs live with us on our ranch, it's our home, and our dog’s home. We live with all of our dogs, as a family and as a pack. None of our dogs are kenneled and all of them sleep inside.

Our home is located in Taos, NM USA on the mesa overlooking the Sangre De Cristo mountains and the Taos gorge. We live on 2.5 acres of land of which 2+ acre is fenced in for our pack to enjoy the great outdoors.

Yamabushi Kennel is environmentally aware, we make a conscience effort to reduce the amount of waste we produce, to take less from the earth, and to reduce our consumption.

• We buy 100% wind power to power the day-to-day operations of our home and our kennel.
• All food waste is composted.
• We recycle metal, paper, cardboard, and glass.
• All dog waste is processed in our dog waste septic system.
• We heat our home with wood.