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Shikoku — BetterBred Breed Page – BetterBred.com
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Shikoku

Temperament: Gentle with their family, alert and active hunters. The Shikoku is an ancient Japanese spitz with endurance, energy, and intelligence - originally bred for hunting boar in mountainous terrain. They are reserved with strangers and retain strong working instincts.
Height: 17-22 inches (43-56 cm)
Weight: 35-55 pounds (16-25 kg)
Life Span: 10-13 years
Outlier Index ?
0.30
Born before 2016: 0.33 Born after 2024: 0.31
Avg Genetic Rel. ?
0.00
Born before 2016: -0.01 Born after 2024: -0.01
Internal Relatedness ?
0.01
Born before 2016: 0.01 Born after 2024: 0.01
Shikoku
#NameGender OIAGRIR
1 Gakushome Go Higashi Tachibana F 0.24 -0.06 0.36
2 Jurakudai Go Miyakotachibanaen M 0.40 -0.13 0.05
3 Kibo No Okami A'Haku M 0.35 -0.05 0.21
4 Kibo No Okami Akali F 0.23 0.04 0.02
5 Kibo No Okami Asayuki F 0.23 0.03 0.10
6 Ryufu Go Sami Nishihamaso M 0.35 -0.07 -0.03
7 Oksana Go Sakura Kensha F 0.29 0.01 0.08
8 Kibo No Okami Arasaka M 0.22 0.02 0.15
9 Kamegamori Go Aoiyama Sou F 0.34 -0.05 0.02
10 Kiseki No Yama Ken'Ichi Go M 0.26 0.14 -0.23
The Shikoku evolved in the mountainous Kochi region of the Japanese island of Shikoku, where it was used for hunting wild boar. The breed is one of the six native Japanese spitz breeds and is tough, agile, and well-adapted to challenging terrain. It was designated a "living national monument" of Japan in 1937, a status that helped preserve the breed through the tumultuous mid-20th century. The Shikoku remains rare outside Japan.
View Official Breed Standard →
Hip and joint issues, luxating patella, entropion, and epilepsy occur in the breed. The Shikoku is generally considered a healthy breed, but the narrow worldwide population means breeders should stay attentive to any emerging patterns.
VGL has reported Shikoku carrying an average of around 5.03 alleles across the 33 STR loci, with an effective allele count near 2.47. Both numbers are on the lower end and reflect the breed's limited worldwide population and ancient closed-line status. Rare alleles deserve active preservation. VGL testing has found Shikoku with observed heterozygosity close to expected, giving an inbreeding coefficient near zero. That is a good breed-wide signal, though the diversity pool is constrained by the breed's small worldwide population.

Average metrics by birth year for dogs with recorded birthdates in the BetterBred database.

A 3D genetic map of enrolled Shikoku dogs in the BetterBred database, based on allele-sharing distance across 33 STR loci. This is not a complete picture of the breed — it reflects only dogs whose owners have enrolled them. Drag to rotate · scroll to zoom · hover for dog names (public profiles only).

Historical founders — oldest 25% of enrolled dogs     Current gene pool — most recent 50% of enrolled dogs
Building plot… this may take a minute for larger breeds.

The Dog Leukocyte Antigen (DLA) region controls immune function and is the most polymorphic portion of the canine genome. Every dog carries two sets of DLA haplotypes — one from each parent — which almost never recombine across generations. Frequency percentages reflect how often each haplotype appears across all allele copies in the breed, not the percentage of dogs carrying it.

Class I Haplotypes

HaplotypeFrequency
1133
52.4%
1191
18.2%
1229
12.2%
1231
11.2%
1232
2.7%
1230
1.4%
1054
1.4%
1091
0.7%

Class II Haplotypes

HaplotypeFrequency
2077
52.4%
2018
18.2%
2122
11.2%
2056
9.1%
2123
3.0%
2012
2.7%
2071
1.4%
2106
1.4%
2067
0.7%

Class I & II Combinations

Class IClass IIFrequency
1133 2077
51.7%
1191 2018
18.0%
1231 2122
11.0%
1229 2056
9.0%
1229 2123
3.0%
1232 2012
2.7%
1054 2106
1.3%
1230 2071
1.3%
1091 2067
0.7%

The Canine Diversity Test from UC Davis Veterinary Genetics Laboratory is the foundation of BetterBred’s breed management tools. Testing your dog adds to the breed database and gives you access to the full suite of breeding analysis tools.

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OI
Outlier Index

The Outlier Index (OI) measures how unusual a dog’s allele combination is relative to the tested population of its breed. A higher OI means the dog carries alleles at lower frequencies across the breed — genetic variants that are underrepresented in the population as a whole.

Dogs with high OI are genetically valuable because they carry diversity that most other tested dogs don’t share. Breeding them thoughtfully into the broader population helps redistribute lower-frequency alleles rather than allowing them to become even rarer over generations.

The breed average shown here reflects all dogs tested in the BetterBred database. The senior and youngster comparisons show whether diversity is trending up or down in recent generations.
AGR
Average Genetic Relatedness

Average Genetic Relatedness (AGR) measures how similar a dog’s DNA is, on average, to every other tested dog in the breed. It reflects the dog’s mean kinship — how closely related it is to the population as a whole.

A lower AGR means the dog is more genetically distinct from the majority of the breed. Dogs with low AGR carry alleles at lower frequencies across the tested population, making them higher-priority candidates for inclusion in a well-managed breeding program.

AGR is conceptually related to mean kinship used in conservation genetics for managed species populations. A declining AGR average in younger dogs suggests the breed is successfully redistributing genetic diversity across generations.
IR
Internal Relatedness

Internal Relatedness (IR) measures how much identical genetic material an individual dog inherited from both parents. IR is a useful indicator of inbreeding: lower IR generally reflects lower inbreeding, and it is widely used and reported in the scientific literature.

A high IR is not the cause for alarm it might appear. Elevated IR can often be resolved in a single generation by pairing with a dog whose ancestry is less represented in the breed. It is a signpost, not a sentence.

BetterBred reports IR for reference, but it is not our primary breeding guidance tool. OI and AGR together give a more complete and actionable picture of a dog’s genetic value to the population.

AGR tells you which dogs are genetically unusual relative to the population. OI tells you which dogs are most valuable to preserve. OI specifically weights mid-frequency alleles, identifying dogs whose ancestry is underrepresented in a way most likely to benefit the breed.