Akita vs Poodle (Standard) — Side by Side

	Akita	Poodle (Standard)
Lifespan	10-14 years	12-15 years
Size	Large	Large
Weight	70-130 lb	40-70 lb
Energy	Moderate	High
Grooming	High	High
Shedding	High	Low
With kids	Not ideal for young kids	Good with kids

What actually separates them

Less hair on the sofa with the Poodle (Standard). More with the Akita.
Calmer of the two is the Akita. The one that needs more exercise is the Poodle (Standard).
Poodle (Standard) tends to live longer — 12-15 years against 10-14 years.
With young children, Poodle (Standard) is the safer default — Akita is listed as "Not ideal for young kids".

The honest downside of each

Akita

The AKC's own breed standard warns that Akitas 'may be intolerant of other dogs, particularly of the same sex' — that's not a rare temperament quirk, it's written into the official standard, and it's a major reason the breed is refused or surcharged by roughly 4 in 5 home-insurance breed-restriction lists.

Poodle (Standard)

'Low-shedding' gets marketed as 'low-maintenance' but the two aren't the same thing — a Poodle's coat mats quickly and needs professional clipping roughly every 4-6 weeks for the dog's entire life, an ongoing cost that never stops.

Read the full pages

Akita · Poodle (Standard)
Health problems, origin and what living with each is actually like.