During the early 20th century the Akita was in decline, as a result of being cross bred with the German Shepherd Dog, St. Bernard, Mastiff. As a result, a lot of specimens started to lose their spitz characteristics and instead took on drop ears, straight tails, non-Japanese color (black masks, and any color other than red, white or brindle), and loose skin. A native Japanese breed known as Matagi (hunting dog) was used along with the Hokkaido Inu breed to mix back into the remaining Akita Inu to bring back the spitz phenotype and restore the Akita breed. The modern day Japanese Akita have relatively few genes from western dogs and are spitz in phenotype after the reconstruction of the breed took place, however the larger American breed of Akita largely descends from the mixed Akita before the restoration of the breed, and thus American Akita are typically mixed and not considered true Akita by the Japanese standard.