BMac91

Definitely normal, both of our's are crate trained. Do yourself and your dogs a favor though and stick with it. Don't give up on it because he is whining about it, this will be one of the best things you can accomplish when training your dogs as it creates a safe haven for them. Our dogs have been crate trained since they were pups and they love their crates now, they will disappear for an hr and you'll go looking for them and they are passed out in their crates. A few things to remember and things that will help the association: - Dogs are very much so creatures of habit, anything that you are doing now, try and do it on a schedule. Keep them on this schedule as long as possible while they are pups as it will make training easier. Make sure you can handle the habits too, as they will more than likely still be habits when they are adults. My dogs insist on going outside after they eat dinner, even if they don't have to potty they will wait at the door, go outside and then walk around then want back in. It's almost like they are OCD, they feel odd if they don't do their habits. - Do everything in their crates during the training time, ESPECIALLY feeding them. This will help in eliminating any kind of food aggression or fights as neither dog will be able to get to the other dog's food. - What helped ours was, a few times a day call them into the room with their crates and put a treat in the back of their crates when they get in their crates close the door and let them finish their treat, then let them out. Increase the time that you leave them in each time, so first time maybe leave them in there for a minute or two, and let them out. This let's them know that you will let them out when you are ready and not when they demand it. Just a few of the things that seemed to help us out when we trained ours. Good luck and stick with it, you won't be sorry you did!

Thanks for the replies everyone. I did locate the Animal Behaviorist at UAB and I am awaiting a response now. Thanks for that tip, would have never even thought to go that route, I am hoping she is open to assisting. It may not matter too much, but Mika was already trained before we got Kato. I always say they were raised together, but in reality we got Kato about 1-1.5 months (I know still a short time) after we got Mika. I really don't know how to tell if he is upset because she is gone or if he is jealous that she get's to go and he doesn't. I always assumed it was the first, but I guess it could be either of them or a mixture of both. After reading the article, I don't necessarily feel like they have a stronger relationship together than we do with them, always felt like it was a 50/50 thing since they spend all day together, figured it was bound to happen at some point. The odd thing is that Mika has no problem being away from Kato, take Kato on a walk without her come back and she is just hanging out, maybe that has something to do with her dominance over him? They don't seem to be under any kind of stress, we have done the few tests we had read about when training them, about being able to reach your hand in their food bowl, or taking it from them and seeing their reaction etc. When we did those tests they did fine, stick your hand in the bowl they would stop eating, step back and sit down and wait for you to move, if you take the bowl from them they would do the same thing, sit back and wait for you to give it back to them, no growling or barking etc. I am usually pretty good about keeping the calm and collective attitude when attempting to straighten things out. Just like the dogs, I learn something new from them everyday, even after 3 years! On a side note, our dogs have their own mud-room where their crates and toys are and it has a glass door on it. Well, my neighbor brought her dog over to come see the house and her dog was the sweet dog from the first post, so we put our dogs up and let her dog come inside and hang out for a few minutes. They showed 0 aggression through the door when they saw her, Mika went straight to excitement and wagging her tail mixed with kinda what seemed like to be an excited yelp/bark, Kato acted like he could careless about the dog. I definitely want a professional to step in and bring an experienced dog and see what they she/he thinks about the whole situation. Maybe the situation could be corrected without too much grief if the pro has a well trained dog for these situations. It does just blow my mind though, as Kato has no reason to not like other dogs. He has never been in any kind of fight, wasn't abused as a puppy, actually came from a very well respected breeder.

This is what we struggle with the most, and it makes it difficult to take them anywhere. When we are inside the house or in the backyard that will listen to me at the drop of a hat and will only ignore me on rare occasions when they are playing hard and don't feel like coming inside yet, but when you take them out of the vicinity of our house/yard they seem to be completely different dogs. Trying hard to get them back to being able to go to the lake and hiking trails rather than walks around the neighborhood, but they are making it difficult to do so!

Yes, the local university here is actually more of a medical university than anything, I am pretty sure they have a large vet program also, I will check into that. At Auburn University, they have an entire dog training program and actually train puppies into service dogs there, so there is that also. My wife continues to say that we need to film it and send it to Cesar Milan and see if we'd be lucky enough for him to watch it, never thought about contacting a university about it though. Great idea!

Our vet gave us great advice when we were having trouble with Mika biting. She was given to us much to young and biting was still a fun game for her. So to correct the problem, when they bite gently press your thumb down on their tongue while saying "No bite" and let go. It took roughly a week of this and she never bit again after that.

Will agree, skip the nail trimming let a pro do it, ESPECIALLY at this young. Also, be prepared for biting too, as that is something that is learned when they have their family to play with, they figure out that biting actually hurts so they stop. I know you are busy, but the best thing you can do is try and take the pup out every 30-45 minutes and let him run around in the grass for a few minutes. Get him used to peeing outside and not inside. Another good tip we were given, but didn't use, was a bell hanging from the door handle, every time you take him out to potty tap the bell where it rings, he will associate the bell with needing to go potty and when he is old enough to start holding it he will ring the bell when he needs to go out. Will save you tons of effort from not realizing that he is standing at the door waiting to be let out if you are in another room of the house.

Hi All, haven't been around in a while dogs are doing well but had a quick question. A little back story, this is probably going to be long as I feel it is important to know the details to fully assess what you guys think would be the best action to start taking. I have 2 Sibes (1 Female "Mika" & 1 Male "Kato") both were purchased together as puppies and have been raised together ever since. They are currently 3yrs and 1month old. We socialized with them a lot when they were puppies, however, Kato has NEVER liked other dogs, never made sense didn't matter if it was a dog brought to our house or a dog we bumped into while hiking the trails, his initial reaction was to always give a low grumble growl OR just walk up to them, look at them and bite them straight on the nose. No warning, no bark nothing, just a bite on the nose. We tried to work with him a bit, but continued to get discouraged as it seemed the more we tried to socialize him with other dogs the worse he got. He just really had this "I don't want ANYTHING to do with a dog that isn't Mika" mentality. He LOVES Mika to death, they hang out together and play at home while we are work, they do everything together. If we take her somewhere that he doesn't go, he whines and cries the entire time. I think it is important to note also that his position in the pack has always seemed to be last in line. They both know that I am in charge and listen extraordinarily well inside the house and around the back yard. My wife has a few issues with Mika listening to her every once in a while, not sure if that is typical Husky stubbornness or if she frequently questions my wife's judgement. Well we recently moved into a new house and the fences are privacy fences but are single fence, meaning it's only a single fence that separates my backyard and my neighbor behind me's backyard, as well as on each side of the fence. Well there is a dog on the backside and dogs on the right side that they don't seem to fond of, I could be mistaken but they don't seem to like the fact that they are so close to "THEIR" yard. My dogs aren't very vocal, so they don't bark at them or anything they just try and push their head through the fence at the other dogs and run up and down the fence at them. Well, now I fear that this hasn't made Mika aggressive towards other dogs, as we were walking her the other day and a neighbor's dog that is VERY sweet came out and was heading towards Mika to meet her and Mika's first reaction was to spaz out and growl and bark at the dog like she wanted to attack it. I firmly but calmly told her "No!" and to "Sit" trying to calm her, but she insisted that she knew better. This worries me that Kato's hatred for other dogs, mixed with the animosity of having neighbor dogs to bicker with through the fence has made her not like other dogs also. Is this a far-fetched assesment? What would be the best way to attempt to correct the actions she takes? We would really like for her to be able to play with other dogs without being a jerk to them. I hate to start socializing again after this happened not knowing if she is going to bite someone's dog or not.

Well I figured that, but like I said didn't know if the gene pool was different in dogs. I know this is completely off, but like in fish it's ok to breed in with in for a certain point etc. Didn't know, sorry if it was a stupid question...

Just an odd question I have. I got our AKC papers back today for our male dog, and saw something I wasn't too fond of.. We had not really decided if we wanted to breed or not, wanted to obviously let the dogs get older and see how they turn out physically and mentally before duplicating them, however, this is the information I found in the papers today. Mika's Mother Is Skye. Kato's Father's Mother is Skye. I am just wondering where the line is drawn out of curiosity on this, is this considered incest still? We have pretty much decided to have them fixed because of this, just still curious about the situation. Thanks All.

My sibes have gotten older and very fast (obviously lol) and while it isn't a problem for my wife and I, but it seems nobody else knows how to not let a dog run out the door when it's opened. So my question is what are good ways of teaching that when the door is open isn't an invitation to run, but only when they have a leash on?

Yes, I absolutely love Blue Buffalo products, we buy pretty much everything from them, their treats are all Blue Buffalo or Blue Buff Wild and they love every one of them. The only "Off" brand I buy is the Greenies because Blue Buff doesn't have anything like that lol.

Ok, I did a quick search and didn't see anything quite like this, so here goes. If this is a repost I do apologize I have been feeding my sibes Blue Buffalo and they absolutely love it, but now I see this Blue Buffalo Wilderness food and was wondering what the difference was, and if it was "Better" for them. We mixed a small amount of the canned Blue Buffalo Wilderness (we got it free) in with their dry food and they WENT FREAKIN CRAZY over it. But I am trying to figure out if it is justifiable to spend 2$ more on this when it is 6lbs LESS of food? I know it seems like a no brainer but my sibes are my kids and I only want what is best for them. I have had soo much good luck with Blue Buff that I am practically sworn to it so I would be sticking with them regardless, like I said just wanted to see if there was a noticeable difference. Also, on a side note, I feed my sibes pieces of fresh bananas as a treat, and they absolutely love it, is this safe for them? My vet said that it's a natural fruit and it's not an issue, what do you guys think?

I buy a lot of stuff from petmountain.com . They have sales running all the time and I get some stuff for my fish as well as my huskies. Seems like they practically give things away sometimes.

4 kids & 2 dogs?? Bless you! lool

Psh, mine knew "come" when they were younger (10-12wks), but they are younger than yours now and look at me like I'm crazy and take off. Gorgeous dog though!