husky loyalty

[graham084]

sky got out the front door yesterday i told her to stay and went to grab her, she took off sprinting around the area i was lucky to catch her after 10mins. i realy taught she was a gonner:( she ran as if she realy wanted to get away, its made me think is she loyal at all or is it just a husky thing?

i ended up catching her as she had stopped in a field to sniff something and not on my command!

[Tikaani&Aiyana]

It's not about loyalty with huskies (when they are off lead) its about their instinct which is to hunt and run!

Thats why they are recommended to never be allowed off lead, no matter how well trained your dog is in the home when they are outside & loose their recall can be zero.

[renniwano]

sky got out the front door yesterday i told her to stay and went to grab her, she took off sprinting around the area i was lucky to catch her after 10mins. i realy taught she was a gonner:( she ran as if she realy wanted to get away, its made me think is she loyal at all or is it just a husky thing?

i ended up catching her as she had stopped in a field to sniff something and not on my command!

It is definately a Husky thing..

It's not that she wants to get away from you - it's the fact that Huskies have a huge desire to run.. and if that means out of your front door, so be it..

Glad you caught her too though

ETA Naomi beat me to it.. lol

[SarahNukka&Shadow]

Their running away has nothing to do with how loyal they are or not its instinct.. they love to run.. they see you chase its a game to them, then instinct takes over and run and run and are so independant that they dont panic when they cant find you again like other breeds might.

I once heard a story about an escaped husky.. some helpful person thought it would be funny to open this ladies dog run and let her two dogs out.. one of them was missing for a whole month before this lady tracked him down living ruff on a disused railway line.. even after she found him it took her an extra week of going there every day and howling for him and waiting to see if he'd respond.. in the end she managed to get him by just sitting cross legged on the floor and saying "mummys come to take you home" and he just bounced right into her lap and licked her on the face.. if thats not a loyal husky I dont know what is! He came back even though he didnt have to! He loved his mum!

I dont doubt my two love and are loyal to me.. but I also dont doubt that given half a chance they'd run off and have a good old explore and play.. its just their nature!

[Andy]

Lol. . . I was gonna say exactly the same. . . they just love to run and explore.

stay calm approach them slowly talking calmly and usually after a while they will come back to you.

If they are actively chasing something then that's a different story, then you're in for a hard run

and trying to distract them from the cat or squirrel or whatever they are chasing. . .well good luck.

[meeshsalts]

Our dogs getting away from us as probably happened to lots of us. It is just a husky thing, after they have done it once you learn from you mistakes so it doesn't happen again.

[BingBlaze n Skyla]

its a husky thing, my 2 yr old slipped his collar and bolted the otherday, even tho i know he loves us

[Boshka]

Definately a Husky thing glad you got her back

[Removed #2]

Many of us with rescues have them because they have been picked up as strays....and then we say, how could someone get rid of a dog this good, and well mannered? Fact is, they just love to run. Stormy figured out how to dig between the two wires of the invisible fence we installed in front of the privacy wood fence...she screamed while she was getting shocked and then was able to get her head under the fence and was gone! Mine are never ever off lead when out of the house and even when trained to sit and wait at the door, we always have a hand on them when the door is opened. It's just a Husky thing. I couldn't understand when we had home inspection from one of the Husky rescue organizations that they questioned our fence while telling us they kept theirs all day on a tie out in their front yard. Both of mine wouldn't think twice about chasing a goose or squirrel and never looking back...so if we go out, their leads are on and in hand before we even open the garage.

I'm glad you got yours back. Many are not so fortunate. It's not about you or training....it's just a HUSKY thing. Sorry, I'm off my soap box now!

[HuskyCouture]

definitely a husky thing, embry has gotten out a few times, and it's always so hard to find him.

[Bec]

A dog with a good recall doesn't have one out of loyalty, he has one because of good training

[Kissu & Aara]

Yeah. When I was leaving the dog park just a few days ago, I turned around to shut the second gate behind me, and didn't have a good grip on Kissu's leash. He lunged forward, I dropped his leash and he took off, heading to a semi busy street. I called after hm. He had gotten a good maybe... 28 feet (or more) away, when he turned around to look at me. I yelled to him and said "Bye", and acted like I was going back into the dog park, and he came chasing after me at full speed.

They say it's not good for dogs to be as co-dependent as he is, but at the time I was very glad he is that way with me. I have a feeling though that if that happens again, I might not be so lucky.

Everyone at the dog park loves him cause he's shy. He sits on my feet or will wiggle his way between my feet and lay down while watching the other dogs. Then once he feels comfortable enough, he'll get up and dash over to one dog and circle around it, then when the dog chases him he comes right back over to me for protection. If the dog follows him over to me, then he'll sniff the dog and maybe play a little. But I'm sure it's just cause he's a puppy. He hasn't been going to the dog park for too long. And I think once he gets used to it enough, those days will end.

[BlueWolf]

Just this morning Dana got loose. I was walking with Glala and Dana and we came across another dog. When that dog saw them it lied on the ground and waited. Glala got over him and, out of nowhere (I could see no warnings) he attacked here. Well, not so much as big attack, he didn't bite and luckily he stopped immediately. But of course me, Glala and Dana weren't expecting that and because of that I lost Dana's leash while both tried to run away But Dana just stopped after a few meters, turned around and waited for me to grab the leash again. Some days, I think Dana doesn't even realize she's a husky

[proximity]

As mentioned, it's not a loyalty thing, they just love to run. I let mine off leash in a safe enclosed enivronment all the time, I just run the oppisite direction and say "this way pups" in a high pitched voice and they run with me. If I run to them, they run away - its easily their favourite game. They just love to run, but give them 5 k's of bolting, and they'll be quite distressed to see you're not still right there along with them.

As far as loyalty though, despite all the posts here, huskys are actually not loyal at all, not in the traditional sense. They're not disloyal, but rather are loyal to everone and anyone, given very little lead in time. This is is a trait bred into them, from the days where they were owned by no one man, but formed a greater pool of dogs owned by the entire village. Loyalty is generally used more in regards to one man dogs, e.g. German Shepherds (perhaps not the best example). Hope that makes sense, I haven't explained it too well

[jeneytran]

Glad to hear that you caught her. I've ha a similar experience during her early days we were walking until she decided to cut me off and I got tangled in her leash and let go of it and she ran for her but I comaned her to shit and luckily she did and I told her to come. I believe it was all just luck.

[BingBlaze n Skyla]

Yeah. When I was leaving the dog park just a few days ago, I turned around to shut the second gate behind me, and didn't have a good grip on Kissu's leash. He lunged forward, I dropped his leash and he took off, heading to a semi busy street. I called after hm. He had gotten a good maybe... 28 feet (or more) away, when he turned around to look at me. I yelled to him and said "Bye", and acted like I was going back into the dog park, and he came chasing after me at full speed.

They say it's not good for dogs to be as co-dependent as he is, but at the time I was very glad he is that way with me. I have a feeling though that if that happens again, I might not be so lucky.

Everyone at the dog park loves him cause he's shy. He sits on my feet or will wiggle his way between my feet and lay down while watching the other dogs. Then once he feels comfortable enough, he'll get up and dash over to one dog and circle around it, then when the dog chases him he comes right back over to me for protection. If the dog follows him over to me, then he'll sniff the dog and maybe play a little. But I'm sure it's just cause he's a puppy. He hasn't been going to the dog park for too long. And I think once he gets used to it enough, those days will end.

u never know the bye thing might always work, whenever i leave the house i say bye to the dog idividually so i say bye bingo bye blaze bye skyla, then leave, they know bye means im going somewhere without them, so when i let skyla off her lead on the local feild n she was playing with a mates dog, when they got too far away for my liking (not running away just further away then i wanted her to be on her first time offlead) i shouted BYE SKYLA and she came POUNDING back over, - she will be a year old on the 1st december - her prey drive is really high too - but i did keep my eye out for other dogs ect - if i saw any she was back onlead for peace of mine (our field isnt enclosed)

[raindog]

Huskies don't really "do" loyalty. They absolutely love you to death, but put them in another family and within a week they are just as bonded to the new family. This may hurt our feelings, but it is nonetheless true. Those few of you old enough to remember might recall a Steven Stills song from the early '70s which sums up the husky's philosophy - "if you can’t be with the one you love, honey, love the one you’re with"

Mick

[Bashersbabe]

Both of ours are perfect while in the house, will stay, sit, lie down even give us their paws, but the moment we leave the house the go into another zone. Both have "escaped". You have to be so careful as mine seem to be always on the look out for that door that isn't shut properly or when you are distracted. We have used a couple of techniques, one being that we walk off in the opposite direction, but the most successful has been to take a rather large piece of cheese and when they run past show the cheese. Then throw a piece towards them, then just wait waving the cheese, when they come to you stay low to the ground and give another piece, then slowly take the collar. I would say that this has about a 70% success rate. Don't know if they have a thing for cheese, but have tried meat, dog treats, and anything else you could possibly think off. But it works.

A friend of mine who also has a husky, read somewhere that if, when out walking you should hide and give them a bit of a fright. He did this with his when it was a puppy, and now she watches him all the time when she is off the lead, and if she strays too far, he calls starts walking away and if she doesn't come, hides behind a tree. once she can't see him she goes back the way they came he shows himself and she goes and makes a big fuss of him when she "finds" him. It works what can I say. Mine were 1 and 2 years old when we had them, so they were passed the puppy stage and I wouldn't risk letting them off their leads now.

[Bec]

Let's be careful not to confuse a husky's independent streak with lack of training - things like training a dog to be focused around distractions takes time and hard work for ANY breed of dog.

[jeansp]

I know its a little old thread, but just recently I took Kisha for a walk and somehow she manged to get out of her harness ( I most likely never put it on correctly), anyway, off she went like a bat out of hell and as soon as I chased her she ran even faster. She also constantly looked behind her to see if I am still chasing her, so all I did was get on my knees and call her excitingly and she imediately turned around and ran back.

I took Kisha and her sister for pup training, that was always the biggest challenge to get them to come back to a person

[Zani]

I have to remember myself when Keira tries to run away from me it's instinct not "loyalty" ... I do run away from her though and she chases me, so that makes me feel better!

[BingBlaze n Skyla]

yup always run away from them - dont chase them - its really good advice - i had 2 do this ONCE with skyla then she was good - but i dont let her off, only did that once,

Blaze i HAD 2 chase when he slipped his collar cuz he ran round the corner and couldnt see him

[Removed #2]

I even notice that when the boys are playing chase, Andy is always looking back to see if Jackson is still behind him. He likes to be chased, not to do the chasing. Jackson, on the other hand, couldn't care less if he is being chased or not. He just runs and was the one that snuck out under his dad's legs and out to the park. We lucked out that there was someone with another dog on the path. Not sure what he would have done. I will remember the running away from them hint though! Thanks all for sharing.

[Stevo Smith]

Mine slipped her harness on Monday i did the running in opposite direction trick.....reverse psychology works wonders