General Problems

[Langy91]

Hey guys, i've made one or two question threads already but here's another (haha)

I'm currently injured from Rugby and can't walk as far as i'd like, broke 3 ribs so it's real hard to walk atm, thus I can't walk Storm as long as I wanted... As a result of this he's constantly going loopey around the house, not so much running around, but howling/barking and generally annoying everyone including the Terrier.

I'll just go ahead and list the problems I have and see if any of you have a solution. I'd take him to a trainer but the closest one I can find that has actual Husky experience is about an hour away.

1) His constant howling/barking I play with him alot, feed him twice a day (3 cups per meal), make sure he has his water and the door is always open for him to run into the garden, but he stills walks around howling at everyone now and then.

2) He's VERY greedy, if someone has food he'll sit and watch you, eventually he'll get bored and lie down to sleep. If you leave a crisp packet or anything that has food on it on a table or something and you're not looking (even if you are looking) he'll try and take it to shred/chew/eat.

3) He seems like he has diarrhea 24/7, he's been wormed and we've changed his food once or twice (he gets dry food, lamb + kibble or Turkey + kibble) it was normal for a week then went back.

4) Is Reward training the only way to train a Husky? If so, he does the basic commands very well but if we're out and about on the leash and I try to call him back he completely ignores me (if another dog is there or something)

5) He seems to like chewing his bedding in his cage, is this just out of boredom?

1) I've been very tempted to buy an "Anti-Bark Collar (shock collar)" for my dad's terrier who will bark NON-STOP when someone enters the house, it goes into hysterics like it's had 50000 packets of sweets, and you can't stop it, even by smacking it or making it sit/calming it down doesn't work, this in return makes Storm do the same (he doesnt bark, he just jumps up and follows)

2) I just ignore him when i'm eating and he lies down next to me and sleeps/watches, but i've been told this is also bad, how do I fix it?

3) ??

4) Also been very tempted to get a Shock Collar to sort this, though it's a bad idea in some ways, it seems the only way i'm going to get him to fixate on me and not everything else. Temporary solution just so he get's used to hearing "Storm Come" or something along those lines, as the training i've tried just isnt working at all.

5) get him something to chew like a bicycle tire or?

Thanks Ladies and Gents

[BingBlaze n Skyla]

1) His constant howling/barking I play with him alot, feed him twice a day (3 cups per meal), make sure he has his water and the door is always open for him to run into the garden, but he stills walks around howling at everyone now and then.

what about trick training ? this will help mentally tire him out aswell (u can also get metal stimulation toys which could help , google nina ottoson i think thats how its spelt)

2) He's VERY greedy, if someone has food he'll sit and watch you, eventually he'll get bored and lie down to sleep. If you leave a crisp packet or anything that has food on it on a table or something and you're not looking (even if you are looking) he'll try and take it to shred/chew/eat.

LOL sounds like my girl , ive trained her a wait/leave command so she knows shes not allowed to steal , if she waits nicely once ive finished i give her a small bit of the food as a reward for waiting

3) He seems like he has diarrhea 24/7, he's been wormed and we've changed his food once or twice (he gets dry food, lamb + kibble or Turkey + kibble) it was normal for a week then went back.

how much are you feeding him , did u do a straight swap with his food? could he have picked something up n ate it without u knowing (possibly the food he likes to try n steal in your above question) ?

4) Is Reward training the only way to train a Husky? If so, he does the basic commands very well but if we're out and about on the leash and I try to call him back he completely ignores me (if another dog is there or something)

positive reinforcment is best , u can use treats or toys , basically u need to start small , get him focused on u and coming back to you WITHOUT any distractions around , and slowly increase whats around , so start in your house , then progress to the garden , then out on a walk , then with a person around , then a dog , and keep increasing the distractions as and when he learns to focus on u once there is 1 distraction (hope that makes sense)

5) He seems to like chewing his bedding in his cage, is this just out of boredom?

how old is he? has it been since he hasnt had as much walking?

1) I've been very tempted to buy an "Anti-Bark Collar (shock collar)" for my dad's terrier who will bark NON-STOP when someone enters the house, it goes into hysterics like it's had 50000 packets of sweets, and you can't stop it, even by smacking it or making it sit/calming it down doesn't work, this in return makes Storm do the same (he doesnt bark, he just jumps up and follows)

my staffy is the same , havent been able 2 stop him BUT best thing to do is get some1 to come to ur door , go to the door if he barks , u move away from the door , once hes quiet go back to the door , if he barks move away again , he SHOULD learn that if hes quite u will open the door n let the guest in , if the guest comes in and he barks , the guest leaves , till he learns again if he barks the guest leaves , when hes quiet LOTS of fuss and praise

2) I just ignore him when i'm eating and he lies down next to me and sleeps/watches, but i've been told this is also bad, how do I fix it?

if he lies down next to you and isnt begging i wouldnt worry , mine will lie down next to me if im eating but so long as they arent begging i dont mind

if u dont want them to do that tho , remove them from the room , again another repition thing , if u sit down n they come in the room , u get up remove them and go n sit back down , eventually they should realise that u dont want them in the room whilst u eat , n they can come in once uve finished

3) ??

?

4) Also been very tempted to get a Shock Collar to sort this, though it's a bad idea in some ways, it seems the only way i'm going to get him to fixate on me and not everything else. Temporary solution just so he get's used to hearing "Storm Come" or something along those lines, as the training i've tried just isnt working at all.

like i said before ,start of with no distractions around , then slowly increase whats around u

5) get him something to chew like a bicycle tire or?

kongs and nylabone are good safe doggy chew toys

hope this helps

[Christine0925]

feed him twice a day (3 cups per meal)

How old is he, getting 6 cups of food a day? That may be why he has diarrhea because he is being over-fed? Seems alot

[Langy91]

How old is he, getting 6 cups of food a day? That may be why he has diarrhea because he is being over-fed? Seems alot

Small cups, I think 1 of these is like .75 of a normal cup. From the guideline i've read he's getting almost as much as he needs. He's 11 months, still looks like a puppy so has alot of growing to do yet

[Langy91]

1) His constant howling/barking I play with him alot, feed him twice a day (3 cups per meal), make sure he has his water and the door is always open for him to run into the garden, but he stills walks around howling at everyone now and then.

what about trick training ? this will help mentally tire him out aswell (u can also get metal stimulation toys which could help , google nina ottoson i think thats how its spelt)

2) He's VERY greedy, if someone has food he'll sit and watch you, eventually he'll get bored and lie down to sleep. If you leave a crisp packet or anything that has food on it on a table or something and you're not looking (even if you are looking) he'll try and take it to shred/chew/eat.

LOL sounds like my girl , ive trained her a wait/leave command so she knows shes not allowed to steal , if she waits nicely once ive finished i give her a small bit of the food as a reward for waiting

3) He seems like he has diarrhea 24/7, he's been wormed and we've changed his food once or twice (he gets dry food, lamb + kibble or Turkey + kibble) it was normal for a week then went back.

how much are you feeding him , did u do a straight swap with his food? could he have picked something up n ate it without u knowing (possibly the food he likes to try n steal in your above question) ?

4) Is Reward training the only way to train a Husky? If so, he does the basic commands very well but if we're out and about on the leash and I try to call him back he completely ignores me (if another dog is there or something)

positive reinforcment is best , u can use treats or toys , basically u need to start small , get him focused on u and coming back to you WITHOUT any distractions around , and slowly increase whats around , so start in your house , then progress to the garden , then out on a walk , then with a person around , then a dog , and keep increasing the distractions as and when he learns to focus on u once there is 1 distraction (hope that makes sense)

5) He seems to like chewing his bedding in his cage, is this just out of boredom?

how old is he? has it been since he hasnt had as much walking?

1) I've been very tempted to buy an "Anti-Bark Collar (shock collar)" for my dad's terrier who will bark NON-STOP when someone enters the house, it goes into hysterics like it's had 50000 packets of sweets, and you can't stop it, even by smacking it or making it sit/calming it down doesn't work, this in return makes Storm do the same (he doesnt bark, he just jumps up and follows)

my staffy is the same , havent been able 2 stop him BUT best thing to do is get some1 to come to ur door , go to the door if he barks , u move away from the door , once hes quiet go back to the door , if he barks move away again , he SHOULD learn that if hes quite u will open the door n let the guest in , if the guest comes in and he barks , the guest leaves , till he learns again if he barks the guest leaves , when hes quiet LOTS of fuss and praise

2) I just ignore him when i'm eating and he lies down next to me and sleeps/watches, but i've been told this is also bad, how do I fix it?

if he lies down next to you and isnt begging i wouldnt worry , mine will lie down next to me if im eating but so long as they arent begging i dont mind

if u dont want them to do that tho , remove them from the room , again another repition thing , if u sit down n they come in the room , u get up remove them and go n sit back down , eventually they should realise that u dont want them in the room whilst u eat , n they can come in once uve finished

3) ??

?

4) Also been very tempted to get a Shock Collar to sort this, though it's a bad idea in some ways, it seems the only way i'm going to get him to fixate on me and not everything else. Temporary solution just so he get's used to hearing "Storm Come" or something along those lines, as the training i've tried just isnt working at all.

like i said before ,start of with no distractions around , then slowly increase whats around u

5) get him something to chew like a bicycle tire or?

kongs and nylabone are good safe doggy chew toys

hope this helps

Yeah he hasnt got much in his cage apart from his bedding and a bowl of food which he chews quick, he had some plastic toys to play with but he's pretty much destroyed them. He isnt a chewer at all outside his cage, he doesn't chew and he digs maybe once every 2-3weeks. I do try and trick train him but he only knows sit, stay, down and leave If i'm there when he tries to take the food then yes he listens when I say "Leave".

Umm it wasnt a straight up swap we kinda eezed him into it. He doesnt bark when other people come to the door, he just gets all giddy and walks around and sometimes jumps up to lick them (our Terrier is alot worse, he'll bark)

Well I have another dog a small mongrel Terrier cross which is quite frankly the owner of the house, it's Dads dog and he does next to no training with it (he walks it using a halti headcollar and keeps it on long leash, wondering why it still pulls...)

Could the reason he acts like this purely be because he's picking it up from the Terrier and thinking because the Terrier isnt being punished, he won't either? Also how should I discipline him if he takes food, jumps up (I just push him down or do the jab to the side) ? I normally smack him on the Shoulder once and say "no" in a firm voice but he thinks i'm playing so he'll playfully snap at my hand

[BingBlaze n Skyla]

Yeah he hasnt got much in his cage apart from his bedding and a bowl of food which he chews quick, he had some plastic toys to play with but he's pretty much destroyed them. He isnt a chewer at all outside his cage, he doesn't chew and he digs maybe once every 2-3weeks. I do try and trick train him but he only knows sit, stay, down and leave If i'm there when he tries to take the food then yes he listens when I say "Leave".

Umm it wasnt a straight up swap we kinda eezed him into it. He doesnt bark when other people come to the door, he just gets all giddy and walks around and sometimes jumps up to lick them (our Terrier is alot worse, he'll bark)

Well I have another dog a small mongrel Terrier cross which is quite frankly the owner of the house, it's Dads dog and he does next to no training with it (he walks it using a halti headcollar and keeps it on long leash, wondering why it still pulls...)

Could the reason he acts like this purely be because he's picking it up from the Terrier and thinking because the Terrier isnt being punished, he won't either? Also how should I discipline him if he takes food, jumps up (I just push him down or do the jab to the side) ? I normally smack him on the Shoulder once and say "no" in a firm voice but he thinks i'm playing so he'll playfully snap at my hand

they can pick up bad habits from another dog

when mine take food they get a firm no i remove the food n make sure they see me bin it , when they jump up say no and turn ur back , no fuss till hes calm

[Elyse]

It still sounds like that's a LOT of food! Huskies have high efficient metabolisms - and even when they are young I'm sure they don't need that much food per day!

[Arooroomom]

Just for reference the bags will often over estimate feeding, especially for a Siberian. 6 cups a day is a LOT.

The behaviors you are describing sound like an under stimulated Siberian who is bored. Is there no one else who can help out walking the dog? And Siberians by breed are talkative. My dogs will talk whenever I come into a room, there is no reason for it usually they just do it. The best you can do is ignore it if you don't like it.

And for the begging, as long as you aren't giving them anything off the table you're doing the right thing. My dogs know if they beg they get kicked out of the kitchen. So they don't beg so they can stay in there.

[Langy91]

I guess in normal cups it's about 4. Is that still too much? Ordered some of those really strong plastic/nyla toys that he can chew on when we go out hopefully that solves the shredding his bed nonsense. Yeah I do if he jumps up I push him down and turn around/walk away. My dad walks him when I can't but he only goes maybe 20-30minutes (he lets the Terrier off leash and that knackers fast) whilst Storm has to walk and pulls quite alot when he sees the Terrier run. Kinda feels bad having to keep him on lead, there are fields around that are enclosed but they belong to Darley so we can't go in there. Apart from getting a backpack for him i'm out of ideas..

[Elyse]

Do you have a treadmill in your house? If so, you can treadmill train your boy. Or, if you have the money, you can buy a 'special' dog treadmill for like 300 bucks.

It tires them out quickly, and is VERY handy when you're unable to walk him.

[Langy91]

That could be something of great use... But i'm in the U.K. Don't know where I'd get one.

[Elyse]

That could be something of great use... But i'm in the U.K. Don't know where I'd get one.

There are places like amazon and ebay you can try - order them online. If you have a fitness store, you might just want to buy a human treadmill. Just make sure its long enough so your dog doesn't have to restrict his natural stride.

EDIT: There's a website called JOG A DOG (http://www.jogadog.com/) that seems to have good quality treadmills, but they are significantly more expensive...like around 2 grand!

[Langy91]

There are places like amazon and ebay you can try - order them online. If you have a fitness store, you might just want to buy a human treadmill. Just make sure its long enough so your dog doesn't have to restrict his natural stride.

EDIT: There's a website called JOG A DOG (http://www.jogadog.com/) that seems to have good quality treadmills, but they are significantly more expensive...like around 2 grand!

2k seems a little steep for someone i'll use once or twice a fortnight I'll have a look around and see if I can find anything

[Pasodaisy]

Kobi is an adult dog, he gets just under 2 cups of kibble split into 2 meals as his main source of food. When I read your post the amount of food jumped out at me as potentially high which I thought might be contributing to his diorhea and behavioural problems aswell as not getting his usual exercise(I understand you are injured).

Is there anyone who can exercise him for you temporarily? Also are you able to pay with him in the garden and get him running about to use up some energy? Kobi dashes round and round the garden sometimes with a bit of egging in from me just for fun but something like that could help you. You could also make some challenges for him: hiding little treats for him to find, giving him a stuffed frozen kong for a bit if variety, wearing out and stimulation.

Just a few thoughts.

Hope you are better soon!

[Langy91]

Wow 2 cups? I thought when I was giving him 1.5 cups per meal it was too little, I guess i'm over feeding him with 2 cups per meal?

I just ordered a Kong and some Nylabones when they arrive I can play with him in the garden, when I get my 100ft Long Leash I can take him up to the park and throw them around out there, hopefully then I'm fine standing still and he'll run around after them for awhile...

My dad walks him when I can't but he only goes down the footpath and back which is about 1 mile, he lets the Terrier run around off-leash whilst he walks Storm on leash.

[Elyse]

Have you tried looking around for dog walking companies? Try a google search or just ask around - I'm sure there must be something!

[Katers91]

Was going to suggest a kong too, but I was beat to it! With him being a little greedy it should keep him interested too.

Like others has said, just sounds like he's over fed (stomach problems, and gives him extra energy he needs to burn off) and just a little frustrated with not getting the amount of exercise he's used to - same as you must be frustrated that you can't get out there as much either.

Is the amount you feed him now the same that you fed him before your accident? Was he fine on it then? (as in, no diarrhea, energy problems) I know cutting his food down will seem like he's not getting enough (it still baffles me how little food you're meant to feed huskies!) but he's not getting the same amount of exercise now so doesn't need the extra calories. Hope that makes sense, not so great at getting thoughts from my head into words

[mydiamond]

first of all, his noisiness and destructiveness is only the side effect of boredom. Can you ask your friends/family to walk him for you? Once he got that tiring super long walk those behaviors would disappear/decrease instantly. Promise.

1) His constant howling/barking I play with him alot, feed him twice a day (3 cups per meal), make sure he has his water and the door is always open for him to run into the garden, but he stills walks around howling at everyone now and then.

Walking in the garden doesn't equal a real walk, so that's may be a slightly stressed dog. I believe you already know about the feeding amount, so I'll just shut up about it LOL

2) He's VERY greedy, if someone has food he'll sit and watch you, eventually he'll get bored and lie down to sleep. If you leave a crisp packet or anything that has food on it on a table or something and you're not looking (even if you are looking) he'll try and take it to shred/chew/eat.

Train him. This behavior is not the kind that would disappear without anyone doing anything. Tell him "NO!" whenever he attempted to steal someone's food. NEVER give him a food from your hands when you're eating. If he ignores the "no!" and continued his attempt, take the food away from him. Just try to prevent him from getting any success.

3) He seems like he has diarrhea 24/7, he's been wormed and we've changed his food once or twice (he gets dry food, lamb + kibble or Turkey + kibble) it was normal for a week then went back.

The continuous and rapid food change is actually the one that triggers the diarrhea IMO. Whenever you want to change his food, do it gradually. Mix the new food with the old one slowly decrease the amount of old dog food and after he got used to it you can throw the old dog food out of the window and he'll be fine with the new one. Process takes about a week, depends on your dog.

4) Is Reward training the only way to train a Husky? If so, he does the basic commands very well but if we're out and about on the leash and I try to call him back he completely ignores me (if another dog is there or something)

That's a typical husky behavior. I'm not saying that this is incurable, but it is very VERY normal for even a well-trained husky to have selective hearing. Especially when his four-legged friends are around LOL

5) He seems to like chewing his bedding in his cage, is this just out of boredom?

Could be.

1) I've been very tempted to buy an "Anti-Bark Collar (shock collar)" for my dad's terrier who will bark NON-STOP when someone enters the house, it goes into hysterics like it's had 50000 packets of sweets, and you can't stop it, even by smacking it or making it sit/calming it down doesn't work, this in return makes Storm do the same (he doesnt bark, he just jumps up and follows)

"Smacking him or making him sit doesn't work" does not surprise me. Again, this might be a result of the lack of walks. After he got back to his old super long walking route he'll be better, promise. But what do I know about terriers? Don't listen to me x)

2) I just ignore him when i'm eating and he lies down next to me and sleeps/watches, but i've been told this is also bad, how do I fix it?

As long as he didn't try to steal your food it's not bad.

4) Also been very tempted to get a Shock Collar to sort this, though it's a bad idea in some ways, it seems the only way i'm going to get him to fixate on me and not everything else. Temporary solution just so he get's used to hearing "Storm Come" or something along those lines, as the training i've tried just isnt working at all.

A husky with 0% recall is nothing new. Obedience classes would help IMO.

5) get him something to chew like a bicycle tire or?

Errr... Why bicycle tire? Kongs would be a much better idea

[Langy91]

His normal walking route is either a 1hour walk down a long footpath with the Terrier or i'll go off on my bike with him infront on the leash semi-pulling for 30-45minutes, Terrier runs off infront so this edges Storm on to sprint after him, at which point I stop cycling and just let him pull to tire him out a little quicker

We don't majorly change foods, but I guess we do? We go from Lamb + Kibble to Turkey + Kibble, but that's only because my parents are dumb and think it's not a huge difference.

I do say "NO! or "LEAVE IT!" in a firm voice, he'll sit there and try again in a few seconds. Literally all he wants is the wrappers so he can shred them... D: We put an empty margerine tub in his cage atm coz he has no chews until tomorow, and he shreds it to pieces by the time we come back from work hahaha.

He definately needs obedience training on a higher level than myself and watching my guides etc. It seems his desire to pull when on walks has come back, even when keeping him on a very short leash and stopping/pulling him back into shoulder-shoulder and calling "HEEL!" doesnt seem to work anymore.

The biggest pain here is he rarely ever "looks" at me when i'm talking to him, is this just a huge lack of training? If I call Storm, even in the house, he seems to follow everyone else (though he'll sleep by my bed the little snitch!)

It sucks because our current garden isnt huge at all it's maybe 10m x 10m whereas our old garden was like 100m x 75m I do walk him as much as I can, am I biting off more than I can chew here with getting a Husky? or is this just typical Husky puppy behaviour... he's 11 months this month.

[Katers91]

Have a word with your parents about the food, tell them the change is what's giving your guy problems and they should take notice. I mean, you'd hope they would anyways!

I think it's a lot about mental stimulation too, do you do training with him every day? Ryder always has a nap after training with him (but he is just bumping 10 weeks) but it'll also let him know that it's you he needs to listen to. Fundamentally all dogs just want to please people, so if you have the time it'd be pretty win win.

You haven't bitten off more than you can chew at all - circumstances change constantly and with your injury it's just a rough patch you both need to adapt and work through. Honestly, he just sounds to me like a cheeky dog who's got some locked up energy to burn.

[Langy91]

what really irritates me is the parents. When he's howling/barking in the living room they just go "shut up!" and lock him in the dining room... I just played with him for 5 minutes doing sit/stay/down and right now he's sleeping on my feet and has been for the last hour. How long do you guys train with your Huskies and I assume you just go through every command you/it knows? Storm only knows sit, stay, down, come. But that's only when I show him a treat if there's no treat it'll take alot of effort to get him to sit/down, Stay is almost always perfect though.

[mydiamond]

what really irritates me is the parents. When he's howling/barking in the living room they just go "shut up!" and lock him in the dining room... I just played with him for 5 minutes doing sit/stay/down and right now he's sleeping on my feet and has been for the last hour. How long do you guys train with your Huskies and I assume you just go through every command you/it knows? Storm only knows sit, stay, down, come. But that's only when I show him a treat if there's no treat it'll take alot of effort to get him to sit/down, Stay is almost always perfect though.

slowly decrease the treats, after that you can change the reward from treats into head scratch. Then you can change it again from head scratch to verbal praise. Again do it gradually. Positive reinforcement is a good training method, but this is what happens if you use 100% positive reinforcement without a tiny bit of negative reinforcement in the mix. Show him that if he doesn't listen to you, something not cool WILL happen. However if he does what you ask him to do, something cool WILL happen, too. Don't let the cool things weigh more than the uncool things. Keep it in balance

Tell your parents that time outs don't work on dogs. There IS a command called "quiet" that you can teach your dog, but remember: no dog can learn a command in one day. There's something called "process" in the way and your parents need to be patient until the day when Storm would calm down with one word only comes to reality. Tell him "QUIET!" firmly whenever he's howling and when he coincidentally shuts up right after the word (you'll be surprised at how many times this coincidence would happen LOL) praise him right away. And when I say "right away" I mean it, because often he'd shut up for one second only but even if it's one second, he actually does what you ask him to do so he deserves a belly rub. Keep doing it until he learns the word. Won't take too long, huskies are smart

[Langy91]

He seems a little better, his Kong arrived today and he absolutely loves it! When he's being a pain in the butt i'll take him in the garden and make him sit/down then throw it around the garden, he'll bring it back with "come" and "leave it" he'll drop it and "sit" to make him sit and wait again. He doesnt know alot of commands but when he's focused he does know his select few very well

Dad has started to clicker train his Terrier which is also going pretty well. The only real problem with the Terrier is he loves TV and Walks, he pulls so much even when he's exhausted he'll still pull like a train, so getting that sorted is going to take some effort, Storm is sort of the same but Storm only pulls because he wants to sniff EVERYTHING.

Apart from that, it's going alot better, i'm trick training him 15-30minutes everyday with his 1hour walk beforehand, if he gets too out of hand I call him into the dining room with me and he sleeps on my feet haha.

[Austinville]

We don't majorly change foods, but I guess we do? We go from Lamb + Kibble to Turkey + Kibble, but that's only because my parents are dumb and think it's not a huge difference.

I do say "NO! or "LEAVE IT!" in a firm voice, he'll sit there and try again in a few seconds. Literally all he wants is the wrappers so he can shred them... D: We put an empty margerine tub in his cage atm coz he has no chews until tomorow, and he shreds it to pieces by the time we come back from work hahaha.

He definately needs obedience training on a higher level than myself and watching my guides etc. It seems his desire to pull when on walks has come back, even when keeping him on a very short leash and stopping/pulling him back into shoulder-shoulder and calling "HEEL!" doesnt seem to work anymore.

The biggest pain here is he rarely ever "looks" at me when i'm talking to him, is this just a huge lack of training? If I call Storm, even in the house, he seems to follow everyone else (though he'll sleep by my bed the little snitch!)

It sucks because our current garden isnt huge at all it's maybe 10m x 10m whereas our old garden was like 100m x 75m I do walk him as much as I can, am I biting off more than I can chew here with getting a Husky? or is this just typical Husky puppy behaviour... he's 11 months this month.

Any change in food can be a problem with huskies. Huskies are one of two types: A - Iron stomach and nothing irritates them or B - Everything irritates it!

As far as obedience, you'll find that with a good trainer, it's you, not the husky (!) getting the training! I took Ryn to one-on-one sessions about a year ago and what a difference it made. She now looks to me for direction where she used to walk all over me.

The "look-right-through-you" look is a common husky trait. But, IMO if you go to training, you learn to lead them into paying attention to you, including eye contact as they 'ask' for direction as to what they should be doing.

Your pup is nearing the teen years and like a typical teenager, they'll challenge you over and over unless you take charge. This is where a good trainer can come in handy!

Good luck! Keep us informed on how it's going. Ask lots of questions and we'll help you through this stage in pups growth. We've all been there!

[Langy91]

My mum knows a lady that trains/races Huskies about 40minutes away, going to give her a call over the weekend and see if she can help me out with some training lessions! And yeah he's becoming a teen, wants to hump/sniff everything... Offtopic but, is it worth getting him the "chop" ? I don't plan on breeding from him but I want to know if it's worth it or if it's going to make little to no difference