griff-uk Posted March 16, 2013 Report Share Posted March 16, 2013 Hi everyone, I'm mark and i live down south in the UK. We have just taken on a six month old female Siberian husky named Sapphire She is a pure white, with stunning blue eyes. We have had her now for 5 days and she seems to be settling in OK with just a few worrying issues. Firstly our main issue is she seems to show extreme jealous behavior when our little one year old boy Max requires any or our attention. Just the other day Max attempted to grab Sapphire's hidden treat toy and she went for his hand so i shouted at her and said a stern NO! Today whilst i was at work my partner Nikki said that when Max walked to her, Sapphire attempted to push Max away from her and when Max placed his hand on Nikki's leg Sapphire bit Max's hand, not hard but still done what she done. Now Sapphire is only 6 months old and has come from a house where she was not apart of the family indoors, she was kept out in the conservatory section. Also the original family did not have any small children. Max is our youngest child and we also have Joshua who is 4 and Emma who is 9. Sapphire is great with the both of them so its just our 1 year old which we seem to have the issue with. Sapphire i don't think in her first 6 months of life has not really had to deal with boundaries and rules as such and so may need time and commitment to learn whats right and whats wrong. I sit on the floor with our youngest child Max and call Sapphire over where she will lick max's face until i have to tell her to stop but i do that whilst rubbing her neck and saying what a good girl as its this affection i am after with her. Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated and i hope this section is ok for me to have written this entry :-) Regards Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kylepeo Posted March 16, 2013 Report Share Posted March 16, 2013 Hello and Welcome Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Applebear Posted March 16, 2013 Report Share Posted March 16, 2013 Hi Mark and welcome. Huskies seem to be attention hogs, at least this is what I have noticed with my Rolyx. At first, I made the mistake of letting it happen, though he wasn't doing anything as aggressive as Sapphire [love her name btw;)]. In my case it was with my other dog Knarly, and at first I wasn't really sure how to work with the behavior...I've never had such a jealous dog. I found NILIF helps quite a bit there, but it wasn't quite enough...I still had him nosing Knar out of the way so he could have the pets. At first it was hard, I would have to be very firm, "NO...sit, stay." And then proceeded to give Knar his cuddles, which Ro responded with Whining. I ignored it [and it ceased], I didn't want any negative behavior to be reinforced, he was to sit and stay until I was done cuddling Knar...if he popped up, I repeated the no/sit/stay. As much as it took, consistency is your bud here. Soon as Ro stayed, behaved without whining and such, I would praise him and give him his turn..I increased the time as we went. In your case, I'm wondering if you should work on a method much the same [esp NILIF, can never go wrong with that one imo ], but add closing her off into a room by herself [crates are no no for punishment] for about 10 minutes when she does something real bad, such as biting. The idea is simply to show her she gets excluded with that kind of behavior. She wants to be with the family, she will learn when she is pushing and biting it takes her away from her fave thing, giving her reason and motivation to behave. Until your son is older, she will view him as equal to lower in the pack [usually lower, which is why constant supervision is a must]. Hopefully others respond to this, as I'm sure my advice probably isn't the greatest. I don't have kids so I can only imagine how important it is to get a handle on this problem early. It just made me think of Ro's jealous and diva side, so thought I'd share some of the things that helped with him. Again, welcome! Let's see some pics! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keeonah Posted March 16, 2013 Report Share Posted March 16, 2013 Good evening and The information given to you by Apryl is pretty sound advice. She has to learn that biting of any description is a definate no no. Use the N.I.L.I.F method and when needed exclude her from the rest of you by putting in a room on her own until she has learnt. It may be that she will realise she is doing wrong fairly quickly or it may take a while but if you are struggling and things aren't working out then ask us again as someone may have a different idea to try. You have certainly found the best husky site for information. I must say that I did just go and check my dogs when I first read your introduction as I to have a 6 month old female called Sapphire as you will see on my sig beneath this. Gary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Posted March 17, 2013 Report Share Posted March 17, 2013 Welcome Mark. Some pics would be nice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BingBlaze n Skyla Posted March 17, 2013 Report Share Posted March 17, 2013 Welcome to the pack :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
griff-uk Posted March 17, 2013 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2013 Hi Mark and welcome. Huskies seem to be attention hogs, at least this is what I have noticed with my Rolyx. At first, I made the mistake of letting it happen, though he wasn't doing anything as aggressive as Sapphire [love her name btw;)]. In my case it was with my other dog Knarly, and at first I wasn't really sure how to work with the behavior...I've never had such a jealous dog. I found NILIF helps quite a bit there, but it wasn't quite enough...I still had him nosing Knar out of the way so he could have the pets. At first it was hard, I would have to be very firm, "NO...sit, stay." And then proceeded to give Knar his cuddles, which Ro responded with Whining. I ignored it [and it ceased], I didn't want any negative behavior to be reinforced, he was to sit and stay until I was done cuddling Knar...if he popped up, I repeated the no/sit/stay. As much as it took, consistency is your bud here. Soon as Ro stayed, behaved without whining and such, I would praise him and give him his turn..I increased the time as we went. In your case, I'm wondering if you should work on a method much the same [esp NILIF, can never go wrong with that one imo ], but add closing her off into a room by herself [crates are no no for punishment] for about 10 minutes when she does something real bad, such as biting. The idea is simply to show her she gets excluded with that kind of behavior. She wants to be with the family, she will learn when she is pushing and biting it takes her away from her fave thing, giving her reason and motivation to behave. Until your son is older, she will view him as equal to lower in the pack [usually lower, which is why constant supervision is a must]. Hopefully others respond to this, as I'm sure my advice probably isn't the greatest. I don't have kids so I can only imagine how important it is to get a handle on this problem early. It just made me think of Ro's jealous and diva side, so thought I'd share some of the things that helped with him. Again, welcome! Let's see some pics! Hi and sorry for the delay in responding. This is the exact help i have been looking for and your post is highly appreciated. I will most definatly start putting that into action. Its hard sometimes as i go off to work and its Nikki that has to deal with controlling Sapphire which she can get frustrated as Sapphire listens to me more than Nikki But she just has to keep going and i know time will pay off big with this. Now the only options we have of shutting Sapphire out away if she bites etc is she can either be locked in the kichen using a stair gate or lock into the hallway. The kitchen is allot easier IMO. Again thankyou for your advice and i will surely get some pics up as soon as i can ;-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
griff-uk Posted March 17, 2013 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2013 Good evening and The information given to you by Apryl is pretty sound advice. She has to learn that biting of any description is a definate no no. Use the N.I.L.I.F method and when needed exclude her from the rest of you by putting in a room on her own until she has learnt. It may be that she will realise she is doing wrong fairly quickly or it may take a while but if you are struggling and things aren't working out then ask us again as someone may have a different idea to try. You have certainly found the best husky site for information. I must say that I did just go and check my dogs when I first read your introduction as I to have a 6 month old female called Sapphire as you will see on my sig beneath this. Gary. HAHA oh dear! Checked to make sure she was not missing LOL that made me giggle. I will be putting the above into action immediatly and ill be sure to ask for additional help/pointers as and when i need it. Thankyou for you post :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
griff-uk Posted March 17, 2013 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2013 Welcome Mark. Some pics would be nice OK OK ;-) I will get the camera out and get some quality snaps. Do i have to photobucket them or can i just upload them straight to here?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
griff-uk Posted March 17, 2013 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2013 Welcome to the pack :-) Thankyou ;-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Posted March 17, 2013 Report Share Posted March 17, 2013 OK OK ;-) I will get the camera out and get some quality snaps. Do i have to photobucket them or can i just upload them straight to here?? Hi, Mark. You can put them in from Photobucket or Follow this tutorial to upload from your PC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
griff-uk Posted March 17, 2013 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2013 Here are some pics i have just taken of Sapphire :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidnightPaws Posted March 17, 2013 Report Share Posted March 17, 2013 Welcome! She's gorgeous! I have the same jealousy problem with Maya when it comes to the other dogs in the house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dunc Posted March 17, 2013 Report Share Posted March 17, 2013 Its to be hoped Skyla does not see him Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BingBlaze n Skyla Posted March 17, 2013 Report Share Posted March 17, 2013 Aww!!!!!! So cute! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BingBlaze n Skyla Posted March 18, 2013 Report Share Posted March 18, 2013 Its to be hoped Skyla does not see him why?? lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stormy Posted March 18, 2013 Report Share Posted March 18, 2013 Welcome to the forum Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dunc Posted March 18, 2013 Report Share Posted March 18, 2013 why?? lol They might make polar bears Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadow-Kodah-Drako Posted March 18, 2013 Report Share Posted March 18, 2013 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cas Posted March 18, 2013 Report Share Posted March 18, 2013 Hello and . She is gorgeous Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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