whiskedaway

Happy Birthday Kyojin, you handsome boy!

At night, the lappie (7 months) is crated, the Sibe (16 months) is allowed to go where she likes. She normally sleeps under the bed, but last night she put herself to bed in her crate downstairs. The lappie won't have the door opened until I'm 100% certain I can trust her (currently am at about 95%, so it will probably be soon) but I think she'll choose to sleep in her crate because that's what she does during the day.

I currently own a Siberian Husky and a Finnish Lapphund, and I used to own Hungarian Vizslas and a Pomeranian. I can't really see us owning anything other than Spitz breeds now. We'll definitely have more lappies and maybe another Sibe or two (but only one at a time) and I'd love a Samoyed but OH is not so convinced.

I took my Sibe (also neutered and not a show dog) along to show training classes (at the Rottweiler club where I currently take my shoe puppy) before I got Halo to learn the ropes. Doing it with an older calmer dog first can be much easier to learn than with a naughty baby puppy!

She's very food motivated so hopefully this should work. She has no issues at all when she's off lead and will go over to people to beg pats and cuddles. It's just on lead where we have the problem and she shies away. Today we tried to get her to sit and praise her as she took food off the trainer, and I had to put my foot behind her to keep her from moving back. Later on I was click and treating as the trainer walked near when she was in a stand, but I was staying at her side rather than in front. I will give that a try - might see if I can borrow one of our neighbours to help out.

Hi guys I need some advice. My Sibe Akira is pretty scared of people she doesn't know. She was hit as a puppy and is very nervous now. Today we were told that until she gets over her fear and allows someone to come over for a stand for examination, she can't graduate. How can I train her not to automatically back away when someone comes over?

RIP Cordelia. What a lovely tribute.

I'm so sorry K9Angel. I really hope Whitey pulls through.

I joined after I got Akira. We had lots of issues with her fear at the start and I joined to get advice on how to handle it. I stayed because I loved talking about dogs and no one around me wanted to listen to it.

Nah, the colder the better. Wish it would snow. Though not sure we like going out when it's raining. Akira and Halo.

Yeah agreed with everyone else. NO WAY. For example... Today I took my Sibe to obedience. Put her in her crate, went and got the lappie from the car. I hadn't latched the bottom latch on the crate properly. Walked lappie over to the crate just to see the Sibe racing off into the distance. She had pushed the bottom of the door out and crawled through. It took six people ten minutes to catch her, and she does agility and has a fairly good recall normally. She just decided it was a game of "screw you" and gave me the figurative finger. They really are a breed where you never really know what they're going to do. Some days I can leave Akira in a sit stay for five minutes knowing she won't move. Some days I can work with her completely off leash. But there are some days where I don't trust her as far as I can throw her and today was definitely one of those days! You need to work extremely hard with them, and while a lot are good with kids (Akira adores them) I don't think you have enough time with three littlies to put in the amount of time needed.

If it's a store policy, there's nothing you can do and customers need to realise that rather than get pissy at the staff. When I worked at Disney, every single cup had to be accounted for. If it was ruined, it had to be kept to prove it was ruined. Your pay was docked if there were missing cups, because missing cups add up. Cups are a stocktake item, and stocktake items need to be accounted for. Even leftover popcorn was kept and weighed before being thrown out. After all, we can't account for the amount of syrup we use in a fountain drink, but we can account for the cups.

OH gets home at 4pm and takes the dogs for a walk, then cleans up whatever mess they've made throughout the day (at the moment it's stuffed toys with all of their fluff pulled out of them). Just before I get home, he feeds them dinner. I get home just before 6pm, cook our own dinner and then do a little bit of training (normally only about 5-10 min) with each of the dogs. After that, they'll put themselves to bed, or if they need it I'll give them a groom. This changes on Thursdays and Fridays because every second Thursday Halo has show training, and every Friday Akira has agility. So those days are a little more unusual to normal. Weekends are obviously a different story again, and that's when we have shows and obedience, and any sledding that we might do.

They're a lot more solid than a Border Collie, though, so I think that gives them the impression of being bigger.

Definitely agree with Aussie Terrier, they're great little dogs. However, not sure if you mean "small" as in toy size, or as in "small compared to a rotty" LOL. If it's the latter, perhaps think about an Australian Shepherd or even a Finnish Lapphund. Both are working dogs, but they're not as high-drive as the Border Collies, but they'll stand up to rough play from the kids.

Very true. It was such a shock for me when we got our lappie and she started dropping weight because I was feeding her more than the Sibe and the Sibe was putting on weight. You don't realise how little they actually need to eat until you have another breed of dog.

Hi Raybans. Congrats on your first Husky and well done on rescuing one. I hope she has a great life with you. In answer to some of your questions: 1. I wouldn't use a furminator on a Husky. They rip the top coat and are really expensive. My best brush for dealing with shedding is actually a moulting comb. Mine is made by Noah's and I bought it from Pet Network online - only cost $7. (http://www.petnetwork.com.au/cgi-bin/shopping.pl?page=combs.htm&cart_id=169250) I also use a brush and a fine/coarse comb. 2. The best food is the one your dog does best on. So sometimes it can be a bit of trial and error. Some people won't touch Science Diet at all, I have no opinion on it as I've never tried it. I've had Akira on both Supercoat and now ProPlan, and I have to say the better quality the food, the less smelly the farts and the less poo! A lot of people find that canned food gives really smelly farts. A good quality dry is the best thing to feed IMO with no more than 20% raw meat so that they get an adequate calcium intake. 3. You're talking about a martingale. Have used them on Akira (actually I've tried everything, because she is a puller) though I do find the easiest to control her is a slip collar (or a choke chain if you'd rather call it that). We only use a fabric slip though so that it doesn't harm her coat. Once again, you'll often go through a few different things before you find the one that works best for your dog. 4. Used a kong for a fair while, but most of the things that go in them (peanut butter, raw chicken) upset my Husky's belly, so I use a treat ball that I can actually put kibble in. Keeps her amused for ages. Can't really say much about instructors in Sydney, though hopefully Shell will come in here - she's an instructor and owns a Husky and lives in NSW. Come say hi in the Husky thread and/or the Spitz thread in the Breed Subforums. You might get more replies there than you will here.

I don't buy them all the time but when I do I only really check through my group and breeds I'm interested in from other groups. I always buy them for specialties and Royals though.

Personally I think its a bit high for a breeding dog, but HD is such a multifactorial disease that you can get pups with it even from 0:) parents. Maybe ask them why they chose to breed with a dog with relatively high hip scores- she might have never produced pups with HD before... You can't really "even out" a bad hip score (not that a 12 is bad) by using a father with a lower score. Its up to you but defintely raise you concern with the breeder The breed average for Goldens an 18-20 though. It hasn't shifted much in the last ten years because inheritance is actually lower in a GR so it makes it more difficult to lower the hip scores. So a dog with a 12 is actually okay for the breed.

Kibble is just a lot easier for us - we travel for shows a couple of times a year so that makes raw hard, my OH doesn't like anything too hard (and he's normally the one who feeds them), and if they have to be kennelled (which they will be in October when we go for our honeymoon) we can't expect anyone else to feed them raw. We do feed some raw as I said, but it's primarily kibble. Will look into the Black Hawk, it seems to be popular.

I'm looking to change my lappie puppy's kibble and I need some suggestions. Full story is: at about four months we started noticing that Halo was extremely thin. Her puppy coat started dying and going red (not sure if it was from normal growing up or her dietary issues, but she was the only one in the litter who went red) and we tried to put some weight on her by increasing her kibble and adding extra meat to her diet (mainly meaty beef bones and chicken wings, and she got sardines twice a week instead of once a week). She's at a normal weight now, so we've cut back the amount of food she's getting very slightly so it's now just maintenance. However she now has dandruff and her skin is quite dry, even though she's still getting sardines twice a week. She also doesn't seem to like her kibble very much and eats extremely slowly, but will take any opportunity to get some of Akira's. She's not a fussy eater at all, I've never allowed her to be. She's currently on ProPlan Puppy Chicken and Rice, and I'd like to keep her on puppy formula for a little while longer just because of the dietary issues she had as a young pup. I was considering mixing Akira's kibble with hers (Akira's on ProPlan Sensitive Skin and Stomach which is salmon based) because the fish would help her coat. Does anyone have any other suggestions, possibly of other brands that might help her skin and coat get better? She is in the process of growing her adult coat, which I'm sure is adding extra stress to her system and could be the reason for the dandruff. Oh and it's not shampoo, we make sure it's washed out completely each time she has a bath.

Yay, I go to the Rottweiler Club, so I'll be able to meet Moose. :D

I prefer agility. It's more fun for both me and my dog, and it doesn't matter how fun I try to make obedience, Akira just doesn't enjoy it. Funnily enough, though, since starting agility and getting the hang of it, Akira has really started to put more effort into obedience. She has to be obedient to participate in agility (ie, running off in class means that she doesn't get to play and has to sit out as punishment) and as a result she no longer runs off during stays in obedience either, and her drops have improved a lot. Halo on the other hand loves obedience, and because of that she's fun to train and makes me enjoy obedience more. She'd happily sit, stay, drop, stand until the cows come home as long as I'm the one telling her to do it. However she's just as much of a joy to train in agility (though we've only done foundation work such as walking over a pole on the ground and running through a tunnel because she's too young) due to the fact that she just wants to please.

Trust me, you don't want a Husky. ;) Well Halo is now 6.5 months old so I thought I'd share an updated photo. We had a three day show weekend this week and Halo was a really good girl most of the time. Me and Halo in the ring while she was being examined by the judge. And my gorgeous cheeky girl who I love soooo much. (First photo taken by Tobster's OH, and second photo taken by Lyndsay's OH)

Akira - We wanted a name that would suit a Siberian Husky. We were driving home from the breeders and the name "Akira" popped into my head. Got home, did a Google search for "Siberian Husky names" and Akira was the first one on the list. It seemed like fate, so that became her name. Apparently means "intelligent" and I suppose she has her moments! Halo - I didn't want it to sound like Akira, so it couldn't start with A, C or K or end in an A. Gave a million names to OH, he didn't like any of them. One day, was on Facebook and Beyonce's song Halo came up and I went "oh, that's the name". OH liked it, I liked it, and it was kind of like fate too because Halo's half sister is named Beyonce, and it was Beyonce that really made me take notice of the lappies.