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Location: Malta
Joined: Mar 2015
Posts: 7
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20-03-2015, 04:06 PM
Originally Posted by PONlady 
It does sound to me as if your Husky is telling you he's bored - the walking is great, but this is a breed with super-high energy levels and an active brain, too! You could do a lot more with him.
There are lots of tricks you can teach him using a clicker and target stick. Work on that recall until it's pin-sharp, teach him to down-stay at a distance, to walk to heel, jump over obstacles, and so on. Huskies love to pull - it's in their genes - have you considered something like Cani-cross? This is where the dog and owner both wear specially designed harnesses, with a bungee leash between them. The dog runs ahead and 'pulls' the owner as he/she runs after it. It's the nearest thing to sledding without a sled!
A new puppy is going to need a lot of individual attention if she/he isn't to learn your Husky's naughty tricks; what will your Husky do while you're training the pup?
You must be honest here; your Husky doesn't want to share you with another dog. He wants MORE of you! You should only get another dog if YOU want one, not for your current dog.
Another dog is not going to teach your Husky a good recall, or anything else. You are right to worry that your Husky might teach your new puppy his naughty behaviour, and then you'd have two of them to deal with! It's up to you to teach your dog what you want him to know, and that will be far easier without a puppy to also consider.
It's true, once they have become friends, two dogs will enjoy each other's company, especially when you aren't around - but its vital that both dogs both see YOU as the most important and fun thing in their lives.
My advice, for what it's worth, is to spend some more time with your current Husky, see if you can develop a stronger bond with him by teaching him tricks etc; play 'hide and seek' when you take him out, for example, to encourage his recall. A special treat when he finds you will make him keen to play the game again.
Give it another year, work with your Husky and if at the end of the year he has made good progress and you still want another dog, that might be a better time to do it.
Best of luck!
Thanks a lot!
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Location: Malta
Joined: Mar 2015
Posts: 7
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20-03-2015, 04:09 PM
Originally Posted by PONlady
It does sound to me as if your Husky is telling you he's bored - the walking is great, but this is a breed with super-high energy levels and an active brain, too! You could do a lot more with him.
There are lots of tricks you can teach him using a clicker and target stick. Work on that recall until it's pin-sharp, teach him to down-stay at a distance, to walk to heel, jump over obstacles, and so on. Huskies love to pull - it's in their genes - have you considered something like Cani-cross? This is where the dog and owner both wear specially designed harnesses, with a bungee leash between them. The dog runs ahead and 'pulls' the owner as he/she runs after it. It's the nearest thing to sledding without a sled!
A new puppy is going to need a lot of individual attention if she/he isn't to learn your Husky's naughty tricks; what will your Husky do while you're training the pup?
You must be honest here; your Husky doesn't want to share you with another dog. He wants MORE of you! You should only get another dog if YOU want one, not for your current dog.
Another dog is not going to teach your Husky a good recall, or anything else. You are right to worry that your Husky might teach your new puppy his naughty behaviour, and then you'd have two of them to deal with! It's up to you to teach your dog what you want him to know, and that will be far easier without a puppy to also consider.
It's true, once they have become friends, two dogs will enjoy each other's company, especially when you aren't around - but its vital that both dogs both see YOU as the most important and fun thing in their lives.
My advice, for what it's worth, is to spend some more time with your current Husky, see if you can develop a stronger bond with him by teaching him tricks etc; play 'hide and seek' when you take him out, for example, to encourage his recall. A special treat when he finds you will make him keen to play the game again.
Give it another year, work with your Husky and if at the end of the year he has made good progress and you still want another dog, that might be a better time to do it.
Best of luck!
The thing I tend to disagree with is the caini cross since if he is pulling when I am doing it that's all well and good, how ever I wouldn't want him doing that on leash. Tough I could be wrong the only way to find out is to try.
Thanks a lot for your help!!!"
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Location: Malta
Joined: Mar 2015
Posts: 7
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20-03-2015, 04:15 PM
Originally Posted by Wolfwitch
I think that is some very sound advice Ponlady. Don't forget there is never a guarantee your dogs will get on. I got a GSD pup when I already had a 9 year old Border Collie and he never liked her, they just ended up each doing their own thing and tolerating each other at best. GSDs (Like Huskys) can be very vocal, be aware that this combination has a high likelihood of becoming a very noisy pair if not trained well, egging each other on. Hope you don't have any close neighbours
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Location: Scotland, UK
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 693
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20-03-2015, 09:16 PM
Originally Posted by glenn0010
When you say Belgians, are you referring to the Belgian Shepard or the Belgian malinois... or are they the same thing?
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Location: Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 426
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21-03-2015, 09:01 AM
Have you done any clicker training? Luring your dog to walk beside you nicely with a food treat, click right at the point he is in the right position and then giving him the treat, or training him to 'target' your hand (by rubbing something nice-smelling to him on your fingers, and click-treat each time he tries to sniff it, eventually moving your hand so he follows it) would be a great way of teaching him to walk nicely. You don't really 'need' a clicker, you can use a nice marker word like '"Yes!" Or "Good!" instread, but make sure you don't accidentally say that word when you aren't trying to mark a type of behaviour!
You need to practise every day, start with short sessions first, just five minutes or so, but maybe five times every day.
Target-training is brilliant if you want to try agility or tricks such as bow, spin, fetch-an-object, close a door, jump over or scramble under somethung, and so on. My PON is trained to touch the end of a stick and gets very excited when he sees it come out, he knows we are going to have fun! You only click-treat when he's doing what you want - other than this, you just ignore any behaviour you don't want, so he cannot 'lose', only win.
There are plenty of books or online resources telling you how to use clicker-training to get the most from your dog.
The best thing is he will LOVE it, and love YOU even more - and you will love him because you will be focussed on what he gets right, rather than what he does that annoys you. He will become a dog you are proud of!
Try this website to get you started -
http://www.clickertraining.com/get-started
Hope you find it interesting and you give it a go!
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