Hi fellow husky lovers! I wanted to ask for your assistance. This upcoming Wednesday we will be bringing home 8 week old Odin to join the pack. Do you have any advice on how to have this go smoothly?

Background on Ace: We got Aesop as a puppy, he's almost four now, and we could never have imagined how great of a dog he has grown into. He is easy to train, super affectionate, and he fits in so well with our lifestyle. I think a lot of his success stems from the fact that we keep really busy with him, he goes to daycare once a week, we go to dog parks every few days, and take lots of long hikes together.

He's also been really great with other dogs. He tends to flip from dominant to submissive, to play the opposite of what the other dog is, he really doesn't seem to lean one way or the other. He is usually either really good with puppies, letting them crawl all over him and being very gentle, or else he completely ignores him. Actually our biggest concern in terms of him with Odin is that he won't be dominant enough. Ace is well trained, and listens to us, so we would greatly prefer him to the more dominant of the two to make things easier. We fostered a dog last year that was more dominant than Ace, and he seemed to lose all his personality when she was around, it was weird. I could be way overthinking this, I just wanted to see what you all thought.

We were told by another husky owner that it would be good to be sure to give Ace our attention when he wants it, over Odin for awhile. That way there would hopefully be no jealously on Ace's part, and Odin will be so little that he won't notice anyway. I think that's probably a good plan.

Any other advice anyone has on bringing a puppy home? We are so excited!

Aesop

Odin (he's SO fluffy!!)

You might want to read up on some articles by canine behaviorist, Patricia McConnell on dominance. She should also have some fantastic articles on integrating a new pup.

Is that pup a woolly? You will want to visit some collie dog sites for grooming tips if so.

Female Huskies, and dogs in general, tend to be more dominant than males in most cases. This is fairly normal, so if foster was a girl I wouldn't take that as too much of a tell on how he will be with pup. Make sure he has his own space, make sure he gets alone time with you still. Both he and the pup need their one on one time with you. Empower both dogs to be who they are comfortable being. They will find the dynamic they are comfortable with as Odin ages. If you think ace is being run over by pup then you set the boundaries. Odin being so young though, he's going to learn a lot from ace. Very nice looking dogs.