This is a question I've been trying to answer for awhile now. I am aware that huskies are very high in energy and need constant attention, however that's not the problem for me. The problem is I'm not sure what to do outside of a daily 2-5 mile walk or bike. I live out in the country so we have plenty of trails, wooded areas etc. but I'm not very creative and could use some more ideas. So how do you guys keep your huskies occupied throughout the day to a level where they wont rip apart the house? Any ideas, suggestions, or comments are welcome, thanks!

Shaqua and I play soccer...and by play soccer I mean I run around and kick the ball and she follows me...occasionally she will play with it, but mostly she runs.

If your dog plays fetch, capitalize on that! Is your back yard fenced for this? If not it might be a bit tricky. If your dog doesn't play fetch a dog park is a great place to get energy out. Shaqua doesn't play fetch, but she LOVES to run (as all huskies do) and will just run and run and run next to all the dogs that DO play fetch. She doesn't even fight them for the ball, she just wants to run and make sure she can beat all those young pups in a race.

Thanks!

We don't have a physical fence although we do have an invisible one which I'm pretty sure wont be too useful... I actually don't have a husky yet but when I'm able to get one playing soccer is an excellent idea (I play and referee soccer, and we have several large soccer fields not too far from here) thanks for the ideas!

-Just a warning, huskies are NOT to be let off the leash. I can do that with mine, but I wasn't able to do that until she was about 6 years old, **and that was an exception to the rule***. As you may have already read, raising a siberian is a bit different than raising a retriever or lab....ok...a lot different!

If you are planning on taking them to the soccer fields I hope they are fully fenced....and well. An invisible fence, in my experience, doesn't work at all for a breed like a husky.

I usually play catch with Callie, Sometimes she'll just keep it in her mouth and run circles around me. She also loves to play soccer as well. When shes in the ouse, i have a Kong ball she likes to kick around the house and some ropes and play a bit of tug of war.

Hmm you raise a good point, I almost forgot about that for a second... I'm kicking myself in the leg right now for being such a novice. >.<

I know that an invisible fence is next to useless, but I can't really afford a physical one of any kind. The soccer fields are large but have no fences, just wide open space and woods which is beginning to get me nervous for all too obvious reasons. So what should I do to address this issue outside of watching them 24/7 (which I would probably have to do anyways)?

@Callie&co: That's awesome, so huskies love catch and soccer? That could work with proper planning...

Are there any dog parks in your area? There are a few by me and if they didn't exist, I probably would have gone crazy by now. Also, to note, once you get your puppy you won't be able to do much more than 5 min walks (training commands REALLY burns them out too), once they're done growing (around 2) is when I would recommend you start biking / running / pulling with them.

A leash is a must. I used to take Shaqua to baseball fields because they were fully fenced with gates....until someone apparently decided they didn't like it and a sign went up that said "No Dogs On Field". I've always had fenced yards and/or long tie out runs. Other than that I just exercise with her. It keeps me in shape anyways.

I used to take Tasha snow shoeing with her on a 50' line. That was a lot of fun!

@UndarthAngipoo: I did a light search on that yesterday, the closest one seems to be about an hour away. Meaning I could go about once a week unless there's a closer one. I'll see if I can find some closer ones to go to more often. Honestly I thought that a puppy would have more energy than an adult, but if they can be tired out easier and don't want to run a marathon every day than that's fine with me, thanks!

@CavingSiberian: Okay cool! A leash will definitely be on the top of my priority list. I'll also see if I can find a local fenced in baseball field, shouldn't be too hard... I hope...

@wpskier222: That sounds like a lot of fun, I'll have to try it sometime!

Back when we lived in an apartment and a house with an unfenced yard we would take our sibe to an open field and put him on a 75 ft lead and let him run out their. My sibe lioves to chase tennis balls, footballs, soccer balls, and frisbees. He won't bring them back but he loves to chase them if we throw them for him and he loves to play 'keep away'.

I roller blade with mine. Hooking a leash to them and letting pull me down the street is always a lot of fun. Swimming is also up there on the list as one of mine adores being in the water.

During winter, and living in a rural area like you do, you could get into Ski or Snowboard Joring.


It is also important to understand mental stimulation, especially for a puppy, can be very exhausting. Teaching tricks, training, or mind games and puzzles can be great ways to exhaust energy when they are too young to be outside or the weather is less then ideal.

~Chris~

AMB wrote:

This is a question I've been trying to answer for awhile now. I am aware that huskies are very high in energy and need constant attention, however that's not the problem for me. The problem is I'm not sure what to do outside of a daily 2-5 mile walk or bike. I live out in the country so we have plenty of trails, wooded areas etc. but I'm not very creative and could use some more ideas. So how do you guys keep your huskies occupied throughout the day to a level where they wont rip apart the house? Any ideas, suggestions, or comments are welcome, thanks!

i live in the country aswell, and do not have a fenced in yard (well except the horse coral next to the barn but falling tree's have destroyed it and i dont feel like fixing it). what i do is i hook blu up to a 50ft nylon training leash and i clip it to my belt loops, then we toss around this ball i got him with a bunch of holes in it (looks like a hollow soccer ball) and we chase each other and play fetch. also general training seems to tire him out, sometimes we go to the baseball feild around here to play some off leash fetch (big feilds with large fences are amazeing... take advantage if there are any in your area)

For taking your dog to the fields, I suggest getting a horse lunge line. They come in all sorts of lengths and strengths. I suggest a thin nylon one with good stitching. (Bad stitching means husky is off leash quickly). It gets pretty tangled up at first but you learn to manage it in no time, and it helps with hand eye coordination.
You can get them pretty cheap.

Here is some things I do or plan to do with my husky: (And some things off the top of my head that are random)
Bike Joring
Roller Blading
Walks
Jogs
Hikes
Fetch
Climbing (If you have hay stacks out there, My dog loves climbing those things and it puts on some insane muscle)
Pulling sleds/wheeled things
Soccer,Football,anything active that you can think of something for! Maybe teach your pup to try to get a basket ball from you.
Swimming
Obstacle courses (Nothing fancy, You can make nearly anything with creativity)
Run it up and down stairs
Play Tag/Hide and seek!
Dog Parks
Tug of war
Dog puzzle toys
Laser pointers!! Huskies can sometimes have short attention spans and so they may not chase as much as other breeds, but they WILL chase a laser pointer! (Well most) just be careful not to point it in their eyes.
Searching games (hide something and have them find it)
Maybe they will chase bubbles?? Could give it a try
Dogs are allowed in some stores such as Petco, My husky usually sleeps for a little while after leaving there.
Teach is sled dog commands, to go left (haw) or right (gee)


Some people do agility, You can teach it to jump, do tricks, treadmills. Look up police dog training activities and you might get some things from there! Teach it to track, Gives the pups mind something to do

AMB wrote:

@UndarthAngipoo: I did a light search on that yesterday, the closest one seems to be about an hour away. Meaning I could go about once a week unless there's a closer one. I'll see if I can find some closer ones to go to more often. Honestly I thought that a puppy would have more energy than an adult, but if they can be tired out easier and don't want to run a marathon every day than that's fine with me, thanks!

Puppies are a bit lazier, they still are really playful and need some exercise, but trust me, once they hit 8 months or so, the energy skyrockets, ours run 3-6 km a day in the summer in the mornings then walk another 3 in the evening. Add in swimming and wrestling.....it requires a lot of exercise. We can spend 3 hours at the dog park no problem just to wear our 2 year old out.

Thanks for all the responses and ideas guys! I think I'll try out the "extendable leash" as that seems to be a good way to let them run without letting them get away. I'm still open to any ideas that you guys might have, I couldn't think up of half of these without weeks and weeks of sitting and thinking!

dog + Dog beach x 1 hour = sleeping huskies

even if you keep them on leash and just walk along the surf , between the sun, surf and sand they get exhausted.

Mine are sacked out in the shade of the back porch right now.

I let them off leash at the dog beach ( it's an off leash dog beach) and they run up and down the beach and in and out of the water. After the first 30 min or so Dakota's recall becomes excellent ( because he's tired and can't be bothered to ignore me) But he's also very good at leave it and on by so i can verbally control him, the beach is also a couple miles long and far back from the road. I don't let them of leash until we hit the water.

That's a great idea thanks! We go to the beach a couple times every summer so I'll see if I can find one that allows dogs. Going to the beach for a day does tire everyone out tremendously so it should work swimmingly (excuse the bad pun, I can't resist bad puns ). Thanks again!

AMB wrote:

Thanks for all the responses and ideas guys! I think I'll try out the "extendable leash" as that seems to be a good way to let them run without letting them get away. I'm still open to any ideas that you guys might have, I couldn't think up of half of these without weeks and weeks of sitting and thinking!

I would not suggest a retractable leash. They were not made for the breed and they break on people with huskies left and right. The leash usually does okay but the inner mechanism just gets ripped apart unless your dog walks perfectly with you and stops as soon as it feels tension on the leash. When I was looking into getting one for Loki, I read a story about a husky who walks great on a leash, but one day saw a racoon in the woods and broke the line clean in half. Was a 60ibs dog and the leash was rated to 110ibs. Also, With a retractable you have pretty much NO control.
It is something you can maybe use in the future for letting them out to go potty. But, I personally do not think it is safe for anything else and I am sure plenty here would agree to that. There ARE some sturdy ones out there that you may be able to get away with using, Do your research and find the RIGHT one if you do!

Ah I see, thanks for the tip!

I never suggest a retractable lead ever. I seriously hate those things LOL. Too many irresponsible people use them and people get hurt. And, like stated, they are not sturdy. The leash actually works against loose leash training. The leash works on resistance, which means it is pulling against the collar, which makes the dog think it actually NEEDS to pull because the leash is pulling them back. It is very backwards and I just don't like them. Especially for Siberians. They see a kitty and you aren't paying attention..they are gone.

What I use for my girls are 50-100ft leads. If you can't find any that long, just tie a bunch of them together. Works much better and is much safer IMO.

I'll admit my two dont get much exercise which i am working on more now that we can get outside. Their main exercise is play time with my sisters pup but we havent got that option right now. Just going to the store wears them out though. First time i brought them to two pet stores looking for collars they came home and slept in my lap for a good few hours! Bella is in training class right and she comes home eats diner and sleeps for an hour usually, jasper is so happy shes home he doesnt even come out of their crate he just waits for her eats with her and sleeps along with her. My only suggestions would be playtime with other dogs, trips out to a pet store or pet friendly store, and training classes.

Im glad to hear others dont trust the retractable leashes! We tried one for my nova when she weighed only 25 -35 lbs and this was the biggest weight holding leash available, the first time out with it the braking mechanism didnt stop the cable and she ripped the thing right out of the casing only reason she didnt get away was because a nice gentleman dive bombed her and carried her back to us. My trainer now suggest's it and i told her ill consider it but bad experiences are telling me no way! Where do you guys find your longer leads? I have twenty foot ones i picked up from walmart but havent found a 50 or 100 foot which i would like to get.

You can order them online or at a feed store. They have them at Petsmart/Petco but I have found they are more expensive there. Feed store meaning Tractor Supply or something like that.

Another thing I do is just tie a bunch of their old leashes together. I am a leash/collar hoarder and have tons of each. Instead of getting rid of them, I make long training leashes .

Wow okay no retractable leads then! Do you think I should maybe just get two leashes? One shorter one for walks and stuff, and then a longer one for playing out at a field or something like that? I think I could find a good long one either way...

I feel, if it hasn't already been mentioned, that exercising your Siberian will grow as the pup does. You don't want to over do it when they are young so the general rule for structured exercise (walks) should be kept to 5min per month they are old- Their joints and growth plates are delicate and inadvertently you can create long term problems by trying to do too much too soon. For pulling/running type dog sports like bikejoring, carting/sledding, etc it is not suggested they start any strenuous harness work until they are at least 1 year, 15-18 months being a little safer once they have the majority of their growth-