Hello everyone!
My name is Kas. Me and my hubby brought our siberian husky home 4 weeks ago. She was 8 weeks then and will be turning 13 weeks in two days. We named her Luna, after the howling concert she gave us the first night.
We did not plan on getting a puppy at this time. We knew we will get a husky at some time in the future (my husband used to own a Malamute) - from a breeder or a rescue, just not exactly yet. During the Labor Day weekend, while on a road trip in the Poconos, we stopped at a general store and it broke our hearts to see that the store was selling puppies. Luna was one of the two huskies there (two others already sold). I wish I was able to rescue all of the puppies from that place. Instead, we decided to give Luna a home.
I realize it's really dangerous to be getting a puppy from a store, all we know is the names of her parents and their registration details. She's also registered.
First vet visit went very well, Luna's healthy. We only had an issue with parasites, despite her being wormed, but that's been taken care of as well, and we hope her check-up won't show any more issues.
She's a bundle of cuteness, bravery and smarts, but she can also be a "little devil". She has those moments, when she's really hyper and nothing can stop her. I guess that's not uncommon for husky puppies.

We also have another dog, an 8-yo lab & ridgback mix (although we're also suspecting some pitbull in her), a rescue. She's a wonderful dog, although she's been brought up an only child and we were a little worried as to how the two of them will get along. It's surpased our expectations, Izzy only gets irritated when Luna jumps on her and bites her ears.

I joined this forum because never having been the lucky friend of a husky, I have like a thousand questions on how to do things right with her, so that she can grow up happy and healthy. Reading through the forum so far already helped tremendously, kudos to Tori and others, who run this place and all the members posting their stories, tips and photos.

Welcome! Whereabouts in VA are you? I run a meet up group in Maryland, if you're in the DC area we'd love to have you up when Luna is old enough

I think you'll find a lot of really good information here, and definitely check out the crate training and potty training, and make sure you establish the rules and start up obedience right away.

Knowing the risks of getting a puppy from an unknown background like that, I would highly suggest pet insurance. Trupanion and Healthy Paws will cover congenital issues, but only if they're discovered after you have your policy. We rescued a 12 week old girl back in May, and found out in July she has some pretty serious neurological issues. If we'd gotten insurance when we were talking about it, it would have saved us a ton of money.

Anyway though, Luna is absolutely adorable and I know you guys are going to give her an awesome home

Hi Meredith!  We're in Leesburg. I already joined your facebook group and looking forward to the meets as soon as Luna is old enough.

I'm already deep in reading the potty training & crate training tips, especially that we see some issues with that.

Good idea with the insurance.  And I'm really sorry about Shadow's health problems, you did give me a scare, rightfully so.  I haven't really thought much about it earlier.  It's great, though, that she found you and can lead a full and happy life.  
We don't get insurance for our older dog, as she's never really had any serious problems with health, even though she's a rescue, but will definitely look into it for Luna.  My company provides pet insurance, just have to make sure I can enroll in the middle of the year. Thank you for the suggestion!

And thank you for your kind words, we're definitely dedicated to do our best to keep this girl happy and healthy.  She is a family member and we love her.

Btw, Luna's markings are very similar to Shadow's, from what I can see in your avatar and signature.  The photo below may show it better.

Ah, so that was you I approved earlier You should do a shout out on the FB page, we've got a bunch of members in your area. We're up just north of Annapolis. Depending on how Luna's shot schedule works out, you guys may be able to make our October meet. Plan on 3rd weekend in October, at either Broadneck Park or Quiet Waters Park, both in the Annapolis area.

I don't mean to scare people when I tell them about Shadow, I just want to keep people from making the same mistake we did. We were talking about getting it, we just hadn't done it yet. She's probably as close to worst case scenario as you can get without actually losing her, but we don't know how long we'll be able to keep her healthy. That's awesome about your company providing pet insurance, hopefully you can get enrolled soon.

She does look very similar to Luna, and that avatar picture was taken when she was about the same age. She's 6.5 months now, and the mask has faded a bit. Hopefully she keeps at least some of it, but a lot of them lose the masks completely.

Ok, so I checked it out, it would take us 1,5h to get to the meet, we may want to make it a day trip and see some other places in the area. I should know more about Luna's shots this week. Still not sure whether we should do them before she turns 16 weeks or later..

Meredith, love your blog. Shadow is such a special girl and you guys are doing a great job. Keeping fingers crossed that she continues to make progress and can do more fun things huskies are meant to do.

Our older dog started having seizures when she was about 3,5 yo. I have to say this was the most terrifying experience I've ever had with a dog. And the helplessness was just killing me. All I could do was just lay there with her, talk to her & make sure she wouldn't hurt herself, while she was going through it. The vet did a bunch of tests and couldn't find anything, while Izzy lost almost all her coat in a matter of weeks. Finally my SIL told me that her chesapeake bay retriever had the same issue and it turned out it was his hyperthyroid that was causing it. I couldn't believe our vet didn't do any thyroid tests earlier and let Izzy suffer. We had to insist on the test(!). That turned out to be the issue, and once on the meds she got back her coat and hasn't had almost any seizures since then. So even though Izzy's going to be on the meds for the rest of her life, we're pretty lucky, since it's menagable.

Sorry about the long post and I realize it may be TMI, but I felt like maybe in a small degree I understand what you're going through.

On the side note, Luna just got into a mad biting stage. She's been pretty good about it so far, usually she'd easily divert her biting to a toy, but since yesterday I've acquired several bite marks, as it's just become impossible to avoid it. Using all the tips from here and hoping we'll make it through it with no blood shed.

Luna wrote:

Ok, so I checked it out, it would take us 1,5h to get to the meet, we may want to make it a day trip and see some other places in the area.  I should know more about Luna's shots this week.  Still not sure whether we should do them before she turns 16 weeks or later..

Downtown Annapolis is super dog friendly, and there is quite a bit to do in this area. You'd have no problem making it a day trip and taking Luna around everywhere. I may be biased (I work there), but the Naval Academy is a pretty cool place to visit too, and it's gorgeous in the fall.

I'd say 16 weeks is right for the shots, I wouldn't do the rabies any earlier than that though. There's a lot of discussion about Lepto and Lyme vaccines as well, as much time as we spend outdoors hiking and at parks and whatnot, we did get them. Lyme is really prevalent around here, so we're not taking any chances with that one.

Don't worry about the TMI thing, I'm glad you were able to figure out what was up with your older dog and it's always nice to talk to someone else who "gets it". I'm surprised your vet didn't do a thyroid panel at the beginning, that's a common cause of seizures in dogs. Are you able to get away with just thyroid meds or are you still having to use anticonvulsives as well? I've found a few really good Canine Epilepsy communities online, and I'm trying to get a Canine Hydrocephalus forum going (I've just been killed with work though, so it's still in planning stages).

Good luck on the biting, I think all of us that have had Sibe puppies have dealt with that one

I think it's pretty cool that you work at the Naval Academy. And I'm sure Annapolis area is full of great places to take your husky to. For that matter, Virginia in general has lots of wonderful spots, we have Appallachian trails close to our house and I can't wait for Luna to be old enough to start hiking them with us.

Thanks for the opinion on the shots. We'll wait till she's 16 weeks old. We will definitely do the Lyme vaccine, as Izzy caught Lyme the very first month we moved over to VA, and some of my friends' dogs had it as well (and humans), and I don't want Luna to get it. I wrote in another thread that I'm still not sure about Lepto, as there is no guarantee it's going to work, especially if Luna's going to be hiking in different parts of the country, and strands of Lepto tend to vary from place to place. I'll see what my vet says about it, I'm kind of confused, as I obviuosly want her to be safe.

As to Izzy, fortunately thyro meds are enough. We only had one small seizure since she started them, and it was because one of the vets decided that she was getting too high doze of it and asked us to cut it in half. That turned out not to be enough and curbed the attempts of any other vets to repeat it. On the other hand, my SIL's retriever must have just grown out of it, becuase he's not taking any meds any more and is totally fine.

Good luck with the Hydrocephalus forum! I have to say you seem like someone who never runs out of energy, I envy you!

Biting's back to normal, I just stopped playing tag with her, I think I may have been too rough. And right now we're just getting excited about Luna slowly becoming a bit more affectionate towards us. Yesterday I got my first husky kisses and am totally thrilled.

Luna wrote:

 I have to say you seem like someone who never runs out of energy, I envy you!

I consume massive amounts of caffeine...

I do like to keep busy, and Aaron and I love to get out and be active

I completely get your hesitance on the Lepto vaccine, we decided to go ahead and get it done. That's good to hear that Izzy is doing well on the thyroid meds alone, the anti seizure drugs can be a real pain in the ass and have serious side effects. Shadow is on Keppra and Phenobarbital, and is 5 weeks seizure free thankfully. So we'll see how she continues to respond.

I love working at the Academy, and Annapolis is just such a neat town. We're pretty jazzed about hiking down in VA as well, and want to do a Shenandoah trip soon. Once Luna is old enough, we should totally meet up and hike sometime. Glad to hear she's getting more affectionate, and you'll definitely see that they have their moods. One second they'll want to cuddle, and then next they'll be like, "um don't touch me". Crazy dogs

I don't think any amount of caffeine would let me have such a busy schedule as yours.  I think I'm getting old.

I am really thankful for Izzy's meds working.  And keeping fingers crossed that she continues to do well. She's older now so I'm not sure how she'd handle any additional meds.  I'm happy Shadow's anti-seizure drugs are working, keeping fingers crossed for weeks turning into months!

I'm in for the meet-up and hike! I know Luna's going to be happy to be around other huskies.
Btw, what is a good age for a husky puppy to start hiking?  I've read somewhere, w/r to walks, that we should walk her 5 min. for every month of her age, so that would mean only 15 min. for Luna.  We go for longer walks and she rarely gets tired, but I also wouldn't want to put her developing joints at risk.. (once again, I've read that somewhere, I'm becoming a google junkie ).

We just did Shadow's first hike, she was 6 months old. We're definitely not pushing her at this point, and I'd wait at least that long to start hiking Luna. When you do start hiking, definitely start with light hikes and work your way up as well.

And for the record, I should probably be getting more sleep