Hello,

We rescued a Sibe mix one month ago, he's 13 months old and such a sweetheart. He seems to be a momma's boy and follows me around the house when I am home. I think he would love to be a lap dog, but he's a bit too big for that!

I have personally never owned a dog before. My husband owned dogs as a child, but never as an adult.

We all love Timber and he's such a sweetheart, but he can be such a PITA. We are trying to crate train him as recommended by the shelter, but he has separation anxiety and the crate seems to make it worse. Right now my daughter doggy sits him since she is home on Summer Vaca, but we are thinking of giving him free rein of the downstairs while we are gone. With her there, he sleeps 85% of the day, under the dining table, until I get home. we plan to gate off the kitchen and the stairwell, and put our shoes in the closet and then start leaving him for short periods of time and see how he does.

I walk and run him every morning before going to work and we walk/run him again in the evening when it's cooler. He gets hot pretty quick and doesn't even want to go outside if it's too hot/muggy.

When he gets excited, like this morning when trying to put his harness on to go for walk/run, he gets mouthy and jumps on me. I have tried all sorts of things; yelping (makes him more excited), ignoring him (he walks away, ignoring me, and when we try again, he's just more mouthy), hot sauce on my hands (works when I have it on, but only when I have it on), giving him something to chew on (not interested, he wants to mouth my hand) and I tried letting him try to get treats of out my hand, and only letting him have them when he sits and calms down. He is a stubborn thing and he seems to know exactly what we want him to do but doesn't care what we want. a few days ago, he nipped the back of my thigh and got a small piece of skin in his teeth and left a nice bruise. I was so shocked, I didn't even react. he's more gentle with my daughter (13 years old), but he can get really mouthy with my husband and me when he's all wound up.

I'm looking into joining a local raw food co-op to try and get him on a Prey model raw diet. I bought some chicken thighs for him last week and he kinda just played with them and buried them and reburied them around the yard. He ate a little bit, but not too much. I threw them away since he never finished them and they had been out so long. the bits of the chicken he did eat gave him runny bm's though, that wasn't pleasant. he never got down to the bone, so that's probably why.

I've been lurking and reading on the forum for the last few weeks.
lots of good info on here, I love it!

cheers,
Jennifer

Welcome Jennifer,   sorry I missed this thread. There are quite a few threads on here about mouthy huskies and rescues, you may have to dig. One thing I can say is repetition, consistency and patience of a Saint!! and make sure everyone in the household is on the same page with that. Btw pretty boy.
Renee

Hi Renee, thanks for the advice.
He's actually not as mouthy the last few days. I read somewhere - can't find the site now of course, to show the dog treats and then close your hand and don't let the dog get to the treats. the dog will lick and nip and try to get to the treats and when he calms down, sits down or steps back, then you give him the treat. it seems to be working!

Hi Jennifer,I actually have had a bad week, I didn't want you to feel like no one would reach out, so I gave you a short reply and I'm truly sorry. Although I grew up with two great dogs, my husband and I have only had cats the last 16 years. We felt it wouldn't be fair to have a midsize dog in such a small outside area when we lived in Florida. Here in Texas we have a ton of space and we felt a good time to get a dog. I grew up with a husky and a german shepherd, so I knew what I would be up against getting a husky. Believe me they are not easy, but so worth it. I applaud your family for getting a rescue and a very handsome boy you got.

At 13 months he's still a baby, so patience is essential. Huskies are extremely smart and they are very eager to learn, yet very stubborn, so in lies persistence and consistency. By being on the same page, no one can cave in to his baby blues, lol, you all have to be firm, with positive praise and you all need to use the same commands. With the treat idea that you mentioned use the command "Be good" or "Be gentle" or "Be nice" in a happy, soft tone. I always use this. My girl will get mouthy to me if the cat is around and I'm giving treats, so I will start with "sit" "be gentle", if this doesn't work, up the command to "sit" "wait" "be gentle" "get it" and she takes from me softly. All this with a happy, soft, firm tone. When he succeeds tell him"Good boy" and pat or rub/pet his shoulders. Since he follows you he sees you in the leader role, I also use Miya's name when I give her commands. I found her less stubborn to do something when I did, i.e. "Miya sit".

My neighbors are astounded at how well behaved she is and many have asked me to train their dogs. I'm no expert, but I followed my mom when she trained our GSD. I need to count how many commands she knows, it's seriously a lot, but it was through repetition , patience, and consistency that has made her a good husky. We have our days, trust me. Most huskies are food motivated and Miya is not, so the positive praise really worked well for us.

On to the raw feed. Has he been eating raw or you want to switch him? Try and make a gradual transition, maybe kibble in the morning and a little raw at night. He buried them because he was either not hungry or didn't really know what to do with it. lol, they can be goofy. The raw feed section has some great tips. I feed partial raw to my girl, and we are doing well. Look at some recent posts to get a good idea on everything. I stick with the prey model diet as well with a few tweaks. Let me know if you have any questions or more help. This forum has been a great resource to me, with a lot of helpful people.

Take care,
Renee