Hello Everybody,

My name is Carrie. My ten-year old daughter, Olivia, and I have been reading this forum for a while now. We are super excited because we are going to be bringing home our new Siberian Husky puppy before this month is over!

First I should back up a little. Olivia became interested in Siberian Huskies about three years ago. She has been begging me for one since she first discovered the breed. When I initially looked into it, I realized what a challenge they are to raise, so I told her I didn't think it was such a good idea. She was undeterred and spent all of her free time researching the breed and continued to present me with information. In fact, learning about the Siberian really improved her focus and reading skills.

After reading the information she continually presented, I became more and more interested and ultimately became hooked on the breed, as well. After a couple of years, I finally realized this was a serious passion of Olivia's and that there are so many pros that outweigh the cons with this breed if a person knows what they are getting into and if they are truly up to the challenge. We are not going into this randomly, or with a blind eye. We are well aware that Siberians end up in rescues and animal shelters far too often because people don't understand the breed.

We started researching breeders early this year and it has taken a good bit of time to find the right one. Luckily, the breeder we have chosen has a lot of experience with Siberians, and other breeds, as well. We also joined our local Kennel Club and have been getting a lot of great mentoring from them, too.

Olivia has become very interested in Junior Handling, and has been doing really well in conformation handling classes. The president of our Kennel Club lets Olivia use his Grand Champion Australian Shepherd to learn the ropes. We like to say that Hula is training Olivia. In fact, Olivia was able to enter her first Junior Handling situation in a B Match last month and took second place.

We plan to use the same trainers (who are also professional handlers, groomers, and dog show judges) to help us train the puppy for conformation, as well as agility, rally, and obedience. We even have some friends who are Malamute owners that want us to eventually learn how to mush with them (only not in the snow, as we are in California).

At any rate, we can barely stand waiting for our little one! Although, I must say, they are pretty big for their age! They are just over a month old and are chunky monkeys, LOL! I'm not sure how to post a pic. Do you have to upload it to an outside source first?

We look forward to getting to know everyone and learning a lot from you all. I'm sure you will see many questions from us around the forum.

Carrie & Olivia

Just to clarify, our breeder has experience with breeds other than the Siberian Husky because she has grown up around dog breeding and handling her whole life. In fact, she is currently a well-known professional handler. Her mother bred/breeds champion Mastiffs, she breeds and show Siberians, and her sister has her own breed that she shows, along with other people's canines. My breeder and her sister have learned a ton from their mother, as well as from their own experiences, and I am very confident that they are all well-qualified, reputable breeders.

Carrie

Sounds like you have really good grips on it and are as prepared as you can be. Next time you visit the pups take some pictures to share with us!

Thank you for the welcome and encouraging words, Elise. While we are trying hard to be prepared, something tells me that nothing can truly prepare us for reality, LOL. I am expecting a handful! I keep looking for the disc icon to post a photo, but can't seem to find it.

Hi Carrie and welcome to the forum......where you post you smiley's, it's the last sectioned part of bar, the disc is the 4th section and the first icon.....

Renee

Welcome! What an awesome passion your daughter has developed, and now she's taking it to the next level with conformation classes. So cool! Wish I had developed my passion for dogs at her age. It's great that you're supporting her, and congrats on your soon-to-be first Husky. They're a handful, especially as puppies, but well worth the effort, time and patience it takes to raise them right. And since it seems like you've done a lot of research, you already have a lot of knowledge that you can use when you bring your new pup home. Good luck, and can't wait to see pics!

That's really wonderful to see someone get into the breed and showing at such a young age. It's even better to see a parent supporting not only the passion and interest, but in a way that supports the well being of the breed. Hopefully it's something that will be a lifelong passion for her.

Welcome to our little forum and I can't wait to see some pictures. On the upper right side of the home page, you'll see a link with instructions on how to upload pix. The countdown to bringing the puppy home is both exciting and agonizing!

Welcome!

As someone who recently brought home a husky puppy.  I can tell you that if you are prepared he/she will change your lives.  I never could have imaged how much of a positive impact Riley has made to our little family.  I think both my daughters matured by years instantly, and as family we spend more time together than we ever had in the past.

Husky puppies can be a handful, but in the end it was ALOT easier than I thought it would be.

My one tip that I can offer is crate train from day one.

Hi Carrie and Olivia,  it's great reading fro someone who has spent time learning about what they're getting in to and has the support system behind them to handle the inevitable ups and down of raising and living with a Husky!!

As far as uploading pictures goes (unless you're on a Mac like one of our, ahem, older users) it's pretty easy.  There's a sticky in the upper right that pretty much takes you step by step, but it's not always completely obvious what's happening.

I did have to chuckle over this line:

Quote :

train the puppy for conformation, as well as agility, rally, and obedience.

Conformation: not a problem, I've seen the pictures from some show and Husky's do show well!
Agility: Not a big hassle, they've learned (as a breed) over the years how to get from here to there any way they can!
Rally: huh?? What's "rally"??
Obedience:  the only thing I have to say here is "Lots of luck!!!!

There's a great video of a lady showing a Husky in an agility set and the Husky finally says "I've had enough!" and goes off and has a ball jumping, running and the crowd loves it - she was just "being a Husky!" (( and I can not find the vid, does anyone have a link to it?? ))

Finally found the video I was looking for:


And this is the way that Shiva is supposed to do it!

It's amazing to watch the rally and obedience rings at some of the Husky shows I've been to. Some of those dogs are just spectacular; it really takes a special Husky to be able to do a down-stay for as long as they are required, much less to get one to listen to you in rally!

I love the video of Shiva going crazy. Reminds me of Layla when she first gets let out in our back yard. FREEDOM!

MiyasMomma wrote:

Hi Carrie and welcome to the forum......where you post you smiley's, it's the last sectioned part of bar, the disc is the 4th section and the first icon.....

Renee

Thank you, Renee, for the welcome and the info about how post a picture!

Carrie

capellalayla wrote:

Welcome! What an awesome passion your daughter has developed, and now she's taking it to the next level with conformation classes. So cool! Wish I had developed my passion for dogs at her age. It's great that you're supporting her, and congrats on your soon-to-be first Husky.

Thank you, Liz! I am really impressed with Olivia's ongoing interest for the breed and I didn't want her to feel discouraged or think I was not interested. Her devotion to the Siberian has been pretty contagious and I am just as giddy as she is about the whole thing. I'm also really happy we met up with the members of the Kennel Club, because they have been instrumental in fostering Olivia's excitement about Junior Handling. I figured if this means so much to her, we should go with it and see where it takes her.

Carrie

Vetsky wrote:

Welcome!

As someone who recently brought home a husky puppy.  I can tell you that if you are prepared he/she will change your lives.  I never could have imaged how much of a positive impact Riley has made to our little family.  I think both my daughters matured by years instantly, and as family we spend more time together than we ever had in the past.

Husky puppies can be a handful, but in the end it was ALOT easier than I thought it would be.

My one tip that I can offer is crate train from day one.

Hi Jeff,

Thank you for the welcome, and the advice! I think it's great that your Siberian has brought you closer to your daughters and has helped them mature so much. Who would have guessed one little puppy could make such a difference?

We definitely plan to crate train from the beginning. I'm sure that will be a key factor is starting training off right.

Carrie

Welcome to the forum! Can't wait to see pictures of you're new puppy!

aljones wrote:

Hi Carrie and Olivia,  it's great reading fro someone who has spent time learning about what they're getting in to and has the support system behind them to handle the inevitable ups and down of raising and living with a Husky!!


Obedience:  the only thing I have to say here is "Lots of luck!!!!

Hi Al,

Thank you for the welcome, the video, and the chuckles, LOL! Shiva was hilarious! I probably should amend my original statement to say that we will try those aspects of show and hope for the best. A lot of people warned us about attempting agility (major zoomies, haha) and obedience. Our breeder has had a lot of success with her Siberians in all aspects of show and was really excited that we are willing to give it all a try and thinks the puppy has a great shot at being successful. Having said that, we know each Siberian has their own personality and some will do better than others with certain things. If our Siberian isn't cut out for some things, that's okay. We'll love her anyway and do the best we can with her. But we're willing to give it all a good try and provide the best, most consistent training possible and see where it leads us.

Carrie

capellalayla wrote:

 I love the video of Shiva going crazy. Reminds me of Layla when she first gets let out in our back yard. FREEDOM!

Yeah, that was super funny, and is pretty much when I imagined when I first thought of putting a Siberian into agility, LOL.

Carrie

Hayden_69 wrote:

Welcome to the forum! Can't wait to see pictures of you're new puppy!

Thank you, Kelly! I'm going to try to post a few. BTW: I love the photo of your dogs covered in Christmas lights! So cute!

Carrie

Ok, that little disc icon is just not showing up anywhere, so I am going to post some pics that I uploaded to Photobucket. 

Carrie and Olivia,

Omg, they are so cute.....which one is yours? white dot middle of head(me looking, right side) or no white dot(looking left)? You and your daughter will have such an experience....Brings back fond memories of me and my mom and training our gsd. I'm so impressed that your daughter is so interested. Good luck have fun and more pics!!

Renee

Hi Renee,

Thank you! We really think they are both adorable, but we are leaning toward the one on the right, with the dot. Our breeder seems to think that will be the best choice for show, as well. We are so excited! I can't stop reading about Siberians and I have a lot of schoolwork backed up as a result, LOL! I'll be sorry this weekend, ha!

Carrie