Hello !!!!!!!!! Greeting from St. Louis, Missouri, USA

Today i made a hasty decision of adopting a husky. A friend of mine had a litter of 7 puppies and asked me if i wanted to adopt a puppy he would give me one for free. Well i have to pay for the doctor check ups and shots, which i didnt mind. I never own a pet before and have no idea of what i am about to get myself into. I used to have 2 jobs, recently got promoted in one of them and quit the other one. Now Im going to spend much less time playing WoW and taking care of my new PUPPY !!!!

About my puppy, his name is Louis, he was born on OCT-14-2014 so about 5 weeks old closing in on 6 weeks.

His diet is GNC baby formula and puppy can food, and mix them together. i am feeding him 3 time a day every 8 hours. It was suggested by a local Petsmart employee.

I was successfully get Louis to use the puppy pad about 4 times, 2 pee pee, and 1 poo poo. He only have an accident once it was 4 inches away from the pad. We are working on it together.

A couple thing i am worried about Louis. He seem to be very temperature sensitive. Its about 71*F in my room and 64 *F in my living room and every time i took him out there he would shiver like my PS4 controller with rumble turn on max.

Louis also twitch during his sleep. After i did a Google search and found out he might just be having his puppy dreams.

Guys please go easy on me. I will take criticism as an encouragement to move forward with my puppy. If you have any suggestion please let me know. After reading around a bid I am already started to learn new things about Husky, IE: i didn't know dog could eat raw food, etc....

Anyway guys that was my rant. just dropping by to say hi and you will see me asking question as time go by.

Hey there! I'm in the Lake of the Ozarks area of MO. Hope things aren't rockin' and rollin' too much in your part of St. Louis. If you could tell your friend to not turn loose of those puppies so early, that would be awesome. Puppies shouldn't really leave their mothers before 8 weeks. -6 weeks is way too early to be taken weened. Puppies before 8 weeks haven't been taught the socialization, manners, and bite inhibition that they need to learn from their litter mates and this will present a greater challenge in training for you and anyone else that got their puppy too early. Be ready for a very mouthy puppy as he ages and gets more confident. The shaking that you see is most likely nerves more than temperature. While he is very young and his coat is still forming fully, he should be able to handle cooler temperatures. The fact that he is so young though he hasn't built up his confidence or potentially even his eye sight to see distances well in larger rooms. With time and exposure he will get used to other rooms in the house. It's up to you to make a positive experience out of it by playing with him there and giving him treats to let him know that good things come from new places.

Is there a reason you got this puppy so extremely early? ie. mom wouldn't accept it. Any way your buddy could take it and hold it with it's mother for another few weeks so it learns the crucial things it should so that training will be easier and you will have a more rounded puppy in the long run?

We love pictures if you have any! Welcome to the forum. Lots of info here to be had.

Welcome to the forum, as Jenn said he is very young to be home with you and not with his momma and litter mates. With you being a new dog owner, let alone new husky owner, it is an uphill climb for you, don't be discourage there are many people here happy to help. But I will second Jenn's suggestion and ask your friend to hang on to your pup until he is over 8 weeks old, most breeders keep them until 8-12 weeks old, just for the reasons Jenn said earlier. In fact everything she said I agree, he is not cold sensitive as much as not developed enough to feel confident in a new world.

Please keep us updated, so if you decide not to bring him back to his momma for a few weeks we can help with the transition. I personally am not a fan of puppy pads, because it will be a more difficult transition on taking him out when he is a bit older. Do you live in an area where it is not safe to take a puppy out to potty? As in he could pick up something disease wise from other dogs? Or you live 6 floors up and it's tough to get him outside to potty? Huskies can learn very quickly with repetition, consistency, and patience.

Again welcome, and as Jenn said WE LOVE PICS!! and good luck to you and Louis

Thanks guys for the warm welcome !!!!!!!!!

Just an update. So i took the puppy back to my friend so Louis could stay with his mom for a couple more weeks. But earlier today my friend called and said the mom was being mean and didn't care for Louis as much as she used to. The vet that he occasionally visit suggest that i should take the puppy home again and just try to be the mother.

What to do now guys..

I was afraid that would happen. Oh well, moving on. I don't admit often, but my Miya was 5.5 weeks old when her breeder insisted we take her, it was totally not what I wanted, but I fell in love with her, and decided to make the transition as easy as possible.

If my math is right he is almost 7 weeks old. In any event, do you have him crate trained or working on crate training? I highly recommend crate training, because huskies are known to be destroyers when left alone. Do you mind answering my above question on using puppy pads vs taking him out? Do you have toys that are puppy safe? We do have a lot of threads and stickies here to help the transition, just use the search option.

He is not too young to start training basic commands, he will tire easily, so stick to about 10 minutes several times a day. Things to work on is sit, lay down, and possibly stay. Use treats sparingly, some upset young tummies, and also you don't want him to be dependent on treats to do what you ask. Rather than use treats all the time start giving him good praise, i.e. good boy and rub shoulders when he sits, lays down, etc. Even if he does it for a second, this will establish many things for you and Louis, such as forming a bond, building confidence. Also invest (if you haven't already) in a cheap collar and 6 foot leash (they grow fast that's why I suggest cheap ones), and attach leash while inside so he can become comfortable having it on. You can also start to train him to walk on leash in the house using the positive praise/occasional treat. Remember to keep training and any type of walking to max of 10 minutes at a time (since he is closer to 8 weeks vs 4 weeks. Rule of thumb for puppies 5 minutes of walking per 1 month of age, so at 3 months you can move up to 15 minutes). Your limit is 10 minutes, but you can do this many times a day, I did approximately 6 times a day. So there are some starting tips for you. Good luck and keep us posted on your progress. And we do love pics. Any pics of your new boy?

If you haven't already, I would move off the puppy formula and transition to kibble too. He's old enough and you can also use the kibble as treats to take some of the shock out of his young digestive system.

TwisterII wrote:

If you haven't already, I would move off the puppy formula and transition to kibble too. He's old enough and you can also use the kibble as treats to take some of the shock out of his young digestive system.

TwisterII yesterday i have bought Louis a bag of Nature's Variety Instint RAWBOOSTED. is that a good brand to start him off? i got the puppy one.

MiyasMomma wrote:

I was afraid that would happen. Oh well, moving on. I don't admit often, but my Miya was 5.5 weeks old when her breeder insisted we take her, it was totally not what I wanted, but I fell in love with her, and decided to make the transition as easy as possible.

If my math is right he is almost 7 weeks old. In any event, do you have him crate trained or working on crate training? I highly recommend crate training, because huskies are known to be destroyers when left alone. Do you mind answering my above question on using puppy pads vs taking him out? Do you have toys that are puppy safe? We do have a lot of threads and stickies here to help the transition, just use the search option.

He is not too young to start training basic commands, he will tire easily, so stick to about 10 minutes several times a day. Things to work on is sit, lay down, and possibly stay. Use treats sparingly, some upset young tummies, and also you don't want him to be dependent on treats to do what you ask. Rather than use treats all the time start giving him good praise, i.e. good boy and rub shoulders when he sits, lays down, etc. Even if he does it for a second, this will establish many things for you and Louis, such as forming a bond, building confidence. Also invest (if you haven't already) in a cheap collar and 6 foot leash (they grow fast that's why I suggest cheap ones), and attach leash while inside so he can become comfortable having it on. You can also start to train him to walk on leash in the house using the positive praise/occasional treat. Remember to keep training and any type of walking to max of 10 minutes at a time (since he is closer to 8 weeks vs 4 weeks. Rule of thumb for puppies 5 minutes of walking per 1 month of age, so at 3 months you can move up to 15 minutes). Your limit is 10 minutes, but you can do this many times a day, I did approximately 6 times a day. So there are some starting tips for you. Good luck and keep us posted on your progress. And we do love pics. Any pics of your new boy?

Thank you so much for the respond. Well when i first take him out. He was shaking up like crazy and refuse to move. just sit and Shaking. Therefore i was thinking the weather here was too cold for him at the time. I read an online study saying that Husky puppy could withstand temparature of -10*F and yet my little Louis is shaking up with the temp around 30*F. Therefore i was scared that Louis was going to be cold.

Just ealier today i decided to take Louis outside once again becuase the temparture is around 45*F and Louis seem to be doing fine. He followed me most of the time. And he did his first poo poo outside. (i am so proud!!!)

I let him walk with me around my yard for a good 10 mins. (without leash)

I am planing to train him on a leash soon.

That's great that he is becoming more comfortable with you and his confidence in his surroundings is building. That is a great 5 star food that will help your little one grow beautifully. Just make sure you slowly work him over from what you were feeding him to the new so to not shock his system.

TwisterII wrote:

That's great that he is becoming more comfortable with you and his confidence in his surroundings is building. That is a great 5 star food that will help your little one grow beautifully. Just make sure you slowly work him over from what you were feeding him to the new so to not shock his system.

Well for a couple days already I notice Louis have been chewing his rear paws and whining. i am worry about his paws going to take him to the vet soon and hopefully they could help him.

His potty training is going good. having some accident here and there. He start getting use to the outside now.

Leash training is a nightmare he keep biting his leash.

And with the new food he loved it the first couple feeding and now he having been interested in it since the pass feeding.

Aww, I hope his feet get feeling better. There are several threads to help with the leash training. Biting seems to be a pretty common thing for them. As for food, Huskies have a way of being picky eaters but they won't starve themselves. Coming off can food mix will take him a bit to stop thinking that he should still have it, but he will get there.