Hello Eveyone

New to the forum but not new to Huskies. I live in Southern California and have had Huskies most of my Adult life. I lost my Last Male 18 months ago and thought I wouldnt want to go through the grief again, but I have found myself looking at Shelters lately.

I have some concerns about my current yardand my ability to safely house another dog. I live ina rual area and have 9 acres but my fence is a five foot vynil picket . Im wondering if anyone has used any type of invisible fence or training collar set up to keep a Husky in thier yard

I never had issues with any of my prior Huskies wanting to leave but I moved to my location five years ago when both of the Huskies I had were over 7 years.

Any help/suggestions would be welcomed. I am a good Dog owner I belive. Trips to the beach on the weekend, bike rides and trips to the snow

Im lonely for another Husky


Thanks

Welcome to the forum!! I'm so sorry for your loss.......we have a few people here that use the invisible fence and has had some success with it. I personally use an e-collar, however, you need to be with your dog for that, and it does take some training on both your end and your dogs. If you use the search engine, or go to the training section, the invisible fence thread should be relatively new and easily found.....We love pics here, so when you get your new companion, pics please....and ask questions, many people here to help.

Thanks for the quick response MiyasMomma. Im glad there is hope. I started looking at Shelter Huskies here in San Diego, none down here, so I may be traveling to L.A. saturday.

As far as e-collar training , is there a point where you can leave the dog unsupervised in the fenced yard? Gotta go to work .

I was spoiled. Both of My Last Huskies would lay out on the driveway and stay.

With E-collars no unsupervised outings, lol. I use it more for walking purposes. Amy(nickname here amymeme) is very successful, imho, with the invisible fence. I think it is fantastic that you are looking for a rescue, so many out there......Good luck on finding the right one....keep asking questions, I'll try and keep this at the top of the board in hopes that Amy will see this and respond to you.

Sounds like he's perhaps mistaking an e-collar for an invisible fence system..........if he's asking about unsupervised outdoor time with an e-collar??

Maybe clear that up for him Renee.

Hi you (now please be nice to us and go fill out your profile so we have a name to hang on ya, will ya??)

Take a look at RescueMe . You're dealing with individuals trying to rehome their pets and shelters trying to rehome rescues so there's a lot of "stuff" out there. Some look good and most seem to be in the 925xx zip code but cover from San Berdoo to San Diego.

Welcome to the forum and enjoy your time here ....

(( staff, am I allowed to post links like that one??? ))

Hi- I'm Amy. Mom to Ami and Grammy to Archer. Both of whom I have trained to an invisible fence. And I am thrilled. The dogs now have about 4 acres of lawn and woods (I may expand it this summer - wire cost was prohibitive for start up.) And, knock on wood, so far they respond to the boundary as if it were a cement wall! And they can't be challenging the fence much because the charge on the batteries, even with the training period, has gone a full 3 months!

While I did not start this thread, I've added a lot to it - you can start there:

https://www.itsahuskything.com/t13882-training-with-an-invisible-fence?highlight=invisible+fence

The most important thing is training the dog to the fence. I followed the manual from petsmart and dogfencediy.com to the letter. You really have to teach the dog HOW to respond to the beep/vibration/correction (depending on model - I have some thoughts on model if you get to that point.)

I also use an eCollar (mini Educator) but I use that primarily to train recall. It initially was purchased (at least that's what I told hubby) to keep puppy from climbing on the counters. I wanted it to train a reliable "come". That has sort of gone by the wayside for the winter...I'm a wimp this year and it's been too cold, the snow is too deep (the dogs are even sticking to paths )

Al: I fantasize on Rescue Me allll the time. But sometimes I wonder if some of the listings are scams...petfinder seems great, too. At the moment I am trying to quell yearnings for a certain silver female up in Rochester that needs home or foster...

Also - I do not use the invisible fence to contain your dog when we are not at home - we are retired so home a lot. When we leave the property with Ami, he is tethered. And, we have to be aware of any cars in the driveway - he is so friendly and trusting, anyone could drive up and open the door...

Now I am getting paranoid again...time to check on his whereabouts

Hey Thanks Amy. I would have to leave the dog unsupervised during my working hours, so Im starting to think I just cant pull this off.
Funny though, I havent ever had a Husky run from home. Thats four adults and two litters. I guess I was lucky.

as far as rescue goes, Im looking at LA County shelters.
And I can relate to the parinoia. I live in fire country so when I was a Husky owner any black smoke in the east would send my heart racing

This is a tough decision. I have seen a couple of great looking dogs.

Sorry to give a contrary opinion than Amy's.

My property has an electric fence, but I don't use it.
The people who lived here previously had labs.

My experience with e-fences dates from when I had problems with a dog that continually escaped from an electric fenced yard on my street when I was walking my dog. So I had lots of contact with the county's animal control officer. He said emphatically that electric fences don't work if the dog is determined enough. He said that he had picked up loose dogs with burn marks on their necks from going through electric fences. And he said that the worst thing about them was that often dogs get their adrenaline amped up high to bust out of their yard. When the adrenaline drops and the dog wants to go home, it can't get back through the barrier.

If you must leave the dog outside when you are gone, have you considered a kennel? It will cost you money and time to set up, but you will not have to worry about the dog escaping. They can be secured so you won't have to worry about the dog being stolen. Some requirements are a cement floor, six foot chain link fence, coyote rollers on top or covered. There is lots of info and pix on here about kennels.

Thanks jalapeno. Im also looking at that option.

My Last pair of Huskies , 2009

Awwww, what a beautiful and fun pic......I also second the kennel idea. My neighbors, have a good sized one with cement bottom and a top, and he is a happy 3 year old husky inside it (I won't mention his lack of exercise, but they are successful with the kennel, and it wasn't extremely expensive to put up).

My Buddys husky in The Eastern Sierra. He goes out on our Backcountry trips. Sleeps outside the tent in the Big outdoors

That is one of the most beautiful pics I have ever seen, the last one. So magnificent, thank you for sharing.....

Split:
Great pix.
Love the one of you and your dogs.
BC skier here, but I don't take my dog.
He's got to be on a long line, and am worried about metal edges.

I do skijor with my dog.
Just not this year- we haven't had any snow.
The 3-5k area where we ski is bare.

Welcome,
people have given you ideas on making it work.
Love your pictures! being active like that calls for huskies

i am dreaming of a split board....

Jenn - you are a never-ending source of education for me

What is a split board Sounds like what I do...1 board on 1 ft and 1 board on the other foot = skis

I'm guessing it is something else

Amy, its cool its a snowboard and skis! You split it to scale up the mountain like xcountry skies then put it together at the top and snowboard down the mountain and split it apart to track the flats. Removes the need for snowshoes like i had to this past yr and no hiking a board on ur back! But they are $$$$

Well, wadda ya'know! What will they think of next!

Thanks, Jenn.

Thanks guys. We do get out and up there. I drive from San Diego to the Mammoth Lakes area to have fun
I'm burning up the welcome mat so I have just a few more concerns

Heat- I live in East County San Diego where it can get in the 100 degree range during summer. Not humid but hot
I plan to go with a kennel outside but during those hot spells I willkeep the dog inside with the AC on as I did my last Huskies. But I always feel bad when I can get them
Out all day or night due to heat. I do go to the ocean and let them swim as much as possible

Rattlesnakes- I did the diversion training with my last pair but I'm not sure it works. I can line the kennel so they can't get in but I'm always worried about just around the yard

Also I work 9 hours a day. The dog would be in a kennel outside a lot. I'm am off the weekends and every other Friday.

I'm only going to speak for my neighbor, since I don't work. I live in west Texas, dry heat. When my neighbors work they do the same as you, not too hot stay in kennel outside, too hot inside the ac. We live about 60 miles east of Sweetwater, the capital of rattlesnakes. They have never had a problem, just kept everything tidy as not to attract them. They also have a black lab and a aussie in their own run/kennel, they are out 24/7 and never had any problems. Many people here work 8/9 hours, imho, it's what you do with a husky when you're home, they sleep most of the day anyways. Diversion training is smart, I also get the rattlesnake shot for my girl, just in case.

And I live about 450 miles WSW of Renee in the desert outside Big Bend National Park.  I don't have the luxury of AC so my dogs and I live with the 100+ during the summer ... and neither of them really have any problems with it ... in fact we're all huddling inside now 'cause it's too blasted cold for us outside! (( We finally got above freezing at about 11:00 today! )) We do have a good breeze most of the time so that, with the low humidity (and a plentiful supply of water) make the temps quite tolerable.

Rattlers, in our part of Texas we only have one rattler that's really dangerous.  The Mojave injects a venom that dissolves flesh and is a particular nasty snake ... the problem is that the current anti-venoms (as far as I've seen) don't do anything for this particular snake.  In fact the anti-venoms don't do a whole lot for most of them ... (sorry, Renee, personal opinion formed from the local vet).  With the size of our dogs, most snake bites will make them sick but not kill them if you're proactive about taking care of them.  In four years here I've seen exactly one snake up close and neither of mine were interested in it at all.  They kept their distance but didn't seem particularly afraid or interested.

Shoot, Renee, I should have dropped by on that trip I took up to Lubbock, I had to have been with 50 miles of you ...

Al, no need to apologize about the snake bite shot, we use it as a preventive, so it buys us time to get to the vet. Every minute counts, and it's 16 miles to town. I've never seen one, however neighbors across the highway see them all the time. I think the snakes are smart and just stay away from my side of the road, haha.

I'm not sure how close you were. I always type it wrong, but I live about 60 miles south of Abilene(I think in another post I said north, lol) I'm in the middle of nowhere, quite like you. The weather has been terrible, wind chill last night was in the single digits, finally got a little snow, earlier this week it was freezing rain. Just not the right type of snow to make husky angels, lol, we got about 2 inches last night.