We're getting our first husky tomorrow, from a private seller, at the age of 3 years old. We've met her and she's great, she pays close attention to her owner when asked to do things such as sit, lie down and high five, however she obviously doesn't know us very well yet.

Can you guys give me any advice on what our very first steps should be in terms of training / getting her settled in?

We don't want to let her become "pack leader" so we want to do everything very carefully to ensure that her pack position doesn't change along with her change of home.

We'll book an appointment at the vet to get her checked, right away, but other than that we haven't got any real guidelines on how to introduce her to the house.

Also, we have 2 budiges (which we will keep separate when they're flying, of course), which I'm not sure is relevant but I'm telling you just in case!

Thanks guys/gals!

Hi, thanks so much for joining and asking questions.

Have you decided where in the house she will and won't be allowed? You have a prime situnation to set up boundaries and structure in your house the right way with having her come home with you for the first time and she's an adult.

The first thing I would do is have her in the yard, first, and make sure she pees before entering the house, and when she does, calmly praise her and then walk here on leash to the door to enter.

Keep her on leash and have her sit at the door and look up to you. You want her to understand that you are releasing her to come in the house, so she is not just bolting in and running around excited.

Keep her on leash and introduce her each room she allowed in one by one.

Will she be allowed on the sofa? If so, invite her on it. If not, walk her near it and when she gives it attention calmly correct her. A simple, calm ATT or No will do the trick if you intend it correctly. She should automatically be deferring to you for sensing where she is an is not welcome.

I would not have any toys or anything exciting out for her. Just make it calm and quiet and peaceful. It is easy for a dog to get overwhelmed in a new environment and overly stimulated. I would keep the excitement and the energy of you and your family very low so that she gets the precedent of calmness. it sounds like has a good training foundation so you should be easily able to build off of it and set the tone in your house.

You have the perfect opportunity to set the tone the minute she steps in the door. I, personally expect dogs to be calm, quiet, and collected so that's the mood and tone I set when my dog or any dog comes over. Outside is for fun and games, inside is for calm and quiet.

It's like the doorway is an On / Off switch for energy. The very first emotion they feel and vibe they get the second they are through the door is the default they will be set on and then it just snowballs from there, whether it's calm or excited.

Think about how you want her to behave and conduct herself inside and what boudaries you want for her and set that tone from the very first minute.

Those are just my suggestions for what I think is the best way for a dog to behave inside.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Thank you Jeff, I'll ensure that we do all of these things, very helpful!

You're welcome. No problem.

Also, Jeff, your husky Link is gorgeous!

pseud wrote:

Also, we have 2 budiges (which we will keep separate when they're flying, of course), which I'm not sure is relevant but I'm telling you just in case!

Thanks guys/gals!

Very relevant Ami catches birds in flight. Archer tries to, won't be long before he succeeds. Here's a video (not mine, not Ami) - a little brutal, if you think about it from the bird's point of view, but has primitive beauty:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Noo2CFqig-8

That video is amazing! It's incredible how high the husky jumped in order to catch the bird; there's some really amazing footage.

pseud wrote:

That video is amazing! It's incredible how high the husky jumped in order to catch the bird; there's some really amazing footage.

That's about how Ami and Archer look jumping for the birds - not quite so high though, since the birds were taking off from either the ground or the shrubbery.

It's funny, when I was younger and training, I was running around a field with our dog at the time (Weimeraner) and he really took me by surprise when he suddenly jumped up to grab a pheasant that flew out of the bushes next to me. I thought there was no way he'd reach it but he did! I had to put it out of its misery (the pheasant, not our dog! )

They sure can be surprising, huskies look like natural hunters though.

Oh yes - Ami has been know to catch voles in one swoop while walking on leash. And last August, he killed a raccoon that walked by his doghouse - he was tethered to an overhead trolley, the raccoon died of a broken neck from shaking. Unfortunately, it was rabid which bought Ami 45 days of "house arrest" (since he had no bite marks, no blood and was up to date on vaccination - otherwise it would have been curtains for Ami )

You don't have rabies over there, do you?

Your girl sounds lovely - like you got a good catch!

Luckily no, I don't think we get rabies here. Even the mice / rats where I live are pretty clean.

I'm glad Ami is okay after that! 45 days of house arrest can't have been exciting for her

We had a nice experience with the dog from down the road who is allowed to roam free, off her leash, and she was terrified of Saska! They got along eventually, and it's really refreshing to have such a friendly girl after our previous experience!

I can't wait to introduce her to my little brother & sister, she's really great with kids.

Pseud, I'm (one of) the resident curmudgeons (and I'm not saying who the others are) when you make comments like "I don't think we get rabies here" that promptly makes me (most of us?) look at your profile to see where "here" is.
Would you be so kind, please, as to go update your profile a bit; a name for you and your dog - and it's always a giggle to see who owns who - and a location are really helpful to us who can't remember Ami from Amy most days!

aljones wrote:

Pseud, I'm (one of) the resident curmudgeons (and I'm not saying who the others are) when you make comments like "I don't think we get rabies here" that promptly makes me (most of us?) look at your profile to see where "here" is.
Would you be so kind, please, as to go update your profile a bit; a name for you and your dog - and it's always a giggle to see who owns who - and a location are really helpful to us who can't remember Ami from Amy most days!

he's from Newcastle... as in , England, I believe. The "budgies" gave it away for me

Newcastle is easy for me to remember.. Wayne carries reading with him everywhere, even to Barnes and noble. His nickname is "Newcastle" as in coals to...

aljones wrote:

Pseud, I'm (one of) the resident curmudgeons (and I'm not saying who the others are) when you make comments like "I don't think we get rabies here" that promptly makes me (most of us?) look at your profile to see where "here" is.
Would you be so kind, please, as to go update your profile a bit; a name for you and your dog - and it's always a giggle to see who owns who - and a location are really helpful to us who can't remember Ami from Amy most days!

Oops! I'll do that now, cheers for the reminder, I totally forgot to update my profile!

I think she owns me right now though, lol

Thanks Chris, it's easy enough now to remember where you're from from your introduction - but I guarantee that in a couple of weeks I'll not know ...
BTW, if you think you'll ever own her, think again, we are their servants - if you ever have any doubt about that, just think about who goes to work and earns the money to buy the food and who gets to stay home while we're doing it ...

aljones wrote:

Thanks Chris, it's easy enough now to remember where you're from from your introduction - but I guarantee that in a couple of weeks I'll not know ...
BTW, if you think you'll ever own her, think again, we are their servants - if you ever have any doubt about that, just think about who goes to work and earns the money to buy the food and who gets to stay home while we're doing it ...

Haha, very true! Although I do work from home, she does sit behind me sleeping on her back with her leg cocked, head back, revealing her cheeky smile!