Hey Everyone!

After hearing a lot of things about Huskies we finally caved in to our omnipresent desire of having nothing but a husky and we are enjoying it so far!

We got Bigbaw (it's a name my 6yr old daughter made up and it has stuck ) around couple months ago. He is bit more than 4 months old right now. He's been a well behaved puppy (for a husky that is) with good understanding and intelligence except for one issue that is persistent - I will talk about that below.

First the good part - he has not yet destroyed anything, has had only three accidents so far and he went on the rubber mats all three times - two out of those were my fault - I was late to take him out. He sleeps in his crate at night without much trouble. He used to chew on furniture but simply telling him no has fixed that problem for what feels like good! He occasionally runs in the house but then he will come across a plugged in wire and smoothly jump over it and bypass it next time on his own. (He does the same for water puddles when I take him for a walk - he will go around those when walking and jump ever so majestically over those when running - all on his own!) He is a bit of food lover but nothing problematic - no food aggression etc.

Then on to the quirky part - he doesn't like me and my wife being too close together. His response is to this situation is to first force himself between us and if that doesn't work he will jump on me (he consistently spares my wife and daughter), grab my shirt or hand and try to pull me aside. This happens consistently but so far we have enjoyed the show.

Lastly about the bad part where I need some advice. The problem is he will play very rough with me and my 11 yr old son. (He will behave consistently respectfully with my daughter and wife - how's that for weird!) Examples - Son comes home, he will go jumping on him, mouthing, light biting hand and legs, pulling on his sleeves, mild growling etc. The bites have been getting slowly harder but he dials them back when yelled. This goes on until my son disappears from the scene. It starts again when he comes back. With me if he sees me after a  while, sitting on the couch, he will jump, lick my ears off and then slowly start biting and doing the same things he does with my son.

No amount of yelling, breaking up, timing out has worked. It still happens with the same frequency and it is especially intense after he has had his food.

I will post a photo bit later in this thread but I really appreciate any concrete advice, steps I can take to address this one issue. Ask away and comment freely if you feel we are doing anything wrong - I can handle it

Take a look at Behavior problem thread. I did post up some advice on how to play in a manner that will tire out your pup, and give your pup the type of play he needs. although I will add to this, your pup may have too much freedom in house. I would consider tethering him to you with a leash, so you are the one in control of him. Your pup is probably teething as well, and has not learned proper bite control, this will come as he ages. It is never too early to start command training and proper leash walking. This too will tire him out and be more calm in house. The jumping in on you and your wife, again too much freedom, but also he wants to be involved in the love fest, lol. Welcome to the forum!!

Renee - thank you so much, I will look at Behavior problem thread and come up with ways of diverting his rough play into something more manageable.

As far as freedom goes - he knows where he is allowed to go and where he isn't. He won't come into the kitchen for example. Outside he is always leashed of course but around my wife and daughter he is so calm it feels bad to put him on leash - but looks like we can try this out when he is creating the problem and see if that makes a difference.

It's just that this is so puzzling - I used to think most puppy behavior is not so discretionary / conditional! This one looks like he thinks it's ok to dominate the males of the house and leave the females out and turn them into his supporters - such a politico lol!

He's not dominating, he's responding differently to being treated differently. Inconsistency leads to inconsistency.

Jeff - aha moment! That's likely - me and my son are relatively rougher to him as opposed to the daughter and wife who keep him at distance and treat him softly! Dang - we will have to start acting a little different - I realized even our embraces and approaches towards Bigbaw are needlessly more energetic, sudden and hard. Will start fixing that and see how that goes.

Thanks

Bingo. Your dog is your mirror.

seattlesibe wrote:

He's not dominating,  he's responding differently to being treated differently. Inconsistency leads to inconsistency.

Jeff, there is no inconsistency here... Ami sees Wayne and he sits oh so pretty with a whisper of command.  He sees Josh... and he's a leaping, wooing, pawing fool

Guess who runs, jumps and wrestles with Mr. Dog and who likes a quiet peaceful household.