Okay, I'm looking for some experienced people here.

I get into debates with some other breed owner friends of mine regarding offleash. I have a friend who tries to get me to do obedience and agility with Koda and Hailey. Not saying I don't want to, nor that I don't think they could, I just don't have the time right now. However, I make it very clear that I'd have to check out the facilities first and if agility meant that Koda had to be offleash in a non-fenced in area, that I will never enter him into it. Hailey, MAYBE, but I am not comfortable, REGARDLESS of the amount of training we do trusting my dogs offleash ESPECIALLY with so many people and distractions around.

However, I will also admit that I'm not one for regularly giving my dogs a job to do and trusting them in such an environment. We train and exercise to have a happy house. Other than that, we sleep LOL.

So I'm opening this up for people to prove me wrong. Have you trained your husky in agility and regularly trusted him/her offleash? How has it gone? Have you had only positive results or are there times when they turn into typical huskies? I'm open to being convinced.

I don't have much experience with the offleash aspect.. but all the ones I've seen are indoors for training?

In this case, I think the agility training area is indoors, but events and competitions are held outside and not always fenced in.

She just argues with me that because they're doing a job, they won't run off. She admittedly doesn't have experience with huskies, but she does have experience with a LOT of breeds, many of which are sight hounds who are also notoriously bad at being offleash.

I don't have that much experience, but I do train Siku in agility in a 10 acre property. It's fenced in, but only around the whole property. She did run off a couple times when she was first starting (straight to the ponds at the back of the property ), but hasn't done it in a while. She stays pretty focused on the agility stuff, and there are even goats in the yard next to the agility course! However, I don't think I'd run her in an agility match if it wasn't fenced in. You just never know. Though, she'd probably go run off to see all the people and dogs instead of running off and never coming back.

I tried the offleash thing because the breeder told me that it is no problem when you train the dog right from puppyhood on offleash walking. Well that might be true and for some Huskeis it might work their whole lives but I think with most <huskies you can forget about this when they enter a certain age. Well of course it will work without any big distractions, but with major distractions like prey I think most <huskeis are not reliable.
Some say it is a matter of the bond between the dog and you, that might be true for a shepherd but there are breeds like the Husky there will be situations were they will do what they want if they get the chance to, no matter how strong the bond is.

At the end of the day you have to try if it works or not, maybe his passion for agility is so big that he will fully conentrate on it no matter what distraction is coming up.
To me a Husky is not really reliable offleash like >I said above, but this can happen with shepherds, labradors or other breeds that ar eknown for their high reliablity.

SiberianAnubis wrote:

I tried the offleash thing because the breeder told me that it is no problem when you train the dog right from puppyhood on offleash walking. Well that might be true and for some Huskeis it might work their whole lives but I think with most <huskies you can forget about this when they enter a certain age. Well of course it will work without any big distractions, but with major distractions like prey I think most <huskeis are not reliable.

Really?! Your breeder said that? That is very surprising to me. Sounds like you tried it and it did not work? That's NOT surprising to me In the future, that would be an immediate red flag on a breeder in my eyes!

Your suspicions are exactly my own.

Sure it was surprising to me first because when I did my research on Huskies I always read the opposite, but I thought she is a breeder she knows the breed well and that most Husky owners only use them for sled work so they might not trying to train them on off leash walking. So I thought I will give it a try and thought positive on that the breeder said that if you train them right from the start as a puppy they can be off leash like any other dog.
It worked! Until he entered the teenager stage. Before that he was the most obedient dog you can imagine, no matter what was passing our way when I said something he was straight by my side. But around that time he started to not paying attention off leash so I decided that he will stay on a long leash from now on when we go for a walk. Well it still hurts that he can´t play with his friends anymore especially because guide dog work is very hard work for a dog so I wanted to give him the opportunity to play with his doggy firends when he is not working but safety comes first. He got used to staying on leash and I hope he will accept that he can´t play with his friends anymore one day.
Well there are Huskies that can be off leash or maybe it is not really working mybe it is just that their owners are naive I don´t know but after my own experience I would say to others try it if it works for your Husky but expect that it won´t.

SiberianAnubis wrote:

It worked! Until he entered the teenager stage.

This is VERY typical and exactly what I would expect. In all breeds puppies are pretty obedient offleash because they are more fearful to venture away from the familiar. People who tell me their sibes are offleash, that's the first thing I ask, "How old is he?" The majority tell me under 1 yr, and then I have to move into the whole teenage rebellion talk. *sigh*

When I was training Shantee in advanced showmanship and obedience, we worked in an unfenced, outdoors area. I was always really nervous about this, despite Shantee being "all business" when she was working in the ring. She knew her job well and seemed to love the seriousness of obedience and showmanship, but...

One day, out of the blue, she decided to bolt and started a mad chase. I never did agility with her, but I'm guessing the outcome would have been the same: all business, save for that split second when she would decide to run.

Hope this helps.

Huskyfur wrote:

When I was training Shantee in advanced showmanship and obedience, we worked in an unfenced, outdoors area. I was always really nervous about this, despite Shantee being "all business" when she was working in the ring. She knew her job well and seemed to love the seriousness of obedience and showmanship, but...

One day, out of the blue, she decided to bolt and started a mad chase. I never did agility with her, but I'm guessing the outcome would have been the same: all business, save for that split second when she would decide to run.

Hope this helps.

Yes, it very much does That's exactly what I thought would happen, so I'm sticking to my guns on this one. Thank you!

.

Koda wrote:

SiberianAnubis wrote:

It worked! Until he entered the teenager stage.

This is VERY typical and exactly what I would expect. In all breeds puppies are pretty obedient offleash because they are more fearful to venture away from the familiar. People who tell me their sibes are offleash, that's the first thing I ask, "How old is he?" The majority tell me under 1 yr, and then I have to move into the whole teenage rebellion talk. *sigh*

Yeah but with other breeds all the things they learned come back after their teenage stage. With a Huskiy it is like you have a completely new dog after turning into a teenager.

Sometimes I still ask myself what has driven you to own a Husky, omg why and then I see the other dogs around here and then I know why

This breed seems to have multiple personalities When we work on guiding he is really into it and listens to the commands etc. When you go on a walk with him there can be situations wher ehe just thinks, hey what you want from me you can kis smy ass
Well I got two dogs in one but only paid for one

It's more like-- all puppies are created equal... then once they hit the teenage years, the breed characteristics start shining through. Teenage years in a husky just mean you start to own an ACTUAL husky, not just the cute adorable puppy husky. That's why most huskies are surrendered at the beginning of the teenage years. They start to wonder what happened to the cute, adorable little puppy they bought. Huskies "calm down" energy wise after a long while, but they stay the same personality-wise really. They're so like people- they need to be entertained

Just wanted to update since I have a little more experience. I've been taking Siku to agility classes. The area is fully fenced. I have to take her off leash when I have her go over jumps and such and she's been pretty darn good about it. So far two other people's dogs in our class have decided it would be really fun to run around and try to play with the other dogs and not get caught, but not Siku! She really stays with me when we are doing things. I don't know if it's more of her doing a "job" that keeps her attention or the fact that I have yummy cheese in my hand, but either way, she's been really good.

Thankfully two of the main agility places near me are fully fenced in for trials. There is one place that's not, and I'm still not sure if I'd show her there. But if you have fenced in areas to train and show, go for it! It's really fun and most dogs really enjoy it. Siku sure does!

As a general rule of thumb, I would never, for any reason, trust a husky off leash, having a job or not. That being said, there are exceptions to every rule. So you have to ask yourself if your dogs are the exception (sounds like you've already decided). Obedience can be a lot of fun but personally I never got into the 'competitive spirit' of it all. If this is something you're considering, maybe you should try rally first to see how it goes, the novice title can be completed on leash.

This husky is an exception to the rule;

It may be the wrong dog i'm thinking of but I think that Husky ran away. I remember on another forum someone linking that vid (or one similar) and someone posting that the dog actually ended up ignoring recall and running off.

Mickey is in agility and does really well off-leash as long as we have his attention. But if we're just standing around I see his mind begin to want to wander.

According to the uploader comments on that video he passed away in May 2010, they also have a video of him from '09 stating that he was 11 at that time, so he wasn't exactly young...

I think that there is a few exceptions to the rule. The girl at the Husky Rescue where I adopted my Sibe from, had about 5 Sibes, and all of them were fine off leash. As soon as she called them, they came. I was amazed. She also takes them to unfenced off leash parks, and they are completely fine.

Also, I have just enrolled my boys in obedience class, so I put an ad up for a trainer familiar with Husky's. The trainer I found, has had Sibes for over 30 years. She said she trained her first Sibe the way that I train mine, correct if he didn't come and praise when he did. She said that all the dog learned was she had control over with when it had a leash on, but not when it didn't, and would take off in a flash. But all of her dogs now, she does not do any correction training, she trained them so that every time the come, they get a treat. Even if they are just checking in. So, according to her, all of her dogs are able to be off leash. She also does agility with them.

So we will see how the classes go. She does have pictures that show her Sibes off leash.

Should we take bets on whatj the Husky is more interested in, the rabbit that is hopping 100 metres in front of you or your treat? You better put your bet on the first one

If the Husky realizes that you have no control over him when he is off leash, you have lost.

j.gabriel wrote:

I think that there is a few exceptions to the rule. The girl at the Husky Rescue where I adopted my Sibe from, had about 5 Sibes, and all of them were fine off leash. As soon as she called them, they came. I was amazed. She also takes them to unfenced off leash parks, and they are completely fine.

Also, I have just enrolled my boys in obedience class, so I put an ad up for a trainer familiar with Husky's. The trainer I found, has had Sibes for over 30 years. She said she trained her first Sibe the way that I train mine, correct if he didn't come and praise when he did. She said that all the dog learned was she had control over with when it had a leash on, but not when it didn't, and would take off in a flash. But all of her dogs now, she does not do any correction training, she trained them so that every time the come, they get a treat. Even if they are just checking in. So, according to her, all of her dogs are able to be off leash. She also does agility with them.

So we will see how the classes go. She does have pictures that show her Sibes off leash.

This is a very risky, and in my honest opinion, naive statement. I have issues with ANY trainer, breeder, or person who thinks that they have 100% trustworthy off-leash dog, LET ALONE a Siberian Husky.

Read this. . . it will make you think twice about letting ANY dog offleash. .

http://www.siberescue.com/Common/Leash/leashTRUST.html

And as a side note. . it might make you cry. .

Well said


So far, no one's convinced me and it's staying that way

I do agility for fun with Shelby, but it's at an indoor facility. We have alot of fun with it, but your right, I would never try it in a non fenced in area. Shelby does VERY good, but she does still get distracted, and if we were outside. . I can't imaging how hard it would be to keep her attention!

Every dog is different. I MIGHT do it with Hailey after we'd trained in an indoor facility, but never never Koda. And I say might rather strongly because I doubt I ever would.

I just wanted to make sure I wasn't crazy! Cause my cousin knows a lot about a LOT of breeds, but I suppose I'm not conceited to think that I know a lot more than she does about huskies So I'll stick to my guns