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awww he's precious. i love his name too!

Link came home with us last night.

It was about a 3.5 hour drive home.

We got him in the car in a carrier crate, and he freaked out for a good 45 minutes. Howling like crazy....kinda cute actually.....and screaming.

I was in the back with him, and then it hit me that for the past 2 months he has lived with his litttermates, mother, fellow dogs, and his humans, all of whom were giving him structure and discipline. Now however, after being stripped away, he was being confined and...ignored in a sense, with no structure or discipline.

I took him out and put him down by my feet, and when he would cry, I would disagree with him gently with my finger and with a verbal check, and promote him being calm and relaxed, and to trust in me that I can get him to a calm, peaceful state.

It worked wonders. He sighed, curled up, put his face either behind my calf or under the seat, and slept for the remainder of the trip. He would occasionally wake and cry, and I would repeat this instantly, and his mind would once again settle.

He had very litter water and no food all day, and he peed just before we left. Almost 4 hours later after our trip, it took him another 3 hours to pee. Wow.

He settled into our home nicely and was following us like our shadow. He is very responsive to direction, encouragement, and gentle disagreement.

No accidents in the house until about midnight, where he went to the door on his own and just couldn't hold it. We had taken him out 4 times already and the good news is that he knew where to go. I interrupted him and brought him to a temporary pad to finish, and he did.

Crate time comes along. Oh boy. He flipped out for about 35 minutes. I repeatedly disagreed with his crying and got down by him to promote calmness, and it worked. He slept for stints of 2.5, 3, and 4 hours solid and quiet, sprawled out comfortably in his crate. Took him out every 3 hours or so to pee and poo, and he got the hang of the routine very quickly. Finally, the last stint of the night was the 4 hour stint, and he woke around 7:45 and was giving the "gotta go" cry as opposed to the freak out cry.....good news.

He has sit down, is starting to shake on command already, and his recall is very good already. He is perking up to his name nicely.

He loves his rope duck, bully stick, and thankfully, he's a ball driven puppy

First outing out to my work for coffee today kinda overwhelmed him, when he would bury his face in me or my partner and just calmly sleep. He's a charmer alright in public!

He has stopped scratching at his collar and has adapted to the leash nicely. He is wonderfully responsive to subtle corrections on leash to keep him behind us, and after the first outing last night, he has yet to try to bolt through a door ahead of us. Off to a good start.

He tackled the elevator without hesitation, but going down stairs kinda freaked him out. We went down ahead of him and encouraged him down, and he trusted us and overcame his fear. Two flights later, he was springing and bouncing down the stairs. Way to go boy!

So far so good, overall.

He's very pack oriented and is always near us. He gets really confused when he is behind the leash holder, but the other person walks ahead because he wants to pounce and follow, but he knows he shouldn't go ahead of the leash. People training

Our biggest "oh boy" is how crazy he gets during feeding. We try to get him to settle, be calm, and make eye contact with us, but he is used to 4 littermates, 5 dogs, and 2 kids all around during feeding and a frenzy seems normal to him. This is our biggest challenge with him so far. I'm going to out-patience him today and just wait and wait and wait. He'll get it, I'm sure.

He is so soft and smells amazing and we are falling for him, rapidly

Best pics so far above.

Cheers.

What a doll! It's amazing how quickly they bond with a new family.

Wow! He's so adorable
He looks big, but Korra also photographs huge, maybe it's a husky thing. How much does he weigh? Just out of curiousity. Glad he's doing so well at home!

Good question. Vet visit tomorrow for general exam. He is very muscular, and his paws look like boxing or ski mitts.

Overall he is a mellow medium energy level......so far....... and except at meal time. Any tips from you all would be much appreciated. Thankfully, he's not aggressive or possessive around food, just goes wild once we get it out and prepared. He let's me freely take it away and return it nicely, just initially is the issue. He practically screams and does backflips.

Looks like he weighed 10.10 pounds on the 17th.

He always appears to be dreaming when he naps: ears moving a bit, little head shakes now and then. I know it is probably not dreams, I suppose that just a projection.

Is this common for puppies?

I think most of them are when they first come home, from my experience and reading others' on the forum- the whole being ripped from everything you know, and all. Mine started to get more energy after 4ish days, though is overall on the low energy end of the husky spectrum. Give him a few days to let him get comfortable, and then you'll see more personality!
With the freaking out when you start making food, do you crate him when you feed? I do on and off, not really a big deal. You might crate him while you prepare it, and as soon as he calms down let him out and give it to him, even if you're not doing the meals-in-the-crate thing.
Mine will now wait in her crate without me locking it while I prepare food, even while she was on vaginitis meds and I was messing around in the kitchen for a few minutes mixing the pill in with her food and pumpkin. She used to jump on me, on the closet that I store her food in, and yip from sheer excitement when her food was being prepared. She caught on really fast that that behavior doesn't fly, and if she wants to eat, she has to be nice.
I can also prepare her food on the floor in front of her and she'll wait for the release. When you have the bowl, just do a fake-out when he lunges for it as you try to set it down, eventually, he'll get the hang of it and wait until it touches the floor, then work on having him wait until you release him. Even if he doesn't know stay, a hand in front of the face/stay gesture works well.
Puppy dreams are common, mine makes the strangest sounds. They seriously creep me out sometimes. The weirdest was this laughing sound like, "hee! heehee! hee!" It was crazy.

Oh yeah Puppies dream alot. Mine at 7 months still twitches and woos in his sleeps. Completely common. Beautiful little furry ball of fluffy you have.

Stark still dreams a lot. 11 months and going strong!

As far as the food thing goes, they'll always be happy to see food If you think they're eating too quickly at the get go, you can try hand feeding them to pace it out for a bit until they learn on their own.

Great looking pup, Bourbon was a food spaz as a pup wether we feed in crate, out of crate or did the crate waiting. He would dive literally dive into the bowl but not food aggression. We slowly found out he needed more foodas the amount was just too little for him. THe vet suggested 3 feedings a day and that helped. She is of the mind set that at that age feed them what the want as in eat day if they are spazing to feed a little more until calmer. Suggest you see what your vet thinks on that idea.

Thanks for the feedback and compliments folks.

We just did an intense 10 minute exercise with boundaries around food, and it went so well.

He is nuts for kibble, way more so than treats.

We formed a circle with our bodies enclosing him in it, and his crate open on the other end, then put kibble down in the circle with him.

He of course flipped at first and wanted to attack the food. But we didn't let him. Subtle touches and verbal corrections did the trick, and eventually, all we needed was the verbal correction and some calm energy and he got it. Once he calmed down and sat politely and made eye contact with either of us, we gave him some kibble.

We tried varying it with him in the crate and it closed, same thing. Once he calmed down and layed down and relaxed, door opens and he got some kibble.

Also, for bonus, we worked on down with him in the circle and he was getting it, but after 10 minutes he was mentally exhausted and we finished off with the kibble in the crate, door open, and we left the room. When he was done, he came find us and sat down as if to say, "ok, what next? Got that one."

Cheers.

Oh that is great keep working practice really helps

Just gave him the second half of lunch, and did the same thing, this time in his bowl. Screams, howls, jolts................calm, sit, eye contact, boom. Lunch.

very cute pup!!! Yukon still gets crazy for food! I had to put his kibble in a treat dispenser so he didn't gulp it all down, and I am going to get one of those slow feeding bowls. Good luck ;-)

Sounds like he's getting it That's awesome, I can tell you'll have a well-behaved pup.
Just saw your profile picture, Korra has the bear version of that duck! Awesome!
A fun thing to do with little puppies to wear them down and work on their name/come is to have 2 people will kibble across the house and just call him back and forth. He'll knock right out after a little bit of this. We'd do that when we wanted her to work for it! A light collar grab as a part of "come" helps later when they're at the dog park and you don't want them to bolt off again when you're trying to leash them. Not that you asked, but there's another fun way to feed and train him..haha. I'm just really excited tiny babies.

Good idea Rhia, thanks. I just wondered....do you know your name yet buddy?

He's so sweet! Congratulations!

Thanks Kelli.....you're not far behind

To st day Cato is crazy when it comes to food..I'm okay with that,,he needs to be food motivated so he will perform in ring.


I thought this puppy was a show prospect for you?

Nope, no show intentions.

Oh okay. I was only asking because you are teaching sit. Ha he's a cutie.

He's got Sit down already Working on Down and Shake. Thanks!