Hello Everyone
I am new to the husky breed. I have always owned Malamutes and last year I lost my Rasta at age 13. I wanted to get a new Mal but my nephew gifted me with a year old husky. His name is Ozhaawashkonaagozi for his blue eyes but we just call him Ozhaawa. My goal is to Skijor with him so we can enjoy our long Minnesota winters together.
I also have two Lab and compete in UKC and AKC hunt test with them and three little Havanese.
Not sure if I got his picture attached correctly, its been awhile since I have belonged to a forum.

Welcome to the forum!! I'm so sorry to hear of your loss, and congrats on your husky. The pic did not show up. The sticky to the upper right, should help you, "how to upload pics" I do not know much about Malamutes, I do know they are much larger than the husky, and I do believe they tend to be more chill than the husky. But overall quite similar. An active household and skijoring sounds like a good fit for your husky.

hi and welcome to the forums. skijor sounds like fun. i don't know much about Malamutes, but from what i have been told Malamutes are suppose to be much calmer and laid back and huskies are suppose to be more hyper active, but that's not always the case. My boy is very calm and very lad back and a bit lazy . cant wait to see some pictures of him.
very sorry for your loss.

My malamute (4 total over the years) were always laid back and my nephews Husky is not real crazy BUT Ozhaawa, now this dog is something else. I cant even get a good picture of him! He is constantly moving. The picture I used for my Avitar is the best I have.

I am learning, also his prey drive is off the charts especially he smells blood. My sister is a quiller and we were taking a nearly dead porcupine off the road. I could barley hold on to him. I dont dare to ever have him off lead he will chase deer and here in Minnesota its legal to shot any dog chasing a deer. Lost of training needed and some things I am not so sure I can do much about but thought some on the forum might have helpful suggestions.

He is a very handsome boy!! Lot's of training and patience is needed for huskies, especially for those that didn't get a lot of training while they were young. I don't normally suggest this, and quite frankly I don't recommend this to anyone without proper training, but the e-collar has worked quite well for my girl. Living in the middle of nowhere Texas, I have similar problems as in ranchers may shoot anything they feel may endanger their cattle, sheep, etc. Although, I admit, I did a ton of training with her, as far as verbal communication, and her focus on me. So I really don't know if it was my strong training or my training with the e-collar. Sit and stay as well as drop it and leave it, have been my most serious of training commands that I have instilled in her. So i personally believe anyone can train a husky to follow those commands with out the e-collar, for me the collar is more for peace of mind, just in case she decides to ignore me when she is on the other side of our property, and my voice doesn't travel far. The one big thing I have told many new husky owners is that they are stubborn and independent, the use of their names is quite often the best attention grabber to say before a command. For example when Miya starts to take off after a squirrel I say Miya, stay. She will immediately sit and stay, you have to be firm voiced and consistent, but imho, it is doable.

Anyways, start a new thread if you can not get your questions answered from reading other posts, the search function is excellent. There is a wealth of info here, and many knowledgeable people who are happy to help.

he is a handsome fellow, really like is mask.

I really dont like e-collar training. I have never used an e-collar on my hunting dogs. I am competing at the champion level with both. I hate watching the dogs at club training being "lite-up" in fact their yelps and screams upset my dogs.

I appreciate the suggestion though. If it worked for you thats good. Keeping them safe is the main goal of any dog owner. I did wonder about the collars with the tone and vibration options.

Till I can figure it out this guy is staying on a long line. Thank you for the kind comments on my guys looks. I think he is pretty. I ordered a couple of books today. That might help too.

Shirley, My apologies. Like I mentioned above, in the year and a half that I have been a member here, I have never once mentioned the e-collar, unless someone else already has. Because you mentioned hunting dogs, I figured you had been exposed to them. I am sorry though, that you and your dogs have had a negative experience with them. I assure you, that the people that you know that have used them, used them incorrectly. No dog should ever yelp or scream when nicked. I in my experience use the tone only function 90% of the time in the 2 years I have used it. Sadly I was turned off to using it as well, when we first got it, because as my husband was setting the numbers Miya did yelp, and I was adamant on not using one. The 10% of the time that I have used the nick feature there was never a negative response from Miya, and I easily converted to using the tone only in my training. I never want anyone to believe or feel that I in any way train my dog in a negative way. Positive reinforcement, positive praise training is imho, the best way to train a dog. So to your question, you can most certainly avoid the nick option, and teach the tone or vibration options only. This is what I did to get her recall solid, as in using Miya let's go in addition to the tone, so now if she is too far to hear me (which is not very far, lol), I use the tone and our recall together, and she is by my side.

I do understand why I never have mentioned and will never mention again about the e-collar. Too many abuse the nick function, and I will never endorse anything that can physically or mentally affect a dog negatively. Again, please accept my apologies.

Welcome to the forum

I grew up with a Husky and a Malamute, both males that were just awesome together. I'm surprised most everyone says Malamutes are more chill than Huskies! Or maybe some of the husky rubbed off on my Malamute because he was as crazy as the husky, lol, not in a bad way at all, these two were soooooo much fun. I was very fortunate in that they both lived a very long happy, full, life (husky was 17 and my Malamute 16) I loved both equally no doubt but my Malamute was my best bud, we were really tight. To this day I still think of him...there is just something about a Malamute. Im very sorry for your loss.

Your new boy is beautiful!

no need to apologize and my experience with e-collar users is extensive. I belong to MANY retriever training clubs and know lots of pro trainers and it is more common that not for dogs to yelp in pain. Dogs even yelp on the line because the expect to be lite up. I see dogs with very strange nervous behavior due to e-collar use.

Its my personal opinion that there are very few that actually use e-collars in a responsible way.

But this is a husky forum and I digress