Today Ember and Kairo seemed to both settle into routine suddenly. They have played hard (no toys - though Kairo keeps trying!), and today I witnessed cuddle sessions for the first time! First time they went butt-to-butt on the couch, and then later, I looked over and Kair was laying down, and Ember approached slowly and laid her chin on Kairo's arm and just looked at her face. It was super sweet!

Both times my phone was on the charger and moving meant charging both of them up, so I had to leave them. However, I did catch them behaving nicely after some coming-and-going at the door.

Ps, I do have semi-high hopes that Kairo will bring Ember around to toys. She is trying REALLY hard by bringing them into play sessions randomly, and dragging them across the couch or floor in front of Ember. She keeps offering her favorite stuffed shark to her, and will even leave it and walk off. For the first time today Ember actually kept playing during one of these tries. Though she didn't go for the toy, she normally gets upset when one is introduced by Kairo and walks off and comes to me.



And here's Kairo. I love her eyes so much.

I swear, Zhukov does the cutest things whenever I DON'T have my camera! That is the most frustrating thing. Glad to see they are getting along.

Time is key in everything where a husky is involved. This is pretty much the mantra around my house. Glad to see things are settling. You may not want to give her back to your brother.

TwisterII wrote:

Time is key in everything where a husky is involved. This is pretty much the mantra around my house. Glad to see things are settling. You may not want to give her back to your brother.

That's what I'm thinking Every time Archer leaves, a piece of my goes with him Wayne keeps telling me "he's Josh's dog, you don't want to take away Josh's dog, do you?" And Wayne is even more bonded with that pup than I am.

I'm sure it will come to that sentiment - but right now I feel like I'm chasing around a toddler shouting things like "GET OUT OF THAT" and "GET THAT OUT OF YOUR MOUTH" 12 hours out of the day!

I do love her though, always have I just don't think I'm ready for 2 lifelong dogs. Right now I'm quite happy knowing I can send her back spoiled.

KairoAndEmber wrote:

I'm sure it will come to that sentiment - but right now I feel like I'm chasing around a toddler shouting things like "GET OUT OF THAT" and "GET THAT OUT OF YOUR MOUTH" 12 hours out of the day!

I do love her though, always have I just don't think I'm ready for 2 lifelong dogs. Right now I'm quite happy knowing I can send her back spoiled.

I've had toddlers and I've had dogs...yup, not much difference. Except you would get arrested if you put a toddler in a crate and went away for the day...

KairoAndEmber wrote:

I'm sure it will come to that sentiment - but right now I feel like I'm chasing around a toddler shouting things like "GET OUT OF THAT" and "GET THAT OUT OF YOUR MOUTH" 12 hours out of the day!

LOL
Been awhile since we had a pup in our home and I forgot about this phase.
Prying pine cones and rocks out of their mouths. Avoiding chewed gum and bird poop on the sidewalk cause you just know he's going to try to eat it.
How about I stick this rusty chunk of metal in my mouth...why would you even think of doing that!?

Kairo does okay until she goes quiet. Today she was tossing a tennis ball around the living room, and I looked up at this sudden silence and she has bitten a hole clean through it and is systematically tearing it into pieces. And I have no clue if she is eating them - at least I'm finding some, so I'm guessing not?

I bought that ball 2 days ago >_>

Tennis balls - especially "real" tennis balls aren't good toys for dogs.  They tend to strip the cloth outer layer off and swallow it causing a blockage. Tennis balls are nice fun, but seriously have to be played with under strict supervision.

Try glancing through this Google Search for supporting information.

There are times when it seems as if *nothing* is safe for a dog to play with - and unsupervised, I think they're right. Balls can be eaten in pieces, ropes can be shredded and ingested, antlers can crack teeth, bones can splinter and do not nice things. So, in a sense, *they* are right, on the other hand, I have tennis balls that Avalanche and I play with - they get put up when we're done and when they start to wear (come apart) they're in the trash.

That has been my philosophy - more because I'm terrified to hurt my precious brother's dog than for the dog itself, unfortunately. I pick up all toys when I leave the house and go to bed, but if I'm home, I'll choose 2 or 3 to leave lying around. This way I also try to rotate them. This is working great so far. I just have to babysit the heck out of this dog and her toys lol.

They make such a cute pair together!

I agree with Al on the toys, it just seems nothing is safe and I bet if there is an all around safe toy, they wouldn't touch it, haha. My two have one toy that has been indestructible, they like it, but I would say it's more an outside toy. Dunno what it's called though it's a ball though!!! A big rubberish one with a ball inside as well, I'd post a pic but don't know how from my iPad, I'd say you can find it in my scrapbooks but that'd be cruel since there are so many pages, LOLOL . I think Al once mentioned the idea behind this ball came from the ones that horses play around with.

Anyways, two beautiful pups and I love their names!

What I have for Avalanche is a Jolly Ball.  His is acually one for horses but he'll play with it for hours!

Chewy has them, the one Avalanche has is like the second one in the first row except bigger. After something like 6 years, he's beginning to wear the through the handle so I guess it's time to order a new one for him.

These are made by JolleyPets and if everything they make is as sturdy as this one then I'll be looking at them for other toys. Sasha simply doesn't play but I think Sky would if she were given the right toy.

Thank you! They are precious, and both very pretty. When I do try to walk them together, we don't get very far - everyone wants to stop and talk about them!

On a side note, Kairo actually overshadows Ember when other people are around. By that I mean that people will come up and comment on Kairo, love on her, and walk off without ever even glancing at Ember. Very rarely someone will notice her and say hi. It's probably because it's South Carolina and everyone here loves a husky, but few understand border collies and their own uniqueness.

But this works out wonderfully for fearful Ember. She gets to see real interaction without being a part of it, and just VERY recently, decided to start trying to assert herself into conversations. She's very slow and careful about it so she doesn't get a lot of attention still, and she isn't sure what to do about the hands that come to her when she IS successful, but it's really neat to see this "wait a minute, I'm clearly missing out on something" switch off in her brain.

I forgot about Jolly Balls! We've never had one but I've seen a ton of dogs running around with them. I bet that's exactly what Kairo needs!

Oh! And another side note, Ember played tug very shortly with Kairo today! Kairo is overly strong and aggressive on tug, so Ember let go really fast, but she did it! Trying really hard not to get my hopes up. Ember also snapped at a ball I tossed for Kairo. That's also huge.

Christina, one of an earlier pair of pups I had were a black lab - 65 pounds more or less and a mixed breed spaniel 25 pounds (ditto).  Those two would pick up the opposite ends of anything and play tug of war.  Obviously Kahla could have pulled Blondie all over the place but she didn't - it was more fun to tug than it was to drag, I guess.  Give them a chance and you might, hopefully, see the same thing - Kairo respecting Embers size.

And thanks for the reminder, one Jolly Ball order placed (along with some IAMS for sky) today.

It sounds like having the two of them is good for Ember, a Husky will definitely get her out of her shell and it sounds like she's also getting some human socializing as well - good on you all.

Now, what're you going to do when your brother gets home???

Christina - you may find Ember really comes around under Kairo's influence. When we first got Ami at 1 yr of age, he did not like any kind of human touching, most especially grooming or drying with a towel after rain. And personal space meant he was in the backyard and we were in the house. I remember 6 months after getting him when, sitting on the floor with him and hand feeding, he put his paw on my leg...I was thrilled.

Then Archer came along who likes to be plastered against us, in our laps, under our feet...and loves, loves, loves any kind of grooming and revels in the towel drying. Ami watched all of this intently, at first whine/howl/wooing his displeasure that Archer would dare get so close...then actually starting to want more closeness. Now, on occasion, not only does he sleep on the end of our bed but he actually will spoon for a bit. And at night, during movie time, he plops himself on the couch next to Wayne for "dessert" then when that's done, he comes over to me, paws at me...when I stand up, he walks over to the other side of the couch, lays on the floor and somewhere between invites and commands, asks for petting, belly rubs etc.

And, as for grooming, when he comes in wet from rain, he seems to enjoy the toweling of his face (the back, he barely tolerates, the feet? He's back under the kitchen table And in the past month or so, I've actually been able to groom up to 20 minutes using either the undercoat rake or the slicker brush (he actually seems to like the slicker, go figure).

As for Jolly Ball - we have one. Neither Ami nor Archer were able to make even a scratch or dent in that toy. Ami loved it at first but now its put away due to lack of interest...Ami isn't much of a toy kind of dog. He was at first when he was either tethered on his trolley, walking on leash or sleeping in his crate. Then he used to love the free time in the shop chasing, pouncing on tennis balls or his squeeky lady bug. Now that he can free roam the 4 acres in his invisible fence and has Archer to play with several days a week, he's not really interested in toys. I have a sneaky suspicion his "toys" are the birds...we used to have loads and loads of birds singing at dawn and dusk and feeding all over the lawn...no more.