Hello everyone,

I'm a new husky owner!  Or hope he's a husky(may be a mix?) I adopted him a few weeks ago, at the age of 6 months.. He was diagnosed with parvo but has since survived.. He got sick a day after i brought him home... After a week in and out of the vet/ER, he is as strong as ever and showing a lot of character. I've crated trained him for about 3 days now.. He whines and is so dramatic for about 30 minutes when he is in there.. I stay with him in the living room to quiet him down and teach positive reinforcement. He is extremely dramatic in his whines and cries...

I've made some training experience with my Shiba Inu and Pembroke corgi.. And hopefully he gets accustomed to the crate for sleeping soon!


I've named him Kai, and i was wondering if you guys could help me determine if he's a mix between a malamute or if he's just gonna be a big sib boy? He is quiet a large snout, and some fairly large paws.. He is currently about 30lbs, because... well he was very sick.

Also, an recommendations for other toys? Like all my dogs, ive gotten a deer antler(which he loves right now), Himalayan chews, rope balls, rope, tennis balls and a few stuffed animals. As well as a kong to keep him busy in the crate.


Here is some photos: (* for some reason it wont let me upload here..)

imgur.com /a/xrCOp

Congrats on your new dog!  I can't see the photos, but maybe someone else can ...?    My last dog was a Shiba, too!  I've also had a Malamute, and now I have a Husky -- and, yeah, both breeds are definitely full of drama queens.  I've also seen Huskies that look like Malamutes and Malamutes that look like Huskies.  Paw size and muzzle width aren't always giveaways since some Huskies get pretty big.  Without a breeding record, unless you have genetic testing done you might not be able to tell until he's older.

Misty is a toy-loving dog, too.  I recently got her a dog box subscription to help keep her entertained and stocked up on new toys and treats.  The two companies that deliver to my area that seem best for toys are BarkBox (the version for large dogs that are heavy chewers) and BullyMake. We settled on BullyMake for Misty because she seems to like their toys and chews the best.  It might be worth it to look up something similar that will deliver to your home.  Good luck!

There is a sticky at the top called "How to upload Pictures", inside that post is an updated version. In short though, depending on your browser (I use chrome), you can right click on your image in imgur and select "copy image address" and then click on the the little picture icon with the green + in the toolbar above and paste into that.

He looks full husky to me. Pictures of him standing would help, but for the most part considering his age unless he is severely underweight then I wouldn't expect him to go over breed standard by much if at all. Breed standard for males is as much as 60 pounds. Different lines grow at different rates. Some put a lot of growth on early and slow down a lot after 6-7 months. Others might still have some growth spurts left but in general are done by a year and will start to fill out until 2 years or so.

My boy loves a rubber squeaky ball from JW pets. Pretty much the only thing he will play with. As for chews we have elk antlers and moose. I steer away from whitetail antlers because they are harder than other antlers and can break dogs teeth. We also do chicken feet and pork ribs for teeth cleaning.

Welcome to the forum!

Let's see if these images pop up, but i am definetly being tested for crate training. I was up until 3AM consoling him while he whined.. while laying down staring out the crate.

He has beautiful markings. Huskies will take advantage if they think they can. Ignoring them completely usually works out better in some cases. Maybe move the crate into your bedroom so you can actually get some decent sleep at night or even just leave him in the living room and close your door to block out his noise if you can get away with that. Some people in apartments can't so that is understandable. Sometimes covering the crate to cut out light and create a deeper den helps too. My male, who is also named Kye with different spelling, didn't do so hot being crated out of the room with us but in the bedroom he did better. We were comfortable and better able to ignore him and it was darker. he would cry and fight the crate in the living room but was fine in our bedroom.

Yay, photos -- thanks! Yeah, he's a very good-looking boy! He definitely looks like a Husky to me, though my Malamute looked very lean and Husky-like when he was an "adolescent." Blue eyes are extremely rare in Mals and considered a disqualifying fault in the show ring, but they do occur. Blue eyes are much more common, and breeder-acceptable, in Huskies.

I agree with Jenn -- Ignoring Misty for unwanted behavior has certainly worked well with her. As long as he's not trying to chew or break out of his crate, Kai should calm down and accept his crate after a couple of nights of ignoring his whining. We put Misty's crate in the bedroom with us when we're sleeping.

I also recommend leaving some music or a radio on medium-to-low volume for Kai when he's crated while you're away (we play radio via an Echo Dot/Alexa that's linked to an ANKR speaker). Misty has gotten so conditioned by the radio that she starts yawning and calming down whenever she hears music (some truth to the old saying Music Soothes the Savage Beast?). We also use a "white noise" machine in the bedroom while we're sleeping (I like LectroFan, but Big Red Rooster is also good) . Originally we bought it because my husband ... well, he snores. It also seems to work well for helping Misty to calm down and go to sleep in her crate at night.