Hi everyone I'm new to this forum and I'm hoping maybe someone has had experience with what I am currently dealing with. My 3 year old husky got hit by a car last month. We have no idea how it happened but whenever he is outside he is on a long lead, has been all his life because we live on a busy road. He's not a runner and he's great off leash but as a precaution I always put him on his chain when outside the house. Long story short my hubby was out working in the garage and as usual brought maverick out with him on his chain to hang out. All of a sudden his lead was there but he wasn't, it didn't break, his collar didn't break either, not sure what happened. We found him in our neighbours drive way with a broken leg and luckily after rushing to the vet nothing else was damaged somehow...people do at least 90km on this road, very lucky. Now it's been 4 weeks since his orthopedic surgery so I'm allowed to start walking him. But he is absolutely terrified of moving vehicles which makes perfect sense as to why he would be. Otherwise he is a very outgoing, confident dog but he wants to dart from the cars and i would like to slowly build his coconfidence back up so that we can walk comfortably but I also dont want to rush him. Does anyone have any advice? I've been taking him to a quiet trail to walk but to get there there is at least 1 min of walking on the side walk. Thanks!!!

Oh no! So sorry to hear that. I am glad he is doing better. Hopefully his fear goes away soon and he can get back to normal. But as I was told, Huskies don't forget. Good luck.

I'll bet your not did what mine did when we first got him...he was tethered a lot at first. Disappeared one evening, when I went out to get him. He was gone, the tether was laying in the snow with intact snap, no footprints to indicate someone took him...just gone. He came back, collar intact. A few days later, off tether. Mystified. Until I saw him lying down, slowly, persistently working at the snap with his teeth. He learned to undo the snap!!! I put a second snap on the tether and that solved it.

As for his fear, I would slowly, using treats and small birds of time, walk him on the sidewalk then being him back to ", safety" gradually increase the time out as he tolerates. Try not tho exceed what he can tolerates at any one time.

Hey Maverick, welcome to the world of Huskies!! and sorry your guy got hit ... that's the pits but, as LoAn already said, I'm glad that he's getting better.

Your confidence level is going to help a lot with his new and understandable fear. And it would be quite understandable if you were a bit nervous.  As you said, you don't want to push him - in the first place that could be bad for a healing leg, in the second place he needs to build up his confidence again to be able to be around the vehicles - - but maybe a little reticence to go there might be a good thing.

What you might consider, as other members do, is to use a second connection between his collar/harness and his lead.  A carribineer<sp> between the lead and the collar in addition to the clip on the lead. That does two things, first it provides a solid backup if the first connector breaks or comes loose; second, it really forces you to make sure the connections are in place.  I have a squirmy husky and there have been a couple of times that I've missed the connector on the collar and stood there with a "damn!" watching the silly dog run off - my saving grace is that I live in the remotest country I could find and there's almost no traffic on the dirt road that runs by my place.

ETA: Hi Amy!! Posting at the same time!

Sounds like you should a find a good trainer in your area to help. I would start by teaching him a "look at me" command, and practice it a lot inside the house, then practice in your back yard and move to the front yard, well away from the road. The goal would be to eventually get him to the point where if you see a car coming you can give him the command and he will be more focused on you than the vehicle. Also, make sure you are putting yourself between him and the car, you become a sort of barrier. But definitely look into a trainer to go work with you and your pup, and remember there is no one way, so if one way just isn't working then talk to your trainer about trying a different method.

Thanks for the advice I will definitely give this a try!