EXERCISE! My one year old husky Tank does not dig holes, has never escaped, stays home alone crate free for up to 8 hours, never had an accident in the house, and will even walk next to me leash free. Continue reading to learn what secrets I learned about huskies over this past year.

My husky Tank was given to me by my fiancé before he left for active duty because he felt a dog would "keep me going." Tank was a handful! I had to walk him 6 miles a day just for him to be "semi-calm" and to go into his crate without howling and crying too loud. As tank grew he destroyed three cages and pretty much anything he could get his mouth around. I enrolled him in obedience school and was actually told not to come back because he had too much of a puppy mind and could not free leash walk past the rabbit cage. I tried everything, dog parks, running with him, let's just say I was at my wits end. When my fiancé returned (I had lived with my grandmother while he was gone) we got our own place, and my life as a Siberian husky owner changed forever.

The new house had a very very small fencedin back yard, not big enough for him to even run, I had to find a new way to exercise him. One day I got on my bike, put a harness on my dog and let him do what he does best; run. I'm not talking about running at a dog park or sprinting with your dog down the street, when my dog runs while hooked to my bike he's a whole different dog. My dog does what I call the "double hop" which is when he's running the fastest, for about five miles a day. I don't pedal at all. He even pulls me up steep hills on his own. When there's a turn put the brakes on a bit and loudly and firmly either yell tank stop, tank left, or tank right. ( this can be trained with treats) I know when tank is ready to be done because he slows down drastically And let's me lead him home. The first time I did this I let tank have free roam of the house for an hour, when nothing was damaged, I gradually kept leaving him out for a whole work day. Some things I would suggest are 1. Always exercise before leaving alone, the only exercise capable for my dog so far is bike riding. 2. Don't leave things on the floor, no need to temp them. 3. Leave the radio on if your husky doesn't like being alone, this could also make it seem like someone is home. 4. Potty before they're left alone. The expression "a tired husky is a good husky" is true!!! Another "husky discovery" is that they are not stupid at all. I make my husky sit before I open he front door and one day I said sit one time and he was as stubborn as could be. I stood there for 15 minutes as he went about his day doing whatever he wanted to do. Still with my sit signal held he eventually came back and sat exactly how he was supposed to. Whenever he would not listen I would only say the command one time and hen out do him with my patience. Now he is the best behaved dog. I can't believe how much of a terror he used to be! If only I knew these things then! So go buy a bike and a harness, give your dog time to get used to what he's supposed to do, then let them do what they love. Be the boss of them and win through patience. Exercise and patience the key to any husky. I hope this advice helps someone!

This is a great post! Thank you for sharing and welcome to the forum! I think one of our Moderators, Eddy would very much agree with you

Go post in the welcome mat and introduce yourself with pictures! Welcome to our community

EDIT: I'm actually going to sticky this because I'm hoping other members will add their words of wisdom in here.... What's the secret to a well-behaved husky for you? If it's exercise too, share your story!

Koda wrote:

What's the secret to a well-behaved husky for you?

Summed up into 2 words: Exercise AND discipline.

Exercise is all well and good but a highly exercised and untrained husky can still be a...how shall I put this nicely...challenge. The same holds true for a well trained but under-exercised husky...still a "challenge".

Now combine tons of exercise with regular training/discipline and life should be wonderful again.

.

If only my dog had energy.. lol

She gets hyper for about 20 mins at night. Then shes out like a light.

And she seems scared of me for some reason. She always hides behind my girlfriend. Never comes when shes called. I try to get her excited when I get her leash but she just looks at me and puts her head back down on the floor.

I suppose it doesn't help that I goto work all day and Dakota is left at home to be babied by the kids and the girlfriend.

TrippleX wrote:

If only my dog had energy.. lol

She gets hyper for about 20 mins at night. Then shes out like a light.

Oh she will have the energy! She's just a puppy right now and will do tons of sleeping for a little while yet. But give her some time to grow up and she'll be crazy insane like any other husky. Trust me, enjoy the sanity while it lasts!

Have any of you watched the Dog Whisperer? I was amazed with how much I was dong wrong after watching his shows. I just recently got a puppy and I have to say his tips has really helped. Plus he explained how to pick out a pupply in the litter and I am so glad I followed his advice.

A tired husky is FOR SURE a good one!!! Like right now, Mya is knocked out and its only 6pm. She had an active day. Went to the park in the morning, to the pet store in the afternoon, and another walk an hour ago. She's a happy exhausted doggie =0) Now if for some reason I can't walk her more than once a day she drives me INSANE!!!!!!!!

26nikita wrote:

Have any of you watched the Dog Whisperer? I was amazed with how much I was dong wrong after watching his shows. I just recently got a puppy and I have to say his tips has really helped. Plus he explained how to pick out a pupply in the litter and I am so glad I followed his advice.

Be careful which advice you take from Caesar. Do your research on other trainers as well. Look into Victoria Stilwell from It's Me or the Dog. She's another great one. No one trainer has all the answers and I happen to have issue with a lot of Caesar's advice. Just my $.02.

I have watched "It's Me or the Dog" and liked her as well and I do agree not one trainer has all the answers, but that is with everything in life, isn't it? One thing I have learned is do your own research!! Then you gotta make choices that best fits your life because what works for one person doesn't always work for another.

Cesar is the one that got me up off my rump and running years ago. I probably would have let my dogs be unruly fatsos and never thought twice about it. I like him. The puppy picking episode I watched was pretty good. Definitely good for reducing the chances of a completely nutso Husky. But I would pick the one that Cesar wouldn't. I need the drive and energy that terrifies most people, and I have the time to deal with it properly.

Caesar is great in theory and his practices certainly help. I haven't seen him recently, so I'm probably not a good judge, but he used to use shock collars but hides them from the camera claiming it is all "his energy." I 100% agree energy is important and you need to be calm yourself in order to communicate with your animals, but don't tell me it's doing something that it's not. I do also agree with his avocation of exercise. I just don't like his delivery and think that he could be a lot more open and honest and I would respect him a lot more, even if I didn't agree.

I think if you watched his show you would know that is not true. I have seen one episode, out of like 80, where he did openly use an e collar in front of the cameras. He had the owner test it on his hand first and the owner said it was just a vibration, not a shock. You should watch the episode where he is giving a lecture at a dog friendly work place and he calls a woman up in front of all her coworkers that has a non-stop barking dog. He asks her a couple questions and reaches out and takes the leash from her and in two seconds her dog stops barking. I am definatly a better doggie parent becuase of him. I never realized how much we influence our own pets behavior. It makes me sad to think of all the dogs that get put down becuase of their "bad" behavior. Now anytime I hear anyone talking about getting a dog, I tell them to do the research!! It's so important to know what you are getting yourself into! =-)

26nikita wrote:

I think if you watched his show you would know that is not true. I have seen one episode, out of like 80, where he did openly use an e collar in front of the cameras. He had the owner test it on his hand first and the owner said it was just a vibration, not a shock. You should watch the episode where he is giving a lecture at a dog friendly work place and he calls a woman up in front of all her coworkers that has a non-stop barking dog. He asks her a couple questions and reaches out and takes the leash from her and in two seconds her dog stops barking. I am definatly a better doggie parent becuase of him. I never realized how much we influence our own pets behavior. It makes me sad to think of all the dogs that get put down becuase of their "bad" behavior. Now anytime I hear anyone talking about getting a dog, I tell them to do the research!! It's so important to know what you are getting yourself into! =-)

I very much agree with your last statements. However, I have watched plenty of Caesar's shows. I admittedly have not watched some of the more recent ones (past 2 years or so). Again, I DO think that many of his points are valid, however, he is much more of a showman than many other trainers.

Check out this video:


The episode you're talking about happened AFTER he received a bunch of bad press for the episode above.

Again, I'm not saying energy and research don't work. Far from it. I'm saying I have issues with a man who only fully discloses his methods once he's caught. It's one thing to educate the public in the use of shock collars (which he did very well later), it's another to tell the public he's using his energy to control the dog when he has other aids. See the difference?

I'm not disagreeing with anything you say excpet the part about Ceasar hiding the e collar and claiming it as his energy and that is just becuase I haven't seen it for myself yet. I hate to take an edited youtube video as fact, as I'm sure you can understand. I haven't seen this episode so I will see if I can find it and see if he explains the e collar or if he actually is trying to hide it. I just prefer to not think badly of him or anyone else for that matter, until I have seen the proof myself. I will be very dissappointed if I find that to be the case...

I've seen the episode before I found out about the e-collar. I understand and very much appreciate your wanting to see it for yourself before you comment. I was disappointed too.

I will let you know once I find the episode. I have DVD's of his first two season but haven't watched them all yet. I also have 67 episodes saved on my DVR but the one you are referring to is not one of them. I'm just going to hope you are wrong until I see it. =-)

This may be a dumb question, but how do you highlight someones text and put it in your reply? I have commented on other posts wishing I knew how to do that. I mean, I know how to copy and paste, but how do you put it in a highlight box?

Hit the quote button in that person's post It's in the top right corner of each post

Never cared for Cesar and had an opinion about him until this episode:
http://c1.libsyn.com/media/729/05198_11_Working-with-a-W_006.m4v?nvb=20091124173758&nva=20091125174758&t=06b73d2278a783a064046
Link taken from this discussion regarding it:
http://www.livefortheoutdoors.com/Community-Landing/Forum-Landing/Forum-Categories/Topic/?topic-id=28002&message-id=214031&__ia=message214031#message214031


Kicks the dog with his heel to get it going and then suffocates it to where it passes out to say it's "calmed down".. pretty sick if you ask me. Not to mention he is not trying to bite Cesar, he is trying to bite the leash to get free since he can't breathe. Sorry, don't mean to turn this into a anti-Cesar thread, but I think any dog owner should see this video before respecting him.

Thanks, Heather. I knew of that one too, but didn't know where to find it. I watch it over and over again to see if I can't find where or what he was trying to do with the heel kick. I know that sometimes a nudge with the heel is used to get the dog to pay attention, but such a reaction out of the dog, I would think the proper thing to do afterwards is to recollect and redirect. I just don't understand what muscling the dog to the ground actually does for the dog/trainer relationship

Anyway- again, his positive uses of exercise, tiring the dog out, body language and energy are all REALLY GREAT tools and I agree with and use them myself. I will freely admit too, Caesar taught me about body language and energy. However, I just can't trust or like the man. Too many sketchy things.

Just my $.02

I'm sorry, I just don't see it the way you two do. I just watched the link you provided and then went and watched the actual episode, which is more insightful. I see him tapping the dog with his heel, not kicking, like he does in all of his episodes and I don't see a dog that is passed out from suffication. I watched it several times and that dog is awake the whole time... I see a dog that gave up on trying to bite him. I think we will just have to agree to disagree on this. I totally respect that you still give him props for his other training abilities! Usually people can't see past the disagreement. =-) Props to you for that!!!

Thanks for the tip about the quote button as well!

We can agree to disagree and that's fine. I think for the same reason that you tell us that we shouldn't believe everything we see from an edited youtube video though, I think there's a TON of bias on the edited shows that he tapes. Of course the show is going to seem "more insightful." They're not going to air something that would show him negatively.

One thing to look out for, when the dog settles to the ground, he's not breathing right. Even my exhausted huskies, after wrestling or even getting into a fight won't breathe like that. And they will NEVER close their eyes like that if I am sitting over them and they are still outside, even after they're tired. Just things to think about. Don't know if we'll ever know the truth, but I still don't like that he used a shock collar and yet never alerted his audience to using it. That's not okay with me.

Hey, i am definatly about keeping an open mind and the more education the better for us all so thank you for explaining why you feel the way you do. I will definatly watch with a more critical eye since you feel so strongly about this.

FWIW, I don't understand why he continued to walk the dog in the manner that he did. Everything I know about training is to set the dog up to suceed. Why continue walking him like that if it elicits such a reaction out of the dog? Clearly something with the walking, the collar, and the whole situation was making the dog go nuts, so why continue doing the same thing just to tire the dog out? That's not building trust, that's teaching fear and defeat in my eyes. I've seen him deal with dogs a lot better than he does in that episode. It just doesn't make sense to me. You build up the dog's confidence in the situation and in you, not repeating the same thing that gets him agitated. I haven't seen enough of that dog to consider anything "dominance" and I HATE how that word is thrown around in the dog world. Not every dog is "dominant" who acts out like that, and there just didn't seem to be enough to support such a statement.

ETA: Cheers to that I'm all about an open mind as well.

Sometimes a dog must do things that it doesn't want to do, and the reaction from each individual to this demand will vary greatly.