We recently decided what fun it would to get a new puppy. Well we have four kids, 3 older and a youngster. One pup for each kid. The older kids wanted siblings as since they are going to start going their separate ways they would have sibling pups. It was my wonderful idea to get huskies. I had a husky when I was young and loved the breed. Still do butt.... They are almost a year old and have kept me very busy so say the least. We have two boys with gray and black markings and two solid white girls. All and all, I feel lucky with their training. My biggest problem is the excitement they bring out in each other when they want something, or its time to go outside, the howl is off the chain.. The hair is unbelievable, the vacuum is out everyday... Did I mention they are woolies?

Anyone else raise siblings and have any advice?

Welcome to the forum! Beautiful pack. I have 3. My saving grace has been that they are separated in age pretty well. My youngest is just over a year, but my other two are 10 and 14. Really wish they were more like 1, 5, and 10 as that would be a real even keel on energy levels. Pups are maniacs. I wouldn't want to deal with that many myself at once but if you have older kids that will manage their own dogs it shouldn't be so bad.

the biggest thing with a pack that you think will be separated someday is that they need to be trained individually and they need to have time on their own to be able to build their independence and own identity. Too much togetherness and not enough individual attention and you will end up with one or two that panic if they are separated and their decision making skills lack. Also, when your kids move out and take their respective dog with them the pack will lose its balance and a lot of stress will be created. Having each child take their own dog for a walk solo is helpful as well as doing solo training. Have each dog sleep at night with their kid and not as a group together. Sending one or two to daycare on a day different than the others go can help them learn to independently navigate other dogs and make friends away from their siblings. Need to make sure the dog is bonding with the child they will live with and not with each other. But the reality is you need to be prepared to always have 4 dogs because it's hard to break up animals that have lived together for a few years regardless if they are siblings or not. It's highly likely when the first kid moves out and takes its dog with him/her that the dog will suffer separation anxiety and loneliness and the kid will bring it home if not in a position to get another playmate for it or take it to doggy daycare where it will have some company at times. My husband had a dog that was "his" when he moved out of his parents place and removing that dog from his parent's dogs that it had spent all of his college years with didn't work. She was miserable away from her pack and she ultimately had to live with his parents for the remainder of her life. We went on to adopt dogs that didn't have a pack anymore rather than force her to give up hers. Luckily his parents were in a position to deal with 4 dogs that all aged together so when they became elderly and the medical bills began to pile up on them it didn't strain them. That is the real crux of having siblings or dogs very close in age. You need to be prepared for the vet bills on that many senior dogs if you, most likely, end up keeping them all yourself.

I have worried about that also, I have separate the oldest one's pup from the pack as far as sleeping, she does a lot of training with him solo. She is moving out in 2 weeks with him and another dog she rescued 2 months ago. I pray he will adjust ok, because another dog is going with him. He is the largest of the pack and probably the most calm. As far as the other oldest kids? We shall see, they do not look like they will be moving anytime soon and I imagine the pups will all stay with me. The same thing happen with my husky when I lived at home. It did not want to come with me when I moved out but stayed with my parents. I do not even want to think of vet bills are they age. This first year vet puppy bills were also very expensive. Not to mention food, crates, toys which they ate rather quickly.

If he and the other dog have been getting time together and are getting along then that move should go alright. I had adopted another dog that we had hoped would make a difference for my husband's dog but they hadn't been together prior to him trying to bring her along and they did not mesh at all, which really sealed the deal on her wanting to go home to his parents. I've always avoided getting puppies. A year old is about as young as I really want to go so I have somewhat avoided the puppy vet bills, but my oldest is diabetic which is a massive expense and my middle dog is a low quality backyard breeder dog with a lot of genetic health issues and he's been an ongoing medical bill since he was 4 when those genetic issues really start to creep through. couple years ago we lost one to bone cancer. Everyone being close in age has definitely been expensive the last couple years.

Your crew is beautiful. Medical bills are a worry, I was not happy with our breeder. If the kids were not there, I would have walked away. Our dog had just passed away, he had been sick for awhile. Seizures since he was about 2? But at the end he was struggling and unfortunately the seizure won, he did make it to 13 years, we still have his sister, she is 14. So if your counting... we have 6 dogs currently.

Im dealing with 4 in various states of being seniors. 2 have become major medical issues, spider has been one since she had parvo as a puppy. Squirt is healthy.

Me personally i love puppies. If shadow was ok id go look at the litter jailbreak huskies just brought in from cali or the 100 puppes soul dog just brought in from Navajo nation. We have discussed puppies when we lose shadow. What jerry doesnt realize is i was only half joking about getting a sled and enough dogs for a team.

I am sorry your dogs are not doing well. I know it was very difficult with our senior dog before he passed, it seemed he was always sick. Poor guy. You love them to death and it is very is a hole when they leave.

I have looked and sled or bike pulling with having so many and they do need the exercise.

Went to hit zoom and accidentally clicked the bad advice link. Can someone fix that?

Not sure where you live but a sled could be fun. But with a pack of woollies be careful, ive been told they overheat easier. I want to try spider on the bike. I wouldn't trust her on a sled or skiis, knowing her she would run me into trees and give me that goofy husky grin about it after.

I did not realize that was a thing as far as woolies overheating but yes I have noticed they do. They do not like being out in the heat. I feel like they go for the run around the back, and boy so they run and then are in and hot for awhile. They are going to be one this month. I feel bad we are in the south, no snow, But some have sled with wheels.

I have heard of people putting ice in baby pool for their huskies. I wish there was more information of huskies. I have looked for more books on them specifically but there are none I can find. Only breed specifications.

Mine arnt purebred and unfortunately for me, as much as i love spider she has some of the worst qualities seen in huskies and in wolves. And squirt from what ive read in museums, exhibits alot of hare dog traits but that wasnt available in the dna test but its basically an extinct breed. What she did come back was half plains type village dog which is another basically extinct breed.

Squirt likes the river and spider is terrified of water but none of my dogs would use the pool. Dogs 101 has featured the sibe and ive seen a few magazines but i havent been to an actual book store in like 14 years. I dont think they even exist in this part of colorado. Now im going to look because im intrigued at the idea of a lack of books on anything. So it might be an edit later

I will look into watching the Dogs101. They claim these are pure bred, I doubt it. Wasn't that I a had too either. Pure impulse, We were grieving over our pup that just passed, his sister was struggling. I just loved the husky I had was I was younger. It was a female, and pretty calm. Not really a howler, would run it not off the leash but I don't remember any terrible traits.

The girls we currently have are pretty much same as my previous husky. They will join the howl if the boys start. Snowy is more friendly then the group. Jessi is more timid in public, the want to be alpha at home. Niko is the most vocal at all times. He wants and wants and let me know. LOL. He is also the tattle tail when someone is doing something they shouldnt. Milo is the biggest, but also the whiner, hates his crate. He is moving out with our oldest this weekend coming up. Fingers crossed it will all go well, she is also taking her Shih tzu, so he will have a playmate he already knows.

We do have a pool, they went in last summer and as pups, you could not tell if they would like, so we shall see.

If I was not home, it would have been impossible. They all potty trained well, a few chewing mishaps, but after reading how other husky's have been destroyers. I feel happy on my accomplishments. LOL

The trouble with books is that most are on good quality dogs and the majority of the breed that people have are backyard breeder specials that aren't guaranteed to be anything like a true to standard version of the breed. That's where groups and forums come in handy on getting information from folks who have dogs that probably come from a more similar situation to our own.

Kenzi is of a decent quality and tends toward being more similar in trait structurally and behaviorally to show lines, but Kye is a terrible quality BYB dog that is oversized with hips that have paid the price for it and a coat that isn't to breed standard and so he doesn't regulate temperature like my better quality female. The standard husky coat should do as much to protect them from heat as it does to protect them from cold. The ones that don't have the proper coat structure can really struggle. Kye doesn't handle the heat very well at all and he really isn't that overly happy in the super cold either. He has a lovely personality though. Crazy calm and phased by nothing. Next to no prey drive and not demanding. He's just a medical mess.

Your Kye looks alot like our Snowy. She also gets over heated very fast, always panting. She does love to run. The girls seem to be faster then the boys, but I imagine its because the are smaller. Since these are wooleys, they are not going to fit the standard but I know can't imagine having anything thing else.

Spider kinda looks like a wolfy version of that big grey one up. front. And jenn is right about the books and byb and people intentionally breeding woolies. And i got told my badly bred husky (spider) was not showing an extreme form of husky anxiety but was acting wolfy and i wouldnt fix it short of a kennel with a top and concrete floor, and buy an rv if i can or bribe the hotel staff with food so they ignore her behavior. That was a vet with a behavioral degree a few days ago. BUT it seems like every husky board/forum/group anxiety ridden purebreds are all over the place. And then within the wolfdog world, there is are alot of very well behaved wolf huskys. Mine isnt tho.

If spider is the pic you have there, then yes his markings do look like Niko just different colors. Listening to you both, makes me feel I have so much to learn about behaviors of huskies. The standard they are mischievious and escape artists so nothing as far as what these breeds are like. Our Jessi is extremely anxious and I was begining to worry, I did not realize it was a thing.

Yeah the one not in the crate is spider. She is an agouti sable. Usually people think agouti is the black and tan. Its the hair being banded not the color.

Sometimes i think some of the seperaration anxiety issues in the breed stem from them being a dog that was the transportation so they weren't left behind and they were in packs not alone.

That is an interesting thought, I wonder. I have seen some posts about the agouti colorings. I need to take a pic of the boys back, it is different white and then just tip of hair is black only on the shoulders.

https://coatsandcolors.com/agouti/#:~:text=Agouti%20is%20a%20pattern%20with,wolf%20grey%20or%20wolf%20sable goes way into the genetics and some is very breed specific like what they call a domino also goes into what the difference between wolf grey and what looks to be sable but isnt.

Agouti has three bands of color on the individual guard hairs, sable has black tips on the individual hairs on an underlying cream/red. If give my eye teeth for a true sable. If I were 20 years younger

I did see a thread where it showed the agouti colors, I believe you posted it. The. pic was beautiful. Our boys are not that. Their coats are just different.

Amymeme. Really youll take squirt. Lol but she is a true sable. Spider goes black cream white but in a few areas she has copper cream white.