Thanks! I need a confidence booster her with her xD! I'm living by the "If it can go wrong it will go wrong" rule with her anymore. I always picture her ending up with as this goofy looking mature Husky that is flat coated and oddly proportioned. D:!

I guess maybe it has something to do with my sense of time also. I've only had her for four and a half months and it seems like I should have had her a year!

Now. I'm a husky noob right now, I wouldn't think she'll blow her coat this winter but I'm not exactly sure. Her first will probably be next year?

it all depends on the dog, zoey blew her coat for the first time in March, and that was Embry first coat blow also. Zoey was around 8 months, and Embry was a year and a half..

Oh wow! :o Guess it'll be something I play by ear ..or sight, I guess would be better. lol.

or by how often you'll be vacuuming!

Or that!

Another good link about selecting a show dog.

http://www.siberiansusa.com/Siberians_USA/Selecting_a_Show_Dog.html

Thanks for the link again!!

Was quite the interesting read! I was actually planning on asking my mentor how one determines a show quality pup at such a young age but you've showed me!!

lol. Each person has their different ways of going about it. We didn't know what to look for, but we knew we wanted a grey female and Elara was the only one like that in the litter (I know I know that's not how you're supposed to pick a puppy!), but the breeder said she looked very nice (though she really did push her brother on us, but we really wanted a female).

I went to a seminar by Dr. Carmen Battaglia (his site: http://breedingbetterdogs.com/who-we-are.php There are a lot of good articles on his site too). He told some things to look for and really made sense. Like look for the puppy that doesn't trip as much as the rest (though I think he was meaning when they were around 5 to6 weeks old), cause at that point you can tell the ones who will have a nice gait vs the ones who step on their own feet and will end up sidewalking when they grow older. Oh and about sidewalking (when the dog's back feet extend past their front feet in a trot, so the dog has to step it's back feet to the side to avoid stepping on itself), remember to practice gaiting your dog on BOTH sides of you, not just your left side. I've found that Elara does not sidestep when she's trotting by heself, but she's so used to being on my left side that she will sidestep to keep out of my way! So now I'm trying to break her of that habit and it looks like it's going to be hard to do.

That actually doesn't sound like something that will be easily done =/. I'm still working on her stand stay. xD I figure one step at a time. She does a bit better. Most of the time now she'll stand for a few seconds. But I think after awhile she gets tired because she lays down and rolls over and closes her eyes lol. So I don't push her after that and just pick up another session later on.

Ideally (And it's terrible to say because I have Bella) I would have loved a female that looked like Elara. I -love- the greys. Bella's litter were all black/whites and truthfully, she was the most gorgeous of them all. You know when you look at a dog and you're just like "Well....it's not really all that pretty/handsome.." They had a couple who's front legs were really wide set, reminded me of a bulldog when he was sitting. The other two females looked kind of funny . Just they're general appearance. They also picked on and beat up Bella. Backed her into a corner and bit her.

I'll look over that site in a bit. Nutcase is under my desk trying to eat her tail/my foot X_X

lol. My nutcases just torn up a bunch of wall paper out on the porch!

I get where you're coming from. That's why we got Elara! lol. I love Siku and think she's the prettiest sibe out there, but I know she wouldn't do well in the show ring and I had no intention of breeding her because of her poor pedigree. Oh and I've seen that "bulldog" stance before. Looks really weird on a husky, but some judges are idiots and still pick those dogs. Saw a bitch who's paws pointed inward really bad and had that bulldog stance. Guess the judge never looked at her freestack, cause she ended up winning the 5pt major! I was so mad. I don't even think that dog should have been shown. I really hope the lady didn't plan on breeding her!

Does Bella pull a lot? It's very helpful to teach them to heel while in the ring. But remember, when you go for a walk, she doesn't need to heel the whole time. She'll get tired of it way too fast. Just have her heel when you are training her. Otherwise they look bad when they are pulling you along the ring. And the pressure from the lead will cause them to gait funny. Ideally you want to gait a husky on a loose lead, though I'm sure you seen from the many photos of show huskys that a lot of people keep them on tight leads. I got yelled at by one judge for keeping the lead too tight, so I've been trying my hardest to teach her to gait on a loose lead. BTW, the judge was in our club and it was a mock trial. I dont' think many judges would yell at you in an actual show. lol. So dont' worry about that.

BTW, how old are you?

I'm 24. xD Though my boyfriend tells me all of the time I'm "as old as dirt" X_X

Oh! Bella used to like going through drywall...I never figured out why. It wasn't because she was bored or lacked exercise. I have printer paper taped up on our walls covering the holes where she started. Ever since I put up the paper over them she doesn't touch the walls. xD

She pulls..I wouldn't say -a lot- but she does have her moments. I also don't keep her right next to me. I take her out on a 10 foot leash in her harness. She only -really- pulls when she sees something she wants or if I start running her or like the past few days when I haven't gotten to take her out because of the rain so she was just a bunch of pent up energy. She walks a loose leash on both the 5 and 10 foot pretty well and often stays close to my side or a bit ahead. I didn't teach her heel to constantly do it. I'll start training her on the five again and keeping her next to me just in short sessions around the house to get her used to it and then take it outside after I feel she's pretty good.

I'm pretty sure Bella's would be a terrible show dog. She doesn't have the right training and its going to take longer for me to teach her because she's older. I plan on trying, though. I'm not sure what I'll end up doing if she's too misbehaved to take the classes. They told me that she didn't have to have any formal training in obedience for them though and that the instructors will help me but it doesn't stop me from worrying.

Dang, you're too old for Jr. showmanship. I was thinking if you were under 18 you could just show in Jr.s and I don't think it really matters what your dog is like, they are just judging you not the dog. I kind of wish I had started showing when I was younger, so I could have done some jr, stuff. I'm 25 and just started showing this year too.

Obedience class helps. I had Elara in puppy class and then obedience and conformation class at the same time. But I don't think Bella is too old to teach at all! Conformation is a lot like obedience classes in a way, just you don't have to teach as much.

There are a couple of books I read that really helped me learn a few things about showing. I'll have to find the titles again. Just found them at my local library surprisingly. One was meant for Jr.'s and it was very helpful.

Yeah, I missed out on my chances for Junior show. Like I said, no one in my family has the interest that I do in it. So I'm going into it blind and when I was younger any voice I had about wanting to try it was quickly shut down. My parents were never strong advocates for my ideas of things I wanted to do growing up .