Ok, so I want to say that Amber is a fantastic puppy. I would say in most situations she is a completely fantastic obedient, trainable puppy.

There are situations, and I will use a few from tonight when my wife and I feel like we have lost control and aren't sure what to do. Tonight she was playing with a smaller breed dog and getting dominate but the other dog was yelping so we told her "No!" She would stop, momentaraly, then a few minutes later she goes back to that same behavior. She is very persistent when she wants to do something.

Later, she got hold of an empty water bottle and started chewing it. Not a big deal but we were concerned she would eat bits of it and told her to leave it.

In both scenarios when she knows she is wrong and we approach her she will run. Inside its not a big deal we can easily follow her and take her by the collar. Outside requires a bit more effort. I usually just walk at her until she runs out of gas and submits. My concerns are what do I do when I have her? Do I put her in timeout? Should I not be attempting to take her anywhere at all? I also worry about the amount of time when we are outside it takes to get her, will any discipline be effective? Will she know what she did was wrong?

I have been using the bathroom as a timeout spot for her. Is a time out the right course of action? Usually I let her sit there for a while then put her in her crate so she doesn't associate her crate with punishment.

She is excersised well. She gets toys and we play with her alot. We are not new to the breed so believe me she is getting what she needs to be a completely happy husky puppy. I just have never had to deal with this because when she does not want to be caught she is almost impossible to grab and sometimes when I do get her I worry about the force of how I grab her, I do not try to but I have to move so quick I sometimes grab her hard. Thanks for any help.

I know the first scenario all too well... What I do is as soon as the other dog starts to yelp or show signs that they're no longer enjoying the play i'll remove my dog and usually put them on a leash. I try not to verbally correct them, just get a hold of them and put the lead on. Usually they'll be annoyed for a few moments and then lie down. Once they lie down I praise and release. Huskies are stubborn, sometimes it will take doing the same exercise 20 times for the behavior to stop. But that's how I handle it. It's mostly with Odin and he tends to leave smaller dogs alone now, when before he'd chase them around and mouth them.

I can't really answer the 2nd part because I face those same situations but I always handle things differently because each situation is unique. I try to never give a command that I know they "probably" won't listen to. I try to never go after them. When I do need to go after them I try to do it as boring and uninteresting as possible. I don't want them to think this is part of the game. Usually discipline at that point won't work. By that point you've got them and usually the item that they took off with. You want to reward them for releasing it (even if it was forced.)

That makes sense. I figured every situation is different. She knows when I want to get something she wants, she runs away and its not her play run. I walk at her very calm, very plainly so she knows its not play. Today, she was being so stubborn she wouldn't even jump out of the car tonight. My wife and I had to pretty much drag her out. I put her in time out then put her in the crate for the night.

I get that in the situation of the bottle I would reward for giving the bottle, even though that seems counter intuitive.

What about when she gets stubborn about getting out of the car when shes done it a million times?

When my dogs have something they shouldn't I will get either a high value treat or toy and say "Let's trade" in a playful manner. They usually can't resist. This works unless it is something like a dead mouse.... so we have also worked on "Drop it" which is said in a more stern manner. A few weeks ago Skyla had a mouse in the yard and I said "Drop it" and she actually went to her kiddie pool and dropped it in the water. I was really happy. Braiden often does not want to come inside when he is playing in the yard so I know to bring treats in my pocket when I go to the gate. I tell him to come and when he does I ask him to sit and then put on his leash and give him the treat and lots of praise.. I never go to him,,,,then he thinks its a chase game. He always has to come to me. If he won't come I turn away from him and stand quietly and wait him out. He hates to be ignored so he will come. Funny how every dog is different. My other two will come every time they are called with no problem. You might want to use a treat to get hym out of the car. Put on his leash, say "Look at this" then throw it on the ground and say "Get it" I wonder if he has depth perception problems which makes him afraid to climb down? Best of luck to you. These dogs are so much fun,

Sorry I meant to say "her" instead of "him".

I personally feel the NO command is entirely overused. We have tried to use different commands with Chloe. Sadly for Chloe her best friend is our Min Pin Mix Peanut. They are the best of friends, however, being a Husky Chloe can get a bit out of hand and grabs Peanut by the back of the neck. We have stopped freaking out and running full speed to save Peanut, we just gently get Peanut and use a command we taught Chloe "leave your sister alone" just basic and she knows it. Living with a small dog is different though, we have given Peanut a dog bed on our couch and this is her territory and Chloe understands this, if she tries to invade Peanut's space she gets quite a surprise nip. No Husky allowed on our sofa. Sorry.

I hate the run away game. We call it the dramatic you are going to beat me run. Yeah right? We have simply learned to stay calm, we no longer run at Chloe like a parent seeing their child in peril. We just approach her very slowly and say "stop!" She usually is more suprised that we are not going to come at her. A total turn around in this procedure. She has stopped doing this completely. Chloe hates her crate, we have learned to distinguish a bored Husky from a Husky that is plain just being a brat. We have had to put her lead on her a few times in the house for a timeout, this was a great time to teach her the down command. She knows its a timeout. Its a very, very sad time for her.

I am a first time Husky owner, and am learning as I go. I have just read a lot and do the opposite of what is not working. They are a very different breed, they are brilliant, they know how to get you riled, they know how to figure things out, button pushers I would say. Whatever Chloe thinks is working for her, we try to let her know, "hey we are not stupid, you know darn well what you are doing, HA!!!!

She actually distracted me one night at dinner, when she did, I looked down and my piece of chicken was long gone off my plate, right in front of me, I never moved. I love this breed....

JOANN