We've had our husky for about three weeks now and while she's lunged at our cat a couple of times and made a low growl toward another dog once or twice, she's never acted especially aggressive. She has not been aggressive toward people at all- you can take treats for her without her putting up a fight and strangers are greeted with affection.

She's met my mom's chihuahua now two other times and she goes in phases where she ignores him and where she stalks him. We keep them apart most of the time, but since she never actually bit at him, we weren't worried anything would happen. Until today. Both of them were on the floor and she got two good bites, leaving a couple of puncture wounds on his back and face. Luckily both of us were there to grab her collar and separate them quickly or she could have easily killed him.

We'd love all the advice you guys have on this since we're not only new to huskies, we're new to dogs in general:

-Is this normal husky behavior? Like we said, she doesn't act this way with any other animals or people.

-Should we be worried now about our cat at home?

-How do we handle disciplining her? We got in her face and yelled, "No!" and lifted her by the scruff, but we weren't sure what else to do....

I should also add that she is spayed, in case that makes a difference.

Huskies are pretty prey driven, but some are ok with small dogs. IMHO - normal husky behavior. I don't take chances and don't leave my huskies alone with small dogs. Others with small dogs on the forums can advise you more on how to get the husky to get along with small dogs.

Sounds like there's more to the story - what happened immediately prior to the bites? That may help.

Between the prey drive and being new to your home I'm inclined to think she was some what guarding "her turf." It could take up to 6 months for her to feel like she is in command/comfortable of her home with other animals.

I'd really like to help but I got Kale at 5 weeks and he "grew up" with my Doxie, they still play together with him laying on the floor and her on top of him biting his legs and atmpits lol. Like Len said, she may just need some time to adjust to everything and everyone new that's suddenly appeared in her life. Supervise visits with her on a leash to give quick corrections if need be. No food, toys, or things to guard around. If she still shows signs of aggression after everything settles down then you may need to work on her prey-drive.

Frankie can be hit or miss with small dogs. I know him well enough now and can read his signs now to know how he will be around certain small dogs. Whenever a small dog is near I watch Frankie VERY closely and know fairly quickly if he needs to be moved away. He can be very rough in his play and has a habit of knocking the little ones down. But if he gets fixated on the little dog, we need to move asap.

He has an obession and gets fixated with my aunt's chi, Poko. Poko is a grumpy, unsocialized, spoiled little dog. He gets along fine with my other dog Bruiser, but he gets very snarly when Frankie comes near him which sends Frankie into a frenzy wanting to get to him even more. Then my aunt gets all wound up which escalates the situation. This is how we spend our holidays. So when Poko is here, Frankie spends the majority of the time with me on a leash until he is calm enough. There is just something about that darn chi that makes Frankie nuts.

I wouldn't take any chances. Don't leave them alone together and keep a close eye. The more time they spend together the better it should get. The longer you have your husky, the easier it will be for you to read her signs and be able to remove her before it escalates. Watch the chi too, sometimes the small dogs make very hard for the huskies to resist. If they will be spending alot of time together then I recommend seeking the help of a professional so that you can all live in peace.

Well Moxie had a rough weekend.

Later on Saturday after she bit Chico we were outside with her (on leash of course) and bumped into one of my parents neighbors who happens to be a dog trainer. We got to talking about the incident and the trainer suggested we 'introduce' Moxie to her sheltie, well Moxie pretty quickly went into dominante mode by kind of "chest bumping" and hovering above the sheltie. I raised concern to the trainer but she replied that "some dogs play like that" and not more than a second later Moxie attacked the little sheltie, again luckily we were all right there and the trainer got them seperated.

Long story shot we had a rough weekend, when we got back home yesterday we talked with the foster agency and we are going to meet with one of their trainers and try to work with her to correct her dog aggression.

It was a shock to us really because she is a total sweetheart to all people, even strangers