Better yet if a groomer insist that shaving/cutting a Siberian hair is par for the course then cancel your appointment and go else where. I've had a few heated discussions with groomers on this topic it ends up about as pretty as a Husky with a hair cut.

Take this from someone who adopted a shaved Siberian... DON'T DO IT! He sheds so much because of how messed up it made his shedding pattern... He's got all undercoat and it's just terrible. Don't do it. LOL

Welcome & congrats. No puppy stories...we adopted all 3 of ours as adults.
Furminator:not so much
Baby gates:wonderful!
Small crate area:definitely!
Blowing coat, yearly occurance? There is a joke about Huskies blowing their coat twice a year, 6 months each time!!! Seriously, there is ALWAYS fur around (covers for the furniture are helpful! We use sheets that we can wash & dry weekly & that helps), but yes, Spring & Fall, it will come out in chunks! Like picking cotton! A GOOD vacuum is helpful, too! Plan on replacing it more often than you'd like!

Love, patience & perseverance, those are the keys! Looking forward to observing your journey. I have never had a pet that could frustrate me, yet crack me up all at the same time...before the Three Huskyteers!

I use the furminator on my dog and personally I love it. His coat has never looked better. I do not use it often though, once a week. On the other days I take just a regular brush and go through his coat, and I also have a vacuum attachment that I run over him that is designed to loosen and pick up hairs. I give him brewers yeast to keep his coat shiny, it has made a world of difference.

Baby gates are a lifesaver. I came home one day and he was ON MY KITCHEN COUNTER eating my freshly made Amish bread. Boy was I pissed. So we have 2 gates to gate off our entire kitchen. Used to gate off the upstairs but he knows not to go up there unless invited now.

I have no puppy stories either, he was one when we got him. However I do not suggest confining him to one room unless he is in a kennel, Blitz HATES being put in just one room, he will tear crap up, but if he is left to roam the entire house he is fine - however do NOT do that until they are older!! haha

Have fun with your husky though! I can't wait to get another one. I told my husband that no matter how many dogs we have at least one of them will ALWAYS be a husky. He reluctantly agrees. He can fight it all he wants but he is in love with our furball. Just the other day when I had him at the vet all day getting neutered I got texts from him going "It's weird not having Blitz follow me around... I miss him."

We will definitely look into the baby gates.

Might just start of with a regular brush and see how it goes as he gets older. I know the furminators are about 60+ I was able to find it online for about 30.

Fortunately my wife works from home so she will spend the most time with Aspen and hopefully will allow us to let him have more supervised space.

As far as the crate ours is rather large for a puppy we got it with the thought that Aspen will some day be a big dog. Will look into getting a divider setup while he's small and not potty trained.

Just talked to our breeder looks like we're going to fall short of the 8 weeks - kind of bummed. Turns out they're going out of town the weekend before we're going to pick him up and we're going to fall short 1 day of 7 weeks old.

I will have to get him his 8 week old shot as well. He's getting his first shot and dewormer right after thanksgiving.

A bit disappointed but I hope things will be alright.

Actually, you won't have to worry about much shedding for the first few months. Mine had a little "puppy fur shed" last spring (he was about 5-6 months old) and right now is having a one-year old major coat blow! I find the rake and the slicker brush to work well.

Too bad he will not have more socialization with his littermates. Your job will probably be harder as you train him to not bite hard as he plays with humans (and maybe dogs, too).

Just brought our puppy home tonight. Turns out our breeder had given all the puppies away and ours was the last to go at just 6weeks.... Was suppose to go later on in the week but she called today to let me know mine was the last one and she was going to meet me half way for me to pick it up... She really didn't want to keep it so I figure I just go get him.

Played a bit now he's resting. He looks sad and lonely... I think we're in for a few rough days... Hope he gets better.

He's the cutest - will post pictures soon.

Congratulations.

I have a 10 month old guy that we got at 8 weeks and it feels like forever ago. Everyone else has given you great advice so I won't repeat most of it.
As for buying a dog bed, I would wait until he's potty trained. Our guy peed on it the first chance he got and pretty much wrecked it. We got him a new one now but he actually prefers to sleep on the floor where it is nice and cool.
Your puppy will test your patience over and over, but the first few months are the hardest. Once you get through the sleepless nights and potty training things get better!

Thanks Sarah .

Yeah last night was rough... he woke up every two hours (like clock work) and kept crying and whining and beating on the cage... woke up a few times in between those two hours when he'd make noise running in his sleep... which I have never seen it's the cutest thing and weirdest thing I've ever seen... and not like stroll walking but full blown running.

Peed twice in his cage, peed and pooped all over the house... we're training him using a bell at the door. I think he's starting to get it a bit but still have plenty of work ahead of us.

Running on a few hours of sleep ready to leave work and go see the little guy.

Also he is really hating the leash - is this normal he fights me all the time and he ends up just sitting and refusing to move if I try to lead him with the leash... stubborn little guy...

All of these are normal trials that you would face with any tiny puppy! I know you are certainly running on empty today with so little sleep. I would be concerned about his peeing in the cage. That usually means the cage is too large or he's been in there too long. You can buy dividers for most cages if it's too big. Make sure you are cleaning up the "messes" in the house with a good enzyme cleaner and odor eliminator or he will keep going back to those spots.

Sounds like you are doing great together! One day down, hopefully many, many more good ones to come!!!

Yeah I had bought at 48'' cage - for when he gets bigger... and made a divider for it and it's a good size i think. He only peed when he woke up during those two hour intervals and I swear he did it for attention - I would get up look over at him and than put my head back on my pillow to only here him peeing in this cage. Got up and cleaned it up. It's certainly not enough room for him to pee on one end and sleep in the other... he was full of it at one point.

I did purchase a cleaning solution for the messes - those are fun to clean haha.

I hope many more!

At 6 weeks old bladder control is really at a minnimum. You're going to need to race to the crate to get him outside! Lol the less amount of accidents in the crate- the better. If you know any calm healthy older dogs it may be in your best interest to socialize him as much as possible now - maybe save yourself some work

rpataca wrote:

Also he is really hating the leash - is this normal he fights me all the time and he ends up just sitting and refusing to move if I try to lead him with the leash... stubborn little guy...

Willow was the same way. I just put her on the leash in the house and would tug gently everytime she refused until she got it in her head that she had to move. It really didn't take her long to realize it wasn't a bad thing. You could also get treats and extend out as far as you can with the leash and call her to you with the treat but keep walking. She should learn real quick with that as well.

rpataca wrote:

He only peed when he woke up during those two hour intervals and I swear he did it for attention - I would get up look over at him and than put my head back on my pillow to only here him peeing in this cage.

A 7 week old puppy peeing after awakening from a nap is normal. At such a young age, I don't think he's really able to hold his bladder for more than a couple of hours. Anytime he wakes up, eats, drinks or plays, try to get him outside as soon as possible. When he goes potty, reward him with lots of praise and something yummy to eat. A treat he absolutely goes bonkers over and that you ONLY give him when he goes potty works best. If you are consistent with this and do it every single time, he'll begin to associate pottying outside with great things!

If you catch him urinating/defecating on the floor, simply scoop him up and take him outside. Interrupting the behavior will teach him that it is not acceptable to do indoors. When I was potty training Drogo, my legs hurt from how often I went up and down our steps. I swear they looked more defined by the time he was completely housebroken lol!

If he's gone potty before bedtime and he immediately starts fusing when you put him in his crate, do your absolute best to ignore him. If you take him out when he's carrying on, it will teach him the more noise I make the faster I get out of my crate. Ignoring this behavior usually makes them worse before they get better but it's a necessary evil.

Here's a great example of what to ignore: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ln7A4CKXcQA

If he's been in bed for a couple of hours and you can hear him start to whine, he might be telling you he needs to go to the bathroom. It takes some time to differentiate between legitimate cries and bratty brat cries but you'll get there!

Mindy gave some good advice about the leash. I was lucky with Drogo and didn't need to coax him with treats; he resisted once or twice the first time I put a leash and collar on him and I gave him a little tug and that was the end of that. I have trained puppies in the past before that were much more difficult and using a treat to lure them forward worked very well. If he's really resisting and you're having to constantly drag him along, you might want to think about a harness until he doesn't fight so much. Too much pressure on his little throat might be harmful to the trachea; I know this is especially true in small breed dogs like Yorkshire Terriers.

I also agree with Sarah about the dog bed. I would use some blankets and old shirts that have your scent on them, things that are easy to clean and you don't mind if they get ruined. I think we've all invested a good amount of money into fancy dog beds for little puppies only to find them quickly destroyed by being constantly pee'd/pooped on or chewed to death!

Good luck with your puppy! It can be trying at first but is so worth it in the end. Welcome to the wonderful world of Siberian Huskies!

Yeah wouldn't have thought about getting him together with another more mature dog. My bother in law has a pitbull puppy 4 months old - a little apprehensive to get them together but i think we might try to introduce them this weekend and carefully keeping an eye on them. He's been potty trained so that might help.

Yeah we've been wanting to get him some treats... I tried baby carrots this morning giving him a small piece but wanted nothing to do with it... licked it a bit and kicked it around but that was it. Need to look around the forum for some good commercial treats for him.

haha yeah we've been running him outside and yelling at him when we catch him. I will try the leash trick. It's almost like he knows I want him to come in the direction I pull but he'll just sit down and wait for me to stop pulling and than he'll move - like he's telling me he doesnt want to be directed - he wants to direct... stubborn!

Second night went a lot better. Woke up around 1:30 and started whining but as hard as it was we ignored him... and he finally stopped at 2am. After that he stopped and seemed to have slept through the night... hopefully we're in the clear!! Hoping day 3 is even better...

However my wife told me that he seems more restless today than yesterday - probably cuz he slept longer last night and is napping less now during the day. We'll see.