So, with much research and googling.. I've finally found the perfect forum for Siberian Huskies! I'll start off by introducing myself.

My name is Jessica, and I'm 20 from New Orleans, LA.
I first got Ruby when she was only 6 weeks old from Meridian, MS and she's been the greatest, funniest, & cutest pup a girl could ask for.

Well, the purpose of this forum is to ask a few questions that I've been curious about with other Siberian Husky owners.

1) Ruby can be veryyyy, and I repeat... very sassy with me. She's wonderful for the most part with my boyfriend... but up until maybe 2 months now, she's been acting up with me. In the sense that, she nibbles and bites on my hands pretty often and shes quite stubborn with me. I was wondering if this is a female on female thing? And how would you suggest my going about teaching her to know better not to bite me? I mean... I've been awfully patient with her, teaching her "No!" and "Nahuh!"

2) What are some highly recommended dog foods for huskies? I had Ru on Blue Buffalo from 6 weeks to up until just a week ago, and I decided to switch her on Wellness just to see if she'd like it. What's the best to you guys?

3) I'm getting her spayed tomorrow and I was wondering on y'alls experiences on getting your dog(s), puppy(ies) spayed? How was the aftermath and what not?


So, I'll just stop there. I have plenty more questions, but I think I'll just start off with those 3 for now.

Thanks for reading!

Kale and I welcome you from California

1) She's at the age where she's starting to get to her "teenage" phase. Time to up her training and NILIF. She needs to work for everything she gets; food, treats, etc. Did you teach her bite inhibition? When she nibbles and bites is it hard or is she just mouthy? Huskies are notorious for being mouthy, but if she's biting with any force, you may need to up the bite inhibition training. Getting puppies at a young age like you did (I got Kale at 5 weeks) it's quite a bit harder to teach it, than to puppies who were with their litter-mates longer. I know how you feel!

2) Age old debate lol http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/
That's a really good site that categorizes, reviews, and rates dry, canned, and raw diets.

3) Every dog is different. When I got Kale neutered, he was wanting to go running the next day when I brought him home! lol My Doxie on the other hand was down for about 4 days when she was spayed.

Again welcome! *We are extremely picture friendly *

Thank you for your reply Brooke!
Kale is adorable! I'll def post up some pictures of Ruby as soon as I get them uploaded.


I'm not sure what "bite inhibition" is. Do you care to explain? As far as being the biting issue, she sometimes gets mouthy, and other times she bites hard. It's been a pain, but I'm being patient in teaching her. I know she knows better because she runs when I make a certain face to her or when I point my finger at her. Hahaha. She's just so stubborn and sassy at times.

After Doxie was spayed, did her temperament change any ? I've researched on the fact that it does change some female's attitudes, but I've heard of some males and females remaining the same as they've always been.

Thanks again!

What worked really well for us with correcting mouthing was making a yelp like another puppy would, pressing my thumb on the roof of her mouth and my other fingers on top of her snout, and a strict, firm no.

If you are wanting to stay with kibble, I'd go for Earthborn or Acana (grain free). Like Brooke said, though, "what's the best kibble" is an age old debate and can get crazy, lol.

Both my dogs did terrible the first 6 hours home, the next day did very decently, and then after 2 days back to normal.


Bite inhibition is teaching your dog to moderate the strength of their bite. Puppies usually get some grasp of this concept from their littermates, but dogs who are taken from their parents earlier than the ideal time frame usually struggle a bit more with it due to being taken from their siblings too early.

Thank you for your reply Heather!
Koda & Rogan is beautiful as well!

I'll definitely try the thumb trick with Ruby and see how she does with it!

withlovejP wrote:

After Doxie was spayed, did her temperament change any ? I've researched on the fact that it does change some female's attitudes, but I've heard of some males and females remaining the same as they've always been.

Violet my Dachshund, didn't have any personality changes. The only thing that will change, which you will most likely never notice since she is not sexually mature, is roaming behavior will significantly decrease and maybe some marking will decrease. Personality is genetic, not hormonal. It's like a woman getting a hysterectomy, the woman's personality won't change. Same with dog's. She'll still be her sassy self

Here is a collage of Ruby
The top left is the earliest picture I received of her from the breeder.
The top right is of her on April 28 when I picked her up.
The one underneath that one is from May 28. The one underneath her baby picture is from June 28. & the one next to that is from July 28.


& Here is a recent picture.

Hope you guys like 'em!

She is a gorgeous girl!

Duh! That makes sense... (with your comment about women getting a hysterectomy). Silly me.

I was just hoping that after Ruby's spay, she wouldn't be as aggressive and hard-headed. But I suppose that'll come in better time with training.

Also, another question I have is, Ruby is losing a awful lot of teeth lately. Since July, she's probably lost 10 if not more! Is this normal? And is that perhaps why she's been biting me, because of teething reasons?

Just gonna say welcome! I'm no help in the puppy world

Haha, thank you Jennifer!

Welcome from Me, Halli, Brooklyn & Compton in Australia! Ruby is gorgeous, are her eyes light brown or green? They look beautiful.

In regards to ruby getting sassy and stubborn, as Brooke mentioned, it is just her starting her teenage phase of life. When Compton was just starting to go through his teenage phase, he was pushing every boundary he could with me, but not so much with my partner, and one of the things i put it down to was, i am mum and it is the same way i pushed my boundaries and became sassy and stubborn with my mum when i was a teenager, Compton was pushing his with me. So training got upped and discipline got stricter and he soon worked out where his boundaries were and that he is better off staying within them. So long as you keep consistent with your training and your rules/boundaries she will work out what should and shouldn't be doing. Nothing In Life Is Free is a great concept to go by, especially for the food driven types.

Rogue started having her teeth fall out like crazy between 5 and 6 months. Absolutely normal. She is probably teething and her gums are so, so if the mouthing has increased in the past month I'm sure that's partially the problem. Freeze a rope toy for her or get her teething toys to freeze, they help a ton.

I wouldn't use the word aggressive. A lot of husky puppies just go through a really rough mouthing stage and just act sort of wack. They don't purposely try to hurt you. As she gets older and you spend more time target training those behaviors you are not so keen on, she'll improve.

She looks a lot like Rogue in the fact. She's very cute.

As far as getting spayed, after my girl was spayed i noticed she was ALOT less hyper. Dont get me wrong, she still loves to play but the crazy running through the house jumping on couches jumping down--all that decreased quite a bit after she was spayed

Welcome! I don't have anything to add as everyone has offered great advice. We live near Pensacola, FL and are in New Orleans periodically visiting the in laws. We try to take our dogs to the city dog park when we're there too, we should have a meet up sometime.

Welcome. I don't have much to add. My dogs were older when I got them. and Kerian was already spay. Blaze really didn't change much after his neuter he was upset with me when I wouldn't walk him alot afterwards he was 9 months old.

Welcome to the forum and what a beautiful pup you have.

As for the mouthyness, Saphire is this way too but ONLY with me. She doesn't do this with anyone else. I yelp when it is too hard and tell her "No Teeth." She is getting better slowly!

As for the teeth falling out, this is perfectly normal. Saphire seemed to lose a lot of teeth also. I would find them all over the place. At one point she scared my daughter because they were playing tug and all of a sudden the tug toy was bloody. My daughter brought it to me immediately and I went to check things out and found a rather large tooth in the middle of the floor where they had been playing. Checked Saphire's mouth and didn't see any additional bleeding and decided it was all okay!

As for the teething being the reason she is mouthy with you . . . I would say not necessarily. Saphire has always been mouthy with me, and even though she is done teething now, her mouthyness hasn't gotten better (Although the frequency of being too rough while being mouthy is much better).

As for the spaying, Saphire is about 3 1/2 weeks out from her spay. She went in for surgery early in the morning and I was able to pick her up from the vet at about 2:30 in the afternoon. She came home and just slept. She wouldn't eat any food (although we offered a little at the vets recomendation) and drank very little water. She got sick a couple of times but nothing major. The next morning she was back to her normal self. We had to use the dreaded cone beginning day 2, because she licked the bitter cream off my finger like it was nothing. And keeping her from running and jumping was next to impossible!! It didn't change her personality or activity level any.

I know all dogs are different but this has been my experience and hopefully will help you get an idea of what to expect!

Welcome to the forum! What a beautiful girl. Dalton was very mouthy when he was that age as well. He's done better with consistency, but even at 11 months, while not painful, he will still put his mouth around our arm or hand.

Good Luck with everything!

Just wanted to say Welcome to the Forum!

Ginger and Storm are both adopted so I have no puppy experience to offer, but you received a lot of great advice already!

As for food, someone already sent you a link that rates dry dog foods out there. Go through the ratings and something that is available to you that is affordable for you. Just remember to make some transition from her previous food to the new food as switching foods all of a sudden could cause an upset tummy.

Again, Welcome!

not sure if this method works, but here is a link I stumbled across for teaching bite inhibition: http://www.dogstardaily.com/training/teaching-bite-inhibition

Thank you all so so much for the great and helpful replies! I've enjoyed each and everyone of them very much!

I was busy all day yesterday and although I've read them all, I haven't had a chance to reply to y'alls comments. But I will once I get my hands on my computer. (It's a pain replying from my cell and tablet).

I dropped Ruby off yesterday morning at 730 for her spaying and I couldn't take her home later in the afternoon like I thought I could! My boyfriend and I were bummed! But I will be able to pick her up after I get off of work at 4:30 today so I will let you guys know how she's doing! (I usually get off at 530-6 but we all know I can't wait that long so I requested for a early release!)

Here's a little something I'd like to quickly share with you guys...


Do you guys see it? My Ruby has this awesome heart shaped marking on her belly! This was taken when she was only 7 weeks. I snapped this adorable picture right before she knocked out on her back. Hahaha.

Do any of y'alls huskies have unique markings?

The heart is super cute! I don't think Saphire has anything that obvious. She has a light spot on the top of her nose and white spots on the sides of her ears but no shapes. It will be interesting to see if she gets true snow nose over the winter. But that and her mask are about it!

The little heart is so adorable!! She looks really cute in that pic too btw... mine doesn't have anything like that... but it really is interesting to see how their coats develop!

Thank you Sammie-Leigh, Halli, Brooklyn, & Compton! Ruby’s eyes are hazel. From birth, her eyes were bright blue but as she got a bit older, it changed grey. Now its hazel! Her breeder states that she’s never had any of her litters change eyes like Ruby, so I guess she’s one of a kind! 

That’s great to know that I’m not the only one experiencing the sassiness. I was starting to get upset that she’d only listen to my boyfriend. But you’re right, I’ll just have to be more strict and stern with her. And like you said, be consistent and remember “Nothing in life is free”. I appreciate your reply!