Do you get comments ALL THE TIME from strangers about how weird it is to see a red husky? It seems that every time we take him out in public or to the dog park someone is always like "What kind of dog is that?" and I tell them he's a husky and they ask if he's purebred and when I tell them yes they are always so suprised. I have quite the rehearsed speech of how it actually isn't that uncommon and it's just like recessive gene traits in humans.

Do you guys get this much?

I have yet to meet a red husky...I have a feeling when I do I will want to take it home lol however I get the same thing with Snow for her being all white.

I get it all the time with my red boy, esp since his markings aren't 'normal' either. I usually just explain like you do and go on my way.

Every time I show a picture of my white pup to someone the first thing out of their mouth is "What kind of dog is that?" I guess people just aren't very well educated on different coat colors of dogs. Who knows. One girl I worked with even asked me when my puppy was going to get his "colors" lol I just looked at her and told her he may never get his "colors" and if he doesn't then what am I going to do?? She said with all seriousness, "I don't know!!" I walked away. Maybe I'm mean. It was funny though.

Anyway, your red is beautiful and looks like a wonderful dog to me. Don't let ignorant people get you down. Use it as a chance to tell people about how wonderful huskies can be, in any color!

We get it all the time with our two.. We got ask tonight if they were full grown the person didn't see how they could pull a sled the size they are. The color of Kerian really seems to surprise many people. There are a few they come to the dog parks here that look a whole like Blaze I think there is a couple of BYB in this area that seem to breed copper reds.

You know something I notice here on he forum that there seems to a whole lot of reds.

I get that all the time with Maya and Sophie. Especially with Sophie since she's got a "different" coat. Most of the time I get asked if they're Alaskan huskies. I just correct them and move on.

We get it all the time with Asia, but now it's more like the "brown" one. Honestly, she has turned more brown than red, but she's still a red

I've never seen a red in my area either. I had to drive a state over to get my Willow. I have been asked what she is mixed with and i don't think the guy believed me when i said she was purebred. Thanks to TV, everyone thinks a husky is only black and white and super fluffy. I do get a lot of comments on how pretty she is.

Yep all the time, I get the "wow I thought they were only black/white" or what is he mixed with lol. Balon is almost coppery in the sun, but inside looks brownish red. I even had a guy ask me if I got that color to go with my chocolate lab lololol! Actually I saw a red and just loved the color. When I went to select a puppy from the litter, Balon just picked us, he was so sweet and calm! The fact that he was a red helped too

ljelgin wrote:

You know something I notice here on he forum that there seems to a whole lot of reds.

I thought the same thing after seeing so many reds on this forum, then when people ask me the same thing about them being rare I say no they're more common then people realize. Since I acquired Biko, though I think I really can remembering seeing only 2 or 3 others in western NY.

Tika is sable with a red head and we always get asked that. Ripley is the chow chow orange so we have 2 reds.
We once got this woman on the street asking what they were, we told her Siberian husky and she said oh so its not a REAL husly, I have a real one, you know black and while with blue eyes......
I thought Chris would punch her for stupidity.
We walked away, there's no point. Now we just say no, huskies come in quite a few colors, and leave It at that

Kellyb wrote:

, I have a real one, you know black and while with blue eyes......
I thought Chris would punch her for stupidity.

Thank you for making me laugh.

My pleasure
It was seriously the most stupid comment we have heard to date. There are also the people who say, is she full grown?? Tika is a wee 40 pounds. We ten explain the mal-husky thing......

We get it all the time as well. We either get the "oh my I have never seen a red husky" or the "is she wolf" Hahah.

The one guy was like is she a wolf I was like no she is a husky, he goes oh, is she part wolf I was like no she is a full blooded husky.

I get it all the time with Zoey, given she is a reallllly light red, and I've only seen a total of 2 dogs the same color as her in our city, and one is her sister.

But most people say that the brown one can't be husky, she's akita. Yes, my AKC papered dog is DEFINITELY an akita

I get it all the time! Personally I have only seen (other than Cally's mom and siblings) one male and one female red ever besides her and this forum :p

When we first started looking for a husky, I was surprised at the amount of reds there were! There is a breeder in Oregon who seems to breed specifically for reds. They're gorgeous coloring for sure!! But Hollywood really does seem to make everyone think that huskies are all one color and one size.

I don't think Rhode Island have a copper husky every huskies I see are black and white or Gray and black/white. We starting a movement here lol

I kept getting my girl wasn't a Siberian because she's not black and white....I've also started to get sick of everyone keeps calling her a 'brown' Siberian...She's a gorgeous red not brown! LOL

I don't think red is considered a recessive gene in huskies. It might be a recessive gene in a black and white husky. For example, Sabaka's parents were both black and white so I guess they had the red gene in there somewhere. (Actually, his grandfather was red.)

Supposedly reds are common...even though, after much discussion with my husband right now, we realize that we have only seen 2 adult red huskies in our lives (and have owned them both!) and Sabaka had one light red brother, who we saw with Sabaka's litter. We see only black and white or solid whites in the puppy stores around here. We actually don't see many huskies in this area anyway. We currently know of only a few (and they are all b&w).

We get lots of comments about his color. Most people are surprised to hear that he is purebred and not a mix because of his color. Our first husky had no papers and was only 35 lbs, so we really had no proof that she was purebred. I think the comments with her were harder to deal with. We would say, "Even though we have no papers, we think that she is most likely a Siberian Husky." to which the person would say something like, "Seeing as how she's red, she's probably mixed with a shepherd or something." After that, it was usually not worth explaining that huskies are commonly red...

Red is recessive. To get red puppies both parents have to be red factored (carry the red gene). The easiest way to assure red dogs in a litter is to breed two reds together because the pups can only receive the red gene (since pups get one gene from each parent).

Other colors (b/w, g/w etc) can carry the red gene and be red factored but there is no test to "prove" that a dog is red factored other than basically breeding to a red (or breeding to a dog that has thrown red puppies). Red/red will always throw red puppies. red/another color will throw one quarter as reds as long as the other color is red factored. If the other colored dog is not red factored (doesn't carry the gene) then no red puppies.

Red is in fact very common (this forum is actually proof how common reds are ) - in the show world - which isn't where most people look for them. Next to grey's it's the second most common color you'll see in the ring. As has been stated - the general population assume (and very much like ) the black and whites with blue eyes - so guess what most back yard breeders are breeding for? B/W blue eyes because they sell which is why reds aren't as commonly seen.

To be honest I or my wife have never seen a red husky until we got Loki. As far as strangers the one comment that I think I got was if he was a "real husky", other than that they comment on how he is a beaut.

Ok first of all - holy crap, Jason - Loki got BIG! What a pretty boy!

And yes, we get stupid comments all the time...mainly asking if Chili's an akita, or wolf (cuz of the mask), or sometimes malamute (due to his size). <sigh> The kids who have seen Snowdogs, etc all recognize he's a husky because there are reds in the movie, same with Eight Below.


We get quite a few reds into rescue here in LA - Mufasa was the exact same intense copper color as Chili! He's my big red dog! I also call him "pumpkin". LOL

Those reds sure do get a lot of attention when we go out!

Here an article on the genes, if ya'll haven't been over to Husky Colors:
http://www.huskycolors.com/genetic.html

Until I visited a breeder and got Anubis I did not even know that red ones exist .
His father is red too but is mother is black n white, so it is just a matter of which genes are stronger

For the longest time I thought there were two colors: black/white or red/white because that's all I saw (mostly from the dog show crowd). It's all the other color variations that surprised me when I first decided to get a husky. I haven't had Nanook very long, but so far no one has questioned if he is a husky because of his color. People around here seem to think that his blue eyes = purebred. The other day someone was telling me how she used to have a husky but that it must have been mixed with wolf because it had one brown eye.