I'm not sure if this is against the rules or not to post about more then one dog in a thread, if so I can correct it, if not I'd much rather have Info and what not about my dogs all in one place. (At least for now.)

Also at the moment I don't have any pics uploaded to show off, so I'll just start by saying stuff about my wuvs.

At the moment I have five dogs.

Maya, a Labrador Husky going on five years. She's a saddle back husky. (White coat with a black saddle, and some verry light red highlights. And light blue eyes!) She is due to have puppies on January 23rd.

Diesel, another Labrador Husky who turned three on October 27th. Also a saddle back. I got him as a puppy and he is my pride and joy. He is the sire to Maya's up coming litter.
(Diesel's papa is that handsome white woof in my avatar, and that's baby Diesel himself laying in front of him, and his brother Havoc.)

Sasha, my six month old Labrador Husky, and Diesel's daughter, her mama was mine at one point but she had to be rehomed. She had some mad scientist escape artist skills and would run way to the nearby dairy and was a bad influence on my other dogs, and I didn't have time to work out all of her issues.
Anyway Sasha is pure white and long haired (like her grandpa in the avatar) with light honey colored eyes that seem to just get lighter as she ages.

Kita, a seven month old white German Shepherd, she's super cute, super friendly, and super excitable! Kita also has one blue eye.
This is the part where you say "Wait, what? A blue eye? Maybe she has husky mixed in some where."
That's what I'd think too, but her parents, grandparents, and great grandparents are all German Shepherds. So I dunno, it's confusing but I'm not complaining.

And last but not least, Romeo, also a seven month old German Shepherd, Kita's brother. He is the sweetest, cutest, whiniest, smartest little Shepherd ever and I love him to pieces. He's so much fun to work with and I'm a little embarrassed to say he steals most of my attention from the other two pups.

So yeah, I have a lot on my plate right now (three growing pups, and more on the way) and yeah it really is a lot of work. It'll be nice being able to share experiences and discuss with all you husky people.

And I will work on getting pics of my pack, stay tuned!

Looking forward to the pics and you can absolutely post pics of multiple dogs in a scrapbook.

When you said labrador husky, do you mean a lab x husky mix or an actual labrador husky? If they are labrador huskies, is there any registration for that breed? Just curious since it seems to be a rare breed.

I believe he posted on the welcome mat a few days ago. If its the same person he means the actual breed labrador husky.

Yes, actual pure bred Labrador Huskies. Unfortunately, no, they are not recognized by any dog clubs that I know of.

When we got our first dog, Maya, we didn't know what she was. I thought she was a Siberian, she was a neighbors dog that never had her penned, she wandered around like a stray and when she ended up in our front porch and we gave her a friendly pat on the head, she decided she belonged to us and after that there was no going back.

She would stay in our front yard all day laying in the shade of our cars, and every time some one walked out she ran up wagging her tail. She was 7 or 8 months old by the looks of it, and she came into her first heat in this situation, I'm not sure how many dogs she got bred to or how many times, but she spent her whole pregnancy begging scraps from us. We asked the owners again and again if we could have her, buy, her, we offered to pay for her and all the puppies and take the responsibilities of finding homes for them, but they flat out refused. (Perhaps hoping we'd offer more money.)

She had her litter in their yard, and tho I didn't see them myself, my dad said there were 12 and they were all a muddy brown color and none of them had blue eyes. Even after they were born he offered to take them, and still we were turned down. Poor Maya was so thin, it was miserable watching her wander around searching for scraps of food. While she was raising her pups she didn't come by so often, she's a great mother and I'm sure she took the best care for her pups she was able under the circumstances. We fed her whenever she came by, and once her pups were old enough she started camping out in our yard again.

The owners, now wise to the fact that we wanted her, started coming by and taking her back home. But she'd just come right back. They kenneled her (for the first time in her life I imagine) and she put up a barking frenzy non stop for THREE days, we could hear it clear as a bell from about a fourth a mile away. I don't know if she just escaped or if they got fed up and let her out, but there she was back in our yard again, and she didn't leave for a week. Dad told me to NOT feed her, (hard as it was to feed my other two dogs and not give her any while she looked at me with those big blue eyes, we didn't want to piss them off and "steal" their dog) but still she never left our front porch for a week. The owners came by again to pick her up, this time they chained her to the wall (she must have figured out how to escape the kennel.) That didn't last long, she came back to us bringing a very heavy 20 ft chain and all.

They of course came back and wanted the chain and wanted Maya back, that last few times they had picked her up she'd run up and greet them, this time my uncle had to physically DRAG her out from under a car and help them put her in the truck.

We had made our last offer to buy her weeks ago, and weren't going to offer again, but then one day we got a call and I was told to walk out there and pick her up. When I went to get her Maya was so happy to see me, and I didn't need a leash to take her home.

She's been living it up with use since 2009, and I DID have to train out her need to wander the neighborhood freely and keep her from visiting her old haunts.

The sad thing is, the day I went to get Maya, the lady was standing at the gate to meet me with a little black retriever in her arms. I felt bad for that pup because I knew what he had to look forward to, and I was right. That pup ended up wandering the neighborhood just like that last one. And so did the next two or three puppies that she got after that.

Anyway, it wasn't until we'd had her for a few months that I discovered Labrador Huskies on dogbreedinfo.com. I had been puzzling over different things about Maya since I'd gotten her, and when I read about Labrador Huskies they started to make sense.

Her ORIGINAL owner who had given Maya to our neighbors because he wasn't able to keep her anymore came by to see her a few times (and boy did she seem to love him) and he told us that he did actually get her from people from Canada (I don't think she was born there but her parents probably were) and that they did call her a Labrador Husky.

It wasn't until August of 2010 that we found Koen, a six to seven year old (the one in my avatar) that looked like he had a very rough life. He was chained to a pole in the middle of some ones yard with about 12 inches of slack and no water, he was left by his owners who moved away and a neighbor had tried to gather him up, but Koen had some mean escape and destroying skills when it came to fences, kennels, ropes, and chains. I thought pretty harshly about them having him chained out in the open like that, but once I had to deal with him, boy did I understand!

He was in bad shape when we got him, skinny, sickly, and absolutely terrified of people beating him. All you had to do was LOOK at him from 10 feet away and he'd cower and roll on his back, slam his eyes shut and brace like he was waiting for the beating from hell.

From 20 to 30 feet away taking any steps toward him would cause the same effect. I started trying to teach him to trust me and my family, if he rolled himself like that I wouldn't touch him, I'd make him come to me (and he did, at a crawl, and always bracing and flinching at any movements.)

Once he got some attention and loving pats he was addicted to it, if he was near some one he wouldn't leave their side and would paw at them for more love. But even still he was fearful, if he wasn't already at your side and you tried to approach and pet, he'd roll on the ground and flinch at your hand. It took awhile to get him to approach me while I was standing and facing him, and even longer to get him to approach men that way.

Even when he was standing at your side he'd flinch every time your hand reached to pat him on the head. So I told every one to not touch him unless he shoved his forehead into their hand on his own. He was doing pretty well after a year of therapy my way, but you could still see the damages from his previous life.

But as much as he was terrified of humans and completely sweet with them when given the chance. He was really mean and aggressive with other dogs, we had to rehome our little heeler mix because the two would get in bad fights. Koen has permanent scars on his face and I'm sure some of them are from dog fights, every time I've seen him attack a dog I could tell he knew what he was doing and had done it many times before.

It took as much work getting him to act civil with other dogs as it did to make him trust people. He never really got completely over either of those problems. He injured Maya's paw the first time we tried to breed them, so after that I heavily supervised it and would hold onto his collar when they were locked together to keep her safe and him calm. He was pretty old to be using for a breeder, but we didn't want to miss the chance of getting more Labrador Huskies, because we knew they were rare and it was pretty lucky for us to have found him in the first place.

We got three gorgeous pups, (born October 2010) and about a year later when we were getting tons of people asking when we were going to have more puppies, we bred them again and got a whopping NINE pups. (Born August 2011.) After that we figured he had done his work and we retired him. He regressed into his escape artist and kennel destroying ways, and at that point we just didn't have the time anymore to give him all the attention he needed.

We rehomed him in nice place with a good sized yard and a family that's giving him a good home to live out the rest of his years. Last I knew they didn't have any other dogs, and for Koen that's probably a good thing. He's an ornery old man and he needs his peace and quiet.

We are still breeding our Labrador Huskies and keeping an eye out for anymore that we might come across. I want to get people interested in the breed, and who knows, maybe soon down the road there will be a Labradory Husky Club with a breeding standard to aim for.

(Oh geez, you see what happens when you get me started? That's what ya'll get for asking questions.)

Welcome. Cute pack.

This is all I'm going to say about the breeding...it sounds like your upcoming litter will be AT LEAST Maya's fourth, and that's not counting any that you may not have known about with her previous owners. Keep in mind that it is suggested a dog only be bred a maximum of 4 times in their lifetime.

You're right this would be her fourth time, I think its safe to say she didn't have any litters before I knew her, she was about 7 or 8 months old when I met her and she's grown a few inches since then, I'm fairly sure that was her first heat. (And I was pretty worried about her through that pregnancy because she was so young and so underfed. And most likely she had parasites and whatever other problems I didn't know about.)

It was pretty stupid of her owners to let her wander like a stray like that and have her get knocked up by random mutts.

I am aware of the effects over breeding can have on a dog, she wouldn't even be pregnant right now if I didn't have people lined up at the gate waiting to buy one. I'm just hoping she doesn't have an over load like last time. Nine pups to feed and eight teats to share. But she's pretty darn fat right now, we've been referring to her as "the cow." Even if she does have more then I'm hoping for, I'm ready to give her all the help she needs.

And I'm open to any and all advice you all have to offer, I don't pretend to be perfect or know everything, that's why I signed up here.

Dragonfly wrote:

I am aware of the effects over breeding can have on a dog, she wouldn't even be pregnant right now if I didn't have people lined up at the gate waiting to buy one.

Honestly, that's not a very good reason to breed, especially a dog that has had multiple litters. You will find on this forum that people are very strong advocates of responsible breeding. Good luck with the litter though. Hopefully it will be one that she can handle.

maybe you could look around on the internet and see if you could find a responsible breeder, hopefully, and get a pup from them and then you could keep one of your pups out of this litter. that way you could retire you could retire Maya and you could still have litters once a year. the healthy way. hope that helps you

sorry, i meant 1 litter a year!! not litters. anymore than that is too much for a female...

I agree..those are awful reasons to put your girl through a forth litter.
Hope those pups find forever homes and not homes interested in their rarity.

I didn't say that was the "reason" I'm breeding her, I have breeding goals in mind for my dogs, and maybe it doesn't seem like a "good" reason to you to try and cultivate interest in a rare breed? But that is what I have mind, the goal isn't "spit out all the puppies possible."
The point being, even tho I always wanted to bring more Labrador Huskies into the world, for various reasons, I didn't actually consider breeding her again until I already had considerable interest in the possible puppies.

I look, I do, I search often for another one of these dogs, and I do tons of web searches looking for information or breeders, so far I haven't found much. The most I have found is a few shelter dogs in Canada, which being there, might as well not exist.

And tho it may be "recommended" that they not have more then four litters in their life time, it doesn't make it taboo under all circumstances, its not like I can just find another one of these dogs that easy. (And she isn't at the "more then four" stage anyway so.. relax a little?)

Don't feel like I'm disregarding what you say, I'm just trying to explain why I do what I do, and for the record, I never said I was going to milk her for all she was worth and have her churn out as many puppies possible until she's old and grey.

Also, Maya is happy, she's healthy, she loves being a mother, and its been almost 2 years since her last litter, so no one should get the impression that I'm breeding for personal gain or whatever bad reasons you might be thinking of right now.

Breeding (of any dog/breed/etc) is a very touch subject here.

What goals do you have? What "standard" do you have in mind that you are breeding these dogs to? What structure are you aiming for? Temperament? Workability? What about health? What do you know of the lines of these dogs? What do you know about the health problems within the breed or what health problems are in your dogs lines that could manifest? These are ALL things you need to be fully aware of if you want to continue to breed.

I'm not against breeding - but breeding with a purpose is a must. If you aren't breeding for such things, hoping to improve the breed with the next generation and getting to your "ideal" - then one should not be breeding.

Just my two cents.

To be frank, it is taboo. Look at it in terms of a human. Four pregnancies with twins or triplets. By the second pregnancy you have an increase in risk, by the third and fourth it is even worse...now apply that to a dog, who births 4+ puppies with each litter. It's not safe and not responsible for that dog to be bred so many times...it doesn't matter why you are doing it. I don't mean to be harsh, but its the truth. A dogs body cannot handle that and you risk so many complications. For the dogs sake, consider spaying her. Please.


It seems you are breeding in order to keep a line going..but honestly, it could turn out that your dog is simply a mix. Not that this is a bad thing, but there are already a lot of mixed dogs who needs home out there. If you are going to be insistent about her being a specific breed, have her DNA tested. Even then, to give her the best standard of life she can get, she really shouldn't be bred anymore.

Just my two cents.

I'll just be frank and say it's ridiculous to me to breed dogs that you don't even know for a fact are labrador huskies and you don't have their pedigree to ensure they have healthy genetics and whatnot. And unless you work your dogs and are trying to produce superb sled dogs to work, I don't see the point. There's enough puppies being brought into the world just because.

While I hope this thread can mantain it's civility... I do have to say that I disagree with your breeding practices and really encourage you to read a lot on the forum and try to see the other side.

You don't even know if she really is a "Labrador Husky."

Seems like this thread has gotten a bit off topic... Perhaps we should keep anymore posts relevant, and Dragonfly can start a thread somewhere else to talk about where/when/how to breed her dogs if she is interested in discussing it?


You're dogs sound amazing, and its pretty neat of you to gather them up and give them a good home. I can't wait to see you post some pictures of them.

This is a dog forum full of very passionate people. This thread is addressing their dogs, and we are, infact, discussing their dogs. When you post on the Internet, you are opening up anything you say for discussion. They willingly said they bred and their reasonings and whatnot, and there's nothing wrong with people challenging it out of genuine concern.
We have plenty of mods already including ones active in the topic at hand. There is nothing wrong with this discussion. The OP has not expressed not being interested in hearing others' POV and reasonings behind them.

Oh, I see... I just assumed the 'scrapbook' was more of a place to keep pictures and info about your dogs not so much a discussion thread.. But I'm new here so, carry on.

first time ive heard of labrador huskies. going to have to read up on them a bit. it's always nice to have someone taking good care of their dogs. we may have different opinions about breeding but nothing we say can change your actions. i'm just happy to see your happy pups. Be sure to post more pics of them!

Camoger wrote:

Oh, I see... I just assumed the 'scrapbook' was more of a place to keep pictures and info about your dogs not so much a discussion thread.. But I'm new here so, carry on.

With the lack of pictures and indepth story on the dogs, I don't think I'd really call this thread a scrapbook one. If it was full of photos and brief captions, I'd agree with you.

This is a some what thrown together response because honestly, no one has ever posed those questions at me before, there really is not much of a breed standard to go on. I can see that if I'm going to get anywhere trying to further this breed I need to be able to answer these questions in depth. (Phew, trying to take the fate of the breed into my own hands.. Now that's pressure.)

What goals do you have?
Short term it's to raise and sell the puppies on the way and get people interested in the breed. Long term is to get Labrador Huskies recognized as a breed and get an actual standard.

What "standard" do you have in mind that you are breeding these dogs to?
There isn't much of a standard out there to be honest, they are a large northern breed that are fairly similar to Siberian Husky in appearance but are larger, and heavier built. They're built for pulling heavier weight over a distance rather then speed. (I'm remembering this off the wiki page which has been edited and some of the info and history is gone now for some reason? :/)

The Huskies were isolated from other breeds in Labrador and allowed to breed with wolves, later they had Malamute mixed in for size and strength and Alsatian to make them more trainable. As a result they are larger, stronger, more protective, and a bit more trainable then the average Siberian Husky. They are still a very intelligent and stubborn breed and are not for first time dog owners. (Little known fact about Labrador Huskies, the breed is just as old as German Shepherds, they just haven't had the popularity.)

They are excellent guard dogs and watch dogs, and tho I'm not experienced in that sort of thing, I can tell they'd make great schutzhund dogs.

Mind you, I'm not stating all of this like a "breed standard" some of it is just how my dogs are, I can't tell you what all the breed should and shouldn't be based on the few that I've raised and trained.


What structure are you aiming for?
Not entirely sure what you mean by that.

Temperament?
A loyal and protective dog that will guard home or farm from intruders, be it man, dog, or what have you.

Mine are very friendly and gentle with kids and immediate family, but get pretty riled up over strangers. If they aren't trained properly they can get pretty aggressive with other dogs, they are little spit fires compared to those sweet little Shepherd pups.
They also have a high preydrive and need plenty of supervision and training around smaller pets.

Workability?
They are most definitely able to pull sleds as they are meant to do, tho there's never much snow where I'm at. We've had them pull other things (mostly out of curiosity and moments of "hey you think he could--?") some of the Labrador Huskies I raised are on my brothers ranch working with sheep along side German Shepherds, I can't say they have the talent and instincts the Shepherds have, but they are good enough learn the job with training. They are ok at moving sheep, they're fantastic at warding off predators that want to harm the sheep.

What about health?
Well as it says on Wiki, there are no known ailments for the breed and I of course would like to keep it that way. Their health is very important to me and I have had all my dogs checked out.
There aren't many of them as there is, so the last thing I want to do is bring out problems in the few that I have to work with.

Megan B.
I'm sorry but I can't agree with 'It's unhealthy for a human to have twins or triplets multiple times, so must be that way for dogs too.'
Dogs have 8 to 10 teats for a reason, and while I can see how churning out puppies for a lifetime could take a great toll on their health, it doesn't really apply to my case.
She's not my puppy making machine, she is my pet and I love her and I wouldn't do anything to hurt her. You seem to have this idea that I have 4 MORE litters planned in the future. When really all I care about right now is doing the best I can with the litter on the way.

And I'm curious, have you had experience or seen first hand too many breedings gone bad? Or is it just "one of those things" that you feel strongly about. If you have an actual experience I'd like to hear about it.

I did learn something new today, I knew over breeding was an issue but this is the first time I heard "four times is the limit." I more connected it with people breeding on every heat or breeding every year. So ya, any reading you can point me to, I'd be happy to dig deeper into this.

And while she 'could' be a mixed breed, I've had enough time working with her and the rest of my Labrador Huskies to believe that they are for real. The appearance, size, and temperaments all point to what little info there is about them. And even if they are not truly "purebred" in the fullest sense of the word, they are close enough that its worth trying to breed the dogs and bring attention to the breed and hopefully save it from going extinct. And they came from Labrador Canada soo, I think the odds are good.

My dogs are working dogs, they are home protection and for my brothers ranch they are ranch protection and sheep/cattle guardians. Sure we could just as easily use German Shepherds for all of this, but in my personal opinion, our huskies are beautiful AND useful and to be honest, they terrify people that don't know them. Imagine seeing a big German Shepherd in some one's yard. Now imagine a big WOLF dog. (That's a bit of personal preference, but don't we all have some of that? This isn't a chihuahua forum after all.)

But all in all, my dogs are useful, healthy, WORKING Huskies. And it would be a sad thing to me to lose them or to see the breed dwindle away and disappear.

You seem to have this feeling that I have NO concern for the welfare of my dog. Would I be here if I didn't care? Do you think I didn't know the controversy that comes with this kind of thing? You think I didn't know what you were going to say before you said it? I've heard all of these opinions before, and worse. I am grateful that everyone is being civil and asking pointed questions rather then getting angry and giving me a judgey earful.

While I can understand why you feel the way you do, I'm not going to apologize for anything. And even if I did, what do you expect me to do, suddenly un-breed the dog? It's done and she's pregnant and they're coming before the next week is out, so maybe a little "In the now" advice from any of you with experience would be more helpful.

Camoger
It's all good, if I didn't want anyone's opinion I could have kept quiet in the first place. <3 Thanks.

Buddywoof
Thanks! I am working on posting more pics soon. =)

Heather
Well, it was MEANT to to be a scrapbook thread, but it kinda just escalated into this lol. It's fine tho.

I never said to "unbreed her" I said to consider spaying her and not over breeding her. There is a huge difference.

I never said you had no concern for your dog, your comments implied it. For example "I wouldn't have even bred her if I didn't have people lined up at the door for them." and "It's not like I can just find another one of these dogs that easy."

I'm sorry, but that does raise red flags in my book.

My concern is not for you, it is for your dog. Just as my concern for anyone else on this forum is for their dog. You came here for advice, and I have given you mine. I apologize if it's not what you were expecting.

Btw, yes, I know of plenty dog pregnancies going bad and my mentor has plenty of stories to share from over the 23 years she has been breeding. I haven't bred a dog yet, for a lot of reasons. I won't breed anything, until I am sure that I know as much as I can and am doing it for all the right reasons.

Thank you for the answer.

First of all, though, is you should have ZERO short term goals and the least of your concerns right now should be "raising and selling puppies" that's a TERRIBLE goal to have especially when you are trying to create and better a new "breed".

Your first step is to write up a standard for them. The standard is what your breeding practice hopes to achieve and until you are breeding CONSISTENTLY to what the "ideal" dog is or what your standard is - every dog you breed will either be kept by YOU or will be placed in a very carefully chosen PET home (meaning every dog you place HAS to be spayed or neutered). And only the best dogs that conform closely enough your "ideal" should be used in the breeding program and out of those only the ones that compliment the other dog should be used for breeding.

The standard is what your IDEAL "Labrador Husky" would be. Look at any standard of any breed out there - that is what you have to consider when you're making your standard. Your goal is to not get as many dogs out there as possible but to get CONSISTENCY in your dogs to adhere to a standard and THEN you can promote the breed after you have been breeding TRUE (no outcrosses to other breeds) for several, several years. And it will take at least a couple decades.

In terms of health - EVERY dog and dog breed has health issues (whether they are affected or carriers of). All of them. Which tells me you have zero clue (this is meant as a generalization not as a harsh attack) as to what the "breed" is capable of producing because no one has bred these dogs true to make them a breed which means they could very well be housing some pretty terrible genetic diseases which you will very much need to be on top of in terms of health testing not only your dogs but every offspring they produce for any number or known genetic diseases in dogs (probably more specific to northern breeds). Also - any other "labrador husky" that you breed to will have to be genetically tested for any health defects and you will have to start having the dogs DNA tested - especially important when you begin breeding true.

Structure - if you don't have a structurally sound/conformationally correct dog the dog will not be able to perform the job it was bred to do every day for it's entire life and will break down early. You have to learn and decide what kind of structure this "breed" needs to do the jobs it's required to do.

The supposed "labrador huskies" are also still being bred with GSD's, other herding dogs and other breeds to bring down their aggression and make them more biddable. You can't make a breed while still using other breeds. Regardless - it seems you're probably easily 20 years minimum (probably more looking closer to 40 realistically) out of achieving this goal - and that's really if you stop dead right now producing dogs and start going long term.

I honestly don't think you have any clue what you are doing, blunt I know and I'm sorry for that. You aren't really listening to what anyone is saying.
You really have no education at ALL about the breed. The only source you are getting any info from is Wiki...and Wiki is really not that reliable. You don't even KNOW if your dogs are "labrador huskies". Who CARES where they came from? That means nothing. Yeah it slightly raises the chances that they ARE "lab huskies" but other then that you have no clue. You can't base temperament, size, and whatever else you are using to decide if you truly have this "breed" of dog. I have a mutt who plays rough like a husky, has characteristics that you could say make her a husky, and parts of her coat make her seem part husky. BUT that doesn't mean she has ANY husky in her! It's the same thing.

When you say you've had them "checked out" what does that mean exactly? You've had them hip tested, eye tested? Or that you've had them "checked out" by a vet who deemed them healthy? Those are two VERY different scenarios.

While there is always something to learn about breeding; you have been breeding your one dog for years now right? And you NEVER heard of a limit on how many times a dog should be breed?! That's very odd to me and a little unsettling.

Also I find it very strange you haven't had your dogs DNA tested to PROVE they are so called "labrador huskies". Who exactly are you selling these puppies to? And while they are guarding livestock for you, yet you say they can pull sleds. You say no where that you have pulled sleds with these dogs, only that they have guarding livestock. Those are two very different things. You really shouldn't be promising things that you really don't know anything about.