I've read through a lot of the new owner threads as well as the sticky about thinking about a Husky.

I know through a friend of some people who are having to get rid of their Husky. I currently don't know the reasons, but I have tentatively offered a foster home or possibly even a permanent home (husband pending) for said dog if they are unable to find him a good home soon.

This goes without saying that I have not met the dog nor gotten any real clear information. I'm currently awaiting the information from the owner for this dog. If he's not good with other dogs or cats (supervised), then it's already a no go for me.

Now more stats about my place. My husband and I have a 5 acre farm that is completely fenced in with 4ft field fence topped with a strand of hot wire and hotwire 6" from the ground. We have 3 horses who have their own separate pasture and 2 LGD's who live in the pasture and keep it free of raccoons, oppossums, snakes, etc. The LGD's are permanent outside fixtures since we do live in Florida and the weather never really does get cold enough for them to need to be inside or with a heater. We also have a goat who lives out in the pasture with the horses.

We also have chickens who have their own coop and run. It's a 7' chicken wire run with 4' field fence wrapped around it to reinforce the bottom section against any possible rogue predators and the fence is sunk down at least 6" in the ground to prevent any digging directly in. We're also in the process of running hotwire 6" down from the bottom of the coop around the run which won't take much more than a few hours of work. It is covered from the top as well to prevent bird predators from snatching chickens. All in all we worked very hard in making it predator proof. Our LGDs with their high prey drive (Australian Shepard) have never been able to break in to it despite trying very hard.

We also have an inside/outside dog, a 6 year old 170lb English Mastiff who during the cooler months is outside most of the time (his choice) and during the hotter months remains inside most of the time with the AC and his fan pointed at him. (Not spoiled one bit....). We also have 2 indoor cats that are pretty much free ranging the house but can be locked in the bedroom with no consequence. Our house is just a small single wide trailer (moved from larger house to tiny old trailer for the additional property) which is pretty easy to close all the doors and leave a decent sized containment area.

We already have 2 Xlarge kennels although we don't kennel any dogs. My husband and I do work outside of home, but I am generally home all weekend and he is off additionally on Fridays. I work 7-4 but also attend classes in the evening and he is usually home around 4/5 pm and I leave the latest at about 6:45am. When we do travel we do hire housesitters who stay at our place (impossible not to with all the animals) and generally our Tiberius (Mastiff) goes with us as well.

We have rescued and fostered other animals, so we're not new to the game, but we've never fostered a Husky type who are apparently serious escape artists from what I'm reading.

I don't want to take him in (because it seems that fostering is never short term while looking for good families!) and not be able to accommodate him. He would be free to go in the pasture if he wished and chase the birds and small animals with the other dogs if he wanted to or that suited him, or he'd be able to stay with Tiberius and lounge around the inside outside route.

We do have a worming program in place, flea control and we feed Taste of the Wild for Tiberius and our LGD's get 4Health, so good food options are there.

As for shedding, our Mastiff sheds like crazy already and if it's not his hair, it's the horse hair, cat hair or chicken feathers. With our little farm, there's not a problem with a little hair sharing between family members.

I just want to make sure I don't bite off more than I can chew. Thank you for your responses.

Hi and welcome to the forum! Thank you for considering rescue I know the dog will appreciate it.

FIrst and foremost, you'll have to figure out if he is good with cats. Honestly, the chances that he is are about 50/50, so all this could be moot. If he isn't good with cats, I would not suggest fostering him.

Can you take pictures of the fencing? I think I know what you are describing, but I want to be sure. That would help.

It sounds like you'd probably make a good home for him (cats withstanding) so long as the fencing is adequate to keep him away from the horses, goats, and chickens. That's what would have me concerned besides how he deals with cats

And please post pictures of your family! I love Mastiffs and LGDs

The only animals at our farm who aren't rescues are 2 of the horses (1 was a rescue) and our chickens (we sell organic/cage free/free range eggs). Everything else is a rescue, our joke name for the place is Reject Ranch. Lol!

Here are a few pics of our guys. One of our LGDs isn't typical, she's a Chow/Lab mix, but in all reality she does better than our Aussie at keeping the unwanted critters at bay.

Tiberius:




Lexus, one LGD:


Lexus and Cin, our other LGD:


This is our front yard fencing (along with one of our horses Jaeger:

This is pretty similar to most of our fencing except our corner posts are telephone poles and instead of barbed wire there's hot wire at the top and 6" from the bottom.

How far down does the fencing go into the ground?

Our field fencing doesn't go in to the ground, only our chicken coop wire does. The 6" from the ground hotwire is what prevents the digging for us. Our Mastiff loves to dig and used to dig under fences all the time. I never quite figure how he was so good at escaping at his size. Our fence does go all the way to the ground though.

This is the picture of the possible foster dog.

I'm sorry, but I'm coming to steal Tiberius.
I have to agree with Tori, the cat thing could be an issue, its something you should ask before bringing him in.

What concerns me is that many huskies are fairly impervious to pain. Consider that the Mastiff has a very thin coat in comparison to a husky. He would feel a hot wire. Huskies have that thick coat that really helps soften the blow. If Koda saw a chicken, horse, or other animal on the other side of a fence like that-- I could see him ignoring a hot wire to get to it.

You might very well be fine-- but I can't say I'd be surprised if a husky got through all that-- especially if he has a high prey drive.

Koda,
I understand that with my Australian Shepard, I've seen her run in to trees and fences all because she was chasing birds. However, I do have a 10 mile charger on maybe 1 mile of fence. More than anything they can usually sense the electricity and I'm hoping this guy is sensible enough.

This all goes back to me not knowing anything on the dog. I'm still waiting, but definitely hoping they are able to find him a good permanent home. I don't mind fostering at all, but it's always better to have the good home. We also have the problem of once they come here, they are usually permanent residents. Lol!

If we do get him in, then I'd definitely do it over a weekend so I could monitor full time and teach him the fence boundaries like we do with all the other animals.

Worse situation comes to worse, I can rig up a tie out no problem.

A husky coat is even thicker than the Australian Shepherd's. I'm not saying it's impossible, but I can't guarantee that your fencing is enough.

Koda wrote:

A husky coat is even thicker than the Australian Shepherd's. I'm not saying it's impossible, but I can't guarantee that your fencing is enough.

That's the problem. Without seeing the dog and meeting him as well as taking him for a day to see how he does, I'm really just shooting in the dark.

Of course for at least the first 10 days, he'll be quarantined anyway. No need to spread anything through my herd.