Hi everyone!

I am new, VERY proud, husky owner I am a vet assistant from Quebec, Canada and have always owned dogs (and you can probably tell that english is not my first language!). My husky came into my life in a very strange way.. so I will tell you about it as a presentation!


Saturday after valentine's day, someone came to my house and told my about a stray husky walking in the middle of the street, in my small village. The person stayed at my house about 2 hours, and left. A moment after, I also left (so it had been about 2 hours since the dog was spotted).

Well, the dog was still there. She was at the intersection of the road and the highway, I was afraid she would try to cross the highway and cause an accident - and die at the same time!

I got out of my car and called her. She went further, she didn't seem to like humans, she was scared and didn't seem interested in me at all.

Luckily me, I had left over french fries in the car haha. So I was able to trick her into stepping in the car, after about 20 minutes of giving her fries and getting her closer and closer (but I still could not touch her, even though she would accept a fry from my hands.. if I tried to touch her she would run away).

I brought her home and we could CLEARLY see she was beaten. She also had a rope around her neck for so long that there was no more hair where the rope was attached.

I also own a blind cocker spaniel, and at the time I had a 12 year old mix pittbull - rottweiler. I was starting a one week vacation when I found the husky.

I spent the week with the three dogs, they all got along fine. But, my big dog had a cancer, and she was getting sicker throughout the week. On sunday I had to put her down

I still didn't find the husky's owner (and since she was beaten, I didn't try that hard.. lol). But I still did.. no result.

So, I kept my husky, and it bravely took the place of my deceased friend Since a husky demands that much exercice, it forced to me to get out of the house and play, even though I was sad from loosing my dog. She really helped me get through this tough time.


So, she has been with us since feb 15th. She looks around 1-1.5 years old. She behaves properly, MOST of the time. She tries to bite if people yell and try to grab her collar too fast (like my dad said NO! and tried to stop her from coming close to the dining table by putting his hand in from of the dog's chest, and she tried to bite). With me, there is no problem.. I know we need to be gentle around her, so if I need to tell her NO, I do it without yelling and without touching her. It works great, she understands without further actions.


Up to now we have: learn to skijor, canicross, run up to 7KM (she needs practice hehe), we do agility, training, etc. She is a very fast learner! I have a lot of fun with her

Here she is:






And watching a dog movie:




Husky forum

OMG Pauvre Bébé!!! Merci de l'avoir sauvé!!!

Bienvenue!! D'ou vient tu? On est a Vaudreuil a l'oeust de Montreal. On a deux husky

Je suis désolé pour ton autre chien, cest jamais facile, mais au moins t'avait quelque chose pour t'occuper. C'est quoi son nom?

Ca prends du temps et beaucoup d'effort avec les chiens battu, mait t'auras des resultats lentrement. Le notre avait peur des hommes et ca l'a pris des mois avant de faire confiance a mon marie. La patience et ton effort seront les meilleurs choses pour elle.

Merci encore de partager!!!

Okay I took French in high school and college and was able to do quite a rudimentary translation in my head and I agree! She is lucky you found her and you are doing a wonderful thing adopting and caring for her. I want to know her name too!

She is very pretty and I love her expression in the first photo, such a husky look.

Ah, shame on me! I don't know her name LOL.

I started off by calling her Emma, but it sounded too soft and too human..
So I switched to Tala. At the time I was reading a book and there was woman called Tala, meaning female wolf in some kind of native Indian dialect. I like the meaning of Tala, but I am not sure it is a good name

Merci Kelly! Je suis de Calixa-Lavallée, sur la rive sud. Je continue en anglais

I will be patient with her. I am just not sure how to solve the aggression towards other dogs. I never saw her in a dog park, I wonder if she would be good... Maybe she would be good, being off leech and also I would probably walk/run her a long time before going to the park, so she wouldn't be as exited. Maybe after doing this a few times she would understand.

Are huskies "picky" eaters, in general? She doesn't eat enough. She is still very thin from when I found her on the street. I feed her morning and night, but she doesn't eat all her bowl. I will change to another brand, but I tried some other food brands when I was visiting friends and she didn't eat all of it either!

This is the day I found her. Crazy thin. I gave her a bath after a few days, with the wet fur, it was heartbreaking:



This is on the first day also, with my older dog. I don't know if it's because I have known her for a long time, but she really looks in pain in this picture. It was a week before I had her put down



And if you want to see Tala play with my blind dog, here is a cute video. At first, Tala wants to play "rough", but since the other dog (Ariel) doesn't have eyes, she is slower than other dogs.. so Tala learns to play smooth. She almost "gives" the rope to Ariel They now play with each other all the time. Also, I tie up Ariel to Tala when we go Canicrossing, and she guides her like a pro!!

I like the name Tala! It's really pretty. Yes huskies are picky eaters! There is a great site dogfoodadvisor.com that had just about every dog food ever listed and reveiwed. I'd recommend something holistic and grain free for huskies. Taste of the Wild is a very popular brand among husky owners. I feed my pup raw, which is a whole different ball game. You can also look up a recipe for something called 'satin balls.' They can be very helpful when you want to help a dog gain weight.

Your old dog does look like she is in pain in that pic, it breaks my heart too! But she is running free now and she left knowing that Tala would be there for you.

Omg they are SO cute together playing! I love that the cat smacks her as she walks by! lol. Ours used to do that too.

Yes they can be very picky, but Jen's suggestion of Satin balls can help if she is still very underweight.
To socialize her, start by making a date with a friend who has a calm dog so that you can see Tala's reaction to her and the situation. You can adjust from there, if you see she is nervous, introduce her slowly to new dogs, and to calm dogs first. Then you can see how she reacts. Our rescue cannot be left off leash at the dog park ever. She is ok about 75% of the time, but we cannot risk the 25%. She stays attached to me at my hip, we have had incidents in the past with her and other dogs and we chose to prevent that as much as we can.

Youhou, I am glad someone likes the name Tala! haha I will keep it then. My family and friends don't really like it, but I didn't have any other ideas. She responded to names ending with "a", so.. I had to go with it! Thanks for the "satin balls" idea, I have a grocery list written down and will try that

Kelly, I also find them super cute! haha. This morning I was just sitting on my couch doing nothing, just watching Tala and the cat play together

I've done the dog dating already We have a dog friend that comes to knock on my door on weekends (for real, it's super funny.. it's a dog from my village, I don't know where he lives, but he comes to my house early in the morning on saturdays and follows me and my dogs on our long walk/run, then goes home haha). He is called Woody and he is beagle.

Tala was stressed when they first met. They smelled each other about 1 minute and then she snapped him. I don't think she hurt him (well, no teeth marks) but he growled and snapped back. Then, it seemed the hierarchy was established and they were ultra good friends after that.

I went to another friend who has a puppy Cane corso. They were also best friends, sleeping close together, etc. No growling this time, but with a puppy it's easier..

She also met an old golden retriever that was calm and nothing bad happened.

The issue is really with exited dogs My neighbor's Bernese mountain dog (which are usually really laid back and docile) came running towards Tala. They fought!!!! Lots of hair was lost in the battle, but no blood.. still, it was pretty scary as they fought for a few seconds before the bernese's dad came running to get his dog (running LOOSE!!).

Maybe as time goes and she gets used to calmer dogs, she will eventually tolerate the exited ones.

Kelly, you go to the dog park and keep your dog on leash? I thought this would increase the chances of aggression? Usually dogs on a leash are worst, because they feel trapped and they know they can't run away. I also recall Cesar Milan saying something similar.. But you had less trouble WITH the leash? I have never tried that. My mix pittbull rottweiler would RUN and pick on ANY dog on leash at the dog park. She hated it.. but she never was aggressive, just stood over the other dog with her tail and hair straight up in the air, growling, kind of a way to get the new dog to submise.. but she would only do it to dogs on leash or very scared dogs (she liked to pick on the weak ones haha).

We do keep her leashed, it has a few factors. She is is hard of hearing, so when we call her back she tends to wander off because she isnt hearing/paying attention. We have tried letting her off leash in a fenced dog park before, but she has a history of getting into fights. on the few occasions she was off leash we couldnt get to her in time to stop the fight. She has ended up with minor injuries, but to be safe, now she is attached. We give her the freedom to meet other dogs and play in her way, but I can feel her growls instantly and I can interrupt the situation and take her out of it to minimize the risk for a fight. it has happened a few times.
We do keep bringing her because she is improving in her social skills, but we want to be careful. She is a big girl and can hurt another dog if we dont break it up in time. We just go with our particular situation, it wouldnt necessarily work with anyone else.
You really just have to judge with Tala's own development really. If excited dogs set her off, stick to meeting friends with calmer dogs. The last thing you want is a fight because she's scared.

She is very pretty and extremely lucky to have you! I wish you the best of luck with her!