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Old February 15th, 2015, 03:02 PM
crazysheep crazysheep is offline
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alaskan husky is showing some agression issues

Hi! I just joined. I was looking for answer via google and couldnt seem to find much that covered some issues I am having with my alaskan husky.

My alaskan husky is named sky. Shes about 5 months old. I bought her in early January from a family who insisted she was a purebred alaskan husky With 1/16th wolf in her blood line. Her line is only of sled dog champions. they gave me the breeders information as well as his buisness card and website. I called him but he stated that he sold a lot of puppies around christmas, but to check out his site as he posted pictures of past litters. I could see resemblances with color, and hair type. He also stated that all the information the family stated was the same as his pups. The same vet aswell but he stated this vet is very popular in his area.

So we decided to get her as we just wanted a family dog and it was okay if she wasnt what they said she was.

So sky has grown a bit, she is smart but very dominate. She will attack our 2 year old cat, so our cat now stays highup on furniture or in my daughters room as the door stays closed while Sky is not in her Bed. SKy has a problem with digging. She digs at the floor, on people and beds. she dug into our bed and fluff was everywhere lol. It was pretty shocking but I had forgotten to close the door. Since we live in canada, we have a lot of snow outside at the moment. So we take her out daily to dig in the snow piles as well as go for walks. But we still have to keep a leash on her inside while friends and family visit. She pulls at clothing, takes shoes (not a surprise, but will take them right off your feet), take food right off the counter and take food right out of your hand. She will bite and nip at hands, hair, arms and legs. She will bite feet if you are wearing socks. She LOVES socks. I find hidden piles behind the couch every few days. She will jump and claw at faces, stomachs and legs leaving huge marks. She has punctured my hand multiple times where she has bite me, leaving bruises and blood. She is not agressive while she does this, I realize that she is being a normal puppy to some degree and just may not know her strength. Due to her behaviour I have to muzzle her and contain her when we go out with her. most people understand around here because they have a husky themselves but many people dont and fear her. It doesnt help that when she wants attention from someone she sees, she howls at them. It frightens a lot of people and kids. So I have to explain that she just truely wants there attention and she picked them at random. They then pet her and see that she just wanted just that. But I get people who have ran away screaming saying she is a pit Mix. mainly we are trying to get her to stop jumping. She is very smart, knows some tricks and goes to the bathroom outside 99% of the time. She adjusted well to her name change fairly quickly and is just generally sweet once she knows you. She is very strong however and she has left her mark on me espicially. I know with time this should stop but does anyone have some tips that they can offer? She is also agressive with food. My vet stated that he wanted her gain 5 pounds so we bought a high enriched wet food. She Bit my hand. Her hair stood up and she frozen staring at me. She is fine with dry food however. But acts the same as does with wet food as does with bones and chew toys.

I dont now if they have a forum for this but if I can find out how to post some pictures of her maybe someone can offer their opinion on her breed and mixes That you see?
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Old February 15th, 2015, 03:05 PM
crazysheep crazysheep is offline
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Heres some better ones I hope.
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Old February 15th, 2015, 03:15 PM
crazysheep crazysheep is offline
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her tail does curl**
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Old February 15th, 2015, 03:37 PM
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Loki Love Loki Love is offline
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I suggest you start working on NILF immediately (http://k9deb.com/nilif.htm).

What kind of training have you done with her? How much exercise is she getting daily? She's a high energy breed - she's going to need A LOT of walks, playtime outside and mental stimulation inside. A tired puppy = good puppy.

When does the food aggression happen? How is she biting your hand when you feed her? Are you leaving her alone to eat?

As for the biting and nipping at you - it stops now. You don't allow it to happen. You ignore her, turn your back, give a high pitched squeal and walk away from her. She needs to understand that rough play = playing stops.

You have your work cut out for you, but it's doable if you really commit to this puppy.
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Old February 15th, 2015, 04:28 PM
Barkingdog Barkingdog is offline
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It sound like the breeder is a back yard breeder , I bet they breed their dogs too close together . I personally think it's insane to breed dog with wolves. Wolves have a fear of man and that can cause a dog to has aggressive issues. I went to place called Wolf Hallow it's a sanctuary and the guy that started the place told people why it's a bad idea to crossbred dogs with wolves.

I agree you need to get to a dog trainer and you should go before your puppy get too out of control and bite someone .
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Old February 16th, 2015, 08:53 AM
Longblades Longblades is offline
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Have you ever had a dog before? Have you had a puppy? Nothing you describe says anything more to me than normal puppy high jinks.

I agree with the posts above about NILIF. I strongly suggest, strongly, you get yourself and her into a puppy class. You need to learn how to teach her to behave. Plus classes tend to be a bonding experience. Most likely you WILL learn how to handle her without a muzzle.

She does not look anything like a PitBull. She does not look Alaskan Husky either but that is not a true breed, many sled dogs are mixes. If anything she looks Lab x something to get those ears. I am thinking Corgi but her colour is probably contributing to my thought on that, no other part looks Corgi. She is LOVELY, a very attractive and alert looking doggy. You will be able to guess better at her mix when she is full grown.

There are many, many red flags in your whole story, so many it would be impossible to address them all here. Sorry, but it really sounds to me like you were taken in by the so called breeder and had no idea what you were in for. But I will offer a few ideas:
Puppy classes ASAP
NILIF
Give the cat a safe place to escape to. Ask the trainer in your puppy classes for ideas. My cats had gates with holes only they can get through when my puppy was that age.
Learn how to handle food. http://www.cappdt.ca/UserFiles/File/articles/resource%20guarding%20for%20parents.pdf
Age appropriate exercise

Good luck, What is that pretty girl's name? Oh , it's Sky. Pretty name for a pretty girlie pup.
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Old February 16th, 2015, 02:06 PM
Barkingdog Barkingdog is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Longblades View Post
Have you ever had a dog before? Have you had a puppy? Nothing you describe says anything more to me than normal puppy high jinks.

I agree with the posts above about NILIF. I strongly suggest, strongly, you get yourself and her into a puppy class. You need to learn how to teach her to behave. Plus classes tend to be a bonding experience. Most likely you WILL learn how to handle her without a muzzle.

She does not look anything like a PitBull. She does not look Alaskan Husky either but that is not a true breed, many sled dogs are mixes. If anything she looks Lab x something to get those ears. I am thinking Corgi but her colour is probably contributing to my thought on that, no other part looks Corgi. She is LOVELY, a very attractive and alert looking doggy. You will be able to guess better at her mix when she is full grown.

There are many, many red flags in your whole story, so many it would be impossible to address them all here. Sorry, but it really sounds to me like you were taken in by the so called breeder and had no idea what you were in for. But I will offer a few ideas:
Puppy classes ASAP
NILIF
Give the cat a safe place to escape to. Ask the trainer in your puppy classes for ideas. My cats had gates with holes only they can get through when my puppy was that age.
Learn how to handle food. http://www.cappdt.ca/UserFiles/File/articles/resource%20guarding%20for%20parents.pdf
Age appropriate exercise

Good luck, What is that pretty girl's name? Oh , it's Sky. Pretty name for a pretty girlie pup.
I agree with you LB , the breeder sound very shady to me too and I am not seeing any husky in the dog . I went back and tried to finish reading the OP comment , I find it very hard to read the way it's type anyway I saw she has child too , I feel the dog should never be left alone with the child , I am not sure how old the child is but a puppy can do a lot damage to a child face.
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Old February 17th, 2015, 10:01 AM
MarianE MarianE is offline
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I really have no idea what breed or mix your Sky could be, but I doubt if she is a purebred Alaskan Husky. She does have that “husky stare” thing going on in a couple of the pictures, though. I’ve seen those feet on pit bull mixes, in fact your pups’ feet look exactly like my beloved pit bull mix (RIP dearest girl) but so do a lot of other breed mixes, I would think. I have seen at Pet Smart a kit you can get to send a dog’s DNA to be analyzed for breed I.D., if you’re really curious about it. I don’t know how accurate the kits are and they aren’t cheap. In any case, I can say without any reservation, Sky is a gorgeous dog!
My dog is a husky/shep/something with droopy ears mix. She needs a good 10 kilometers of exercise a day, preferably at least half being off leash. So getting Sky into training with a good, positive re-enforcement trainer is a great idea for so many reasons, one being a good recall. She’d benefit from the socialization, too. I cannot over-emphasize socialization, both canine and human.
My dog was a mess when we adopted her at 16 months. I’m not going to get into all her issues because I don’t have 10 hours to write them all down. But she did display a lot of the issues Sky has. Suffice to say Carly was extremely under-socialized and very fear aggressive. We took her to training, both group which was desperately needed for socialization and one on one training to deal with her unique basket-case quirks. She’s past three now and is she perfect? NO!!! But she doesn’t act like she wants to eat everyone she meets. She’s still cautious around new people but she is much more social. She has good recall and she sits patiently for her food. I should mention she has never bitten anyone, though but she scared the pants off many a grown man.
I wonder if some of Sky’s behavior is because she’s bored? Once she has basic training down, you may want to get her into a dog activity like agility or flyball. Ask your trainer about games you can play with Sky to give that incredible brain a work out I got my dog into scent work, it exercises her body and her mind and she can do it anywhere. And she loves it.
Your Sky is just five months and she seems like she’s very eager to please, I think she can be turned around. Good luck and please keep us posted on her progress.
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Old February 18th, 2015, 07:24 AM
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Budgie-mom Budgie-mom is offline
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The last photo made me think of a Basenji face ...

My husband made a kitty-gate at the top of the stairs with an opening for the cats only to fit through. They scoot through and sit on the other side "laughing" at Portia on the other side. I would post a photo if the site accepted full size pics (can't shrink them, no idea how).

All this said, I join the general consensus on training classes. I had a fox-coloured, blue-eyed, purebred (?) Siberian Husky girl years ago, Nunatak (meaning blocks of ice screwed up into an impassable wall, apparently). Not knowing too much about dog training at the time, I hired a trainer who came to our place. It wasn't the best experience as I didn't like him or his ways, and instead read up on all I could in order to do it myself.

Nunatak was never socialized properly as a pup, she was a year old when I got her. Other than remaining a shy dog, she became great with us and around the house and yard (large, fenced property).
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