Mush!

Nate, looking sexy as ever!

Well, we finally caved and bought a nice pulling set up. Dalton has a new pulling harness, a new rope with some spring in it, and a sled. We've gone up Millcreek Canyon a few times this week, and Dalton has been loving it! He knows "easy" when we need him to slow down, and "leave it" when we pass other dogs. This time we let Dalton run and play on the way up and Nate had the lovely task of pulling up the sled, and carrying his skis. They way down was worth it though! Dalton pulled me most of the way, and Nate skied down next to us.

Skateboard

I have decided that if you are going to have a husky, you should also have a skateboard. Nate has a few of them, and we use them to exercise Dalton at least once a week. Lately we’ve been using a skate without the wheels and trucks for Dalton to practice pulling. I will post pictures later, but Nate, as always came up with the idea. He glued an old rug to the bottom to minimize noise, put and eye bolt at the top for the string which we attach to his harness. Right now we have a small weight on the back to keep it from bouncing all over the place, and on a straighter path. Plus, if it helps tire him out a bit more, I won’t complain.

Our Kennel set up.

We realized fairly quickly that Dalton was not a huge fan of his kennel. It’s sized correctly for his weight/height, but he always looks so cramped in there. Not only that, but he just can’t relax in the kennel. We tried our darndest to make it a happy place, somewhere he wanted to be, but it just didn’t work. This is where my brilliant boyfriend comes in. We had borrowed a doggy “play pen” from our neighbor who didn’t use it much. Generally we would use it to contain him in one room or another, or we would take it to friend’s houses so we could keep him contained there. Eventually though, our neighbor needed it back, so we invested and bought our own. Here is the one we have. It’s Top Paw, wire and about 36” high.  

Since D is not a fan of the kennel, but we didn’t quite trust him to have the whole house, Nate devised a genius plan to hook the play pen to the kennel, and section off part of the living room for Dalton. We have about 12 feet between the kennel and the west facing window in our living room, so we spread out the play pen in such a way that it stands up on its own, loops behind a chair (for support), and sits right underneath the window, holding it in place. It’s fairly escape proof, but  if he wanted to he could easily jump over the gate and have free rein of the house. BUT were pretty sure Dalton hasn’t realized how high he can jump, nor has he really had the opportunity to figure it out. Were crossing our fingers that it stays that way!!

 Anyhow, this is how we set the room up. Unless he starts tearing into the molding or walls, or develops a taste for the radiator, were pretty safe as far as chewing. He always has a bone, toy, kong or all three to occupy his time, and it has worked very well for us so far.

Facing West

Facing East, Attached to the kennel

Luckily our windows are the perfect height to wedge it right underneath.



This is facing south, without the play pen set up.



I wouldn’t recommend something like this if your dog has a propensity to jump, or try chew things just outside the wires. The yellow chair (seen in the first photo) has been safe as of yet, but if he wanted to, I think he could really tear into it. We like this set up, because it gives him a bit more freedom, but he is still confined enough that he can’t get in too much trouble.

The play pen is also great for other things too. As I said, we’ll take it to our friend’s homes and use it to corral him and any other dogs, sometimes we have even used it outside when our friend’s yard isn’t completely fenced. This particular style attaches great to the wire Top Paw kennel that we have. It also comes with stakes so you can use it outside. We haven’t tried that yet, but I imagine that you would still need to watch as I doubt the stakes are super sturdy.

We’ve really loved the play pen, and all the different uses. It’s pricey, but it will last us years, and so far has been totally worth the cost. If your pup is struggling with the kennel too, and I really think that some dogs just aren’t cut out for it, this is a great option. (if you have a safe space where your pup can’t get into anything nearby.) I will reiterate that you should have quite a bit of trust in your dog before doing a set up like this. If your dog is high anxiety, or tends to get really restless and try to escape, it wouldn’t be the best option.

Trusting your husky...

Trust can be a difficult thing for husky owners to have in their dogs. Huskies have a propensity to run if not safely confined or on a leash. They are smart, and therefore get bored easily. I read a book once that said “if you don’t give your Sibe a job, they will become self employed” usually they become home decorators, gardeners, or re-modelers, much to their owners dismay. Huskies are also anxiety prone, they can howl and woo for hours with no regard to nearby neighbors.

Lately we have been trying to trust D a bit more each week. Were diligent about not giving him opportunities to get in trouble, and he’s done fairly well with each chance we give him. The most recent Endeavor is letting him wander at night and sleep wherever he wants instead of kenneling him. He’s old enough now that he can make it through the night, and he understands our bedtime routines so he’ll relax when he knows were going to bed soon. Over all, he’s done fantastic! The first few nights, worrier that I am, I think I was subconsciously listening all night for noises that would indicate destruction, but he didn’t eat/destroy anything. Hurray!

We do have a problem in the evening sometimes though when we go out. I realized a few weekends ago when we took the fun bus to Wendover, that it would be his first time left alone over night. Well, lo and behold, he whined and howled until 2am (we left at 7pm). I feel terrible not only for our neighbors (let’s just say our cookie budget was high that week) but for Dalton too. I think this is something that we’re going to have to work on, but I can’t justify doing it at the expense of our neighbors sleep. Ideas? Anyone, anyone? No…. Me neither.

There are times when I think Dalton is going to do great, and he does, then there are times when he gets a wild hair up his ass, and drives me insane with the things he does.

Off leash training is another area we struggle with. We did some training with a 50’ lead for a long time, and he did really well until he hit adolescence. My worry is whether or not to keep working on it with the lead, or to cease and desist until he’s mellowed out a bit. I feel like this is going to be ongoing, and we may discover that he’ll always be an on-leash dog (I am talking hiking, memory grove, emigration canyon, not ‘round the neighborhood stuff.) I do have hope though; I’ve run into more people whose huskies do great off leash than people whose dogs don’t.

I wonder too if we will always have to confine him somehow so he doesn’t redecorate our apartment. When we moved into the last place, Nate got all new furniture for his “bachelor” pad. The last thing we want is to come home and have $4,000 worth of furniture destroyed. We’d really love to be able to let him have the whole living room when were gone, especially since he hates feeling “confined” (even though he has half the room already) but, I also can’t afford to replace all the furniture, and I don’t feel bad since he’s not actually hurting for space.

All in good time I suppose….

Sit, stay, don't eat that.

Training a dog to do anything can be a difficult process. Most owners will pick up a dog training book or two when they get a puppy/adopt a dog for the first time, and they usually do alright if they follow the tips and guidelines. The terrible part about most of these dog training books is that most of them were not written with training a husky in mind.

Training a husky is probably the most frustrating, grey hair inducing thing you can do besides maybe raising idiot children, or making your living being a crash test dummy. We bought a few husky specific books, and the one thing they all agreed upon was that we were fucked. One of them said that it would take 6 months before our dog could sit consistently; others said that you basically needed your home and yard to be Fort Knox so that your dog couldn’t escape, and others just told you to buy a bottle of scotch and hide in the basement. Okay, not really, but I wanted to. All in all, we were a little disheartened. We had bought this little guy, and were trying to prepare the best we could to bring him home and turn him into a happy, well-adjusted dog, and now we’re hearing that it’s basically impossible.

Both Nate and I were committed though, so we each took a substantial amount of time off from work, in fact, we took off more time than most fathers do for the birth of their children. Take that, dads!

Between the two of us, that dog had someone with him for over a month before we were both working again. And even then, Nate was able to swing half days so Dalton wasn’t locked in a kennel, holding his wee little bladder. I honestly would do it all again too. Dalton learned to sit in a few weeks, and we had him doing it consistently in about a month and a half. He knew how to lie down, and knew what stay meant. (still working on that one, all in good time….)

Even though we were able to spend all that time with him, we are still working on consistency. Especially now that we are entering into adolescence (that’s where puppies forget everything you taught them, and think of cool ways to make your life a living hell.) we have to work every day to get him to think doing what we want him to do is cool. I think we have spent more on treats the last 3 months than we have on groceries.

Our dog isn’t perfect, but he does listen most of the time. He hasn’t chewed anything expensive (yet), humped our neighbors leg (yet), killed a cat (yet), or run away (yet), so were taking the small victories.

                                               On his best behavior.