Owning a pet Husky.

If you are thinking about adopting or buying a husky or already have one this is the info letter for you...

Most of us know that huskies are rather independent and that they do not bond easily with his "owner". I say this because no husky is owned by a human. Bonding with a husky takes time and patience. It's a relationship that at first feels like it's only coming from the humans side. But the truth is that a husky is just looking through it at all the angles and he thinks for himself and doesn't just except things like they seem to be.

A husky of any breed, weather Alaskan, Malamute or Siberian are very honest dogs. What you see in their body language is true. So if you can read what he is telling you, bonding with this dog could be a little less time consuming.

Owning a Husky is hard work, its more dog than almost any other breed. There are always exceptions to this, but most of the time this is true. A Husky is not your typical family dog.

But...

What do they love more then anything else?

Well that's easy. MUSHING!

So if you are thinking of owning a Husky or have one that seem to Re-decorate your garden he is saying to you I need more exercise.

Not all, but most of the problems we encounter with Huskies is because we do not provide enough exercise for them. A Husky at average would prefer to run about 50km per day. There is no way that we can provide them with this kind of millage each day. So the closest we can come to that is through mushing. Then they need to run less, because they are working in the process by pulling you on your cart. This is what they are bred to do. They are working dogs. They need a job to feel satisfied.

So if you are looking for a dog to lie around on the couch or in the back yard looking pretty, then this is not the dog for you.

Huskies are not made for our South African climate as they can not work in temp. Higher than 15'C. They thrive in temps lower then 0'C. So how do we keep them cool enough? With lots of shade, water, air conditioning and visits to the beach.

What do we look for when adopting/buying a Husky?

Well, please do not support "back yard" breeders. Unfortunately Alaskan Huskies is not a registered breed as they are bred for speed and endurance and the Siberian is bred mostly for his looks. In Alaska most mushers own Alaskan huskies, so you will be able to find a non registered breeder with out having to support a back yard breeder. Real mushers over there know the whole linage of their pup’s way back. As where here if you don't support a registered breeder it's most of the time a "back yard" breeder.

Adopting a dog is helping to solve the ever so big problem. Huskies are one of the most frequent breeds up for adoption or on death role because of their excentric characteristics. It's a cute cuddly puppy that grows up to be more dog then what was expected. Thousands of Huskies get put down each year due to abandonment and neglect.

Why do we spay and neuter our dogs? Well we can't add to the problem. This is so with any dog breed. There are about 80 000 dogs being put down each year. And by breeding more it just adds to the problem. Even if we find good homes for the once we breed, how many of those would be used for breeding again and again and their litter etc. Somewhere some of those pups will end up at shelters. So it's a never ending cycle.

What can you do to prevent your dog from escaping the yard? Apart from physical and mental stimulation, microchip your dog, make sure he is wearing a secure collar and name tag. Make the collar tight enough as they easily slip out of it and when hit by a car it tends to fly off.

Make sure that your dog can not jump the fence and that he is not able to dig underneath the fence. Also ensure that you have a double gate so that when entering the yard that your dog can not come into the front by the street.

Last but not least, Huskies rarely bark but some of them can really howl up a storm and anti bark collars or de-barking your Husky is not the answer. This is the way they communicate and we need to figure out what they are trying to say to us.

There is lots of more info about Northern breeds on dog-care-centre.com. Please visit the site and click on "winter dogs".

For any more information about the breed please feel free to contact me by clicking on the reply button of this e-zine. Also I would like for you to comment on my news letter, if you have any topics that you would like to know more about please let me know.

Also if you are interested in adopting a husky please click on the reply button of this e-zine.

Louise and her dogs.