Our female dog (on the right) is a mix of Siberian Husky and German Shepherd. She should be 65 pounds, max, as a optimal weight. During the past three years, we've had to measure her food to limit her weight, since she got up to 85 pounds. At her shoulder, she stands comes to our knee. We are lucky, as our husky/shepherd mix can eat virtually any dog or human food without problem - unlike the husky who has trouble with any dry kibble containing ground corn (he gets loose, watery stools - yuck!).
On dog training, my husband is the wizard. Make sure the dog knows its name - you could start out by giving love when your dog looks at you when you say his name. Love and very small treat (like a piece of a puppy biscuit) are good rewards.
Always start a command with the dog's name so he knows you are talking to him. We also train with hand signals along with the word (and keep the word / words simple!). For instance, hold your first two fingers up with your right hand while you say, "Rover, sit!" I think you'll find the dog looking at your hand as well as listening. It's gotten so we can just say the dog's name then make the hand signal and get obedience. Always reward (happy words, a pat on the head or back) the obedience. Anger with disobedience does not work. You'll just make the dog scared of you. Oh - and don't expect a husky to come when you want it to - so be careful not to let the dog wander off of a leash until you know he will come when called.
Make sure that everyone in your household uses the same commands and signals, too, for consistency. Just think what a child would think if mom said, "Come here" when she wanted the child to come near, but dad said, "Cum'er, cum'er, little guy" for the same thing. The child might figure it out - or not.
Something else, depending on which traits a mixed dog inherits from either breed, he might be more like one breed than the other. In many ways, I think the shepherd is dominate in our mixed breed dog. The tail curl and friendliness is all husky, but the intelligence and food tolerance (for instance) are shepherd.
More thoughts later!
On dog training, my husband is the wizard. Make sure the dog knows its name - you could start out by giving love when your dog looks at you when you say his name. Love and very small treat (like a piece of a puppy biscuit) are good rewards.
Always start a command with the dog's name so he knows you are talking to him. We also train with hand signals along with the word (and keep the word / words simple!). For instance, hold your first two fingers up with your right hand while you say, "Rover, sit!" I think you'll find the dog looking at your hand as well as listening. It's gotten so we can just say the dog's name then make the hand signal and get obedience. Always reward (happy words, a pat on the head or back) the obedience. Anger with disobedience does not work. You'll just make the dog scared of you. Oh - and don't expect a husky to come when you want it to - so be careful not to let the dog wander off of a leash until you know he will come when called.
Make sure that everyone in your household uses the same commands and signals, too, for consistency. Just think what a child would think if mom said, "Come here" when she wanted the child to come near, but dad said, "Cum'er, cum'er, little guy" for the same thing. The child might figure it out - or not.
Something else, depending on which traits a mixed dog inherits from either breed, he might be more like one breed than the other. In many ways, I think the shepherd is dominate in our mixed breed dog. The tail curl and friendliness is all husky, but the intelligence and food tolerance (for instance) are shepherd.
More thoughts later!
2 comments:
Cute puppy, My husky however is very intelligent and can eat any food he wants and is fine too. My husky is so smart he has figured out how to move the chairs in front of the patio wall to then get up on the chair and jump the fence. He is trained to listen on command and i almost never have a leash on him. So you can not know how much of your dog is really steming from the husky breed ;P
Wow, the Husky/Shepherd dog on the right in the picture looks EXACTLY like mine! very freaky!
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