Our daughter, son-in-law, and twin eight year old girls just got a young (approx. 5 months old) Husky from the local SPCA. They had a Husky that died about six months ago and decided to get another. The bundles of hair all over the house would have kept us from getting another, but we're not running the show.

So the new dog apparently had been mistreated and is afraid of everyone. She is not warming up to them at all yet. Don't know if she had received any training at all, and of course doesn't know her new name. Not the happy 'new dog' situation you would want, but again, it's not my show.

If you have any experience with Huskies and can offer any advice, I would appreciate it. I've thought about suggesting a professional trainer for the dog, but would a trainer scare the crap out of an already scared and reserved young dog?

So if you have any ideas, I would appreciate them and would pass them on to our daughter.

Thanks

Not a husky guy but have brought a few fearful rescues back from the brink. Extreme patience, calm, and positive reinforcement. You may have to sit with her for hours enticing with treats or food to gain trust. I had one guy years ago that I laid on the floor with overnight before he would even sniff food I had placed down. Took the rest of the day for him to eat it and a couple more days to take from my hand. The good thing is she's a young dog and should bounce back. She just needs to learn that all people don't hurt. Please offer my best wishes.

Create a nice cozy 'safe space' for her. An out-of-the-way corner, maybe with a cage for her to retreat into, and water handy. Bright cheerful, above all SOFT voices when approaching her. Try to avoid angry or frustrated noises whether they're directed at her or not. Keep offering the treats. But above all, just be patient and don't try to force anything to happen. She'll come around.

Oh, and BTW, pictures are mandatory.

quote:

Oh, and BTW, pictures are mandatory.

I would, but I haven't met the dog yet. It's way too early to bring us (wife and me) into the mix.

Thanks for the encouraging words.

I hate to be that guy, but after being a vet for 27 years and having rescued many dogs and assisted with others I would not have that dog around young children. The dog is savable may be taking multiple years but not around young children. In 6 months it'll be big enough to do serious damage.

Just one veterinarians opinion on one day.

ETA there are plenty of dogs that need good homes that will work with kids.

Tommy

Years ago I got a Lab like that, she was 2.5 years old. It was so bad, the wife thought we would have to get rid of her.

She was very frightful, even something like the refrigerator cycling on. At the sight of a pellet gun, she’d run home. That’s after not even firing a shot.

I started very slow, improvements was measured by months. The main thing was being close, gentle introduction, and tasty treats. I eventually took her grouse hunting, where she was excited and actually ran towards the shotgun blast.

At 5 months there’s a lot of time for acclimation. I’d go slow, make things fun, safe, and tasty.

Another vote for, sorry, returning the dog. If not, they need a good professional trainer who will come to 5heir home, who is experienced with fearful dogs.

Not a regular trainer to teach "Sit".

The whole family needs to learn how to work with the dog. The trainer needs to be in the home to make this possible.

I expect that this dog will always be a problem with strangers, which includes friends of the children. I don't think this is the right dog for this family.

Just lots of socialization and give it basic training with rewards.
The training, done correctly will go a long way towards establishing the social order in the house. Try to include the kids, if they're old enough to understand.

Look for a pet cbd that promotes calmness.

It just takes time.
Returning would be cruel and selfish, IMO.
Work with the dog and be patient, she's only 5 months old.
She more than every needs love and attention, don't give up.
Patience is a virtue as the saying goes, get help from a trainer if need be but be involved as much as you can.
Good Luck.

quote:

Originally posted by 220-9er:
Just lots of socialization and give it basic training with rewards.
The training, done correctly will go a long way towards establishing the social order in the house. Try to include the kids, if they're old enough to understand.

The other thing some basic training and rewards will do is help increase the pup's self-confidence. That, in turn, will also help alleviate the fear.

.

I've not encountered fear in a dog, but I've had lots of success following advice from this person's YouTube channel:



Direct Link: www.YouTube.com/watch?v=CviKswGbERU

.

“Shape training”, is what I called it when I adopted a 6 month old Plott hound that was about to be put down at the shelter due to fear and aggression.
I’ll be honest, I had no child, and if I did, I would not have gotten the dog. I would’ve let it go, but I had been working at the shelter off and on training young students with an interest in veterinary medicine, and I often saw her languishing, backing away from people, but wagging her tail.
And that’s a pretty scary mixed signal.

When I realized no one was actually working with the dog, and the shelter contacted me telling me they were going to put her down, I agreed to take her. It took many months/years of work. I brought her to training classes every week and no one handled her outside of myself and my husband for the first long while. She wasn’t mean, but she was terrified and she wasn’t afraid to stand up for herself if she thought someone was going to hurt her. Took me days/weeks to touch her without her cowering away, so I trained her using hand signals that we mutually agreed on (eg. I hold my hand up, she sits down. I say to myself, “OK this is what we use for “Sit down.” And add the verbal cue to it.)

I have to agree with horsedoc- you’ve chosen a breed that requires specialized attention and you have two little girls. I can’t say I would risk it - as a matter of fact, I had another small breed (unplaceable) rescue living in my house for a few years when my son was born. By the time he was a toddler I did end up putting her to sleep because of her aggression and my fear that he would be hurt (by that point I’d gone through all the options on medications that could control seizures, on what I could do to work on her aggressive behavior, all with limited or inconsistent results). I couldn’t place the dog because she was dangerously aggressive and had seizures that made her even more so. It’s not something I’m proud of or feel good about it all, but I was advised on every front (vets, family, rescue group) that it was the right thing to do. I’m still heartbroken every time I think of her, and I don’t wish that on anyone, but I also didn’t want my son attacked and have to live with that.
Your kids should not have to live with an every day of “be careful around so-and-so”. We did it for years with my Plott hound and while she was completely reliable with me, she became unreliable with my husband over a decade later, when she was getting on in years and decreased mental faculty. The same with the small breed rescue, but there we add the child in the mix. We just worked around them until they were so old that they forgot themselves and couldn’t be trusted. Obviously, for the plott there were other extenuating circumstances with her health, but it was just not fun all the way around.
I wish you the best- and I’ll just remind you, even if you try and separate the dog - kids find a way.
My last straw with my little rescue was my son crawling across the floor trying to take her food bowl away from her and her snarling, inches from his face. I missed it because I was on the phone with work. He had been sleeping in another room behind a childproof gate, and I thought we were all good.

OTOH, if you didn’t have kids, I’d say go for it.

Not a dog story, but cat: I adopted a cat from a local rescue that was terrified and completely unsocialized. He hid for three weeks before finally warily watching me from a distance. I knew he would be a good housecat because he took quickly to sneaking into the litterbox while I slept. I began progress with him when he finally accepted a treat I tossed to him. I have now had him for five years. He trusts only me and will flee immediately if anyone visits me or even pulls into the driveway. I considered taking him back to the rescue (they lied about his fear level) but decided to try to turn him around.
I did not know his story before I got to him and the Husky story is not known either. It just takes patience, a slow pace of introduction, lots of treats! Good luck!

Smschulz and others I respect your opinions. You and another member saved my server probably 10 years ago. But if you want have ever felt the guilt of having a young child bitten badly you might feel different.

Tommy

ETA the kids are what makes my opinion on this matter.

We had an Akita pup (4 mos. old) we bought from a private source that eventually had to be put down due to fear aggression.

We had four children in the home, two of whom were 10 & 11, had the dog for several months, hoping it would socialize positively. We'd have her in her crate and she had a couple episodes where she growled at the kids (when out of the crate), we then only allowed my wife or I to handle her which in time the dog growled at my wife.

After that I was the only one handling her. Breeder was no help at all, we did contact them. After consulting with the vet we had her put down. While heart-breaking to do we couldn't accept the risk of the harm she could do to our kids or my wife. We had tried to place her back with the breeder originally.

My daughter was a little tiny thing when we got our K-9 Lex before moving out to the ranch. He was an awesome dog, specifically picked out by the trainer to be able to do the canine stuff and still be good with a family. It was still a process getting him introduced and settled in with our family.

Our Queensland Heeler was a one year old rescue from the pound who had obviously been abused. He took six months to warm up to my son and needed a tremendous amount of patience. He took years to warm up to others. Eight years later he is still very sensitive.

I have no direct Husky experience, but I’ve learned second hand that they can be strong willed and they do have the capacity to do damage.

While the idea of providing a loving home and “saving” the dog, teaching it that it can be safe and happy with us would be really attractive, I don’t see how I could square that with my responsibility to protect, nurture, and teach my children.

I am generally completely without respect for those who take on a pet and don’t keep it for life, but in this case it would be the prudent thing to do.

If they are dead set on keeping the dog, lots of love and patience, a solid strategy to keep the kids safe, lots of help from an excellent trainer to keep the dog learning, active, and engaged. Just be aware that if things go bad, they can go very, very bad.

I think you have two choices; either return the dog, or get a highly recommended professional trainer.

There is a distinct risk to the children here that can not be ignored.

Some trainers will take a dog for a couple of months and build the foundation you need so that it is ready to be introduced to your family, rather than leaving the dog in the home.

Neither of these training scenarios are cheap, but the likelihood of success is much higher than doing it yourself.

I had a rescue dog bite my 14 y.o. son. His thumb has some permanent scarring from the bite and subsequent serious infection. The only person in the house that the dog had any respect for was me, and I think that was because, while I never struck or abused the dog, he seemed to know I wasn't to be fucked with.

The dog was returned to the no-kill shelter where he cam from the same afternoon he bit my son.

Your kids are in a terrible emotional place. It's incredibly hard, but I hope they make the right choice.

quote:

Originally posted by horsedoc:
Smschulz and others I respect your opinions. You and another member saved my server probably 10 years ago. But if you want have ever felt the guilt of having a young child bitten badly you might feel different.

Tommy

ETA the kids are what makes my opinion on this matter.

I understand your emotional response but based on the limited information the OP has, I am unaware of an aggressive destructive and dangerous behavior.
It would have been something to consider at the start.
Again, sorry for your situation but I am not aware this is the case.
It can take time to acclimate, our rescues were timid too for a while then warmed up to be wonderful additions to the family.
One should deploy common sense in varying scenarios so the options could be different.

Felt I had to jump back in. A lot of negatives here. There is zero mention of aggression or fear aggression in the OP. This may be nothing more than an age-related or new surroundings fear stage. There may even have been a learned fear reaction from abuse, but, fear reaction, in this young a dog, does not automatically equal aggression. Since zero aggression is mentioned, why jump to that conclusion. Calm, patient interaction to develop trust. Screaming 8-year-olds won't work but if they can understand to be calm around the dog, they may darn well be her best therapy.

Now, if there are signs of aggression, throw everything I said, here and above, in the trash and make a decision to protect the kids.

^^^^^^^^
ETA...ha, typing while you were.