Introducing dogs... WHAT FUN!

so our 17 year old Siberian realized before we did that his time was up and he wandered off to find his final spot to nap.

gave it some time and we decided to get another dog so our staffy doesnt get to depressed (we might have waited to long).

Finally saw at the pound an 11 month old siberian, very similar to the one we lost except lankier.

She is a sweet girl wants to please, food driven and of course 11 month old siberian husky level of energy.

Turns out the staffy isnt a pack animal first few days we were learning that her growl is just her voice even when playing.

today the husky decided to challenge her for her spot in the pack, caught me off guard and I broke rule number 1 got my hands into the mess at the wrong spot staffy bit down with her chompers on that first knuckle of the thumb. Nothing broken skin didnt break and as soon as my voice changed in reaction she stopped and calmed down. Not her fault, my own dumb arsed fault for separating them poorly.

Turns out the husky pounce when they are playing the staffy sees as an imminent threat, this is going to be a very long break in period for those two and we still need to get her used to the cats as well.

Funny thing she might accept the cats before the staffy accepts her, twice now she has met one of our cats and went nose to nose and her tail just wagged as she tried to figure out what that was.

We wont quit she came home she is home I wont damage her by sending her away, but man I am out of practice when it comes to introducing animals.

We're some six months into having a dog, and the last of three cats is starting to accept it.

The dog, however, doesn't understand the cats at all, and when they "play" she freaks out and sends my wife into an anxiety spiral.

it is pretty funny seeing the cat slap the dog right in the face though. Nosey bitch.
I don't like the dog, for the record.

a reply to: Irishhaf

but man I am out of practice when it comes to introducing animals.

It takes time and the patience of Job.

I feel for you!!!

We lost our older cur mix earlier this year. Got a new pup to keep our older dog company. Currently 2 months into training the new pup - it is so much harder than I remembered. Fortunately the 2 dogs get along…the pup is just a little terror.

reply to: Irishhaf

The dog whisperer dude Cesar had a great technique he used.
You never bring dogs together to meet, especially face to face. Have them meet walking with 2 people in the same direction next to each other, getting closer and closer, preferably after both dogs are gassed-out from running.
It is crazy how well it works.
Having said that, there is something I've noticed training dogs with the husky type breeds, they don't get along with other breeds for some reason. I'm guessing here, but think it has more of the OG pack animal behavior, more so than most domesticated animals.
I've worked more with hunting dogs and guard dogs, but I had a wolf husky mix once. It was a menace lol.
Very high energy.
Good luck, try that parallel intro on exhausted dogs technique, he had some mean dogs being friendly fast.

a reply to: Irishhaf

Thank you for adopting !!
Cesar Millan's methods are tried & true. Introducing animals isn't as hard as people make it. (present company excepted)
You're body language is everything. If you're the boss critters don't need to attempt to take charge.

And then there are the other ones, as you described your Staffy not getting the memo he/she is a pack animal. That calls for recognizing he/she is gonna act like a 3yr old, expect it, nip it quickly. No yelling, no drama, just blocking. Treat them identically & remain consistent. Have your own special routine with each of them but at seperate times of day. That way they don't have to compete for your attention ever.

BTW Cesar Milan's methods work on kids, co-workers, Boss's, strangers. It's wild!

a reply to: Caver78

First thing I noticed about the staffy, she is that obnoxious controlling older sister, I think in part because she had become the protector of our old Siberian as he slid into old age.

She keeps trying to herd the young pup, and stop it from well-being a noisy siberian. (our old guy was extremely quiet his entire life)

We wont quit, just got to work on that consistency, Kia is a very smart girl ask her where her racoon stuffed animal is and she will go get it and bring it to me.

a reply to: Irishhaf

I have four Siberians. They each have their own unique personality.

Maxx the Dad, is the most vocal. He is loving and very generous to his son Goliath, and his daughter Tamar. Goliath and Tamar have the best recall, but it is not an instant recall.

Tamar's natural voice sounds like a growl and is intimating.

Bellah the Mom, is very quiet, until she is not, which is rare.

I have 3 Huskicats. All my animals are rescues. And they recognize each other as members of the same pack.

Bellah and Maxx are AKC registered purebreds rescues from a breeder. She had to let them go because she had to go to a shelter for protection from domestic violence.

I am extremely cautious with other dogs when it comes to play. When others ask if their dogs can play with mine, my first question is always, "Have you ever seen Huskies play'?

Because it is not for the faint of heart. And some dogs do not react well to Husky play.

The only problem I have is that my newest rescue Nebuchadnezzar is tiny. He is only eight pounds and sassy as all get out. He is not likely to get much bigger but he gives the members of his pack a run for their money. He thinks he is as big as the rest with a true Napoleon complex. So far the pack is gentle with him and let's him think he's the man.

Sylvester and Enoch are brothers from the same litter, and mamma was a Maine Coon mix. So they are huge and weigh 22 lbs and 25 pounds.

Just give it a little time and a lot of supervision, your Staffy, since he is used to being with another dog, will likely come around.

Wishing you luck.

If hate had a name it would be "powder" at a door.

jsyk im not a dog guy

a reply to: Irishhaf

I recall you mentioning you went on the ridge looking for your Siberian. I take it you never found him ?

Cheers

Our cane corso is six months old and just going into heat for the first time.

we bought these diaper cover ups for her, and it's quite hilarious, the running joke right now is she looks like she's getting ready for the sports illustrated swimsuit edition!

a reply to: F2d5thCavv2

Nope, it was his time and he knew it before we were willing to admit it.

His breathing had gotten labored getting up was hard for him and he was losing weight.

I hope and pray he found a nice thicket and was able to pass quietly before a predator found him.

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

Yea we had our first knockdown drag out fight, as in the staffy punctured the skin on the husky, so for now they go outside at seperate times when we leave husky gets crated in a room till we can work through this.

originally posted by: Irishhaf
a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

Yea we had our first knockdown drag out fight, as in the staffy punctured the skin on the husky, so for now they go outside at seperate times when we leave husky gets crated in a room till we can work through this.

Time and patience.

Watch out for the jealousy thing. All seven of my animals are jealous of anything and everything that makes my attention.

Two things that are cut in stone, and they know it.

No food aggression is allowed.

If one of the dogs or the cats walk over to another's bowl they either share, or they let "me" know someone is not playing by the rules.

No unprovoked aggression among the family.

Play, can be scary, but you can tell the difference between play and aggression if you ever see it. In fact you can tell when aggression has entered the room, before any one of them moves or makes a sound. You just have to make sure that regardless to where one of them thinks they fit in rank, that none of them ever think they out rank you.

I have only struck one of my dogs, Bellah, and it was with a soft foam bat, and you would have thought that it was a mace.

She was torn between the rules and her prey drive. She figured it out.

Some dogs are easy to train, some are ridiculously rebellious, like my Tamar. She was born a hellion, a true spawn of Satan. To be honest I think most of the others learned vicariously through my fights with Tamar.

Because Tamar is super smart, and has learned when she can't win. But that does not stop her from letting me know she isn't happy with the rule, or she just wants to push my buttons.

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

Yea they seem to have reached a peace deal of sorts for the moment, she bit the staffys tail that had been damaged in the past and it was on. staffy bull rushed her got her by the throat and flipped her onto her back, first time Ive ever been really concerned about a doggy disagreement.

After having slept on it I think staffy just asserted her place in the pack and the puncture was more accident than intentional, cause it took a hot minute to seperate them there was more than enough time to do permanent damage.

Going to continue our separation plan unless they are directly supervised, good sign this morning they are curled up on the couch next to each other with no more than an annoyed grumble from the staffy.

Husky goes in her crate locked in a room before I take the kid to school and head to work myself.

originally posted by: Irishhaf
a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

Yea they seem to have reached a peace deal of sorts for the moment, she bit the staffys tail that had been damaged in the past and it was on. staffy bull rushed her got her by the throat and flipped her onto her back, first time Ive ever been really concerned about a doggy disagreement.

After having slept on it I think staffy just asserted her place in the pack and the puncture was more accident than intentional, cause it took a hot minute to seperate them there was more than enough time to do permanent damage.

Going to continue our separation plan unless they are directly supervised, good sign this morning they are curled up on the couch next to each other with no more than an annoyed grumble from the staffy.

Husky goes in her crate locked in a room before I take the kid to school and head to work myself.

My Huskies love their crates. I have to make them get out of them and go outside.

Their crates are their "rooms" when all is well. They are their "crates" when they have done something wrong.

When I say, "Go to your room", they run happily to their room.

When I say, "Get in your crate", they sulk and walk slowly into their crates.

Same space, big difference.

Even at the best of times, there may be a butting of heads and a time, when there is a disagreement.

You will get to learn their moods and their signs. I am an old lady so I don't have the strength to be dealing with a bunch of pigheaded dogs, and I hate yelling, so I have taught them signs, and they actually seem to listen better when I use the signs and don't say a word.

I think that is because my non verbal commands and projections are easier for them to pick up on and to understand.

Things sound like they are going well. Time and patience will win out

a reply to: Irishhaf


Sorry to hear about your old dog ,but glad you got a rescue like i did .

I had a incident with a young female husky late last year , it jumped the fence 2 doors from me and grabbed my mothers old j Russel round the neck it took me and it's owner pulling it's jaws open with everything we had , I was really shocked it never killed as they have stupid strong jaws .

I had a friend who had 20 + stone rottweilers and I have never come across a dog that scared me till recently , which is a bully xl and a big bully xl .

I was walking through the park with my old collie , who strangely enough was on a lead and I came across this monster , it wanted to eat both of us and easily would have his shoulders were solid muscle and his jaw was stupidly huge , my hand outstretched from tip of thumb to tip of index finger is 9 inches and would not have touched the sides it was that big .

I take it his mad funkie owner is giving him roids, it was on its back legs pulling the twat of a owner trying to get to us and still was going crazy when we were 50 foot past him .

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

So far she associates with the crate pretty well we feed her in it and give her treats in it once we work on tricks, trying to build good memories in it. She still got out of it but after trying and failing to open the windows she curled up on the bed and went to sleep.

That was one nice thing about our old Husky, he hated loud noises new years in germany was a nightmare for him, id spend the night on the floor with him shivering under my legs.

But we also taught him to do all his tricks (when he was of a mind to cooperate) with hand signals.

a reply to: stonerwilliam

Thats the funny thing, everyone freaks out when they see the staffordshire terrier. Siberian huskies have a much stronger bite force than the staffy.

Havent crossed paths with the XL bullies, they seem like something you have to be a good dog trainer to handle.

I know at this point this Ki is going to be the last large dog I own unless we rescue an older dog that is more settled.

a reply to: Irishhaf

There are 4 huskies in my area I meet out walking with my border collie and they are all well behaved and get on great with my dog but avoid those bully xl dogs if you come across them .

There is hardly a day goes by without the news carrying a story of a attack or a death from them but they all look small dogs in the pictures and videos.

The government has now banned them so the rescue centres are getting over run with the breed , the monster I came across was far bigger than a labrador or border collie especially across the shoulders and should have been muzzled and it was dragging the dude sideways to get at us and would have bitten both of us in half without thinking.

I pity your wife with the hair that comes out of husky and collie breeds as they are double coated , miss a few days housework and I have tumble weed dog hair everywhere