Temperament and Behavior {Texas Husky Breeder}

Husky Temperament: Friendly, affectionate, eager to please. Huskies are high energy and can be stubborn. Huskies love to dig and are known escape artists. Huskies are known to  have a high prey drive and should be watched around small animals. Huskies need mental and physical stimulation, including enrichment activities, frequent walks, biking, and hiking. Boredom can result in destructive behaviors. Huskies are pack animals and need pack camaraderie. Huskies can be strong willed, training can be a challenge but huskies are also known to be food driven which helps in training. Be prepared to devote time and effort to train and exercise your pet or else you can have one unmanageable Husky on your hands. Huskies need confident owners, structure, boundaries, and consistency.

I found the above on a couple husky pages.  It was very easy to find. I ask all puppy buyers to fill out a puppy application. One of the questions I ask is “have you researched the breed fully”.  This is because it is your responsibility as a buyer to know about the breed you are buying and to know their typical breed temperament. I also ask if you are prepared to train your puppy. I suggest all families attend puppy training classes. Especially if you are a first time husky owner. Puppies need training, and boundaries to establish acceptable behavior. You have to make it clear early on what behavior is acceptable and what is not. What is cute at 10 weeks is not what is cute at 10 months. If you have children do not leave your puppy alone with them, and please, please teach both puppy and child acceptable behavior and how to interact with each other.

If you pack around your puppy constantly, you are setting your puppy up for separation anxiety.  It will be difficult to crate train and it will whine, and howl and even destroy if left alone.  You need to teach your puppy that it’s OK to be alone, and that when you leave, you come back. Remember that your puppy is not a human baby it is a canine. And while it needs love, attention and affection it needs to be a dog. Often times a new puppy gets all the attention, everyone wants to have a turn and pack him round, unfortunately once that newness wears off and the attention declines, the puppy has a hard time adjusting. As hard as it might be, give your new puppy time to play alone, and learn to entertain himself. Enrichment activities, stuffed toys (kongs), etc are all easy ways to give your puppy things to do, while you busy yourself with other things. With that being said they also need pack time, if you don’t have other dogs, you are their pack and they need interaction and play time with you.  They need walks, they need to run, they need to be pet and cuddled. This is NOT a dog you can just ignore and leave alone in the yard. If you have other dogs, you need to know that husky play is rough play, It’s like watching football in my yard. They chase, tackle, pin, throat grab, tail pull, bump each other and roll each other. It can get vocal, and look scary.  But they are just playing. We do have to watch for signs of it getting out of hand, because sometimes it does happen.  If you have smaller dogs, teach your husky that they have to be easy and you may not be able to let them play at all if his need to play like a husky is strong.

*I do not have any huskies with bad temperaments. I would never own them, let alone breed them. I have children, and grandchildren and grand-puppies that come to play.

*I do have huskies with typical husky temperaments, for example birds and squirrels are chased out of the yard if they are not caught, and our chickens have their own yard away from the pack.  I have holes in my yard, we have had cords chewed, and damage to our walls.

*I do have some puppies with bad behaviors. For example, Zuko is a jumper, and several of my pack are counter surfers and trash diggers.

*I do socialization and enrichment activities with all our puppies starting at just a few days old. I would never, never, release a puppy that I thought was ill tempered.  It is very important that you continue socialization, and training to help establish good behavior and habits.

*I am not a professional trainer, but all of my dogs are taught basic obedience. This makes things easier especially when we have up to 8 in the house at a time.