Mine was off leash for 9 hours and 7.6 miles yesterday.

I once read about a guy that obiously had a well trained Husky, off leash was no problem for four years, but one day the dog ran away and he found the dog one day later DEAD in a canyon.
Would you still say it is just a matter of training?

Well, I doubt you'll find people who will summarize the entire life of their successfully off leash huskies on an internet forum. Most of what's out there are the horror stories. I will never give advice on training or how I've developed the relationship with my dogs. Mainly because I personally don't think most folks can keep up the neurotic constantly changing training involved with sled dogs. I do what I do and everyone else should leash up.

One time I read about an entire family in a sports utility vehicle that was killed by a girder falling from an under-construction bridge. I still drive under that bridge. That's how I see this never ending, always multi-paged husky topic.

Saying you can train any dog let alone a husky with 100% chance of not running away or misbehaving sounds as brilliant as saying you can raise a child 100% without misbehaving.

As soon as you take your dog off leash in an unfenced area, you are risking your dogs life, plain and simple in any of the million things that could possibly happen.

Though I not a believer in free running Huskies, I think you would have a better chance of success training a 100% recall Husky then a 100% obedient child.

I'm sure Ed has put a lot more effort into his dogs training then most others. He also obviously has the "touch" which makes me envious.

I haven't read any stories online about sticking forks in electrical sockets and getting knocked on their ass for such a silly thing. But I did it once when I was a lil dumb SOB, but got over the fear and use electricity everyday.

I still think its a matter of training. I think a lot of people use the breed defense as an excuse for bad behavior and lazy inconsistent training. A Siberian Husky is still a dog.

If you buy into the belief that a Husky can never be off leash then YOUR Husky can never be off leash. Same as any other dog.

paleobones wrote:

I still think its a matter of training. I think a lot of people use the breed defense as an excuse for bad behavior and lazy inconsistent training. A Siberian Husky is still a dog.

If you buy into the belief that a Husky can never be off leash then YOUR Husky can never be off leash. Same as any other dog.

So why get a siberian husky if you want an off-leash dog. Say I buy into your argument that it's training and with the magical amount of effort and consistency you could train your husky to be off-leash. You can't refute that it's in a husky's instinctive nature to a) run b) chase small animals (ie- prey drive) and c) be independent thinking. Why on earth would you choose a breed that you have to work THAT hard with to get him to be trustworthy off-leash? Why not get a German Shepherd or another breed that has more of an instinctive nature to stick to his human?

I still think that telling people that training a dog to disobey its instinctive nature is irresponsible and in effect, naive.

First of all most other breeds won't have the endurance/stamina of a husky or sled dog. Second, you just listed the biggest problems most people have with huskies. If 'a', 'b' and 'c' are such common factors in husky behavior, you can plan for it and train accordingly.

I don't go around letting my dogs off leash no holds barred, but reinforcement is reinforcement.

You can't train "independent thinking" out of any animal though. That'd be like taking away someone's free will.

Don't get me wrong... I agree that you can train your dog to have great recall and with the right training and consistency you can create a dog with near perfect recall.. but that doesn't mean that you can train a husky to be 100% trustworthy offleash.

First off- it's a living breathing animal with a mind of its own. You can't train ANY independently thinking creature to be 100% trustworthy... even humans Second, while I agree that you can account for all those things when training... the point still stands... WHY? Why work so hard to train against your dog's natural instincts? What was your reasoning behind choosing that breed of dog then? If you want an off-leash dog... don't get a husky. That's just the plain and simple truth.

Well I personally never chose a husky. He was left here and had to adapt to what I wanted of him. It really isn't going beyond some force field of breed with training. What breed CAN be trained to 100% recall? Is 100% a realistic expectation with any breed? If not, how do you plan for the unexpected within the breed you have on hand? It happens. Be ready. If you're not, leash up.

Well, I was never really talking about or to you Eddy I know you didn't choose the husky.

It's just not as simple as so many people come here and claim that it is... and even those who admit it's difficulty still really don't get it.

It's the people who come on here with the attitude that they have a perfectly trained husky. How it wasn't that hard. How they don't get why people say huskies are not off-leash dogs, etc. THOSE people are the ones who will never get it.

What's more, is it's not that most people are lazy or won't put in the time. It's that many people have put in the time, effort and consistency, and they have STILL ended up with dead or lost huskies. Because of those people, it never really seems like it's worth the effort of admitting or claiming that an off-leash husky is possible.

I was just thinking about this thread all day yesterday. I'm proud of my stupid sled dog and think that sometimes these threads go too far one way in a sort of blanket statement with an exception clause. Not that I expect the average Googler to net the same results as I. It has after all taken me about five years to get here. In this thread's case it's most likely a honeymoon thing and great care should be taken.

Now what thread am I going to keep troll bumping?

I had a neighbor tell me today that he has NEVER seen a better behaved husky than mine. He seldom pulls, he disengages prey drive with a simple "Leave it" (which I didn't even train), he'll drop things at "drop it" which I didn't train. I can point at an open doorway and say "Crate" and he will walk downstairs, get into his crate, and remain there until I tell him to come out even if I leave the door open. Compared to his brother, Kid Destructo the Six-Six-Sixth Coming, he's a bloody saint. When my former roommate came to get his stuff, he left the door wide open and Fenrir just sat there and watched. Didn't rush out the door or anything.

But after about 20 minutes? He got curious. He padded his way outside. I came downstairs in time to see him narrowly avoid getting hit by an oncoming car and I flipped the ever loving shit out on my former roommate. Yes, he is well-behaved. No, he will not typically do anything I don't want him to do. Hell, unless he's chasing something, I can usually recall him from almost 50 yards away and he's a freaking puppy. That doesn't mean there won't be that one time, like that time, where he hits his obedience treshold. Is it very high? Yes. But it's there. When we leave, he is on a leash, end of story.

I still enjoy this thread for one reason. It's a battle between people who have such different backgrounds, that there is no hope of reconciliation. I do think it's silly to insist every husky be on a leash 100% of the time. Every dog is different blah blah blah.

But I also find these "badass" posters pretty funny/sad in pointing out how awesome their dog is because it was off leash on some epic extreme hike and he's never had a problem. So what?

The whole crux of this issue is based on a fallacy of logic. The posters who have a husky that exists solely off-leash automatically assume that this is possible only because or their amazing training skills and unique method that just works for them. That's idiotic because it's not based on a big enough sample size to have any chance of being trustworthy. The same could be said for the people who say ALL huskies will run away if not on a leash.

The only thing to go by that approaches being scientific, would be the fact that since both claims are weighted equally in their potential to be true or false, we should go by the number of claims one way or the other. Since the number of posts and/or replies stating that (based on personal experience) huskies usually can't be trusted off-leash is probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 to 1 against the opposite, I think we can safely assume that for approximately every 1 husky that is reported as fine off-leash, 10 are not.

As I said before, if you have that 1, then that's terrific. But why are you bragging about it and claiming it has anything to do with your training? Get 10 huskies from 10 different litters/sources, have them ALL be able to be off-leash without running away or chasing things or getting hurt, and then I'll believe you. Until then, because you walk around in the woods far away from most dangers, and you have "A" husky that is fine off-leash, I'm not impressed. And credit should go to the dog.

This argument can be exemplified by Siegfried & Roy. Tigers are pretty dangerous animals. But you can always find a couple idiots who claim "Look at me! I tamed this creature and through our special bond and my unique training we have broken it of its natural habits!" All you need to do to see the proof of that being wrong...is wait long enough.

You know... cavemen used to think dinosaurs were good off leash. Then, what'd they do? They went and got hit by a meteorite! Just think of that the next time you let your dog off leash!

Okay, I know that that statement has more than one thing wrong with it, but won't someone please think of the velociraptors?

Tccgold wrote:

You know... cavemen used to think dinosaurs were good off leash. Then, what'd they do? They went and got hit by a meteorite! Just think of that the next time you let your dog off leash!

Okay, I know that that statement has more than one thing wrong with it, but won't someone please think of the velociraptors?

Which velociraptors? The mini t-rex raptors from Jurassic Park or the bird-like ones from actual science textbooks?

Yes.

Give me 10 huskies and I'll accept your challenge. Lord knows I won't go out of my way to obtain them. I'm pretty certain training is part of the equation. Mostly because this particular Husky HAS been a typical husky with his previous owners. Last time I checked, they are still dogs.

And I happen to in fact be a "badass", sir. As far as I'm concerned I have plenty room to brag about my dogs. There was more than one Husky too. Malamutes don't count.

There also needs to be some sort of differentiation of these terms. A dog bolting out an open door doesn't qualify as an "off leash" incident in my mind. Nor does escaping the yard. Off leash to me means a planned event not some accident. I'll admit I haven't read even 1/4th of this thing, but I don't think we are talking about walking around town with a loose dog. Are we?

I think walking around town with a loose dog counts as off-leash Actually I think in some ways it's harder than on a hike because if the dog knows the neighbourhood, it will be more confident and also will know where to go find interesting things ... mosey off to see some other dog or to find the neighbour who always feeds it biscuits or whatever ...

If I had an area I could go hiking in a place far away from roads and people. I would probably let both my husky and GSD of their leash. My GSD has a good recall and my husky follows him.
But to go walking around in my neighborhood heck no.
One time several months ago my stupid neighbor let my dogs out of the yard. I was like oh no Thor is going to be hell to catch. My hubby jumped in the car caught up with them open the door and they both jumped in.

harrise wrote:

Give me 10 huskies and I'll accept your challenge. Lord knows I won't go out of my way to obtain them. I'm pretty certain training is part of the equation. Mostly because this particular Husky HAS been a typical husky with his previous owners. Last time I checked, they are still dogs.

And I happen to in fact be a "badass", sir. As far as I'm concerned I have plenty room to brag about my dogs. There was more than one Husky too. Malamutes don't count.

There also needs to be some sort of differentiation of these terms. A dog bolting out an open door doesn't qualify as an "off leash" incident in my mind. Nor does escaping the yard. Off leash to me means a planned event not some accident. I'll admit I haven't read even 1/4th of this thing, but I don't think we are talking about walking around town with a loose dog. Are we?

I got the impression that the conversation spanned from "walking around town" to extracurriculars. My point wasn't necessarily that, though, it was that regardless of how well-behaved my dog is (and not because I trained him, because I'm new to this -- he's just got a fortunate temperament) there is still the strong possibility of something going awry.

However, I am quite certain that huskies weren't always kept leashed when they were being bred back in their tribal days, and I'm even more certain that they wouldn't have persisted as a breed as much as they have should they not have the capacity to be trained to exist off-leash. If modern technology has trouble containing these monsters, I can't imagine the Chuchkis(sp?) weren't faced with the Houdini acts constantly.

massak wrote:

Go on hikes or excursions with other people who have dogs that are good off-lead.

This is the part I remembered. Re-reading the OP makes it sound like dude IS going everywhere off leash. That's his deal. Unless he's in Boulder I have no clue of any municipality that allows off leash dog walking. Breaking laws is a whole different topic. That's part of why we avoid designated wilderness areas.

This topic makes me smile.

Our pup (he's a mal, not a husky) is getting better and better with off-leash tests. We work with him on it, and he's been let off leash on a few outdoor adventures and around the neighborhood. He does pretty good, but we're working on better. It's those times that he completely tunes out the world that keep him on a leash 99% of the time. Our last hike he was almost off-leash, then a bunch of deer ran by. If he hadn't been on a leash I don't think we'd have him anymore. He was doing anything he could to go after them, even when they were well out of our sight behind a mountain. I suppose that's my fault for not having a way to redirect his prey-drive when something that high-value runs by, or maybe it's his young age. We'll see over time, but for now, he stays on leash almost all the time. It's not worth the risk, even though he is perfect almost every time.

Edit to add:
I would say it's inaccurate to think that the original Huskies were leashed at all times. It's also hard to compare the current Siberian Husky to the originals on all respects. I doubt the natives were concerned with conformation and "points", but wanted a well tempermented working dog. Look at historic photos and you will see Siberians that look little like todays show-dogs...

(look up photos of Sepalla with Togo, Togo is rarely leashed and doesn't seem to be running away and he's a bonafide sled dog if there ever was one)

i see no roads.....



BUT, we did start out hooked up for a good few miles till we were out of the woods