Hiya everybody! My name is TJ, I’m 17 and our family recently added a new addition to our 6 member household He’s a 10 week old purebred (named Frost) and weighs 18.4 lbs. Just wondering if y’all could give me any husky advice/tips. Also I was wondering if he’s bigger than normal? A lot of ppl say he’s gonna grow up to be on the bigger side because of his paws. Thank u!

Welcome TJ, my only advice is so a lot of obedience work with him! He’s a very handsome pup!

Hes quite the looker. Is he your first dog or first husky?

Liv_Skye wrote:

Welcome TJ, my only advice is so a lot of obedience work with him! He’s a very handsome pup!

Most definitely! And thank u!

Lostmaniac wrote:

Hes quite the looker. Is he your first dog or first husky?

First dog!

Oh, TJ are you in for a lot of fun.  At least you don't have to unlearn the "but my other dogs never did this ..."  

Let's start with Huskies are intelligent, independent, smart, sometimes aloof; by all definitions, a Husky is "His own dog!"  If you haven't already take a look back at the history of the Husky and the Chukchi Indians of Siberia - and remember that with a few thousand years of history you've got it all setting in your little 18 pound wonder!

One thing I'll stress because you probably haven't seen it yet with the pup - Siberians are bred to run and at some point he'll decide that "he's a big dog now" and he'll run.  After the first time where he catches you off guard - and I pray that his first time isn't his last time - you'll find that there isn't a lot you can do to convince him to come back to you until he's ready. That's why you'll constantly see us recommending that you keep him on lead unless he's in a safe, secure enclosure.
Puppies tend to stick close to home, he'll come when you call and want lots of attention; when he gets older that almost always goes away, "Come here!" gets "Who me?" and he'll come for attention when he wants it, otherwise it's "Oh, what do you want?"  I said they're independent - with a passion.

As @Liv_Sky said, get him into a lot of obedience classes and work him up through Canine Good Citizen if you can (Huskies independence often precludes CGC) I have three, one of them will walk with me off lead (she's also getting older) the other two, who are about the same age are off for a run when they get the chance but I live in a place where that's not a normal problem.

Good luck and keep in touch!!

As @aljones said go and back and look at there history! Why they are so stubborn is because it’s bred into them, back when there was no technology and the Chunkchi people would come into new territory (they would move by mushing) they didn’t know where the lakes, cracks in the ice sheets etc where because they where covered by 10 feet of snow and couldn’t be seen by the human eye. But the dogs could sense these lakes and cracks, so they had to be stubborn enough to ignore there owners command to go straight say over a crack In the ice that When they pass over they will all fall to there death or ignore them and take them around said crack in the ice.
So this is where they stubbornness and independence comes from.
Also I’m not a fan of keeping dogs on leads all the time but as you are a new owner I completely would recommend you keeping him on a lead. For he’s own safety!

I have 1 thats ok off leash but even then i still dont 100% trust her. She will take off after other animals and if there are other dogs around it will be a dog fight. With the exception of a few places i even keep her leashed. I have several really long lines that give her 100ft when they are all connected.

Wow thank u guys for this really helpful information. I’ll definitely do some more deeper research on the history of them because it will probably be pretty beneficial later on. I’ll be keeping in touch!