Taz joined our pack 4 months ago, after my son found him running along the street at night with no tags. After posting his photo on our local lost pets page, we learned that he’d been adopted from the local shelter earlier that day (not surprising, he’d come there as a stray). The adopters finally called me 5 days later, and told me that they had decided to return him to the shelter, as he was “too much” for them. They’d put him on their back patio his first night home (after he’d destroyed the metal crate they’d tried to put him in!), and he obviously jumped the fence and took off.
We offered to keep him, and he is a total sweetheart who loves nothing more than belly rubs and zooming around the back yard. However, I am hoping to gleam some knowledge from more experienced “husky parents”. He likes to play very rough, and my 9 yr old GSD mixes get quite defensive when he tries to jump them or puts one of his ginormous paws on them to initiate play. Any advice is appreciated.

Well, I'm trying to not laugh!  Welcome to the Husky world and to the world of "Husky play!"
Huskies only know one way to live life and that's 'full speed ahead!'  Which means when they play they play rough - If you didn't know them, you'd swear that two Huskies at play were actually in a dog fight about to rip each others heads off, then they back off, go get a drink of water and lay down beside each other --- well, that's a Husky. As far as living with other dogs, I'd expect that you're going to have "that discussion" between the dogs eventually. If your GSD's let it be known they object, then pack hierarchy should take care of the problem but you'll probably want to be somewhere else when they have that discussion. In play, Huskies very seldom draw blood unless it's a mistake. In a discussion about pack hierarchy you might see some but I'd expect nothing more than a nipped ear or muzzle.

Huskies are quite trainable, once you get over the idea that you're going to train him and use some psychology.  To a Husky, 'training' is all about what he can get out of it.  Generally a full bag of treats will get most Huskies to set, stay on the other hand is a completely different bag of trick ... er, treats.

If you've managed four months with him then you must be doing something right.  If a Husky doesn't like where he is, he will get out. (6 feet fences will slow them down ... some)  I don't know if you've seen it yet, Huskies are VERY pack oriented.  You and your dogs are his pack and he's not going to go very far from it (er, the pack.)  The fact that you come with builtin play mates just makes it all the better.  People who have been owned by a Husky the first time are often overwhelmed.  "Set." often gets "Says who?" (hence the bag of treats); "Come" often gets "Yeh, if you can catch me!" and that seems to be a never ending problem - they will have their own way.

Your picture says a whole lot about Huskies.  You have three dogs but who get 'front billing'?  The Husky of course!

The forum is slow but I normally check in a couple of times a day, a couple of other regulars are in depending on their schedules - @TwisterII is probably out Hiking, it's the weekend and @Amymeme, well, it depends on the state of her garden.

Welcome to the forum and the Husky World!!

You have a very handsome crew. A tired husky is a happy (and behaved) husky. A strong will and lots of exercise is key to being in a household with them. GSDs make great companion breeds to huskies as they have similar exercise and routine/structure needs. For the most part the GSDs will learn what to expect, and set some boundaries for him to learn himself but if you see things escalating you can opt to distract by pulling him away for some training to give them a break and to settle their nerves. Anytime tension is getting high or they are just too excited redirecting attention to a toy or training or going for a quick walk/jog can bring that down so that things don't escalate.

Awe! Lachlan (another down under name) wants to party with the pack! All he has is cats and they are no fun!

Super cute but i have zero purebred husky experience. And im starting to wonder do i really want a purebred husky. But i do have some experience of spider pissing off the gsd. a sibe wolf is like a sibe but more intense so training (or them training you) is similar. Your husky will learn really quickly what you want and how to make bribes work to thier advantage. Your gsd on the other hand will worship the ground you walk on. Your gsd will also guard the house while the husky shows the thief happily where all the valuables are.

When spider and splinter play, i would swear someone is going to get hurt or die. Sometimes you hear a yelp and they back off for a few mins and its back to crazy 18lb terrier vs 60lb sibe wolfdog.

I disagree with the let them work things out when it comes to shadow and the paw in the face issue. More i worry shadow will accidentally get injured. Same with getting way to rough but shadow has the german shepherd medical disaster going on. They do still play. Spider gets the zoomies and runs right in front of him and he lunges and maybe runs a few steps then stops. Sometimes she uses him as a hurdle. I often wonder if she knows hes blind.

We let things get to about a 7, then the treats come out and we do some nice structured group training for a few mins to break up the excitement and then things usually settle down. Sometimes i do have to separate dogs. When shadow has had enough he will walk into another room and if anyone follows him i put a stop to it. And i think if i had been a more proactive referree, squirt wouldnt have her issues. Every one of my dogs has a dont bother me spot and thats one thing i make a point of no one (other dogs or people) can bother them in the dont bother me spot. Chances are your dogs will work out where those spots are, just make sure the other dogs can get away from being harassed.