I took my girl to a daycare, and they did a temperament test on her. She isn't out-right aggressive to dogs and can actually sit close to some of them just fine, maybe even sniff noses, but if any try to get closer and sniff her butt or anything she growls and lunges. This is only with bigger dogs her size or bigger. Smaller dogs I worry about.

Whenever she sees a squirrel she very clearly goes into murder-hunt-mode. Not play mode. She very clearly wants to run down and murder the squirrel. Same with ducks. I've been wondering if cats or smaller dogs would trigger the same murder-hunt-mode and I think they do. I don't think it is as overt of a murder-hunt-mode that squirrels put her in, but it is definitely not a play mode. I could see her attacking a cat or small dog potentially. She probably can't be left alone with a cat. I'm pretty sure if she ever escaped, she would go on a murder rampage of squirrels, cats, ducks and maybe even small dogs.

I am wondering, how common is this for huskies? Do you think you could leave your husky alone with a stranger cat, or stranger small dog, and not have her attack it? As I understand it this is kind of just how huskies are?

But that brings me to my next question, can this be lessened? I guess the obvious answer is get her more and more exposure to cats or small dogs. But I am presuming she could never be 100% trusted?

My guy it's a gentle giant with other small dogs.

Cats, ducks, raccoons, rabbits etc? An efficient predator who always gets his prey. In NYS, contact with raccoons, woodchucks, fox requires booster for rabies as long as dog has already been vaccinated. My guy has never gone the full 3 years between rabies boosters - one year he had 3 in about 5 months.

So. To sum up - a husky with high prey drive? I'd never trust alone with a cat.

From what I've read your experience is too much the norm. I have two and one, Sky, just ignores the rest of the world. She'll set on the porch and watch rabbits and coyotes wander in the brush around us; the other, Avalanche, will chase anything that gets close ... but I've never seen him come home with blood in his hair. 'Course I'm not too sure about a dog catching a jackrabbit unless the jack makes a fatal mistake.

On the other hand, I've had cats / kittens and Avalanche will lay on the floor and let a kitten walk over him, a cat he'll "attack" but it's in fun. I've seen him chase them and then set down side by side ... why mine are so much out of the norm I have no idea.

Yep. At the vet yesterday getting rabies booster. Dead raccoon in the backyard - think it was setting up house in my shed for the winter ( when i went in the shed the morning before, I could smell a new animal smell. So, all in all, though I don't like dead animals, glad he's not gonna wreak having in my shed all winter!

Would taking mine to a dog park on a leash maybe help?

I don't know the etiquette of dog parks or how that works at all. I presume a bunch of dogs running around, her on a leash, and me right next to her to control her could help? But is there any etiquette for dog parks for like "Dog in training" to warn others? Or maybe just keep her outside the fece?

@stray If you act on your questions about dog parks I think the reactions are going to be the opposite of what you're looking for. If you go into a dog park with her on leash my bet is that she and at least some of the others are going to go nuts - all of it boiled down to "I want to play/kill" and I wouldn't take the chance if I were in your shoes.

aljones wrote:

@stray If you act on your questions about dog parks I think the reactions are going to be the opposite of what you're looking for.  If you go into a dog park with her on leash my bet is that she and at least some of the others are going to go nuts - all of it boiled down to "I want to play/kill" and I wouldn't take the chance if I were in your shoes.

Well, I'm thinking I wouldn't let her be near the other dogs. Maybe outside the fence even? Just so she can get used to lots of other doggies running around and being a few feet away.

The problem with leaking and fencing is it can lead to reactivity in both the leashed/fenced dogs and the others. Dog parks are not necessarily a great idea for many dogs. You may well weeks up with an even more reactive dog if you do this.

@stray Thinking on this a bit, I'm going to offer a thought but won't take any responsibility if you try it. In your first post of this thread you say that when another dog 'try's to introduce themselves' she'll growl and lunge. But you don't say what that lung entails, is it a lunge where she's grabbing the other dog (trying to eat it?) or a lunge that looks like she's trying to knock it out of the way or what ....

Let's accept that with a lot of dogs chase / capture / kill is the norm. If something starts to run from them, they're gonna chase ... that's the way their gene's work. I'm going to say that the chances of fixing that in a grown dog are very slim to none and if you try something / someone is gonna get hurt, probably bad.

If I were going to try to socialize an adult dog who hasn't learned the social cues I'd go at it VERY slowly. If she has a dog friend with whom she plays, I'd up their interaction someplace where there are no chances of another dog interfering. I'd look at a month or two of watching them play ... does the playmate know what the social cues are (butt sniffing, licking, etc)? if they do then see if your dog will pick up on them. Work this relationship until your dog and the playmate can meet without any reluctance on either part ... then carefully introduce another dog.

I'm gonna stop here 'cause I don't like it, there are too many ways this can go south and someone (human or dog) can get very badly hurt / killed.

Definitely do not take a dog reactive dog into the dog park. On leash or otherwise. You will create a dog fight that could very well end up in irreparable damage to your dog and others. Dog parks have several dogs that are on various levels of training and behavior. You cannot guarantee that what you do will set any of them back or they set your dog back. Sensitivity training is best done with dogs you know are not leash, fence, or dog reactive in a closed environment.

Female huskies have a tendency to be same sex aggressive, so she maybe fine with male dogs but not fine with other females. They also tend to be the more dominant personality of the two genders so clashes can also happen when meeting another dominant personality. An unfixed female can be the worst.

I did desensitization training with my female years ago. I went through a trainer and we worked around very calm dogs to start with. They were in kennels on the outside of a training ring and we basically went through an obedience course with the other dogs in the area as stimuli. As we trained and worked on commands we would slowly ask her to perform the tricks and lessons closer to the dogs in the kennels. With time we added more excitable dogs to create more stimulus for her work through. Through work leash reactivity can be lessened but don't expect her to ever just be a happy go lucky dog who plays nice with all things. Small things will always be prey items and it would be risky to ever trust her, but you could feasibly get to a point where passing dogs on walks could be less of an ordeal and she could have play dates with dogs that her personality jives with.

Ive done a massive amount of ignore training with squirt to make it safe for everyone in public places but we still have a periodic issue with unleashed dogs. Now spider actually likes other dogs (except squirt) and cats but kills rodents and rabbits . She is pair bonded to splinter who is a 18 lb Russell terrier. But we found out with spider, how the introduction is done matters alot. A new dog goes for her face while on leash she will attack them. If we walk and just gradually get closer, then she seems to be ok with the other dogs. We had a border collie here and spider was really rough, lucky tucker was used to doggy day care but what i saw was playing someone could take it as aggressive.

I wont get into what squirt has killed or tried to kill but lets just say anything with 4 legs and fur is fair game to her. Spider seems to know what is wanted vs unwanted. Spider does not like dogs she doesnt know being rude during introductions. Some animals are like that.

so I basically have a bitch

Both technically and figuratively yes