It’s been quite a while since my last post, mainly down to being too busy with work and looking after the dogs and a new puppy!

Delilah, now 8 months old, is well and truly part of the family and proving more of a handful than Mya was at that age. She is certainly a lively character and rarely likes to sit still during the day. I have updated the photo and video pages some of which include Delilah so go check them out.

I will try to keep up-to-date from now on, if I was to recap on the last 8 months this post would become ‘War and Peace’ and neither you nor I really want that!

This past week has been quite eventful in our household.

Shedding Fur and the Ice Scraper

We are now experiencing first hand the start of a Husky shedding it’s coat for the first time, what joy! Both Kai and Shadow appear to be shedding at the same time, Kai moreso, whilst Mya’s coat remains intact.

Whilst we now seem to have fur everywhere around the house and in every orifice, picking fur from Kai and Shadow is proving to be quite therapeutic and fun. Kai was initially a little concerned with us picking/raking at his fur but is now enjoying it, Shadow on the other hand is happy to sit and let you get on with it. I must remember to post some photos/videos of this experience!

Hoovering up fur from the carpet pile in the lounge is a challenge at the best of times, but now the dogs are shedding their coats the carpet fast becomes a husky rug if left unattended for more than a day or so ! Our Dyson struggles and only picks up so much leaving a lot behind, prompting us to come up with alternatives. An unlikely tool which has proved to be very successful in removing fur from the thick pile is a trusty friend from the car, the ice scraper (pictured above), yes… the ice scraper. With some vigorous scraping, the carpet is restored back to is original state… well almost. It also proves to be a good workout, so if you need to lose a few pounds, get scraping! Mentioning this to our Husky owner friends, one of them (Ian)  suggested another alternative, “put your clean trainers on and drag you feet across the carpet this also works a treat ( i use the michael jackson moonwalk technique)“, which sounds like more fun, so with the iPod blasting out ‘Billie Jean’ we shall try this next.

Yes to a new Husky puppy, now what shall we call it?

I mentioned in my last post that we were looking at adding yet another Siberian Husky to our pack, well this has moved on a bit. After browsing/researching breeders in the south of England, we contacted a breeder in Weymouth. As it happens they had just had a successful mating between two of their own Huskies and the puppies are due in mid-Feb thus available for homing in April. This is a little earlier than we anticipated but what the hell! Hopefully there will be some beautiful grey/white, silver/white coated pups to choose from. We had also been deliberating over whether to get a male or female and after asking other, more experienced husky owners, the general consensus was that because our boys had been neutered and Mya is due to be spayed, then it shouldn’t really matter what gender our next puppy is, so for the time being we have decided to get another female.

With the gender of our next puppy decided, it was on to choosing a name… always a difficult one, but a fun time as you run through every name imaginable with the help of a ‘Husky names’ search in Google. We did, after many hours, come up with a name that we all liked, ‘Lyla’, which later expanded to Delilah (why why why…).

So gender and name decided, now to save up the £650 needed to buy Delilah!

The Cat

Until recently our cat (Rayne) had chosen to live in solitary confinement, that is the upstairs beyond the boundaries of where the dogs are allowed to go during the day, however, now that they are sleeping upstairs in our bedroom, Rayne has taken it upon herself, slowly but surely, to venture downstairs once again and depending how excitable the dogs are, she is able to do this with relative freedom.

I am pleased to say the dogs are inquisitive around Rayne rather than preying on her although we do keep a keen on eye on the situation out of pure common sense. Rayne does plenty of hissing and swiping when they invade her space, which keeps them in their place, but as each day goes by, this seems to be happening less and less. Kai gets closest to Rayne, ignoring her hissing and is now able to sleep very near to her on the pile of cushions next to my desk, with Mya and Shadow (who howls/talks to her, which she doesn’t care much for)  still uncertain.

It’s been a hectic last 6 months so I haven’t posted much previously but hopefully from now on I will post more regularly. We now regularly meet with other Husky owners every Sunday morning at Manor Farm (our nearest fully enclosed dog park) and made some great new friends

Since getting Mya we have added Kai and Shadow to our pack, both rescues.

Kai

is a Siberian Husky / Alaskan Malamute cross who we rehomed from ‘Huskies In Need’ in September 2010. Kai was 11 months old at the time we got him. Why get him? well… on our regular Sunday morning visits to Manor Farm we noticed that one Husky (Kai) was playing a lot with Mya and this went on for a few weeks. It turned out that Kai was in need of  a new home and as we were looking at getting another Husky we jumped at the chance to rehome him and what a wonderful addition he has been, 5 months on he has well and truly settled in.

Shadow

is a Siberian Husky who we also rehomed, this time from Helping Hearts in November 2010. Shadow was 2 years and 3 months old at the time we got him and just like Kai has been a great addition to the pack/family. He is such a lovely tempered and well behaved dog that likes to talk

and how’s Mya?

Well, Mya has grown into a beautiful young lady albeit very mischievous but that is all part of the fun. She has been through her first season now (how lovely was that… not lol!)  and is due to be spayed on February 23rd. Mya fast got a reputation for getting the most dirty out of all the Huskies by digging in the mud and puddles, and there is no end in sight, oh joy!

Check out our ‘Photos‘ page to see Kai, Shadow and Mya

3 Huskies not enough?

Whilst some might think 3 was plenty we are now looking to get another Husky pup in Spring/Summer 2011 and are currently looking for a suitable breeder. We think 4 will be our limit and thereafter we may look into fostering for a local Husky Rescue ‘Helping Hearts’

Well, what can I say that sums up the first 10 days

• Visit to vets (our local Pet Doctors surgery) for first checkup
• Sleepless nights
• Smell of Poop
• Endless poop scooping from the garden.
• Mad dashes to the back door
• Chewing anything in sight (if we let her)
• Eating grass, bird poop, twigs (if we let her)
• Play biting – trying to curb it – easier said than done!
• Mya’s first bath (well, shower)
• Another trip to vets costing £75 (She was off her food and not very active, turns out Mya had a temperature and anti-biotics were prescribed for 5 days)
• Saying the word ‘No’ a million times, we have comtemplated changing Mya’s name to ‘No’ haha
• Posting loads of comments for advice on http://www.sibespace.co.uk/forum/
  
• Teaching Mya to “Sit” (this was actually very very easy)
• Teaching Mya to “Lie Down” – not so easy
• Socialisation with the cat – not going so well, Cat has camped upstairs, although a couple of days ago we put them on our bed together a few inches apart adn they were fine. Might need to get a Feliway plugin for downstairs!

That said, Mya is a beautiful husky puppy, very loving, she loves to snuggle up as close as she can to you when dozing on the sofa (yes, I bad habit already!). Yes, there have been plenty and poop/wee accidents in the house, mostly down to us not reading the signs rather than Mya deciding to go anywhere she pleases.

I would say it’s harder than raising a baby at this early stage, at least you can put a baby in a cot and put a nappy on it haha!

An enjoyable time overall, we knew it would be hard work in these early stages!

I am reading books, searching on the internet and watching related TV programs, in particular, I have become hooked on the TV series ‘The Dog Whisperer’ with Cesar Millan. The first time I watched Cesar working with troublesome dogs I was immediately struck by the concept of  the ‘Calm Assertive’ state of mind and how it’s the owner not the dog that needs to be trained just as much as the dog. Cesar also sees the pack leader’s energy as a key factor in the relationship with our dogs and that this is our most powerful tool in controlling a dog and not the tools you can buy in pet shops. I am learning that if you portray the wrong energy and/or state of mind this will have a negative effect on your dog and often this is a reason for dogs becoming hard to control and in some situations aggressive etc etc but because dogs live in the here and now, not the past, not the future, it is possible to correct negative responses in your dog quickly by changing your own state and energy.

Thankfully I am a generally calm and positive individual so the concept of energy and calm assertive state that Cesar Millan regularly refers to should be easy state of mind and being for me to naturally be in. Proof will be in the doing not the reading, so I will keep you posted!

• Special drainage properties ensure they stay dry and warm even in the event of an accident (I guess ideal for house training then!)
• The texture encourages mobility in the younger by aiding grip
• Hygenic, non-irritant & non-allergenic
• Machine washable time after time (We like this!)

We purchased some vet bedding (pictured right) from a reputable Ebay supplier here http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/fireinvestigationdog/ . We opted for the non-slip 1.52m x 1m bedding which cost £14 + £6.50 postage.

Hopefully Mya will like it!

The breeder has sent us some photos of Mya at 5 weeks old.

Even moreso now, I cannot wait to get her,  still an agonising 3 weeks to go.

Her eyes have gone from a dark blue at 3 weeks to a piercing light blue at 5 weeks. We hope that this will be the true colour of her eyes, however the breeder is not giving any guarantees about what Mya’s final eye colour will be and she is still to young. Her mask is starting to fade as well.

We were made aware at the time when we chose Mya that eye colour, mask, coat colour will change during the early weeks of a Siberian Husky’s life. The breeder has said that if the eye colour does change to something other than blue, perhaps different colour in each eye which is common, then we could choose a different puppy if one was still available from the litter, however we are already attached to Mya so not sure we could turn her away should things change.

See the photos in the gallery here http://www.oursiberianhusky.com/photos/mya/. One photo has Mya, wide-eyed and showing teeth, not very flattering either hee hee! Bless her!

Having demolished the under stair wall in the kitchen, the crate is now in situ waiting for our new arrival, see picture to your left (for a bigger picture click on it.). It’s a 48″ long / 30″ wide / 32″ high dog crate with a metal tray. We were advised by the breeder we bought Mya from to get the largest crate possible we could find that would fit where we intended it to go, bearing in mind the full grown size which the puppy will eventually be.

We purchased this crate from  http://www.ukdogcrate.co.uk/ for just £42.99 + £8.99 postage which was far cheaper than you can buy in the local Pet superstores and even on eBay (the brand new ones that is!)

This crate, as mentioned above, comes with a metal tray which again were advised to get as the husky might end up chewing a plastic one. So when you are shopping for a crate for a siberian husky, check the tray! We found that the ones you could buy in places like Pets At Home only came with plastic trays.

I can’t wait to see little 8 week old Mya sleeping in it for the first time…. still just  over 3 weeks to go arrrgggg ….