Life of a Husky Owner

Day 1:

Or should that be night one? Eh, anyway, I got a phone call from Jen, the lady who drove an hour to bring me my new puppy. When she arrived I walked to the passenger side of her car where Sierra (she had named the puppy, so we decided to stick with it) had poked her head out. As soon as I was within tongue-shot, I got a face full of doggie kisses and a paw on my hand.

When we all got inside, my roommate and my fiance were both waiting. My fiance knelt down and Sierra bolted toward him, knocking him over and covering him in loving kisses. Honestly, you would think for all the love she gave that we had lost her and now been reunited. We discovered she likes to jump up on people, a habit we have all determined needs to be trained away. We can work on that later.

My heartstrings tugged as soon as I saw her, my friends. The picture I provided in my previous hub does her absolutely no justice. She is adorable, soft, sweet and craves attention. It is a very good thing there are three adults in the house who all seem to be instantly smitten with her.

She spent about half an hour being unceasingly adorable, then went about promptly exploring. I got worried when I heard scraping in the corner of my living room, but discovered that she was not in fact digging my carpet up, but had found where my roommate had hidden his starfish collection, had chosen the largest (and prettiest) starfish and lifted it carefully out of the cardboard box it sat in and set it on the floor to sniff and lick it.

The rest of the night was spent bonding, with Sierra making continual rounds between myself, my fiance, and our roommate getting petted. The only real worry we had was when we walked into the kitchen after round one of dinner to find that Sierra had taken the 1 quart pot which had perhaps a cup of macaroni left in it off of the back burner on the stovetop, set it down on the floor, removed the spoon and emptied the contents of the pot. Bear in mind that we never heard a sound coming from the kitchen, and Sierra is so smart she knew that dirty dishes had to go in the dishwasher, so she set the spoon from the pot down right in front of the dishwasher for us to find and take care of, since we have hands.

We finished out the night getting Sierra used to her dog bed being where she lays down. During the course of the evening we discovered she not only answers to her name, but also to a short whistle and leg patting. She can sit on command, knows 'shake', and has a measure of self-control where it comes to treats. She will eat no more than two treats, any beyond that she puts next to her doggie dish otherwise untouched.

I love my husky, and she loves me.

UPDATE!

Sierra has been with us a couple weeks now, and she is every bit as active and curious as I believed she would be.

Within the first week she thwarted the $40 baby gate we installed, ripped up our carpet in three different places and tore down the blinds in the living room. Our frustration was tempered by the knowledge going into this that we would face some destruction until she learned exactly what she can and cannot do in her new home.

My fiance has taken to jogging with her, which seems to be helping her high energy. We have also invested in a harness for her. The harness is very handy, and gives us more options for fashionable collars for her now that the leash is not going to be hooked into it.

In the field of progress, Sierra has actually taken an interest in her puppy pads, moving them to comfortable spots herself and using them for all her doggy business. Yesterday all the cleanup that was required was the trashing of the old pads and the placement of fresh ones.

She has chosen the foyer as her little den area, as it is fairly well closed in and chilly enough to keep her comfortable. She responds to these new commands:

When it's time for a walk: Sierra, Outside.

When the toys get put up: Sierra, Give.

When she jumps up on us: Sierra, Down.

When calling her to us: Sierra, Come.

Sierra has been with us for six months now. She is over a year old, and has settled into a routine very nicely. Crate training was much easier when we ensured consistency - Sierra goes into the crate every single time we leave the house, for no matter how long. She doesn't LOVE her crate, but she will go in if you walk her to the door of it.

The destruction ended as soon as we enforced use of the crate. She gets plenty of play and run time, and has a lot of fun roughhousing with my fiance.

Sierra has really grown! She has also adopted some very cute habits:

• If you sit on the couch, she will jump up to join you and commence licking your face until you pet her or rest your head on hers.
• If you sit on the bottom of the staircase, she will come to you and lean against you, sliding down to lay on your feet.
• Slapping your hands against the couch is a signal to begin playing, at which point Sierra will run in circles around the living and dining rooms - only stopping to bounce from the lounge chair to the loveseat... head first!

I love Sierra very much, and she is a bright spot in my life. I am so lucky and happy to have her!