Dogs like things as simple as possible, most of us would probably agree with them there. They want to know what is allowed and what isn’t. Have you ever caught your Siberian Husky hesitating before jumping on the couch or stopping to look at you before they finish their meal? When they do that, they are looking for any signals that will confirm their actions.

Simply put, these dogs want to make their owners happy but they are not always sure if what they doing is right. So instead they look at you to see what you have to say about it. This is why training a Siberian Husky puppy is so important. Through training, they learn what is acceptable and what isn’t. That means less time to worry about things, and more time enjoying their puppy days.

Continue Learning >> Siberian Husky Training

When to start training

First thing you must understand about training Siberian Huskies is that there are different types of training. I’ll cover the three important categories so you have a better understanding of each.

Behavior Training – This category includes everything that has to do with a Huskies obedience. Stopping destructive chewing, barking housebreaking all falls into here. You should start training your puppy to behave right away. The earlier they learn these rules, the less mess there will be for you to clean up.

Continue Learning >> Siberian Husky Behavior 101

Socializing - This is when you train the puppy to behave around other people or animals. Puppies are a lot more open to learning so I suggest you socialize your dog while he is still young. Invite some friends over to play with the puppy, take your husky out on a walk to the park or take him around your block to meet the neighbors.

Trick Training – Training tricks is not necessary but it helps with your dog’s obedience. While the Husky is still a puppy, you can start teaching him basic tricks like sit and come. Once he reaches around 5-6 months of age you can start training tricks like fetch, rollover and play dead.

Continue Learning >> Siberian Husky Trick Training

Puppy training tips

Here are some additional Husky puppy training tips that will help you get started:

• Always be consistent. Your dog will learn things a lot quicker if you are consistent with your commands. For example – don’t substitute “sit” for “sit down” and vice versa.
• Husky puppies are a lot like children, so treat them like a child. Think about how children learn things and use that in your training. For example, be positive and excited when your puppy does something right.
• Training sessions with a Siberian Husky puppy should be short. Keep the no longer than 14 minutes. You can have multiple training sessions during the day, but give your puppy plenty of breaks in between.

Use Positive Reinforcement

Remember that your husky has no way of knowing what is exactly you expect of him, so punishing him or scolding him for not understanding you is about as useless as it is cruel.

Instead you should reward correct behavior either through treats or with praise. This is the best way to encourage a husky pup to learn and give him confidence while you trying to teach him new tricks.

Keep Training Sessions Short

A lot of owners think that more training will only guarantee better results, but that’s actually quite the opposite with huskies.

Siberian Huskies tend to get bored quickly and forcing your dog to do something over and over for a long period of time will just make him hate it until he decides to completely ignore that command.

Instead you should keep each trick training session 10-15 minutes, and no longer. It’s alright to have more than one training session per day, as long as you give your dog breaks in between.

Break Up The Trick Into Small Parts

You can’t expect your Husky to know that you want him to jump through 5 hoops, fetch your newspaper and bring you the remote control all in one go. Break each trick that you are trying to teach to your husky into smaller parts that are much easier to show and do.

For example if you are teaching your dog to play dead, don’t expect him to stay playing dead from the first try.

Instead introduce to him the position in which he is “playing dead” and then start working on him staying in that position.

Get Rid of Distractions

When training Husky new tricks, you must have his full attention. You want his whole focus on you, or he won’t be learning anything.

The best way to do this is by eliminating anything that could present itself as a distraction. Any toys, chew and unnecessary objects that can get in the way of training should be put away.

Pick Your Location

This goes hand in hand with the last point, pick a location with as little distractions as possible.

If you start training new tricks in a public place with a lot of people, your husky will constantly be distracted and will lose focus of the task that you give him.

Instead pick a quiet and familiar place with as little distractions as you possibly can.

Have Fun

Huskies are very playful dogs and love to spend time with their owners and having fun, so use the training time to do just that!

Try not to get stressed over little things. If your husky isn’t learning the trick then try another approach or try again at a later time.

Keep the training fun and get your husky excited about completing tasks. You want him to feel rewarded and confident during training, not stressed out and scared.

As a responsible Husky owner, you must take care of grooming, good diet, exercise and regular veterinary checkups if you want your Husky to stay healthy and happy.

Neglecting these things to your dog will just leave them unhappy and can also lead to problematic health problems, so make sure you are ready for a Siberian Husky before you bring one home.

Grooming

Keeping your Husky clean is the best way to avoid unnecessary visits to the vet.

You will have to take care of things like bathing, nail clipping, ear cleaning, brushing, dental hygiene and more.

When grooming your Husky, make sure you only use pet safe products because using human products on animals is a big No-no. The chemicals used in human shampoos and soaps are far too rough for pet use.

Also don’t go overboard with grooming. Washing your Husky too often will wash essential oils and minerals in their coats and leave their fur looking dry and pale. You should only really bathe your husky once every three to six months.

Exercise

As you probably already know, huskies are working dogs and love to run around, play and exercise.

Taking your dog outside on short walks three times a day is not enough for him to stretch out his legs and give his legs a decent work out.

If possible, take your Husky out to the park on a regular basis where he can run around and get some activity. If you have a large enough fenced backyard, you can just let him run around and stretch his legs there, but keep in mind that exploring new territory is much more exciting for your dog than it is to run around in the yard.

If you go jogging, take your dog with you. Not only will he love the exercise that he gets, but he will also enjoy the extra time he gets to spend with his owner.

Lack of physical activity for a Husky can leave him anxious and nervous. It will also keep him restless at night when he should be sleeping so make sure you give your Siberian Husky plenty of exercise and keep him active.

Diet

The food that you feed your Husky is one of the most important factors when it comes to his health and lifespan.

Giving him food filled with fillers and very little vitamins will only keep his immune system weak and open to various range of health problems.

Instead you should feed your Husky only top quality food which is filled with the vitamins he needs to stay healthy and live a long happy life.

Vet

A regular visits to your dog’s veterinarian is the best way prevent health problems and detect any existing problems early.

Waiting too long or letting an illness progress will only make it harder to cure and will require more drastic measures to keep it under control.

So make sure you schedule regular checkup visits with your vet and get all the necessary shots on time.

Make Great Family Pets

Huskies are very social dogs and bond very well with their human family members. They do very well with kids and will enjoy playing and having fun with children.

They don’t like to be left home alone all day and tend to get a little mischievous when bored.

Siberian Huskies Love Activity

Huskies are not the type of dogs that like to lie on the couches and be lazy all day. These energetic dogs are always ready to run around and play.

Lack of exercise and activity will quickly lead to boredom which will force them to find other ways, like destructive chewing and howling for example, to keep themselves busy.

Grooming

Siberian Huskies have very thick fur and are fairly good at keeping themselves clean for long periods of time. They still need to take a bath, but that’s only once every 4-6 months.

Also because of their fur they tend to shed quite a bit, especially during spring time. It’s highly recommended that you brush them on a weekly basis to keep extra hair off their back and your furniture.

Training

Huskies are very intelligent dogs and quickly pick up on training, if you know what you’re doing that is.

They can get stubborn at times, but as long as you keep training sessions short and fun, you will have no problems training your Siberian husky new tricks.

Their Dislikes

As stated previous, Huskies hate being bored. If they don’t feel stimulated either mentally or physically then they tend to develop some nasty habits so make sure you keep them busy and entertained.

They also don’t do well in really hot weather but have no problems with winter and can handle even its harshest colds.

Of course not all bad behavior is learned, some is just lack of training (housebreaking is a perfect example of that example).

If you are having problems with your Siberian Husky and want to put an end to bad behavior then you must take certain steps before you can expect to see results.

Identify The Cause of the Problem

This might sound obvious at first, but you will be surprised at how many owners do this step incorrectly, or completely forget it.

You must find the real root of the problem and not a symptom or you will be just wasting your time.

For example if your husky goes potty indoors only when you’re out or at work, it doesn’t mean that he isn’t house trained. It’s more likely that he pees inside because he is unable to hold it in for such a long time.

So praising your dog for going potty outdoors and going through housetraining all over again won’t really cure the problem. Adjusting the times you walk your dog or getting someone else to walk your dog for you while you’re gone will solve the problem.

It’s important that you locate the real cause of the problem before you try to correct it.

Correct Bad Behavior

When I talk about correction of bad behavior, I don’t mean punishing your dog by slapping him or yelling at him for something he did.

When I say “correct bad behavior” I’m talking about stopping your husky in his tracks whenever you catch him “in the act” and fixing what he is doing wrong.

If your husky bites your hands while you are playing with him, stop playing and give him a chew toy to bite on instead of your hand.

Don’t let your husky’s bad behavior flourish. Stop it whenever you catch him in the act and correct his actions if possible. Otherwise he think you approve of his actions.

Reward Good Behavior

Positive reinforcement is the best learning tool you can have when dealing with a husky that has developed bad behavior.

For example, if your husky still isn’t housetrained you can use positive reinforcement to help him learn quicker that going potty outside is what you want him to do.

So whenever you take him out on a walk and he does his doggy business where he is supposed to, reward him with for it with a treat and some praise!

Remember that you don’t have to give out treats all the time. Sometimes just praise and a pat on the head is more than enough.

Prevent Bad Husky Behavior From Happening

The best cure for bad behavior is preventing it from happening in the first place.

Don’t let small bad instances turn into hard to get rid of behavior problems.

In the meantime I will do my best to answer Christy’s question about her husky who is constantly digging holes in her back yard. Here is what she wrote:

Hey James

I have a two year old Husky dog that I love and adore with all my heart. I have been following your website for some time now and want to personally thank you for putting up all this good information to help other husky dog owners. I’ve learned so much from this website and I’m sure others have as well so keep this website alive!

Anyways, I’m contacting you because I have a question myself. Recently my family and I moved to a new home with a much larger backyard. Our old home had a small backyard so we often went to the park and let our dog loose there so he can run around and exercise. In our new home however, there is plenty of room for him to run around and have fun on his own. This has worked out great for first two weeks but now I have a problem.

My husky keeps digging holes in the backyard all the time. We have two trees growing and he constantly digs holes around them digging through roots. What I end up having is a messy backyard and a dirty husky who I have to wash before I can let him inside. Whenever I catch him in the act, I tell him NO or STOP and he stops but after couple of minutes later same exact thing happens.
What can I do to stop my husky from digging holes up in our backyard? I just want my husky to stop digging holes and instead run around and play.

Please help; I don’t know what to do!

Christy K.

Well help Christy!

I’m certainly glad you like this website and I’m glad it has helped you. I know firsthand how tough it can be to be a first time husky dog owner.

To answer your question about your husky digging holes in the backyard, well it’s completely natural. Huskies sure love to dig. The good news however, is that you can fix this problem fairly easy!

The first thing I would recommend you do to keep your husky from digging holes is to keep him busy. When you go out to your backyard, bring a ball or some other toy and play fetch with your husky. Huskies are very smart dogs and get bored easy. Keeping him busy will keep his mind off digging holes in the backyard.

Try not to leave your husky alone at first. For the next week or two, always go out with him and watch him to make sure your husky isn’t digging any holes. Condition your dog through training that digging in the backyard is not permitted. Instead its a time for him to run around, play fetch and exercise.

Over time your husky will realize that going outside is not about digging holes, but instead the time he should be running around and having fun. Make sure you cover up the old holes though, you don’t want anything to remind him about digging holes in the backyard!

It’s both yes and no. Siberian huskies are very energetic dogs and need to exercise a lot. They enjoy running around and other activities which involve a lot of movement. You have to understand the Siberia husky dog breed history to understand the breed.  In short, yes they can live in an apartment but they won’t be as happy if they had a large back yard to run around in and have fun.

Of course you could take your husky dogs out for a run to get him out of the small apartment, but a jog a day really isn’t enough for a husky. They need a lot more than that to stay happy and healthy.

If you do get a Husky in a small apartment and don’t take him out for runs regularly and won’t keep him busy, he will let you know he is bored. You husky will destroy everything in sight if he is bored or left alone for an extended period of time.

The Siberian husky dog is an amazing breed, but they do have a lot of requirements. If you don’t think you’re ready to commit to such a dog, maybe the breed just isn’t for you.

Buying a husky from a dog breeder can cost anywhere from $500 up to $1,200 and adopting from a shelter will cost you less than $200. Not only will you save a lot of money, but you will also save a poor puppies life. Usually dog shelters are over populated and are unable to keep hold of all the dogs due to space or funding limitations. If you adopt a puppy you will free up some space for another dog to be rescued as well.

There are some misconceptions about adopting a husky dog from a shelter. For whatever reasons, some people think that all dogs in the shelter are picked up from the streets, sick, were abused, have bad behavior problems, etc. Well that’s completely untrue. Many dogs brought to the animal shelter were given up by loving and caring owners who just couldn’t afford to keep their husky dog due to personal reasons.

These dogs had been taken, had all of their shots and a lot of them have some have gone through some basic dog training while at the shelter or from their previous owners.

If you’re looking for a husky dog, the first place you should check is an adoption center. Not only will you have a lovely new friend and a new addition to your family, but you will also rescue a dog and will give him a new home and in return your husky will love you for it.

There can be several causes to your husky’s fearfulness or shyness and determining what the most likely culprit is will make it easier for you to help your dog overcome his fears.

What Causes Fearfulness or Shyness in Huskies?

The most common cause for shyness or fear in huskies is lack of socialization when they were young puppies. If the puppy wasn’t introduced to a lot of new people then as he gets older encounters with strangers will seem more frightening to him because he isn’t used to them.

Another reason for a fearful husky puppy is lack of regular long walks. Taking your husky on walks not only helps him relieve his bladder but also shows him your surroundings, new people, strange places, noisy cars and other things which might seem very common to us humans, but no so common for dogs.

Sometimes the fear or shyness is not caused by lack of socializing but by traumatic event that happened while he was young little puppy leaving him anxious. This could have happened for many reasons but it’s possible for the puppy to outgrow his fear with time.

What To Do With A Shy And/Or Fearful Husky Puppy?

If your husky is still a puppy then you will have a much easier time getting him used to strange objects and new people. An older husky will need some extra time getting used to new things, but with time it can be achieved as well.

If your husky is shy around strangers, the best thing to do is take him to the park which you know will have a lot of people. Chances are many people will approach you and your husky pup and will try to pet him. This will give your husky a chance to interact with strangers and get him more used to meeting new people.

Even though it’s not uncommon for dogs to be afraid of noisy cars and loud trucks and is completely normal, you can still get him more used to them driving on the street by taking out on daily walks. With enough walks, your husky will realize that the cars that drive by won’t cause him any harm and will stop fearing vehicles that drive by.

What you SHOULDN’T do however is force your husky to interact with the things he fears or is shy of. Forcing him to approach something he is scared of will only make him more nervous and more stressed. Let him approach his fears at his own pace. When he feels ready he will approach them on his own.

Your ultimate goal is to make the experience as positive as you so you’re husky realize there is no reason to be scared or shy of the person or object. Give time to your husky to get used to new, and often frightening, things and he will soon enough learn that there is no reason to feel shy or be scared of the unknown.

Since I get questions from owners about housebreaking their huskies, I put together a FAQ that should help you get your husky housetrained and keep your house “accident” free!

When Should I Start Housebreaking My Husky Puppy?

Potty training your husky puppy is going to require some patience and a lot of constancy. You should begin housetraining your husky as soon as you bring him how to avoid having the “accident” from becoming a habit.

When Should I Take My Husky Puppy Outside For Walks And How Often?

When housebreaking your husky, you should take him out five to six times to ensure that he has no need to go potty indoors. You should take him out right after each meal and also in-between meals to avoid any accidents. Once your husky dog and is properly housetrained, you can take him outside less often, three to four time will be enough for your husky to do his business.

Will Punishing My Husky Puppy For Peeing On The Carpet Help Discourage Going Potty Indoors?

First of all let me say that punishment should never be used. No matter what you are trying to teach you’re husky, there are other ways of getting him to learn what you want him to learn. So the basic answer is NO, punishing your husky puppy for peeing or pooping inside your house will not help you get him housetrained mainly because he won’t associate the punishment with the action.

What Do I Do When I Catch My Husky Peeing Indoors?

Don’t let your husky finish his business indoors because if he sees you watching him and letting him finish then he will assume that you are okay with it and that peeing indoors is just fine. What you want to do is, if you can that is, firmly say “NO” and bring him outside and let him finish there.

What’s The Best Way To Prevent Any Accidents From Happening While Housetraining?

The absolute best way to prevent any accidents from happening indoors is to walk your husky as many times as many times as you can. Also make sure to get rid of the urine smell because if your husky can smell that he has gone potty there before, he will think that it’s okay to go there again.

How Do You Get Rid Of The Urine Smell?

Huskies have a far more superior sense of smell than us humans do and while you might think that you cleaned up the accident all the way, there is still probably a smell left lingering that you’re husky can pick up quite easily. However all hope is not lost and you can easily clean it up with urine odor remover. Just spray it and let it do its work!