Siberian husky as a family dog?

[91runner]

Hello all,
I just found a male and female pair of siberian husky that need a new home. I know they require a lot of excercise and work but was mainly wondering how they would be around my 4 year old and 6 month old. They were raised in a household with children (9, 16, 17) but mine are quite a big younger. Are they generally forgiving to the handful of hair pulled and rough housing?
Thanks for any and all advice I have been reading and browsing for awhile and come to respect the opinions and advice given on this site.

 

[Mamontof]

All depend about dog personality and character of previous owners .
Where the dog live and hay .

For dogs that could be big stress and shock , plus hay your family will react on them .

DOg like humans only can not talk .:ylsmoke:

 

[haven]

A friend owned a Siberian Husky. The dog was great with the family.
Unfortunately, the dog enjoyed getting out of the yard and exploring
the neighborhood. If the fence was too high to jump, then the dog would
quickly dig under, and escape. Huskies can cover a lot of ground quickly.
There were many calls (and bills) from the animal control agents in
surrounding towns. Eventually, the dog was sent to a friend with a large
farm, where being off leash was not an issue.

 

[scarysharkface]

We had a wonderful husky for many years. He was great with kids and pretty much everybody. We kept him in a high-fenced yard and never let him run loose. Those buggers will do 25 miles in a night, easy, and make friends with everybody. I miss Khatru greatly, RIP.

 

[EricBirk]

A friend owned a Siberian Husky. The dog was great with the family.
Unfortunately, the dog enjoyed getting out of the yard and exploring
the neighborhood. If the fence was too high to jump, then the dog would
quickly dig under, and escape. Huskies can cover a lot of ground quickly.
There were many calls (and bills) from the animal control agents in
surrounding towns. Eventually, the dog was sent to a friend with a large
farm, where being off leash was not an issue.

Pretty common with Huskies. They run and run then turn around and wonder where you went hahaha

Honestly though, its entirely based on personality. My best buddy for 10 years was a Shepherd/Husky, loved to run, smart, listened very well, and in the entire time I owned him I never once saw him or heard him get angry with anyone or anything. I also didnt know the history of him as we found him when he was about 3 on an island in the river north of town. He was extremely mal-nourished and showed signs of previous training, and major abuse.

I was born into a house, and grew up with a 130lb Rottweiler that with my dad at his side was a demonstration dog for the company that helped to train the police. Not once was I ever worried around him, even though he weight double what I did. He was the best babysitter ever as no one one even think of setting foot on our property. So alot of it is how they are brought up.

If you want a dog that will happily tear around the yard/surrounding area with you, will let your kids climb all over them, will be happy sitting in the snow at -30 (if you see that where you are from), then go hard. BUT the big thing is the exercise, if they get bored, they wreck stuff, and or try to get out. If they do get out you will have a hard time getting them back.

 

[JKDetonator]

Just Depends...

It depends entirely upon how the dogs were raised. If your home environment will be similar to theirs then they will be fine. I've had 2. The first one was raised with kids and was great with them; he was very protective. After divorce, while living alone, I got another one. We lived on a farm in the country and he would range 3-4 miles a day; no problem at the time for him or me. However, this one was named Kenai and would kill anything that I pointed him at. Coyotes, armadillos, snakes, etc. I would not let him around children. When kids were present he was put in a stall in the horse barn. The only thing Kenai was afraid of was my mule! So, again, it depends on the dog and its environment; caution would be advised if the dogs were raised without children present.

 

[91runner]

They were raised with children, just older them mine. going to look at them tomorrow and see how it goes. Our yard is fenced and we have 6" of chicken wire on either side of the bottom of the fence so that should help. I am worried about the alabama heat though. As long as there is a kiddie pool for when they are outside will that keep them cool enough? Will be nice to have someone to run with though.

 

[SunTzuNephew]

It all depends on the dog. We currently have a Sibe, Angel....she's quite different in personality than the last Sibe we had....Angel is quite calm (for a Sibe), and very, very good around kids. My last sibe was quite a bit more hyper..

But, all Sibes need a LOT of exercise - a good hour's walking a day (not all at once, although they wouldn't mind).

 

[bobcat charlie]

We had a Husky walk into the yard as a stray 14 years ago. We already had an Ottorhound but couldn't find the Husky's ('Little Dog'...he was smaller than the Ottorhound) owner, so decided to keep him.

First week, 3 escapes - taking the Ottorhound with him! We put a coller on him and let him in the house and all was well. Second week, I had the garage door open and the Husky entered from the back yard...saw the open garage door and backed right back into the back yard!

Never ran away again...died last year after 13 great years. He and the Otterhound were a team...the Husky was the smart one.

BTW...we had Little Dog for a year before we discivered he was deaf, he was that smart!

Mickey

 

[deepsouth]

I have a 14 year old husky that is wonderful. She is very passive around small children and other dogs. However, she is very protective of me and my family. I was once camping out of my backpack in a remote area and later that night found myself surrounded by 4 coyotes. She didnt budge one bit. There was not one ounce of fear in that dog. There was no way she was going to let them get close to my tent. I had never seen that side of her. The only problem i have ever had is that when she was young she could clear a 5ft fence with ease. She always came back but spent a lot of time roaming. Those dogs really like to be worked. I even have saddlebags for mine and she totes all of her food and water on our trips. They are really special dogs.

 

[yellocoyote]

We have a husky now - he was 3 (he's 5 now) when we adopted him from the shelter. He's very, very smart (almost too much), and has escaped a number of times from a number of different scenarios - he knows how to free himself from clips that you find on a leash or a backyard line, so we had to put a carabiner on... the type that have the threaded screw-type closure. Without thumbs, he can't get out of that one... yet.

He's a great dog - he's good with kids, and our cats, but very intolerant to smaller dogs that he finds annoying.

But with any dog, you'll have to learn their behavior, their personality and adjust accordingly. It took us a solid year of learning with our Sibe before we discovered most of his quirks.

Good luck!

 

[SunTzuNephew]

Tasha (my last sibe) was an escape artist... I finally had to find her a new home when she learned that she could break out through closed windows (5 windows and 4 visits to Animal Control that week.....)

Angel (my current sibe) likes nothing in the world more than chasing squirrels... I won't let her off leash unless there are a lot of other dogs around to keep her company. She's not too sure about cats, is interested in birds, ignores most people and small kids unless they approach her first. But, she's not that prone to dig out. Her only annoying habit is eating whatever she finds on the street: It sometimes makes her ill.

 

[R_Lefebvre]

My uncle has a Husky mixed with some fraction of wolf. Pretty good dog, but she needed to be dominated occaisionally. My uncle had to make my nephews do it too, otherwise she started dominating them. They had to use a choker chain to walk her because she'd rip your arm off otherwise. Beautiful dog, but I never felt safe with her around my baby, there is a wildness in her eyes. I always put myself between her and the baby when visiting.

As with all dogs, this can't be answered simply. It depends on the breed, and training.

 

[BriansFJ]

It depends on the dog, as said. I had a husky before and ended up giving him away to a family with a large lot for him to roam on. I now have afemale who is the biggest baby and lap dog, and she wants nothing more than to have her belly rubbed. She's great around my 5yo.

 

[skysix]

Family huskies

We've had our McKenzie Valley Husky for 9 years now - and countless escapes until she was 6 or 7. As posted - they need a lot of excercise, are very smart, and get bored easily. We lived in Yellowknife for many years and would run her across on the ice road to Dettah and back every day from 1 until 3 years...driving behind her at about 25-30 initally and 5-10 by the end of the run. Distances shortened as she got older but even at 7 years old when we were in Whitehorse she'd easily need a 5 mile 'jog' by vehicle on a backroad daily.

5 feet fences at a jump, 6 feet were a mild annoyance, 7 needed a 'chinup' to claw her way over. She can open an oven to get last nights pizza, cupboard doors if there is peanut butter or chocolate inside, counter surfs if she thinks we aren't around, destroys a cow foreleg bone in less than a week, 'sings' beautifully and has driven black bears away from camp in the winter.

Just like a Princess - high maintenance and worth every second you spend with them. Louie stands waist high at the shoulder (I'm 6'2") and weighs 75-80# and can really pull when she wants to! Some pics (that stump at Mt t. Helens is about 5'diameter at the base)

That being said.......we found buryng chicken fencing 2 ft down and two feet under the fence took care of the digging, and we have had friends who had a lot of success with coyote rollers on top of their fence to deal with the climbing issue. As for children....she has been wonderful with all ages - but with smaller children we always closely supervise....if you can figure out whether the huskies are strong prey driven or strong food driven that will really help make your decision- prey driven you do not want to take on while you have small children..... a child runs around playing and the dog is thinking *LARGE SQUIRREL!!!!!!* - food driven is easier because you can more easily control situations. That being said any dog can react to different stimuli in an unexpected way....both the children and the dogs must be trained. As for heat - we lived in AZ for 2 years - she had her swimming pool, and a large shade area
and lots of clean cold water.....she did well but during the heat of the day *12-4* stayed close to the swamp cooler and AC inside