In article ,
sighthounds & siberians wrote:
No, it's not true that you can't obedience train Siberian Huskies.
However, as you already know, they're very intelligent and quite
independent, which means that they generally bore pretty easily. You
need to make training fun and interesting for her.

That can't be repeated often enough. Classes are great,
too. If nothing else, the dogs just like going to class and
having an outing that revolves around them.

Here's a thing about prong collars, and it may be my own
somewhat circumscribed experience talking, but I'm a big fan
of clicker training for easily bored dogs that shut down
when offended, and I've never been in a clicker training
class that advocated the use of prongs. That's unfortunate
especially because they do tend to favor head halters, which
I think are a bad idea for a dog that's apt to bolt.

Prong collars often work better than choke collars on
Siberians, because the dog self-corrects when it pulls. Be warned,
though, that the pulling instinct is so strong in some Siberians that
they will pull in spite of a prong collar.

One thing that cracks me up with the dogs is that when you
try the "make like a tree" thing that's popular with some
trainers, a lot of Siberians will just lean against the
collar and not back off. You have to get out of it without
the dog thinking it's won, which for us means turning around
and heading in the other direction (and keep changing
direction before the dog has the chance to hit the end of
the leash again). (I'm having a dickens of a time with
Cinder, but now that sledding season is effectively over we
can get back to work on leash manners.)

I don't know anything about weight-pulling and will leave this to
someone else. Melinda, are you reading this?

Don't have a clue about weight pulling. If there's a local
breed club they'll be a great resource.

First thing is to get her into an obedience class where you'll learn
how to teach her normal, everyday life commands. Then you can either
read up on how to teach her pulling-type commands, or you could look
for a Siberian Husky club in your area or perhaps some other group
that does carting, sledding, etc. There are also numerous online
discussion lists on subjects such as this that would be helpful.

Emmett's got great steering and frankly he learned it
through osmosis. From the time he was a puppy I gave him
gee/haw commands every time we went out. With skijoring you
have to be a competent skier, sometimes because the dog is
going to slingshot you all over the trail at high speeds (if
the dog's strong or you're light) or because you're going to
have to help the dog out (if the dog isn't strong or you're
heavy).

The bike thing is a good idea and would
help her expend some energy.

I think it's a *great* idea, with the caveat that you have
to be careful about overheating a dog with a heavy coat.
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis -

2/3 of the Social Security Trustees are political appointees