Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was just wondering how your puppy is doing, and if you would like to share some pics, I would love to see her.

She is doing wonderful. I named her Shyia and she already responses well to her name! I have already had her out on two boat trips which she loves and every night I take her somewhere new. She's gone to the snowball stand and was the main attraction there and then she also enjoyed watching the golfers at the driving range. She just loves the attention when she is out in public. She's doing well with potty training (only a few accidents) and she sleeps throughout the whole night, which I am very pleased with. I have plenty of pictures but I have yet to get around to loading them on my computer, hopefully soon I will be posting some. I have a couple of questions:

If I leave her alone at all she cries, unless she is really tired. I expected this but what can I do to help her get over it?

My family has a 12 year old golden retriever. Shyia is constantly wanting to play with her, but the golden retriever wants nothing to do with her, pretty much just ignores her and every once in a while barks at Shyia if she jumps on her. Is this harmful to socializing Shyia when she meets other dogs?

I am thinking about purchasing a underground electrical fence. I am soon going to be living in a house with 4 other guys and I am concerned about if I do not have this fence she will probably be able to escape and run off often. I always been concerned about a electrical fence hurting the dog but it is better then her running off and getting hit by a car. So do sibes do well with containment by a underground electrical fence?

I have switched her food over to science diet puppy food. Is this a quality choice?

-Pat

Hi Pat, I'm so glad your puppy is doing great. I love the name Shiya also. Hope I spelled it right. Anyway I put pics of my pups on a forum a few spaces down from this one, if you want to check them out. As far as the crying goes, Mariya did this as well, everytime I was out of her site she would cry, and scream as though someone was killing her. Once she realized that when I leave, I also come back she got used to it, and stopped this behavior, so it will take some time. I would keep her away from the older dog, as you don't want to give her a chance to have a bad experience, and the older dog may end up biting her at some point, Maybe you could start a puppy play group, that's what I have always done each time I got a new puppy,it's a great socializing tool for both you, and your puppy, you can meet other puppy people, and maybe switch off on play dates or puppy sitting.
The electric fence is not a reccomended secure fence for a siberian, it is in my experience with people I know that a Siberian husky does not care if they get shocked, if there is a small animal on the other side they will run right through, again, and again. I have heard of people using electric fencing in addition to a regular fence, so the dog will not dig under. I have never had a problem with my dogs trying to get out, we have a 1 acre fenced in play area for the dogs, the fence is a split rail, with mesh, it is 4 ft high. I suggest you get a mountain bike, and a springer bike attachment, as this is an awesome way to exercise her when she gets older, we started sledding last winter at the end of the season as Jonah was just old enough at that time { not supposed to run them to hard while still growing} We bought a wheeled rig for Fall training, and also bought a sled. Mariya, Jonah, and Luna have a wading pool in their yard to play in. I can't wait to get another puppy.
As far as the food goes Science diet isn't really all that great. We feed Premium edge dog food, I know alot of people feed Innova, and Eagle pack to their siberians. Hope I didn't give to much unwanted info, just very excited for you.

No experience with those fences, but from what I know about Sibes, they will ignore the pain and run right through the thing. You need a real fence... 4 foot if she can see through it, otherwise 6 foot.

Walt