Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently adopted from an animal shelter what I was told was a german shepherd mix, as he was an owner turn-in and that's what they were told,the AC went with that. I love the breed and have years of experience with them. I have come to believe however, that Deuce is a GSD and Siberian Husky mix(see photo)and he is showing more of the husky traits. I am not familiar with raising or training this type of dog and was looking for someone with daily hands-on experience with the breed (not just textbook)to give me advice on what I can expect, what to watch for, and how to circumvent some of his bad habits. And to possibly confirm my suspicions of his heritage - I know that's a long shot. I have never run across some of his traits and mannerisms in any other type of dog before and I've had dogs all my life. I love him to death but he is a mass of completely confusing contradictions. Any advice or info would be much obliged.
Link to Deuce

I can't get the link to work, but from what you describe, husky mix is definately what you've probably got! I love the breed and have worked with them quite a bit through friends, but I own a cousin to them who are a bit different, but just as impish.

SHvar will ome along and help you out the most I'm sure, but tell us about some of th quirky things your dog has done and I'm sure that will confirm or deny the heritage.
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Chelle and the rest of the crew including, but not limited to Kita and Taiko (the shiba inu wrestle maniacs), Adi (reserved and dignified tabby cat), and all 28 reptiles

Thank you for responding. The characteristics that Deuce is showing that makes me believe he's a sibe mix is the ululation(woo-woo), he constantly wants to go outside and finds anything and everything in the yard to chew. He is great with my 3 year old, very gentle, but he is an extreme food snatcher/counter surfer and he has starting I guess you would call it "fleaing" my daughter and my mom; he's done it to me also-but only once. He is constantly picking up Rae's toys to chew when I've bought him dozens of varied toys to interest him. He likes them but still goes for whatever is closest to him. Also he goes after my mom's chihuahua. He doesn't hurt her but he does aggravate her. I don't know if this is just a puppy trait he will outgrow or if it will worsen. Deuce is also constantly underfoot. He follows me around the house and never leaves my side.He shows absolutely no independence. That really confuses me because if he has the opportunity he will shoot out the door in a heartbeat. He also doesn't want to sleep on his bed. I've made sure its light weight because of his coat but he'd rather sleep on the floor with nothing, not even a sheet; he doesn't even try to get on the sofa or bed with me. Is that a usual trait? Without me truly knowing the breed its hard to know what is just puppy , what is rescued dog syndrome, and what is the norm for the breed. Also I'm not sure how to discipline him. I've raised 2 GSD and tried the same discipline with Deuce to no avail. He looks at me like my 3 year old does(the yeah right look) and just goes back to doing the same thing over and over again! I've trained Presas and didn't come across this much pigheadedness and sneakiness. I know that certain breeds are very fragile to harsh tones (e.g. the Rhodesian Ridgeback) and that you can actually ruin them and make them skittish for life. I don't want to make Deuce cower from me but I do want to let him know that I'm in charge. I think that I'm trying to get reassurance that sooner or later he will learn or at least stop some of the bad habits. I've heard "horror" stories from previous sibe owners that couldn't handle the dogs like the sibes chewing the siding off the house up to 4ft x 6ft area and another complained about the constant howling. I haven't run into anything that bad yet but it makes me worry. I want to learn how to best train my boy so that we are both happy as well as the rest of my family.

Sorry for the novel but I appreciate your help,
Amanda

That's a huge chunk of text. I'll answer as best as I am aware of.

The ululation does sound like a Husky. The chewing is just dog behavior, you should be able to train that.

Food snatching sounds like just dog behavior. (By the way, what I mean by dog behavior is untrained dogs.. your dogs were trained well so they don't do these, but would if you didn't train).

Same with chewing Rae's toys. Dog behavior, trainable.

Going after Chihuaha's sounds like poor socialization, not a prey drive. But it could be, I suppose. My Siberian will annoy the heck out of my cat but my cat fights back to him (a good sharp swats gets him away). Chi's are smaller and not as capable of fighting as cats are.

Siberians will usually want to be in the same area (visual or audible area) you are in 24/7, they are extreme pack animals. My Siberian will lay in the corner of the room, but there are some cuddly Siberians. Some are bad like mine as such I can't leave him on my upstairs patio which has a large window to the kitchen, the fact there's a closed door between us bothers him. Other dogs will be fine just seeing you through a window. Others need to be leaning on you all the time.

The bolting out of the door does sound like Siberian behavior. It's not that they are trying to escape from you, though. More likely he thinks you will go running with him (and you probably do, chasing him to get him back) instead of what you're actually doing.

My Siberian refused to sleep anywhere except the floor for the first two months I had him. Slowly he moved closer and closer to the bed, then he slept on the bed for about 30 minutes then moved to the floor again. Nowdays he sleeps on my bed the whole night unless I kick him off by accident. Could be similar.

It was really easy for me to train my mother's GSD and my father's Labs. My Sib was hard to train. Siberians are known to "shut down" from overly harsh criticism. I had to get rid of my electric fence because when he got shocked, he was terrified to go outside and just shut down anytime i made any indication of going outside, would stay in the center of the house furthest away from the fence and not budge for 8 hours.

If I shouted "Hey!" at him he'd tuck his tail and cower from me. So I learned to keep my criticism light hearted and it worked just as well.

For training is he food or toy motivated? Siberians will rarely follow a command if they don't think there's a good reason to follow it. My dog won't sit unless I say it VERY sternly or have a treat in hand. But I reserve the stern tone for important things otherwise he will probably take it too lightly because it's so common it doesn't matter.

It took a few months for my Siberian to start to let me run the house. Rescue dogs need time to settle in.

I'm SHVar will correct a lot of things I say and add a lot more so come back later!