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please read this book if you think you cant train a husky off the lead


tommyboi36

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i have wrote about letting huskys off the lead before and have had alot off shit from it.

i am reading a book at the minit about a philosopher who owed a wolf and the book is about him bringin up and living with this wolf i have olny read a little at the moment but i am glued to it ,

he traines is wolf on and of the lead within 15 minits and belives it is and i quote,

"people including people who owned wolfs told me that it was impossible to train wolf to walk on leash , those sort of people who kept there wolfs , wolf-dog or dogs loked up in a run in the back garden , and that i belive is a criminal act for wich a custodial sentence would be apropiate .it actually took no more than two minits to get brenin to walk on leash . outher people told me it was impossible to train a wolf to walk heel . that took a further 10 minits .once we masterd the basics of that teaching brenin to walk of leash was suprisingly easy "

i could go on as there is alot about people beliveng it is impossible to do this and that but i wont lol the book is called the philosopher and the wolf and is a life changin book to those who hold there huskys as they are the closest things to wolfs , de0ar to them i fully recomend it .

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i have wrote about letting huskys off the lead before and have had alot off shit from it.

i am reading a book at the minit about a philosopher who owed a wolf and the book is about him bringin up and living with this wolf i have olny read a little at the moment but i am glued to it ,

he traines is wolf on and of the lead within 15 minits and belives it is and i quote,

"people including people who owned wolfs told me that it was impossible to train wolf to walk on leash , those sort of people who kept there wolfs , wolf-dog or dogs loked up in a run in the back garden , and that i belive is a criminal act for wich a custodial sentence would be apropiate .it actually took no more than two minits to get brenin to walk on leash . outher people told me it was impossible to train a wolf to walk heel . that took a further 10 minits .once we masterd the basics of that teaching brenin to walk of leash was suprisingly easy "

i could go on as there is alot about people beliveng it is impossible to do this and that but i wont lol the book is called the philosopher and the wolf and is a life changin book to those who hold there huskys as they are the closest things to wolfs , de0ar to them i fully recomend it .

First of all, sorry to be blunt, but the plural of 'wolf' is 'wolves'. I HATE it when people say 'wolfs'...its a pet peeve of mine.

And, actually, the dog that is the closest genetically is the Chihuahua! Of course, Sibes do look like wolves, but that doesn't mean they act like it!

Personally, I think this philosopher is talking bull.

I read this article: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-philosopher-and-the-wolf-by-mark-rowlands/article1143675/page1/

And assuming they are about the same person, I think the author/philosopher has some mental issues.

I feel sorry for the wolf.

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i have 1 i CAN let off n 1 i CANT let off lead

i DONT let either offlead - its not worth the risk imo - i know sum1 who used to let hers offlead for years they came back EVERY time then 1 day only 1 came back n the other ran off - 2 years on (might b nearing 3 years now) she still has no idea where her dog is or if he is still alive or not :(

i would never forgive myself if something happened to them - specially when u can buy 100ft long leads for a good price

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I don't think anybody is really saying that a husky can not be trained to be off a lead, because they can but it's the fact that they can never be 100% reliable whilst off that lead. I know someone who trained their husky to be off lead and the dog was for many years, then one day saw something that took their fancy and they were off and missing for 2 days. I am never prepared to take that risk with my 2 as they are just too precious to me :)

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I'd really like to meet this person who can achieve a reliable, bombproof recall in 15 minutes. That would really fascinate me.

Any dog can be "off leash" my dogs do it everyday at work or at the dog park! They recall every time! Take that fence away and throw a few running squirrels in the equation...

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Lets just say that some have luck and some have not. Some are lucky that their dog always kept listening to their owner, some had the bad luck that after many many years of perfect recall suddenly your dog did NOT respond to your callback. You'll have no idea what triggered it, but what will be sure of is the guilty feeling after you realised that was the last thing you saw your dog do. For most this luckily ends with a fizzle but I can easily built up a list of threads posted on this forum where it didn't end that nicely.

It takes one second, only one second of this dogs entire life that can end it all. This one second can come from that cat across the road that looked slightly more interesting that you, but also from your dog responding a bit too late to the callback. The truth is that one of the Siberian Husky's traits is its hunting instincts. You can suppress it with good training, but not fully get it out of your dog. The scariest part of it is that there are no signs beforehand. Year after year your dog it the most obedient dog you've ever had and then suddenly it just happens, and your dog will be gone. I'm not saying just to scare people, I'm saying this because I have my own experience with this, and it's anything but nice.

Is it really worth that risk? I'd rather have that 100% assurance that my dogs will never have to meet the bumper of a car, instead of just '99%' (which is what most people often say their dog's recallability is).

I'm not slating any people that have their huskies off lead. I'm just concerned about people that just say that because their dog is off lead, others should be as well and keep saying that they should just 'do' it and it will all be fine. That's scary...

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agree with jos

i have a staffy x whippet who i can and do let offlead (when i take him out on his own) i can call him off rabbits and the such - but chuck a cat infront of him n despite living with a cat for 6 years he WILL chase them - so i prefer to use flexi-leads or long leads with mine where i can - its just safer - hes an obedient dog who is my shadow - but he is still a dog and somethings things will catch their intrest that wouldnt have before

someone quoted something a while back that always sticks in my head - 'its your dog and your choice and yet not your life at risk' and i couldnt agree with that more - which is why i will ALWAYS have my dogs onlead

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The risk is just far too great and I am sure that the statistics of lost, injured and killed huskies is enough to speak for itself. Husky owners who are tempted to let their dogs off lead should think very long and very hard before doing it. There are some very very experienced husky owners and dog trainers on here who would never consider letting their dogs off lead. I don't think members are giving other members "shit for it" over letting huskies off lead. They are just trying to point out the facts of what in all probability will happen if you let your husky off lead. I for one will continue to take my dogs by car to an off safe enclosed off lead dog exercise area to let them run off lead and even then I don't take my eyes off them.

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I'm not too ashamed or embarrassed to say I'd be too scared try and train Kobi off the lead. We had a husky previously and did our research before we adopted him. We accepted at that time that if we wanted a dog we get let loose through all the wonderful woods where we live then we'd need to change our thinking and get a different breed. Its not just about the dog, its also about the safety of other people and with this breed the safety of farm animals in the area. Yes foxes attack farm animals but they aren't in any way domesticated and don't have a human responsible for their actions. There is a busy main road to cross to get from the woods to the fields so thats another area where my dog could be of serious danger to people.

I wouldn't even let Kobi off lead in a dog park at this point in our relationship (we adopted him last November) nevermind off the lead. The ramifications if it does go wrong could be widespreading and more than simply losing a beloved dog.

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i have wrote about letting huskys off the lead before and have had alot off shit from it.

i am reading a book at the minit about a philosopher who owed a wolf and the book is about him bringin up and living with this wolf i have olny read a little at the moment but i am glued to it ,

he traines is wolf on and of the lead within 15 minits and belives it is and i quote,

"people including people who owned wolfs told me that it was impossible to train wolf to walk on leash , those sort of people who kept there wolfs , wolf-dog or dogs loked up in a run in the back garden , and that i belive is a criminal act for wich a custodial sentence would be apropiate .it actually took no more than two minits to get brenin to walk on leash . outher people told me it was impossible to train a wolf to walk heel . that took a further 10 minits .once we masterd the basics of that teaching brenin to walk of leash was suprisingly easy "

i could go on as there is alot about people beliveng it is impossible to do this and that but i wont lol the book is called the philosopher and the wolf and is a life changin book to those who hold there huskys as they are the closest things to wolfs , de0ar to them i fully recomend it .

yes it is a good read ..i have the book ....but as always ...it is a risk you take to unleash your husky ....ther are 8 huskies ...that go out by me ...but only 2 .are of lead ..the rest stay on ...its a choice you make yourself ....and yes a wolf can be walked on alead ....iive met ...2 wolf hybrids ...who were fine ...and walked with a wolf at the conservation trust ......enjoy the rest of your book :)

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I would never let my two offlead, ever unless it was 100% secure area.

Nix has already used my fave quote so I wont use it again.

However, please remember some people let their dogs offlead for years and then something happens.

Al on here, bless him. His husky is missing. He lives in mountains in the us somewhere (cant remember), she has been missing for months. He doesnt know where she is. Think how he feels, he now wishes hed kept her on a lead.

Theres another member on here, who lost his husky because he got hit by a car. Another offleash.

Need me to go on?

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OK will the original poster PLEASE read what they have copied from the book.

According to YOUR copied text this guy is training his Wolf to walk ON leash. . . . NOT OFF.

Therefore your argument that this means that Huskies can be trained to walk with you OFF leash is completely invalid.

If you were saying that because this guy can teach a Wolf to walk nicely ON leash and

therefore you can also teach a Husky to walk nicely ON leash. your argument would be valid.

Many of us HAVE taught our Huskies to walk nicely ON leash.

It takes time and patience, but it is doable, :)

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Why Can’t Siberian Huskies Safely Go Off-Lead?

This is one of the constant questions raised about Siberian Huskies.

You would think it would be enough that:



  • every responsible Siberian Husky owner will tell you that it is not safe to let a Siberian Husky off lead in an unenclosed area

  • every ethical Siberian Husky Breeder will tell you that it is not safe to let a Siberian Husky off lead in an unenclosed area

  • every single Siberian Husky rescue organisation IN THE WORLD will tell you that it is not safe to let a Siberian Husky off lead in an unenclosed area; and that

  • every single Siberian Husky Club IN THE WORLD will tell you exactly the same thing.

Now these people and organisations don’t take this line for fun, or to "big up" the wild nature of their dogs, or to try to keep the breed exclusive. They take it because it accurately reflects the bitter experience of thousands of owners worldwide over a long period of time.

However, this obviously is not enough because there are still a steady stream of people who just don’t believe this unanimous and ubiquitous message. When you give examples of Siberians which have been killed, caused accidents or been shot by farmers for killing/savaging livestock, the doubters come back with, “But you could say the same about any breed!†– and to be honest, in many respects they would be right. Too many irresponsible owners of all kinds of dogs let their dog off lead with little thought for their dog’s safety, the safety of other animals, or the safety of the public. That is not for discussion here though. I want to explain why, in my opinion, it is never safe to let Siberian Huskies offlead in unenclosed areas.

So, Why is the off-lead thing such a big deal with huskies? What makes them different from other breeds?

There are two major factors, both embedded deep within the history of the breed. The dogs we now know as Siberian Huskies were originally developed by what are known as the “maritime†Chukchi people of North East Siberia who relied on dogs for transportation during the frozen winter. Other Chukchi groups relied on Reindeer for both food and winter transportation. The maritime Chukchi lived in fixed summer villages along the Bering Sea coast, but during the arctic/sub-arctic winter, became nomadic – following and hunting whatever game was available. The Chukchi would load their whole families on their sled and using teams of up to 20 dogs, would hunt all winter, sometimes covering 100 miles a day in their search for food. It was originally estimated that the Chukchi’s dogs had been in existence for some 3000 years, but recent archeological research has found the remains of sled-type dogs going back well over 10,000 years. Indeed, the Siberian Husky has been recognised as one of the oldest dog breeds known to mankind, so they have had a long time for their instincts and behavioural traits to become hard-wired into them.

The two major factors I mentioned above are:



  1. An extremely strong Prey Drive; and

  2. A fiercely independent intelligence.

Prey Drive - The source of their prey drive is simple. During the summer, when they were not required as transportation, the Chukchi dogs ran free around the summer villages, rarely being fed by their owners, but existing (if not prospering) on what they could steal or catch. As winter came and food became scarce the dogs once more became sled dogs (of course not all the dogs returned - accidents and natural predators accounted for some, but at least there were no roads for them to be killed on). This pattern of behaviour was built up over a period of time which has been estimated as long as 10,000 years.

As a result of millennia of such behaviour, these dogs now have a fearsome prey drive and the hunting skills to match. It is very common to hear that someone’s huskies have killed cats, rabbits, squirrels, birds (ours have taken birds out of the sky as they fly over our garden at low level) and even sheep. It is rare that they regard even small dogs as “prey†as they seem to be able to recognise a fellow canine.

Independent Intelligence – You will occasionally hear dog trainers complain that huskies are not “trainable,†and you will consistently see them left out of lists of “The Ten Most Intelligent Dog Breeds†etc. The problem with such trainers and such lists is that they confuse obedience and “biddability†with intelligence, and, in reality they are not at all the same thing. Train a Border Collie to fetch a ball and it will tend to retrieve the ball time after time after time. Train a Siberian Husky to fetch a ball and it will do one of two things – either eat the ball, or bring it back once. The next time you throw it the sibe will look at you as if to say – “You threw it! YOU get it back! Do you think I’m that stupid?â€Â

When you give a trained Border Collie a command, you usually get instant obedience. When you give a command to a Husky, the Husky actually thinks about it before deciding to comply or ignore the command. This may sound like bloody-mindedness, but it is in fact a deeply ingrained survival trait for arctic sled dogs. Think about it. You are the lead dog on a sled team pulling your Chukchi owner and his family across the frozen sea ice. Your owner shouts for you to turn right down a trail between a line of ice seracs as he knows this is the way to get to a safe camping area for the night. As lead dog, you can see that a right turn leads you to the edge of a deep crevasse and you refuse to make the turn. It is this intelligence and independence of thought which has been bred into Siberian Huskies over thousands of generations.

An example of this came from Leonhard Seppala’s famous lead dog (and hero of the 1925 Dipheria Run – Togo. One day, Seppala was running his team, led by Togo, over the sea ice of the notorious Norton Sound,

“Togo had been leading his sled across the sound during a northeastern gale on another occasion when, a few miles from shore, Seppala heard an ominous crack that let him know the sea ice was breaking up. Togo headed toward shore even before Seppala could give the command, but drew up short so fast he nearly flipped backwards. A yawning chasm of water had opened almost at Togo’s feet, but the dog had reacted quickly enough to avert immediate disaster. Seppala looked around and realized with dismay that he and his team were trapped on an ice floe and headed out to sea.

They spent more than twelve hours on that raft of ice, waiting as it drifted in the icy waters. Finally it neared land, but ran up against another floe that was jammed against the ice still connected to shore. they stopped moving, but there was still a five foot gap of water that Seppala couldn’t hope to cross. He tied a lead onto Togo and heaved the dog across the water. Togo landed on the ice and sensing what Seppala intended, the dog began pulling with all his might, narrowing the gap between the two ice floes. Then the lead rope snapped. Seppala thought he was a dead man. Then Togo, showing himself to be possessed of more intelligence and resourcefulness than most men could expect from even their lead dogs, leaped into the water and grabbed the broken end of the lead rope in his jaws. He clambered back onto the ice and continued pulling until he had narrowed the gap enough for Seppala and the sled to cross safely.â€Â

As it was with Seppala’s Siberian dogs, so it is today with our Siberian Huskies. No matter how well trained your Sibe is, there is always a part of his/her mind that, when he/she hears an instruction thinks, "Is it a good idea to follow that order?" and also, "What's in it for me?" - When you combine that independence of thought and keen intelligence with the high prey drive, you can see that obedience when offlead is a very dodgy prospect indeed.

Huskies don’t help themselves in this regard. It is often found that husky puppies will act in extremely obedient ways for the first few months of their lives. I have lost count of the number of owners who have told me their Sibe is the exception that proves the rule and is ultra-obedient. Upon further discussion, it almost always transpires that the dog is a puppy – 4 or 5 months old! Sibe puppies can lull you into a false sense of security - then puberty hits, they realise that they don’t need you, and all bets are off!!!

We have been interested in Siberians for 20 years and have owned them for 17+. During that time we have personally come across at least one owner each year whose “highly trained†Sibe has "gone deaf" for the first and last time and ended up dead under a car, shot by a farmer for savaging livestock or having caused a major traffic accident. The common theme is that all these owners quite genuinely believed that they could train this trait out of their dogs; that their relationship with their dogs was so good that their dogs would always respond to the recall command; and that the recommendation of every husky related organisation IN THE WORLD was nonsense and that they and their dog were somehow special. Unfortunately, these owners learned the hard way with tragic consequences for themselves and their dogs. The plaintive, “He/She’s always come back before†is a common refrain in these tragic cases.

This is exactly the naive "I know better than every Siberian Husky organisation in the world" attitude which unfortunately leads to the deaths of too many Siberians each year. My wife is an expert dog trainer. I have seen her achieve things with Sibes (and other dogs) that I would have thought pretty near impossible. All our adult dogs have excellent recall and obedience and are often a source of amazement to people who regard sibes as untrainable. Yet neither she nor I would ever let our dogs off lead in an unsafe/unenclosed area because we know that their recall can never be 100% and they are much too precious for us to risk.

Having said all that, we believe strongly that all Siberian Husky owners should train their dogs in recall. We always recommend that people train their Siberians to recall IN SAFE ENCLOSED AREAS to as high a level as possible. Even in the best regulated worlds accidents sometimes happen – dogs slip their collars, snap their leads, escape from cages etc etc – and if you have trained your dog to recall, at least you have a chance of getting it back. Such training cannot be guaranteed, but at least it’s a form of insurance.

Talking about insurance – a message to all those who, despite all the evidence and arguments, still insist on letting their dogs go offlead in unenclosed areas – get some public liability insurance. If your dog goes offlead and causes an accident or kills livestock – YOU are liable. On second thoughts, maybe it’s not worth it! The fact that every single Siberian Husky organisation in the world advises against letting them off lead, the owner whose dog caused the crash or killed the livestock could be liable for huge damages, as in legal terms, it could be argued that by acting against such universal informed advice, they had been incredibly negligent in letting their dog off lead in an unenclosed area and that this obvious negligence would invalidate their insurance.

Just a thought!

Mick Brent

Dreamcatcher Siberian Huskies

The Siberian Husky Welfare Association (UK)

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I would never give any husky owner the, "false hope," that their husky would listen off lead- but I know the capabilities of mine, his body language and such- I can tell when he a stubborn moment. He has a VERY excellent recall. That all was proved when he slipped his lead- and chased after a small dog someone was walking... I yelled his name and Come! He halted in his tracks and came running back! [Even I was SHOCKED!] He got tons of praise and play for that!

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I would never give any husky owner the, "false hope," that their husky would listen off lead- but I know the capabilities of mine, his body language and such- I can tell when he a stubborn moment. He has a VERY excellent recall. That all was proved when he slipped his lead- and chased after a small dog someone was walking... I yelled his name and Come! He halted in his tracks and came running back! [Even I was SHOCKED!] He got tons of praise and play for that!

but that is false hope. One day your husky may see something that is way more interesting than you.

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