the further adventures of HB

[guest311]

Beautiful pup, I am so jealous that you can let him off leash, my previous two couldn't be trusted off leash at all, and douchebag that I have now barely listens inside the house let alone outside with freedom.

As you know Huskies are for the most part complete drama queens, I've had many a self healing ailment with mine over the last 15yrs!!! Makes it tough to figure out when they really are sick or under the weather.

may I assume that you also get the 'talking' when you are not doing what he/she wants ?
'aaarrow, mmmmmmm, arrrrr' etc, ad infinitum.

translates - usually - as where is my biscuit / treat / hide chew / kong / dinner / lead  plus too many other things.

mind you, HB is now, having gorged himself on left over baked potato skins ...



and likely to remain so till the fridge door is opened ...
CHEESE 

why didn't I just get another shepherd  :'(

[guest311]

It was between 10 and 12 yrs before my original two slowed down, even then they could still come up with surprises, such as the night my male husky looked around at me with a squirrel in his mouth, he was on a 6ft leash and have no idea where he found and got the squirrel, my female would howl at garden statues, she couldn't figure them out.

My current guy isn't very vocal, I think he is broken, he gruffs more than anything.

Wouldn't trade him for the world, all the warnings you can read about the breed are 100% true, but as you say be a good owner then you will have a good dog.

It won't be long before he blows his coat, there is already fur in everything, can't wait for more to come off of him.

so HB is 7 1/2

I am 74

so when he is 12 ...



I'll be 78 ish  :'(

and that is when he'll calm down, but by then I'll be walking him in a zimmer frame  :'( :'( :'(

[guest311]

HB's daily walk includes his daily groom [no - I don't let the fur go everywhere, it goes in a poo bag then in the bin] but at the moment it's only dead top coat, though before long the lovely soft undercoat will begin to come out as well.
if only I could find someone who spins / weaves with soft fur, I COULD MAKE A BOMB.

mind you, HB would no doubt want his cut, in chews, and I'd probably end up, making a loss.

Izzy will not walk with HB, so when she has her evening walk, HB stays at home, "singing" till she gets back, when I then have to take him out  :'( :'( :'(, and although she is about 1/3rd of his weight / size, she will regularly put him in his place.

she also sleeps on our bed, but he will only come up on it to sleep if she has got off first.

dogs drive you to 

[TrevL]

Out of interests sake Alan, does HB have an actual name?  You've mentioned Izzy and Coco's, but never HB's, unless I've missed it.

[guest311]

sorry,
HB also known as Oscar.

we've never changed our rescue dogs names, though with foresight I might have made an exception in his case, and renamed him

tigger !

[TrevL]

Thanks Alan, I'll never forget that, my new grandson is also an Oscar

[guest311]

I hadn't realised how long it had been since the last update, though with the fields a soggy morass since weeks before xmas, HB has been taking his exercise on the pavements for the last 3-4 months.

we did try the fields one day, after a heavy frost, but it had not got into the ground so every step you broke through the frozen top, and down into the muddy slurry underneath.

mind you, it's fun giving a husky a shower  :'( :'(

with the freezing temperatures the last week or so, I decided today to hit the fields again, and it was much better as everywhere was frozen solid.

did manage to let the idiot off lead for a short while, but so many IDOs and walkers meant he had to be on lead most of the time.

still, it was nice to see him once again racing round free, even if only for a short time.

[Newportnobby]

did manage to let the idiot off lead for a short while, but so many IDOs and walkers meant he had to be on lead most of the time.

still, it was nice to see him once again racing round free, even if only for a short time.

Presumably that was Hairy Beast reporting there

[guest311]

ha ha
I'm always well behaved when off the lead

[guest311]

mind you,
HB did disgrace himself a couple of weeks ago 

there's a woman lives in a local road that has a miniature pig she walks on a lead, and HB is seriously interested every time he sees it, or even scents it.

so a few weeks ago we were walking along the road, and she and the pig were ahead of us, she crossed over the road, and HB was pulling like hell trying to catch up with them when



I'm standing there with the lead and part of the check chain in my hands, while HB with the rest of the check chain is off across the road to say hello 

luckily she picked the pig up, and HB was just sat looking up at it, and there was enough of the check chain left for me to clip the lead onto the last link to get him home.

saw her a few days later, and the pig was fine, just a bit shaken, though it was squealing like  a stuck pig.

spare check chain checked, as were leads and collars, an a new heavy duty check chain bought.

what did surprise me was that when I looked on fleabay, you can still buy the check chains that have the spikes inside. thought they'd been banned years ago.

[Newportnobby]

You really must stop giving HB pork scratchings

[guest311]

for the second day running, HB took his exercise over the frozen fields 

no pigs in sight, so he was allowed off the lead and as usual acted the total idiot, tracking, checking mouse / rabbit holes, and trying to follow squirrels up trees 

note, huskies can't climb 

bitter wind today, so far fewer people out, but it is still difficult to differentiate across a field a walker from an IDO, taking no notice of their dog in the next field, so in addition to going back on his lead for each choke-point, he had to be recalled several times before walkers were identified as not being IDOs.

all in all, he had a good time off lead, before heading home to have his brunch.

now, having eaten, had dental chew, then hide chew, he's now resting under the dining room table.

it's a dogs life !

mind you, with the temperature rising a couple of degrees, no doubt the fields will soon thaw, and he'll be back to road work for the foreseeable future.
still, it wears his claws down, HE DOES NOT LIKE HAVING HIS CLAWS CLIPPED  :'(

[chrism]

for the second day running, HB took his exercise over the frozen fields 

no pigs in sight, so he was allowed off the lead and as usual acted the total idiot, tracking, checking mouse / rabbit holes, and trying to follow squirrels up trees 

note, huskies can't climb 

I take it, however, that he still hasn't worked that bit out?

[guest311]

I was warned when I took him on that huskies were total escape artists, if a fence was too tall to climb over, they would tunnel under instead.

luckily, HB has never been a digger, nor a fence climber, but he did have a spate where he would slip out between your legs if you answered the front door, and then be off across the fields on his own.

now NEVER open the front door till I know HB is secured in another room.

even the loop end of the lead learns sometimes 

[Trainfish]

..................he did have a spate where he would slip out between your legs ................

Oh dear, dare I ask why he was between your legs in the first place? I have a horrible mental picture in my mind which I need to get rid of asap.