Tips and Tricks for Training, Feeding, and Health for your working Alaskan Husky Pet

what's on this page
feeding tips    training tips    doghouse design    health tips

Above picture is most of our Long-distance race team lounging around in the living room, Jennifer did a excellent job with their obedience training, they are all high-spirited, Olympic class athletes of the canine world.

General Information

First of all, the information on this page is tried and true and what I do here with all my dogs, (there are a few different ways to achieve an objective and alot of ways that do not work) written below are one of the ways that I found that works but please recognize that each dog has its own behavioral habits along with its own eating habits. The dogs that I am going to speak about are Alaskan Huskies, the information as far as I am concerned should only be applied to working Alaskan Husky dogs. Some of the information may work with other breeds but I am NOT familiar with any other breed but the Alaskan Husky. This page is not intended to be a complete training course it is ONLY intended  to help with specific problems as dog owners relate those problems to me.

Dogs are like people, some are short-tall-thin-fat-smart-not so smart etc. You must look at your dog as a individual with its own way of thinking. It is imperative that you try to understand him/her especially in wanting a happy dog with good habits. My philosophy is "that I want a dog to have good performing habits based on his/her willingness to please me", so positive reinforcement (praise) is a must. But understand that I also believe a dog does not know what "dog heaven" is unless it understands what "dog hell" is. An example of this would be a hard headed dog that just wants to do things their way. When working with teams of dogs it is essential that they ALL respond to a command at the same time and respond properly. "Summer" is a dog that if you just raise your voice to her in a forceful manner will create a "dog hell" response and she will look for you to walk her through the proper way to perform the command, on the other hand, "Tiger" is a dog that is going to take a very hard physical smack on the butt or even pin him to the ground to understand "dog hell" but once I did it I have never needed to do it again because I work off the positive reinforcement (praise) in training. Remember one thing, all dogs get confused in training at some point in time, when this happens, immediately you MUST take them back to square one and have them perform simple commands that they KNOW and PRAISE them for the performance, this will allow the dog to get over the confusion that it had, and again reinforce the "want to please you" attitude.

  Feeding Tips

Here we feed by kcal or calorie intake not by volume. It is easier for us to base the daily food fed on how many hours our dogs are working each day, thus we have a daily maintenance amount per dog based on its weight and then we just add calories by the 8 oz measuring cup. We feed the dogs that are not working once to twice per day and dogs that are working up to 6 times per day.
Dry food is more digestible then moist food. But in the winter you will always see the main meal of the day mixed with water, that is because a dog that runs 5 hours needs to intake 1/2 gallon of water per day and alot of Alaskan Huskies do not like to drink that much.
On the average daily maintenance requirements (dog not working) is 800 to 1300 kcal/day based on 35 to 55 lb dogs here at the kennel.

The extreme working dog (running 12 hours per day) can consume up to 10,000 kcal.

1) The following figures are approximate amounts, please pay attention to your individuals dogs needs.
2) A 45 lb working Alaskan Husky will consume about 600 kcal/working hour
3) A 55 lb working Alaskan Husky will consume about 830 kcal/working hour
4) Fat contains 4000 kcal/lb or 1 8oz measuring cup of fat contains 1/2 lb or 2000 kcal
5) Beef (good lean quality) contains about 800 kcal/8 oz measuring cup
when your Husky is working 50% of the total kcal intake should come from fat
6) Water is extremely important, you can feed all the food he will eat but will lose weight if not enough water is available for him/her to drink.
7) Look at the bottom of the ingredients of the food bag that you are feeding, there should be a "Metabolizable energy" number, for example 369 kcal/cup, this number will tell you how many calories your dog can digest in 1 cup of food.

I never exceed 50% fat in a dogs total daily calorie intake.

I never give my dogs table scraps or bones. I have seen first hand that a dog does not chew up bones finely which causes the intestinal track to be damaged causing blood in the stool and eventually causing a breakdown in the bacteria flora in the stomach disrupting good digestion of the food.

If you are having a weight problem, and your dog is out running for 1 hour or more you need to supply the dog with extra food/water based off of the information listed above.

 

Training Tips

Your new dog will come along way sooner with good habits if you follow the following advice.
Everybody in your house hold needs to be on the same page with training words, techniques, and discipline for your dog. Most of the time results are reached sooner if one person does the training and the others in your household comes in on the program as progress is made.

Only train your dog with one command at a time. When that command is fully understood by your dog move on to the next command. Example, when teaching my dogs left and right I start with "left" this may take a week of everyday training before I am satisfied at the dogs performance then and only then will I start to teach them "right". If in the process I confuse them I take them back to "square one" by telling them to sit or some other command they know and then praise them for that.

The following commands and functions are taught to each puppy here at my kennel. Listed is the command and the age that the puppy fully understands the command.
 

Doghouse design

The following is a simple indestructible doghouse. The barrel is a 55 gallon plastic barrel that had pickles in it. Use a barrel that had NON-TOXIC items in it.

The frame located on the bottom is 1-8' landscape tie bought at Menards Hardware. 2 pieces cut to length at 18" and 2-pieces cut to length at 30" . You can see by the picture that the short two pieces are the ones that contact the ground. Built this way the doghouse will be lifted off the ground by 6". I use 1-5" galvanized pole barn nail in each corner of the frame, to hold the frame together. After the frame has been built, center the barrel on top of the frame and use 4-2" epoxy coated deck screws per side to attach the barrel to the wood frame.

I think here "Blue" is wondering what I am doing with his house.

Health tips

Flies, ticks, mosquitoes, flea problems - I use Hartz advanced care Flea and Tick drops. The active ingredient is phenothrin. You can buy it at Wal-mart for $4.50 per package of 3 tubes. The difference is I only put 3 drops on the inside of the ear and three drops on the outside of the ear then rub the drops with two fingers all over the ear and make certain you get it rubbed down to the skin. WEAR LATEX GLOVES. One tube can do 9 dogs here at the kennel. I do buy the large breed packages because you just get more ingredient.

Is your dog digging in places where you do not want it dug up, take the dog poop and put it into the hole it dug and then cover the hole back up with dirt, dogs generally do not like to dig there again.

Dog pees in food dish - throw the pee on your dog if it lives outside, most dogs will quit doing it. You can also move the location of the food bowl, it may be located in its favorite peeing place.

Fly problems around your dog yard - I make my fly traps out of 2 liter plastic pop bottles, just cut the funnel top off the bottle and invert it into the bottom portion. Then punch holes in each side and tie a string through the holes, leave the string long enough so you can hang the trap from a tree etc., drop a few small cuts of meat in through the funnel top after a few days the flies will swarm in through the funnel top but cannot find their way out. I have 10 of these made and located in different places around the kennel.