Dog-Aggressive Siberian Husky

[Xena the Pooch]

Hi PTers,

I am pretty new to this forum, and I was wondering if someone could give me an insight on my sibe behavior.

I have a 1.5 year old female Siberian Husky. Her name is Xena and we got her from a Husky rescue group about a month ago. She is absolutely adorable around people, she just loves everyone!

However, she hates other dogs so much. We went to dog park and let her see other dogs playing from the other side of the fence, while giving her treats to associate other dogs with good stuff (I watched Ian Dunbar's video for that). That training seemed to help her overcome her aggressiveness a little bit, as she is not snappy anymore when other dogs approached her.

We went to a groomer/boarding/daycare yesterday to get a wash/brush, and she seemed to enjoyed it. We picked her up an hour later, and we went inside as the receptionist showed us the facility.

Under the receptionist's desk, there was 10 weeks old male Chihuahua sleeping in his bed. Xena came to sniffed him for a bit, before she bit him out of nowhere without growling or anything (the bite did not look like a play-bite). I was so surprised and yelled NO at her, she stopped and the Chihuahua was crying for like a minute. Thankfully, the Chihuahua did not bleed or anything.

I heard that Huskies have strong prey-drive, is there any way that she mistook the puppy as her prey? Xena is not food-aggressive and willing to share her treats with other dogs. She is okay if other dogs approached her calmly, but aggressive and defensive if the other dogs run towards her.

Please let me know if you can give me insights of her behavior.

Here are couple pics of her:



Thank you!

[Husky_mom]

why... first of all... WELCOME!!!....

you have a real cutie there!!....

and yes you are right about prey drive.... ANY and I mean ANY small creature is considered prey..even the lil Chihuahua....

in this case they would´ve have been introduced so she knew tis was not a prey it´s was just a tiny lil dog... if she´s beyond the snappy point and shares treats with dogs... that´s a HUGE step for her.. as well as not being food aggresive...

you might wanna check if it´s only small dogs that trigger her drive or is she agressive too to bigger dogs... perhaps she only considers "dogs" to those who are equal to her size... and anything smaller is fair game (typical husky )

this is very har if not impossible to correct as it´s been there since the start of time.. some dogs have it more on the surface and some almost never show it, but there´s a point when it gets triggered by something and you just can´t help it...

offereing treats for her to associate dogs to food and good stuff is great... you can try doing this with small dogs so she sees them as "friends" also and that if she leaves them alone she ´ll get treats...

sorry for the loooong post... hope to see more of you and Xena

[Glacier]

Yup, prey drive. A 10 week old Chi is a snack to a husky. A full grown Chi would be viewed as prey by most huskies. For my own huskies, anything under 20 pounds is likely to be seen as prey. They are never allowed near small dogs and don't get a second unsupervised around my cats.

Prey drive and aggression are two completely different things. A husky is not dog aggressive because it wants to chase smaller critters....it's a husky with an instinctual drive to hunt. Prey drive can in general be controlled, but not eliminated. Most of my dogs have learned the difference between indoor and outdoor cats...indoor cats are off-limits, outdoor cats are dead. Some can't make that distinction as their prey drive is way too strong. If it's small and moves, it's prey. I simply never give them the opportunity to inappropriately exercise their prey drive. They can hunt all the squirrels they want, but are tightly controlled indoors, at the vet, on walks ect.

Huskies generally are not dog aggressive, although many have issues with same sex dogs. Being approached as you described(running at her) is rude dog behavior and Xena's reaction sounds pretty normal. I don't like it when someone charges into my personal space, why would a dog like it?

Huskies often have their own version of dog language. My dogs react very differently to other breeds. There is often an instant connection with other huskies, not so much with other breeds. I'd be curious to know how your girl reacts to another husky, especially a male.

Given that she's a rescue and you haven't had her long, some of her behavior may just be from not having a clue what is going on in her world! Once she's settled and secure, you may well see a more relaxed dog emerge. The prey drive is likely permanent! Most of my dogs are rescues and I've found for many of them that it took a full year for them to feel fully secure and let their true personalities shine! After a month, you are about to hit the end of her honeymoon period. Xena may start to test you for a while. She needs to figure out her limits and learn that you aren't going to hurt or dump her.

Xena is a beauty! Have fun with her!

[Xena the Pooch]

Wow! Thank you for the super fast responses.

Xena was aggressive with other dogs as well (not just the smaller ones). Before, she would lunge at other dogs in any opportunities. I guess the training helped her a bit. Now, she would only lunge at those dogs that are rude (running towards her and barking) to her.

But then again, the other day there was an off-leash pitbull approaching us slowly. They sniffed around for a bit, before Xena bit his genital . Nonetheless, the pitbull ran away. The only challenge with her now is that she doesn't give out any warnings before biting (no growling, barking, showing teeth or whatever).

We wanted her to be able to go to the Dog park and run around with other dogs. But until she is not snappy with smaller dogs, it's not going to happen.

[pitc9]

Oh MY! She's BEAUTIFUL!!!!

Welcome to Pet Talk, we have quite a few husky owners here on the board, 2 of them have given you great information already that I can only echo.

I hope you continue to work with her and I hope you stick around here too!

[Xena the Pooch]

Oh MY! She's BEAUTIFUL!!!!

Welcome to Pet Talk, we have quite a few husky owners here on the board, 2 of them have given you great information already that I can only echo.

I hope you continue to work with her and I hope you stick around here too!

Thank you for the welcome everyone!!!

We will continue to work with her, we loved her too much already

I have been enjoying this forum so much, you all have the greatest tips and resources. I will be sticking around for a long long time for sure

Are there anyone here from Salt Lake City, Utah???

[Husky_mom]

glad to hear you like it here... and yes we have a few people from Utah.. even a couple huskies I might add...Nebo and Keva....

we´d love to see more pics of Xena the cutie...

I have two husky girls Ninja and China

[Xena the Pooch]

Nice!

Here are couple of pics that the rescue group took before putting her on Petfinder two months ago. I don't think they bathed her yet