Ive been reading and reading here for what seems like forever so i thought i would go ahead and join and actually post!
I live in Oklahoma with my husband, son, 2 hound mixes and a brand new 8 week old husky puppy that is keeping me really busy!Our oldest dog is 10 and a retired DockDogs competitor, she is our couch potato and doing quite well for her age due to her long time skin/ear vaccine and steroid induced immune system I see signs of slowing down but she overall is doing well.

Loki is 2, a black and tan coonhound/blackmouth cur, treeing walker mix, A solid 70 lbs of compact lean muscle and fur so shiny it can blind you in the sun!
He is my muffin and the sweetest dog i have ever met, he isnt the sharpest tool in the shed but can do basic obedience and has wonderful house manners along with being the best puppy raiser i have ever known (kittens too) We are working on our canine good citizen stuff and i hope to take the test in the spring so we can go visit kids in hospitals or nursing homes etc.

Levi was my shining light, my husband brought him home to me january of last year and i was his from day one, he was a gorgeous red and white husky and the best dog i have ever had, i had plans to do agility for fun with him, and start some basic pulling training once he was old enough. Sadly he loved to go visit the neighborhood and we never let him outside for a single second unsupervised.
We did all we could to keep him safe but the little booger figured out how to work the doorknob one night when we were asleep and was killed by a milk-truck in front of our house that morning. it was the most horrible thing i have witnessed and i wish i would not have gone around the front of the truck. I still miss him daily and he was such a HUGE presence with his personality and singing and beguiling huskiness.
Loki would truly rather not go camping or hiking or to places with busy crowds or huge amounts of other dogs, it stresses him out and he starts to shut down.
So faced with a lack of dog with ability to work or compete and be an active member of family activies, and also with such a huge hole in my heart and life i went on the search for a new pup and we found our newest member who still doesnt have a name we have had him for a week and a half and he is a sweet busy mouthy alligator of a pup. He didnt come from the best start, but i dont plan on ever breeding, and i met both mom and dad and temperamentally they were friendly but not overbearing, looked healthy and i had already made up my mind we were getting a dog that day. Puppy Saw me and starting jumping around and talking and dancing and the other pups didnt want anyhing to do with us, so of course i picked him and he snuggled in a did that piggy puppy grunt and i was his!
We stopped on the way home to wash him because he smelled nasty and had some fleas, wormed him because he had a little famine tummy (it makes me so mad!!) and put him on Enova kibble with kefir to help balance back out his gut. We will switch over to raw as soon as he is settled and healthy and i think his little tummy can handle it, they had been feeding them ol roy for adults!!
I reported the breeder to the humane society and SPCA because the pups enclosure was nasty dirty and he had more worms than
I have ever seen so I hope we not only got our little guy to a good home but helped the rest of the pack of dogs he had as well as the pups.
He is a pretty sable color with tan and grey markings and a white mask, his ears are coming up super fast ever since we started the kefer with its high calcium content, and ive got him taking some omega fatty acid tablets to help his coat fill in and shine up some.

he is a bit aloof and scared with strangers, so i am having people give treats by crouching down and letting him come up and take them but not talking to him or petting him,
but has bonded highly to both me and my husband even though we have only had him a little while, is potty training like a dreamand learned to sit yesterday!

ok that was long but thats our dog world right now, they take up all of our free time and aside from my son are my pride and joy.

Welcome to the forum Jennifer.
I am sorry to hear about Levi, losing a pet is a hard thing to go through.
Glad to see another "hound" person. I have a Bloodhound for mantrailing.

looking forward to hearing from you and it sounds like your doing well with your timid one.

Welcome...

We can always use another Jennifer around here

I was considering how we could all distinguish ourselves and I thought, "hey, I'll just use my first and middle name..."

My first name is Jennifer, my middle name is Lee, so I guess that is out

Last names are cool

Sounds like a nice pack you have there!

Hey cool, you have a cur mix. (I rescue Catahoulas). I can't wait to see pictures and I'm sorry about your Husky.

i love my Hounds, they are so goofy and easy to train and laid back in the house. Total opposite of the high maintence high drive huskies.

We are working with the timid one, im a little concerned because we have been stuck staying at my folks house for the last 8 days, we had him home for 3 days before a huge ice storm struck and knocked out the entire city, they have a generator though so we have been staying here and of course pup is with me while the two big dogs are thankfully trustworthy enough to stay home and be checked on several times a day.

Puppy took to us immediatly and with vigor but days later he wont let my parents near him even after 8 days of treats without trying to pet, and gently talking to him from across the room without looking directly at him. At this point he will come up to my mom and sniff her shoe to check for a treat (thats how i got him to approach them initially) and he will soft of follow her but if she turns he gets the zoomies and talks all about it, he did run up and bite her on the toe earlier while he was running around like an idiot pouncing on everything including me. That was a huge step.
he still barks at my dad and tries to hide behind me,and we have been here for a week and half, generally dogs fawn over my parents and several GSD know my mom by the name "Hot dog Lady" and know her voice over the phone.

i just dont know how he could have been so not shy or reserved with us and yet so fearful of them. Could he have bonded that immediately with me?
possibly for being the one who took him from that awful place where the other pups were so shy and scared the man used a hoe under their little bottom, yes a hoe, to scoop them out of their igloo, he was very gentle but i about fell over. the adult dogs seemed to like him well enough and didnt seem abused or overly submissive, i dont think he was hurting them i think he just didnt handle them properly or see the need for cleanliness!

i had him sitting in the front seat of my moms car earlier while i ran inside for something and she was talking to him and he was calmly listening and then she couldnt help herself, The eyes and super soft fluffy fur were too much! she tried to touch his little foot and he did that low pitched husky woooo, no teeth no trying to get away, just letting her know about it, when i got in the car he snuggled into me like i was his savior. I said nothing and acted normal i didnt want to coddle.
i can hold him like a baby, wrestle with him, give him corrections for biting too hard and he doesnt give any hint of fear or shyness.

Edited by Jennifer Lee (12/17/2007 10:45 PM)
Edit reason: typos

The best thing to have people do right now, is completely ignore him and let him approach them to check them out. Let them have treats but only treat if he approaches them.

No touch, no talk, no eye contact.

Once he goes over to sniff them, just have them give him a treat. If they are not in a position to move without spooking him, just tell them not to treat. And you need to not talk to him or praise him while he is in the initial approach phase.....unless he walks up to them with confidence. If he is hesitant at all and you talk to him, you are reinforcing the hesitant behavior and not the approach.

I have seen this work, however, without seeing the behavior, I cannot promise that this will work for him, but it may be worth a shot.

But if he is fine with you and your family, then I would just take it nice and slow.

When i stop to think about his lack of early socialization and experience he is doing so much better than he should be, he just took to us so quickly, but i think they choose their people rather than the other way around a lot of times.
with us he is a full blown into everything pain in the rear puppy and i have the matching bruises and scrapes on my inner arm and butt to prove it!

Do you think bringing Loki my younger hound mix over and letting him watch Loki fawn all over my mom and eat up her attention and be so happy about it all would help? Or having one of them come over to our house which he is totally comfortable in and let him watch the big dogs get all happy and wiggly and lovey over them.

as far as the specific behavior goes
He will sometimes bark and back up a little but he doesnt cower or hide, his ears are relaxed and he is bouncing while he barks similar to when he is wanting to play but minus the bowing, or grumble growl but not bare teeth or raise hackles. he sometimes runs to sit behind me and when he does this i calmly walk away a few feet while continuing my conversation and try to make it as natural seeming as possible. I dont mover away when it is someone totally new or my uncle who gives off odd vibes anyway! But i also dont acknowledge him or coddle, i simple allow him to watch from "safety"

He will go forward a little now to investigate though and i praise him when he gets to the object or person and realizes it is ok. He will sit near my mom now and give her little greetings of a nose nudge as long as she isnt looking at him so i think he is trying really hard to work it all out.

I also go up to objects that are freaking him out and ooh and aww and touch it and make a fuss over it, i look crazy but it works every time he comes up to see what all the excitment is about.

I have been having to train them at the same time as him. And i keep reinforcing with them to ignore him and let him come to them, not move or call or anything, but the reward for that would be some friendliness from him and honestly i think it is hurting their feelings. they love other peoples dogs but i honestly hope they never own another one because they just arent cut out for the work that goes into them.


i have been so paranoid about having him here, and unable to start really crate training him because he isnt totally comfortable here and HATES the crate anyway, so i have done nothing but dog watch for the last 9 days. To the point i didnt take a shower for several days because my husband was out of town and i didnt want to take my eyes off of him even long enough to get clean. An 8 week old puppy can cause some major havoc in 5 minutes even in a locked bathroom with me!

It is actually a positive thing though because he has bonded even more with me and my husband and to a point with my son but he is so mouthy and my son so active at 6 yr old it causes too much nipping and play biting so i have to keep them calm and watch like a hawk.
He has also only had one accident this entire time and without being crated or kept on a lead every second, i am watching every second though, he also goes potty the second his little butt hits the grass!! YAY puppy.

I just found out our power is back on, (thank everything that is good and holy in this world!!)
So we will be going home tomorow finally, 9 days is a long time to be at my parents house, I am going to have 2 very large very worked up dogs to deal with all day while i clean and toss every single item in our refrigerator.

I must say though I am super proud of them for being so reliable, I didnt want to leave my house without them due to robberies and other crimes following the total power outage, plus every kennel, dog sitter hotel and more were full for days on end so we didnt have much choice.
we have made sure they were taken care of and played with but they have spent a ton of time colder and darker and much lonelier than normal with no problems except for a now very very doggy smelling couch. Loki is just now two and can still be a handful so i am super impressed.

Im a little proud of myself though too since it seems to mean all the work i put into them is paying off!

ok i promise no more novels, its just a complicated situation due to the darn weather.