Lesson 1: Our Husky Taught Us To Never Let Him Roam Off A Leash

About a week after we found Whiskey we learned our first lesson of being a Siberian Husky owner. Never let a Husky roam alone, even if he has some garden gnomes around.



Ok, so that's not a husky. Pugs can be cute, too. (I suppose) In their own special sort of way.

Well, it was Thanksgiving of 2007. A beautiful day out with fall in the air. Before sitting down to our annual feast a few of us decided a hike on the nearest mountain would be fun on such a beautiful day.

We hadn't really been walking with Whiskey yet since we had kept him indoors mostly in fear he would try to run off and find his old, crappy owners. He was doing pretty good walking on his leash and new body harness.

Then we made the biggest mistake any Siberian Husky owner can make. Are you listening? This is important and is the number 1 rule for owning a Sibe. Do NOT let your sibe off his leash to roam alone. Ok? Never.

Now, let me put this out there. I am not trying to generalize the breed and saying they all run. However, let me quote a book called "The Siberian Husky" by Wayne Hunthausen, D.V.M. ed: He says, "They tend to run because they were at first bred to be a sled dog. Owners are advised to exercise caution when letting their Siberian Husky off the leash as the dog is likely to be miles away before looking around and realizing their owner is nowhere in sight."

The last thing you want to happen to your dog is to think letting him sniff around and play by himself will be good for him only to turn your back for a second and he is so far off you will never catch up to him. They can run like nothing you've seen.

Anyways, needless to say Thanksgiving we thought was ruined. However on a lucky break I was able to sneak up on him about a half mile away in a neighbors yard while he was busy sniffing something intently. He didn't even see me coming he was so engaged in whatever it was in that hole.

I'm grateful we didn't lose him that day. Since then there have been many creative solutions we've used to allow Whiskey to run (which he was born to do) without putting himself in harms way. I will discuss some of those solutions in a later post.

Until then, please follow us here on Patience and Advocacy. Also, if you have any questions you would like answered feel free to put it in the comment below and I will be pleased to get back to you as soon as I can.

-Lacey