We Dig

Oh, boy do we dig! We can tunnel through to China in just under two hours, so don't ever leave us alone outside, even if you have a fenced in yard, because we'll be out in a matter of minutes. It isn't that we don't love you, and don't love living here. It's just that we have this instinct thing going. Whenever we catch the scent of an irresistible smell, we just have to go find it. We also have this incredible urge to run run run, and we just can't help ourselves.

When we dig, we love to dig the most in the mud. As you can see in our photos below, we get this sheepish look on our faces when we get caught. We lay our ears back flat on our heads and try to tell our owners that we KNEW we weren't supposed to be doing this, and bummer that we got caught, but really--we just couldn't help ourselves. We look like little mudhens, but it's just the most fun... Our owners shake their heads, give us this look with a deep sigh and make us take baths, but truthfully, we'd really rather STAY muddy. We like it!

Here's what we look like after we've been starting our dig to China, and we also included a photo of how we dig underneath fences. We're pretty proud of ourselves, because we accomplished this hole and were out in just about 3 minutes. Pretty quick, huh? It's a good thing that our owners are always watching us, because we only made it into the next door neighbor's yard before they caught us and brought us home again. We love to run free, but I guess it's best that someone is watching us, as we'd probably run for 10 miles before it ever occured to us to stop and try to figure out where we are. It's just another instinctual thing, and we can't help ourselves, so it's a good thing that we have someone looking out for us. I guess...

We Kill, Er Play With, Small Animals

We have an incredibly high prey drive. It comes from our ancestors, as our forefathers used to pull sleds for our humans, and usually, at the end of the winter, our humans would let us loose to run free and we had to fend for ourselves, so we had to learn how to take care of ourselves. That included hunting small prey for food, and it's something that's still with us today.

We will hunt mice, squirrels, moles, chickens and just about anything else that moves. House cats are usually, but not always, safe from us, but if the house kitty gets outside, he's free game to us then. We have awesome sight and hearing, and we can hear a mole running around underneath your yard when you don't even have a clue that he's there. I guess that's where our digging comes back into play, because if we hear something underground, we're going to dig 'til we get it. Personally, (this is Natasha here), I just like to play with the squirrels because they run around so much. I just can't figure out why they STOP moving. I really don't mean to kill them, and I don't eat them. I'm just playing. I guess I'm just a little too rough sometimes.

This is still Tasha here. In the photos below, you can see me as I'm stalking my squirrel and then jumping up on the tree to get him to come down. All I want to do is play. REALLY! Then you'll see me with the squirrel, and I'm trying to get him to play. I can't figure out why he isn't moving! In my last photo with my first squirrel, you'll see that I'm yelling at Nakita. (I don't really bark, per se. Most Siberians DON'T bark). Anyway, Nakita is trying to move in on MY squirrel, and I just won't let her have anything to do with that. I'M the one who caught him. OK. I have to be honest. Kita ran interference and got the little guy to jump out of the tree, but I'M the one who actually CAUGHT him. And then she comes up trying to share in the spoils. I don't think so.

We Run

As sled dogs, I guess it goes without saying that we love to run. We're pretty quick when we want to be, but we're actually made to go a bit slower, but over long distances. Since we usually only get a little bit of a yard to run in with our humans, we've perfected the 'run as fast as we can' technique. If you ever get a Siberian, you really need to get at LEAST two. We just love to chase each other around. Let me give you a warning, though. If you get one of us, and can deal with all of our odd little quirks, you're going to end up getting another one of us. That will last for a few months, and you're going to want yet another one, and another and another. We call this the potato chip syndrome, because once you fall in love with one of us, it will never end! It's like eating potato chips; you can't eat just one!

I'll just show you a couple of pictures that our humans were able to click as we were running across the yard one day. We're usually so fast that by the time the camera clicks to take the picture, we're GONE!! Like I said, we love to run, and we're pretty fast.

We Need Large Fences

OK. I have to tell you another little secret about us. Since we love to run so much, and dig so much, I guess it probably isn't too much of a stretch to figure out that we need some pretty big fences. If you think that you're going to keep us in with a 3 or 4 foot fence, we'll just laugh at you. Even a 5 foot fence isn't too much bother if we're really inclined to run on any particular day. A 6 foot fence is really what we need. Did I mention how intelligent we are? What I mean is that we need a fence that's 6 feet tall FROM THE GROUND. Our humans have bonfires in their backyard, so they have a woodpile, and once we jump up onto that, it's only a three foot fence, and we're gone! We're smart enough to figure out that once we're on top of that woodpile, it's light work to sail like a gazelle over the, what is now, a 3 foot fence. And if we're enticed...by a squirrel, a cat, another dog...it's just not a problem for us to take off. Did I also mention that you need to watch us ALL THE TIME???

Our humans really went all out for us this year. When they first got us, they had a fence that went all the way around their backyard with gates in the front on the sides of the house. We were allowed to run around the backyard, and even though it's a double lot and is pretty big, it just wasn't enough to keep us as happy as we'd like to have been. So our humans, loving us as much as they do, had someone come in and fence in the entire front yard as well, and then they knocked out the gates on the side of the house, and man, do we have a big yard to romp in now!! The only problem, well, it's a problem for our humans, but it's not a problem for us, is that the fence around the backyard was built with the house, and it's about 15 years old. It's pretty weak in a lot of spots, and we've found every weak spot that there is. I'll show you some photos of that fence, along with our new fence in the front yard. I'm sure that you can notice the difference. In fact, I heard our humans talking the other day, and I guess the plan was to replace the fence around the backyard this year, and then build the fence around the front yard next spring, but since we came along, they decided to give us more room and build the fence around the front yard first. They said that the fence around the backyard was going to have to wait until next spring when we'll get a brand new 8 foot fence. They're certainly not taking any chances with us. Our humans' problem right now though is that the fence around the backyard is so weak, and rotted and old, that we've been finding ways left and right to get out. We broke through the fence a couple of weeks ago. It was pretty easy, too. And it was really funny watching all of the neighbors up the street chasing us around. We thought they were playing with us, but they were really trying to recapture us. Sigh...the neighbor who caught us actually had more birdox in her that I did! It's a good thing that all of the neighbors know where we live, though. They're always watching out for us, too.

Here's some photos of our beautiful new fence, and the nice new fence that our next door neighbor decided to put up for us (his fence was old and weak, too), and there's a photo of our old fence, and I'm sure that you can see why this thing is such easy work for us.

We Love to Play

This is Nakita here. Natasha has been talking way too much here, and it's time for a little bit of input from me. She always tries to hog the spotlight. Sheesh...

I know you've been hearing about a few of the bad things that we do, (actually, it's bad from our humans point of view, but it's not bad from OUR point of view!), and I hope you don't think that we're all bad. I'll bet you're wondering how anyone could love a dog that seems to get into as much trouble as we do, and I'm here to tell you that there ARE a lot of good things as well. For one, we LOVE to play! I've got some pictures to show you. You'll love these!

Sometimes, we get a little bit carried away and play inside the house. I know that our humans don't really like it very well, but it only happens on the days when we can't get outside because it's raining, and we just have so much energy to burn. We can't help ourselves. We do get a little rough at times, too. You'll see that I have Natasha on the floor in these first two pics, and I'm baring my teeth. She just pushed me too far that day! We don't stay mad at each other, though. We were all made up and friends again within 5 minutes. We'd forgotten all about it.

We Love to Talk

Just one photo this time. This one is of me, Nakita. I'm talking to that squirrel up in the tree. My humans think that I was howling, but I was only talking! They love it when I put my nose to the sky and howl anyway. They're not kidding anyone.

We Shed

OK. This is Natasha again. Enough of Kita. Listen to me for a while.

This is the part where we have to tell you something else that's kind of bad about us. If you love us, you won't think that it's bad, but some humans just can't put up with this. We shed. We not only shed, but we blow our coats twice a year--once in the spring and once in the fall. This isn't just a little bit of fur that we lose. We lose our whole undercoat. My Mom took a picture of some of my hair after she'd brushed me for just 5 minutes one day. There was a whole lot more after she'd finished brushing me an hour later, but she took a picture just to give you an idea of how much hair I really lose.

It's kind of funny to us, really. We see our hair in balls in every corner of every room in the house, and we see it stuck to the walls and under the radiators... we see our hair stuck to our humans clothes (I can't figure out why Mom never wears black anymore, but I have a feeling that it may have something to do with all of the hair that we lose), and even though my Mom tries to vacuum at least once a day, we still see tumbleweeds rolling through the house when we're right in the middle of blowing our coats. It's something that we can't help, though. This happens to us every 6 months. In the fall, our undercoat has to go to make room for our new, and thicker, winter undercoat. After all, we are from Siberia, remember? And then in the spring, our heavy winter undercoat has to go to make room for our lighter summer undercoat. Just take a look at this picture, though. And remember, this was after my Mom had only been brushing me for 5 MINUTES! There was much more hair after she was finished.