Owned Person: Siberians really are beautiful, loving and wonderful dogs, but they certainly aren't without their particular idiosyncrasies. For one thing, this breed of dog loves to dig.

Siberian: 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. We get this really 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, and we'd probably do it all again in a heartbeat. We look like little mud hens, 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!

We will not only dig to China, but we also dig underneath fences. We're pretty proud of ourselves, because we can accomplish this 'get out' thing in a matter of about 3 minutes. Pretty quick, huh? It's a good thing that our owners are always watching us, because the first time that this happened, 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 occurred 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...

Owned Person: Siberians also have a very strong prey drive, and no small animal is ever safe. This includes mice, squirrels, moles, chickens and even cats. Most, but not all, Huskies are ok with a housecat, especially if the cat was in the home before they were, but cats that roam around outside are not off limits to them. If there are more than one husky in the household, they also have a tendency to 'gang up' on the housecat(s) - must be that pack mentality.

Siberian: 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 or 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, 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.

I like to stalk my squirrel and then jump up on the tree to get him to come down. All I want to do is play. REALLY! I can't figure out why he stops moving! I also yell at any one of my pack-mates that tries to interfere with my toy. (I don't really bark, per se. Most Siberians DON'T bark, but we woo-woo for talking, and we also howl).

I also caught a mole once. Again, I guess my other pack-mates are just too loving and don't like to hurt anything, because I'm the one who caught the mole, too. I did end up sharing with one of my crew, though. I let Nakita rub herself all over it so that she could get that smell into her fur, which just about made my owners nuts--that was kind of fun, too--and I even let her play with it for a while, but I think it was already dead at that point. Again, I just kept looking at this little guy and couldn't figure out why he wasn't moving. I really wasn't licking my chops like Nakita says, as I didn't eat him or anything. All I wanted to do was play! I guess I just don't realize my strength sometimes.

Owned Person: Siberians always always always need to be on a leash, as they love to run and the only direction that they know is forward!

Siberian: 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!

Owned Person: Sibes need to have a rather tall fence to keep them contained; a 6 foot fence is preferable, and even then, with the digging habit, it doesn't always keep them inside the fence, and some people also put hot wire at the bottom and top of the fence. They can dig a good-sized hole very quickly and can get out underneath the fence, unless you're blessed enough to have Sibes that can jump OVER a six foot fence. Siberians are very agile, athletic, intelligent, very independent, and, well, sneaky. They'll start digging when they don't think that you're paying attention, and stop when they realize that you are. Once they think that you're off to other things, whether it's an hour later or a week later, they continue on the hole until they're able to escape.

Siberian: 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 three or a four foot fence, we'll just laugh at you. Even a five foot fence isn't too much bother if we're really inclined to run on any particular day. A six 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 jumped up onto that, it was only a three foot fence, and we were 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. Our humans have to walk the fence every day to see if they can spot any more places in the fence that are weak. They should just ask us, because we know them all! 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 I think that they were really trying to recapture us. Sigh...the neighbor who caught us actually had more bird ox 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.

Owned Person: Huskies love to play and they're very comical to watch--especially when you have two or more. One is always challenging for alpha status, and when two or more start running around the yard, you can hear what sounds like the thunderous pounding of paws (hooves?!) from 20 feet away. They sound like a herd of cattle when they're at full speed. They're a breed that needs a LOT of exercise, and walking them a few miles a day twice a day isn't usually enough for them. For additional exercise, they can be hooked up to your bicycle, cross country skis or even a sled. These dogs are notorious pullers, and love to pull sleds. They aren't Iditirod dogs for nothing! Strangely enough, they're very efficient dogs, and don't require very much food for the amount of energy that they use.

Siberian: 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!

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. I've had Natasha on the floor and most people would think that I'm baring my teeth. It was all in play, though, and besides, 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 five minutes. We'd forgotten all about it. When we get to play outside in the yard, we are usually both up on our hind feet with our front legs battling in the air. Most people would think that we're fighting, but we're not. We're just playing. The general rule of thumb with us is that if you see saliva, we're playing. If it's blood, then we're fighting. And it's really hard to tell the difference with us sometimes. It takes a lot of time and experience with Siberians to be able to tell if we're playing or fighting because we just plain play rough. Really rough!

We also love to play with our humans. Our 'kids' bought a new trampoline a few months ago, and do we ever have fun with that! We jump right along with the kids. We also love to play ball with our kids. They tire of throwing the ball before we tire of chasing it. I guess some would think that we're like labs or something when we chase the ball, but we just love to play in any way, shape or form. We love attention!

My humans have a picture showing one of my kids, Brit, playing Tug-O-War with Tasha. My humans can't play that game with me, because I challenge for alpha status too often. I suppose I understand, but it would be nice if they played rough with me too sometimes. I like to play rough. If you could see the way that Tasha and I play, you'd swear that we were fighting, but we're actually just playing rough!

Owned Person: And of course, Siberians howl...er - talk. I'm sure that the neighbors probably don't appreciate it, but it's the most hauntingly beautiful sound that you'll ever hear. And what do they know anyway? They have Labs, Boxers and Rottweilers! Siberians make a wonderful woo-woo sound when they talk to you, and if you've been gone from the house for a while, when you come home, they point their beautiful heads toward the ceiling in unison and emit a group howl. Sometimes when I come home from work, it sounds like I have a kennel in my house, but it's just the most beguiling sound that you've ever heard. You have to love the sound, or you'll wind up really annoyed, though.

Siberian: Oh, yeah. We LOVE to talk. We have all sorts of sounds, from the woo-woo that can escalate from very quiet to absolutely screaming, and we have errrr-errrrs and arrgghh-aarrgghs and an assortment of all kinds of sounds.We look our humans right in the eye when we woo-woo at them, and they say that we know exactly what they're saying. Of COURSE we do. We're Siberians, and we're intelligent, remember? We also pick up on key phrases very quickly, too, like 'Daddy's home? or 'Want to go for a ride/walk?' 'Are you hungry?' (That's a BIG one with us-we look forward to dinner time!) All of those dog trainers keep saying that we don't really understand what our humans are saying, and that our humans are using some sort of subtle body language and that's what we're really understanding, but I'll tell you that they're all wrong. We DO understand what our humans say, and we've had many a conversation with ours.

Owned Person: Twice a year, the Sibe will blow his coat. They don't just shed. They have an inner coat and an outer coat, and they completely blow all of the undercoat in the spring and in the fall. It truly isn't for the fainthearted. Husky hair collects into balls, actually tumbleweeds, and you'll find these in every corner of the house. Even with daily brushing, there's Husky hair on every conceivable surface. You'll even eat Husky hair and try to tell yourself that it's just a garnish on your meal. You know that you've become a true Husky lover when you pull a human hair out of your food and it grosses you out, but you pull out a dog hair and don't think anything of it and just continue eating. Fortunately, this blowing of the coat only lasts for a few weeks, but the cleanup lasts for months. And then it's time for them to blow their coats again!

Siberian: OK. This is Natasha again. Enough from 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. It was a huge mound of fluffy, soft hair. There was a whole lot more after she'd finished brushing me an hour later, but she took a picture just to give people an idea of how much hair I really lose. When we're blowing our coats, Mom has to brush us for about an hour each day, and sometimes that isn't even enough.

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? We developed this thick, heavy coat in order to keep warm in those freezing cold winters. And then in the spring, our heavy winter undercoat has to go to make room for our lighter summer undercoat.

Owned Person: If after reading all of this, you still think that you might want a Siberian Husky, go for it! Overall, Siberians are a pretty happy and content breed. They truly are worth all of the work and effort that you need to expend, as they are very loving and loyal dogs. Just beware of the potato chip syndrome. It will creep up on you! You'll start with one, and add another, and another and another... You suddenly won't care whether or not your house is spotless, or if you are wearing a dog hair sweater to work. They will start making you buy them lots of toys and more Siberians and more Siberians... Once you've gotten started down this path, there's no going back!