IKnow Your Breed

I recently learned that fans of the show Games of Thrones were rushing to buy Siberian Huskies, because they looked like some kind of wolf on the show. Knowing the vanity of people and their insane desire to be part of the fantasy of their TV world rather than face their own reality, I believed this story. I’ve never seen the show, but my son says it’s popular.
I’ve been lucky enough to share my home with many dogs and several breeds, including Alaskan Malamutes, and Siberian Huskies .Since I am a dog lover who has raised and shared my life with a Husky, I found the story of people buying Huskies to be popular very troubling. Huskie are not a breed for an inexperienced owner.
My first experience with a dog was my sister’s miniature French poodle. Like it’s owner, Pierre was spoiled and mean spirited. It couldn’t be left alone without pissing and shitting all over the house. This was my first lesson that a dog is the product of it’s upbringing. Pierre lasted until I was eleven. My father had Pierre killed when we moved to Mexico City.
Most American families in Mexico purchased dogs to guard their homes. Once we’d settled in Mexico, my father took me to a pet store in the new Satélite mall north of the city. It was with giggling happiness that I sat on the store floor and was swarmed by a litter of Boxer puppies. I couldn’t decide which puppy to purchase until one shat on my father’s shoe. “That’s the one I want,” I laughed.
That was the first dog I raised. Tiger was a wonderful friend for thirteen years, until he died of a heart attack. Part of his wonderfulness came from the way a lonely boy spent all of his time playing with, and training him, but another part of it was the kind, even temperament of the Boxer breed. Boxers are great around kids, and make excellent guard dogs. Again. I learned it had something to do upbringing. My father bought a second boxer for my sister to raise. Poor Biddy was so crazy by eight-months old, my father had her killed.
Not all of my dog experiences went as well as Tiger. After we bought our first house, I was ready for more dogs. I was accustomed to having as many as three dogs in Mexico. I talked my wife into starting out with at least two. I did my research on northern breed, figuring Boxers wouldn’t like our winter climate. We went to dog shows and met with breeders. All our research led us to Alaskan Malamutes. What no one warned us about is that Malamutes, like wolves, are pack animals. They live by a rigid pecking order. Had someone warned us, we wouldn’t have made the mistake of purchasing two cousins three weeks apart from two different litters. We came home with Cala, the female first. We picked up Sergeant Preston, her male cousin, three weeks later, after Cala had established her domain. The fighting wasn’t too bad, or bloody until they were about a year old and full grown. They fought for the rest of their lives. I will say they played on the same floor with my son, and were never a problem. Not all malamutes are a problem. We bought two sisters after our first two died of old age. Like the first ones, they were hell on the local wild life, but unlike their predecessors, they were generally sweethearts.
It was after this second set of Malamutes passed on that we decided to downsize and go with a Siberian husky. People warned us right off that Huskies are a high maintenance, high-energy breed that will try to escape. We figured we were used to it, so we found a good breeder and purchased a female. Males pee on everything. People weren’t kidding. Huskies are all energy. They aren’t for the faint-hearted looking for a cute TV dog. Please get to now the breed before buying a dog, rather than being cruel to a high spirited animal because of you vanity.