I'll never forget the day my friend called and asked if I would help her find homes for five four-month old husky pups who were going to be shot because their breeder owner hadn't got them sold. I'd sworn off dogs entirely after the loss of my rottie and didn't readily agree but couldn't stand the idea of puppies being put down for such a ridiculous reason. As a result I ended up with a very undersocialized and completely untrained dog. It's been a long road, from having to use a halter on him because collars terrified him to crate training, but we've made it and couldn't be closer than we are. Now comes the problem, he really dislikes my boyfriend, which is strange because he's now such a social dog with people and other dogs alike. He's not aggressive, in fact, he's always been quite submissive, but every time my boyfriend comes anywhere near me Luka becomes the world's biggest pest! I've been laying reading on the couch when he came in and made to sit next to me, and Luka would jump up and immediately try to get in the middle. He completely ignores my boyfriend when he gives him a command (i.e. get out of that, don't chase the cat, stay out of the trash) and when he tries to correct him the dog's even growled. This is so uncharacteristic behavior, as he's never done those things with me or with my father when I lived at home. The only time he's growled at him was when he was trying to correct a bad action. Otherwise he completely ignores him which only annoys my boyfriend more. I can wrestle with Luka on the floor but as soon as he walks in the room, Luka becomes a different dog. He watches him like a hawk when he's near me and ignores him when I'm not close. Please Help!! :eek:

kadit, your dog views your boyfriend as a threat to his male alpha position in the household. Your dog views himself as the male alpha to your female alpha. It is all about dominance and which male is going to come out on top and get the prized female!

Labman has some information regarding pack rank and leadership, which I hope he will post here when he sees this thread. Both you and your boyfriend need to work together to assert yourselves as the new dominant couple and rework your current pack structure so that your dog understands he has now been replaced and must accept it.

By the way, if he is not neutered, it would be good idea to get that done. Once his hormones are under control, it should help with the aggressiveness toward your boyfriend.

I really need to quit putting off and polish up some of my material on behavior and put it in a sticky where it is available to everyone.

The key to most behavior problems is approaching things using the dog's natural instincts. Dogs see all the people and dogs in the household as a pack with each having their own rank in the pack and a top dog. Life is much easier if the 2 legged pack members outrank the 4 legged ones. You can learn to play the role of top dog by reading some books or going to a good obedience class. A good obedience class or book is about you being top dog, not about rewarding standard commands with a treat. Start at Raising Your Dog with the Monks of New Skete For more on being top dog, see Establishing and Keeping Alpha Position, Letting your dog know you are the boss

RubyPitbull is right about the neutering.

Responsible breeders have a waiting list for puppies. We are slaughtering millions of dogs a year due to a lack of homes. Between those that don't bother to spay/neuter, puppy mills, and backyard breeders, we can't keep up.

A light note that is still sad. I had a question on another site that somebody's neutered male mated with a female. I had a notion to ask what in the &^%$@#$%^(*&^%# they both were doing running loose. Unfortunately, some male with some ammunition likely got her too.

Thanks for the info guys, and I am going to get him neutered as soon as I breed him once. I'd like a female puppy out of him, because I think he'll do a lot better with another dog running tame while I'm at work. When I lived with a friend and her three dogs he was in doggy heaven, lol. I know four or five people (most of whom live on neighboring farms) who expressed a desire to own one if I ever did decide to breed. I even explained to that many people have had problems with huskies and livestock as they have a very high prey drive, but they seem to feel that as long as you start early and teach them the rules--a dog is a dog. In any case I want a female because they're supposed to be more independent and Luka is far from it. My dad always joked that he always knew where I was because Luka was lying right outside the door if it wasn't under the desk I was sitting at! Just for clarification though: why does he do this with my boyfriend when he never dared do it with my father? Even today, if my father comes in the room, Luka goes into total submissive mode. It doesn't matter where we are. /sigh And here I thought guys were difficult to understand!:o

Kadit, your father isn't your boyfriend. Dogs live in a world of a pack rank mentality. They understand things on a completely different level than we do. The emotional energy you give off when your father is around, signals the dog that you defer to your father as your pack leader. Which puts Luka even lower in the pack ranking and creates the submissive state. The emotional energy you give off to your boyfriend is completely different. Your boyfriend, as I stated, is threatening Luka's position as your alpha male.

If you want a better understanding of all this, there is a very good book out there written by Jean Donaldson, "The Culture Clash" that explains how dogs view things. Once you understand how they view the world around them, you will know why your dog reacts the way he does to most of the situations you encounter together.

Now, kadit, I am going to state something else here. I do rescue work and I retrain rescued dogs to be rehomed. You commented on the irresponsible owner who was going to shoot your dog if he couldn't find homes. I pretty much know that guy has no intentions of doing the common sense thing which would be to spay & neuter his dogs. You on the other hand, have more common sense. That guy will most likely have another litter of pups. If not him, someone else in your area will. Why would you knowingly breed your dog when at least one person in your area feels shooting puppies is more humane than actually stopping the unwanted pregnancies to begin with? You only want one female. So what if other people want a husky. There are plenty of breeders out there along with irresponsible ones like the guy with the shotgun. Why don't you look in your local rescue or shelter for a good match for your dog? There is no guarantee that the female pup you pick from a litter of his will be a good match for him. However, you can test him out with other females in shelters and rescues and find the perfect match for him. As of this writing, there are 2092 huskies looking for homes on petfinder. Petfinder.com According to petfinder, there are close to 268,000 dogs sitting in shelters & rescues waiting to be adopted throughout the U.S. A good many of those dogs will be euthanized for lack of a home. The shelters need to make room for the dogs that are brought in every day. Won't you please consider saving the life of a dog, rather than bring more into this world? You will have the satisfaction of knowing that you have done a positive and good thing.

By the way, as I said, if you neuter your dog, it will reduce his aggression toward your boyfriend. The sooner you do this, the better. He may be very much a submissive dog with you and your father, but that is not the case with your boyfriend.

Ruby thanks for the advice (though I was a little weirded out about the alpha mate business =P). I get what you're saying though, and I'll definitely weigh it heavily in my decision regarding Luka. At the time of my first post I had already promised to let him breed with another full-blood husky whose owner I know. It is the general consensus around here that if you let a female breed once before spaying her she's generally not so energetic and is more likely to stay home and not wander. Please understand that in our area, that it's common practice to let farm dogs run on property to keep unwanted wildlife from taking up residence, so this is probably the basis for the other owner's belief. If you've got a small farm of 80 acres or so and a good dog who knows your property boundries, it makes sense to the people around here to let them run. The only time they've run into problems is if the dog is overly fond of chickens or sheep :( Obviously, this would be a much different situation in a more populated area, but I'm going to talk to the other owner and tell her I'd like to have Luka's "big boy operation" done and see if she won't consider doing the same. I think she's also looking at the fact she wants her son to have one from the ground up to speak, so I don't know if it'll do much good.

Sorry about weirding you out but Luka does think you belong to him and he belongs to you. This isn't necessarily a sexual thing as much as a ranking thing. All dog packs are headed up by an alpha male and an alpha female. Since it has always been the two of you, he has assumed the alpha male role. Your boyfriend is a threat to that role.

I understand what you are saying about the breeding and where you live. I don't know if you are in an area where there are many shelters or rescues. I live in a farming community and we have shelters that are filled with some incredible purebreds that have been thrown away by people. It would be well worth at least for both of you to take a little of your time to look around. She could very well find a puppy from a rescue organization. Most of the females that are thrown away have not been spayed and some do come into the shelters pregnant, and give birth there. And, huskies aren't the only dogs that do well on farms. The best working breeds I have seen for farms aren't Huskys. They are Australian Cattle Dogs and Border Collies. They stick close by, pick up the property boundaries easily, keep unwanted wildlife away, and the most important factor is that they are bred to herd the animals. There is no fear of them attacking your herds. Often, many people buy them simply as pets and they don't realize what they have gotten themselves into because these dogs need to be on farms and do what they are bred to do.
Will you allow me to see if there are any available dogs in your area and send you the links for you to look at? You can share them with your neighbor. If you PM me with your general location, I can send you some links. It doesn't hurt to just take a look, does it?:D

I just want to mention one thing. What Ruby is telling you is exactly right. Your dog knows your every emotion. They always know exactly how you feel.