When my family started talking about getting a dog last year, I wasn't too sure.
We have had dogs in the past, and the mix of young children and dogs never worked
for us. We didn't have the time to train them or take care
of them properly. I didn't want to repeat our mistakes.
I also read about different breeds, but since we had huskies in the past,
my husband preferred them.
We also searched for local breeders.
We knew we didn't want to buy from a pet store.
I also asked my husband to promise me that I would
be able to take whatever dog we got to obedience classes.
Orion is almost a year and a half now and he's the best dog we have had.
He has always been calm and laid back for a husky. He is even more now.
He is big, over 80 lbs (about 36kg).
He loves to be around me. He makes me laugh because he still follows me around
like when he was a young puppy.
Whenever I move to a different room, he moves along with me.
While we are doing school, he is lying down by the table.
When we go in the basement, he follows us there.
If I am cooking in the kitchen, he sits by the edge of it.
The first summer we had him, I spent many hours working on training him,
practicing what we both learned during the obedience class.
When we learned "look", which meant for him to look at me, in my eyes and
wait for the next command, we practiced over 300 times per week!
All day long, every day, I would test him. I would be busy
doing something with the kids and all of sudden
I would call his name and say "look".
I think it paid off. He listens to my commands.
He waits to eat until we tell him "go ahead" because we trained him
to do that. He knows which areas he is allowed in,
which places he can sit, like our couch in the basement,
but not our couches upstairs.
He knows to be gentle with little people,
and that he can be rougher
with my husband.
He has many tricks that we like
to practice with him, and
most of them he gets a reward for.
He is a great family dog.
And he's my walking partner.
