Muebe, I'm glad you're willing to pay for his neutering so he will have a chance to be rehomed. I hope it all turns out for him.
Drholly, huskies are generally not protective, but since your guy is a mixed breed, then whatever he's mixed with might be where the protectiveness comes from. Huskies as a rule either like everyone indiscriminately, or they are aloof, gentle but not friendly, meaning they won't usually bite but they just don't care if someone pets them or not.
Sota's here! We picked him up at the shelter, where he greeted us with wags and grins, said his goodbyes to the staff, and then we took him and Sugar to their extremely large dog run where he took off like a rocket. So this boy will most likely never be trustworthy off leash. Not unexpected. Most huskies aren't, so nothing against him. But he had a good run in their fenced yard, and Sugar tried to keep up. He mostly ignored her or else acted like he was showing off. Husby threw a Frisbee for him but he was only interested till it hit the ground. Ditto for the tennis ball, so it's good we didn't waste any money on those while we were trying to select toys for him this morning.
We loaded him in the van in his crate. He's got the concept of jumping up with his front end, but is completely mystified about what to do to get his back end up into the van, even with the step stool we brought for him. He's got the getting out part down fine though. So we'll have to work on that. He and Sugar ignored each other all the way home, which was great. He was silent the whole way home, a good sign for traveling. He's a heavy drinker though, so I think our pit stops will have to be about two hours apart at max when we travel.
We got him home and in the house. We made it into the living room before encountering any cats. Three of the four sat there with big eyes. We could tell they were thinking WTH? They all just looked at each other for a while, with Sota grinning and wagging and not making any effort to get them. Then Chester the inspector came over and licked Sota's head. He was perfectly okay with that. The other two came over and there was a mutual sniff-fest and everyone seems satisfied that everyone else is okay.
The dog yard up the hill was inspected and the perimeter checked. There was something we couldn't see out in the woods that had both his and Sugar's attention, but he didn't try to get out or anything. He and Sugar aren't paying much attention to each other, which is fine. They've been sniffing each other a little bit but mostly just ignoring each other. Sugar is so concerned about him invading her space, she's napping. When we got home we brought her in the house first and then Sota. Sugar met him at the door wagging and grinning, welcoming him in. No territory disputes or anything.
He'll go through the dog doors if we hold them open. That's the first step to training and none of our other dogs have been willing to do that right off the bat, so this is a good start.
He's a Hoover! Any crumb left on the floor is instantly eaten. A living Roomba. One cute thing about him is if he thinks he can get food, he sits down and waits for it. And he's very gentle when he takes food from our hands, even if Sugar is right there. But he's very focused on food and has a one track mind. We gave Sugar a piece of candy and she left it on the floor. I had to drag him away by the leash and then he still wouldn't quit thinking about it. LOL. No wonder he's such a chunk.
We had planned to keep him in a crate in the living room most of the time the first week, but he's been laying on the floor with cats walking right past him for the past fifteen minutes and doesn't seem to have any interest in them. This is such a huge relief. He came up to sniff Cady and she slapped him, and he went to the patio door and tried to get out, poor boy. He was in the dog yard alone and started to come up the steps, but then he saw Chester on the landing and went back down to get away. We think some cat sometime has schooled him! They also told us at the shelter when there would be an altercation between dogs in their yard, Sota would go the other way and not participate. He may be one of those doggies who does not like conflict. We should be so lucky.
Hahaha! Sota just came back in through both dog doors by himself, just being called! Wow! He's a smart boy. None of the other dogs have picked it up so fast or so willingly.
So the conclusion so far, after him being home only two hours, is he's doing great, much better than we expected. We'll be waiting for the other shoe to fall for a few weeks yet, but so far we're very encouraged.
