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Just wondering what mistakes you made with your first dog(s) that you have since learned from. Looking back, I can't believe some of the things I did with my first dogs. It's no wonder they weren't well behaved. Here's a list of things I did that I have since learned from
-Fed pedigree thinking because it had a husky on the bag, it must be a premium food designed specifically for huskies. I now feed Orijen
-I didn't socialize my dogs at all. Both turned out to be dog aggressive. I now socialize the heck out of my dog and it's paying off.
-Didn't take my dogs to puppy classes, or any classes of any kind. As a result, they didn't listen to the recall command, didn't listen to stay and didn't listen to many other commands. I did try to teach them, I just now realize I went about everything the wrong way. All they knew was tricks that resulted in them getting treats, they didn't know important commands and didn't listen to me when treats weren't present.
-I didn't use crates. Instead I would leave them free to roam the house. Needless to say that the destruction they did was equivalent to a tornado. They ate a leather couch, ate the corner of one of the walls, as well as many, many other things.
-I didn't exercise my dogs nearly enough as I should have. They weren't locked up all day every day or anything like that, but they didn't get the exercise they should have.
In the end I loved my two huskies and they had long, happy lives, but I look back and now realize I made so many mistakes. Anyone else feel the same about their first dog(s)?
-Fed pedigree thinking because it had a husky on the bag, it must be a premium food designed specifically for huskies. I now feed Orijen
-I didn't socialize my dogs at all. Both turned out to be dog aggressive. I now socialize the heck out of my dog and it's paying off.
-Didn't take my dogs to puppy classes, or any classes of any kind. As a result, they didn't listen to the recall command, didn't listen to stay and didn't listen to many other commands. I did try to teach them, I just now realize I went about everything the wrong way. All they knew was tricks that resulted in them getting treats, they didn't know important commands and didn't listen to me when treats weren't present.
-I didn't use crates. Instead I would leave them free to roam the house. Needless to say that the destruction they did was equivalent to a tornado. They ate a leather couch, ate the corner of one of the walls, as well as many, many other things.
-I didn't exercise my dogs nearly enough as I should have. They weren't locked up all day every day or anything like that, but they didn't get the exercise they should have.
In the end I loved my two huskies and they had long, happy lives, but I look back and now realize I made so many mistakes. Anyone else feel the same about their first dog(s)?