A little ribby - Page 2

I think he looks great too......the picture in my Avi, is an updated pic of Ace, who is two now, and still looks like a baby horse.  he is all legs and is a bit more ribby than I would like, but he just doesn't keep weight on.  He is over height and about 90lbs and ribby and leggy

hmmm, I see my old pic of Ace laying on the grass but it is all distorted, when I go to IE I see the new pic, so hopefully you do, he is lying on dead grass in the eew pic, in the old one he is on green grass.  How do i fix that?  I cleared my cache in firefox and it is still there.

Just like everyone else on here, he looks absolutely fine to me.  Please don't let 'non-doggy' people around you freak you out about this, by the way. You would not believe the crap I have taken over the years because I have insisted on keeping dogs and puppies at a healthy weight, instead of letting them carry an extra 1/2 inch of fat just to please the eyes of  'pet' lovers.  No matter how fully I explained, how much reference material I gave them, they would still rather not see a rib outline.  Even at the expense of maybe increasing risks of diabetes, heart failure, etc in the dog somewhere down the line.

Looks perfect. I have had so many people tell me I am starving my dog when I am out I can't even give you a number lol. Whatever. Never had issues with health!

He is beautiful!! Like everyone else I think he is at a perfect weight. I think ppl are so used to seeing overweight dogs, that when they see one that is a healthy weight, they assume you are starving them.  I can't count the number of times I have heard that about one of mine.  I don't think ppl do it intentionally, it's just not what they are used to seeing. They for the most part seem genuinely shocked when I say your dog is supposed to have a waist.  As for thinking the 4 cups is a lot, that is about what most of mine were on at that age, remember he's growing that takes lots of energy. Esp with pups my rule for gauging the amt of food they are getting is when I feed everybody gets 20 min to eat then I pick the food up.  If they are consistently done and trying to inhale the bowl before the 20 min is up then and they aren't one of the chunky monkies then I up their food a little. If there is always food left at the 20 min then I drop them back some. That and of course the normal gauging how they feel when you touch them, and how they look. Again though he really is a  beautiful boy!!

Thanks everyone.  

Donnerstorm, thankfully my Huskies kind of motivate each other as far as eating goes.  All my guys eat their meal right as they get it, and in a matter of a few minutes everyone is done.  They aren't eating their food crazy fast or anything, but they eat it in a good amount of time, not too fast, not too slow.  I do feed Auggie in the same room as the other guys......just on the other side of the pen in the house so he won't get into their food or anything, and he just eats his.  Eventually he'll be where I can feed him side by side like I do all my Huskies.  I've always done this to help Sierra because she came from a place where she free fed....and didn't want to eat much at a time. I don't like free feeding, and it helped her to want to eat at a good pace

Oh man I'm getting more people though, that think my Huskies are too small LOL.  I was expecting I'd get something like this with Auggie when he's fully grown....oh he's too small to be a Shepherd, or whatever they might say......But Someone told me Little Dude wasn't tall enough to be a Husky, or big enough because they had a female who was 120 lbs!!!!  I flat out told the guy your female was waaaay out of the standards, by a long shot. He claimed she wasn't fat or anything....I have my doubts, especially now that I'm seeing what people think is "normal" or......too skinny.....  Little Dude being at the tallest he can be according to the Husky standards is "too short".... Personally though, LD didn't like this guy (if Little Dude doesn't like you....that says something. I mean LD doesn't care to be pet by everyone, but that doesn't mean he doesn't dislike the people, he's usually just to himself more.....but if he shows he doesn't like someone....I trust that judgment quite a bit), and Auggie had already been suspicious of him, not afraid, just suspicious. It was the same night we were at Holland Park, I think it was the only one he was suspicious about.  I think even with a breed like a Siberian Husky though, that people see Eight Below and think they're "huge" on the tv.  Those Huskies about the same size as my guys, but some had thicker coats.  And a couple were Malamutes which are bigger anyway. I've been told that my male Max was too small many, many times....but Max is 56 lbs....standards are 60 lbs at the most.   I do remember seeing like, 80-95 lb Huskies come in to a place I use to work, they were the same height as my oldest male, Max.....but they weighed that much. Seriously, do people just not exercise their pets? Or do they just feed them everything known to man.....and not exercise them too?

Back to Auggie though.....I was worried about his drives there for a while too being too low, he had been more of a medium level..(I know, balanced isn't necessarely a bad thing, I just prefer a lot of drive)..it seems like over the past few days something just....clicked. For the ball, rags, tugs, etc he's showing much, much higher drives lately. Unfortunately, I think he may be starting to teeth, because he got blood on LD when they were goofing around today, he was play biting LD on the neck.....and then LD had red on his neck, most likely from Auggie's gums......so no tug for now. Just drive building....and let him have the tug.  Auggie's so much fun though, and every time I get on his level and call him to me, he comes flying to me, then he leans up against me, wagging that tail like crazy, so happy.  Can anyone tell me something though.... Okay, when Huskies play, they show a lot of top gums/front small teeth. All of my Huskies do this, other Huskies I've seen do this, and even wolves do this sometimes......Do Shepherds normally do that when playing around? Or is that something he learned from my guys? He's been doing that when playing with my pack now.  I just know with Huskies that they do that a lot when playing with each other.

What do you mean ?  Lifting the front of the lips in an 'almost'-snarl ? Or am I getting it wrong ?  If that is what you are describing, I honestly think almost all dogs do this when playfighting, to some degree or other, I don't think its breed-specific. (So, yes, have seen it with GSDs).
Re the size of your Huskies, I seem to have heard quite a lot around showrings / in dog press, and so on, during the past year or two, about how Siberians are getting "far too small and weak-looking generally".  I have myself seen one or two dogs I thought looked a bit skinnier than I would have expected.  Could this all be part of the same thing ?  But if you are happy that yours are within their Standard and could 'do a days work', surely you should take no notice ?

Could be on a growth spurt?

I'd rather see him a bit lean, than a bit heavy.

Conspicuous, he could be starting a growth spurt.


Hundmutter, sort of like a snarl, but no growling......just doing it as they play around with each other.  All four of my Huskies do it when they play together.

As for what you've heard in the show ring....I'll let you look at my dogs for yourself and you tell me if they look "weak" and too small......  Why on earth should I listen to a guy who has a 120 lb Husky? The standards for a female go up to 50 lbs......his female is 120 lbs......The general public is going by what they see on television, and even at that, the Huskies on the movies aren't as big as they think.  My Huskies weights are Max 56, Sierra 48, Buck 50, Little Dude 50.....though Little Dude is barely a year and hasn't filled out yet.

Buck, closest to the camera, Max in the distance.



Sierra...No, that's not her "stacked pic"



Max again



Little Dude. His color looks weird though in this one because of the sun.



One more of Sierra.



Taani, a pup from a litter of mine, she's in Iowa.

he looks just fine

many dogs of today are to heavy so he is just fine pups should be lean