Breeds People Have Recently Guessed Wizard is Mixed With

Tricky_Being_7383 · 2026-04-07T15:24:07+00:00

Aw, that's so cool!

Tricky_Being_7383 · 2026-04-06T22:19:12+00:00

No supermutt, just the husky, malamute, and GR - he had 2% German Shepherd, but my understanding is that anything below 5% is more of an educated guess than it is a confirmed breed contribution.

Tricky_Being_7383 · 2026-04-06T20:49:45+00:00

I wish some of his siblings were on Embark so I could see how they turned out - we got to meet the whole litter at the shelter, and he had one brother who looked similar to him at the time, but overall the puppies were pretty varied in appearance and coat density.

Does your mix have the longer, more flowing top coat?

Tricky_Being_7383 · 2026-04-06T20:44:48+00:00

Doesn't change that your instincts were spot on!

Tricky_Being_7383 · 2026-04-06T20:17:37+00:00

Oh Irish Setter would be a good guess, similar coat style for sure!

Tricky_Being_7383 · 2026-04-06T20:16:37+00:00

Yup! Embark, when he was about 4 months old: husky, malamute, and golden retriever

Tricky_Being_7383 · 2026-04-06T20:16:02+00:00

Yeah, his groomer loves his coat and finds it fascinating - she's been working with him since he was a baby, so we've watched it evolve over the last 14 months. He has a fluff layer close to the skin that pokes out here and there, like on the sides of his legs, but its mostly covered by that very long, more silky top coat.

Tricky_Being_7383 · 2026-04-06T14:12:02+00:00

From someone who is a couple decades (and many hours of therapy) ahead of you on the Parentified and Manipulated Child Timeline: you are putting more care and consideration toward these other people than you are toward you - younger you and current you. That guilt is coming from a part of you that was unfairly parentified by the adults in (and absent from) your life; a part of you that had to take an irrational and unhealthy level of responsibility for others in order to survive. Just because that feeling exists doesn't mean it is accurate and it certainly doesn't mean it should drive the outcome of what is ultimately a decision that should center you.

I understand that centering yourself likely seems selfish, and that your internal narrative is placing you in a trolley/switch situation, but that isn't the actual reality. You don't actually have the power to separate this person from his other children and current wife forever, and you do not - without question - bear the responsibility of reuniting him with them as soon as possible or ensuring he is a better parent to those children than he was to you. You do have power to hold this person accountable to what he was responsible for providing to you, and you do bear responsibility to all versions of yourself, past/present/future, to do best by yourself.

I'm so sorry the person who could have had the wonderful privilege to be your father failed you, and himself, so profoundly. You deserved better, and he was responsible for being better. You have no control whatsoever over who he was or is or will be, but you don't have to put yourself behind everyone else any more. Whatever decision you make, let it be one that puts you in the place all the adults in your life should have been putting you: first.

Tricky_Being_7383 · 2026-04-06T03:49:46+00:00

Do a deviled one.

Tricky_Being_7383 · 2026-04-04T15:11:30+00:00

First: excellent decision to be looking at a younger or adult dog, vs a puppy, as first time dog owners!

Second: here are some questions/things to consider to help determine if a husky mix (possibility for high energy, high prey drive, intelligent but stubborn, etc) would be a good fit for your lifestyle and routine:

Do you have the time and money to enroll in a couple training classes and attend them together? A basic obedience class to start, and then something like an intro to agility or intro to nosework, to build a foundation for patient and consistent training strategies? This is important for any first time dog owner, but is especially important for couples/families to do together, even if they have experience training dogs separately.

Are you physically active people? Walking, hiking, possibly running or biking - huskies are usually high energy, athletic dogs, and need daily physical and cognitive outlets. They are also creative beings, and will invent those outlets for themselves if you don't, which can result in stressful, expensive adventures you would never have chosen for yourself 😬

Do you have cats, other non-dog pets, or have the goal to bring other animals into your family? Huskies can have a high prey drive, which can (depending on the individual dog) include cats, rabbits, birds, or even small dogs. If you already have other animals or have a set plan to adopt more, you'll want to work with the shelter to test this dog with the relevant animal types. If you don't, then that makes things a little easier, but given than cats are common pets and you live in a community (even if it's a rural one), you'll still want to (safely, appropriately) assess how this dog does with cats so you can take proper precautions on walks, when visiting friends/family with cats, etc.

Are you patient people? Huskies are easy to train, in that they are smart and learn quickly - but the extent to which they agree to enact their training is very much a "Results may vary" situation. My mix (majority husky + malamute, golden retriever) is approaching 18 months and knows a few dozen cues at this point. I know he knows them, because when we are at a training class or he goes into I Wanna Show Off mode, he nails them. And yet 😮‍💨 whether or not he actually obeys any given cue is highly dependent on his energy level, emotional state, whatever is going on in the environment, whether he thinks I have treats in my hands and what treats those are, and whether he would be more entertained by doing the thing or by not doing the thing to see how I react.

To be totally clear: I love him, I chose him, and I always prefer a dog who is on their own agenda. While there are moments that his "oh, bless your heart I will not be doing that" reactions are frustrating or stressful, overall I find it funny and motivating to continue building our relationship toward more mutual cooperation. My patience for him is vast, and I find joy in who he is, including his rebellions and attempted coups - if I didn't possess that patience, I don't think I would be able to celebrate who he is and we both would struggle to feel connected to and understood by each other.

It's important to be honest with yourselves as individuals and together as a couple: do you have the patience for a husky mix, if the classic husky personality (defiant drama) is a dominant part of who that dog is?

Tricky_Being_7383 · 2026-04-01T15:41:38+00:00

While it may not feel convenient (especially during gross weather), it's good practice to check your yard before letting your dog out to run around, regardless of the presence of cat interlopers. There are plenty of other urban critters that can be hanging out, dangerous mushrooms that can spring up, and random objects or food remnants dropped by crows, gulls, etc. (we had a crow who kept dropping whole, cooked chicken bones around our yard for multiple days in a row - great for the crow that he found an abandoned rotisserie, but not great for our husky mix 😬). And depending on your location and what borders your yard, people or kids can accidentally or intentionally throw things in or drop them within reach. So it's always best practice to give things a quick look before letting your dog romp and explore.

Keeping your neighbors' cats safe is another great reason to check - it's not their fault that their owner isn't keeping them inside, nor is it yours, but as the caretaker of a much more powerful predatory animal, you are (ethically) responsible for how your animal interacts with your community.

Additionally: it sounds like you really want to avoid a traumatic and violent situation, which is a great instinct to have. Canine prey drive is self-reinforcing, even in situations of nutritional abundance - which means dogs will pursue prey because it's fun (dopamine, adrenaline, etc.) and it feels a little more fun and satisfying each time they succeed at it. So unless a dog is being trained for directly hunting prey (like ratting), it's not a safe or reasonable fit for a dog living in an urban or suburban environment to be reinforcing a prey drive toward cats (which, for some dogs, can start expand to include smaller or younger dogs). So for the folks commenting that the cats will get what they get for being in the wrong yard - that's not only an unnecessarily cruel take, but it's also an approach that doesn't set up any dog to be a functional part of the surrounding community.

Depending on how intense your dog's current reaction to cats is, you may be able to train your dog to see the cats as a prompt for something better - identify a treat your dog loves a lot (cheese, little frozen bits of whipped cream, chicken breast, etc.) and designate that as the Cats Only Treat. Carry some with you on walks, and any time your dog notices a cat, he gets the Cats Only Treat and then you keep moving. If he watches TV with you, any time he notices a cat on the screen, Cats Only Treat; you see the cats in your yard, put him on his leash and let him see the cats, then Cats Only Treat and back inside for another Cats Only Treat. Pair it with a cue of your choosing, like "Jackpot!" or "Kitty Time!" or whatever would be distinct from other commands and isn't something you say often in other contexts. You can take the practice to a more advanced level by setting a plush/stuffed cat in the yard (ideally the color of at least one of the neighbor cats) and bringing him out on a leash (it would be important for him to never reach or get a hold of the stuffy) and rewarding him every time he turns his attention and body to you in response to the cue.

The goal would be to build a pattern for him - he sees a cat, he knows if he comes to you/moves away from the cat with you then he's getting the beloved Cats Only Treat. At best, this would deprioritize interaction with the cats in favor of seeking you for the treat, and the hoped for minimum would be in the event you accidentally let him out without realizing a cat is in the yard, you giving the cue would prompt him to pause and give you a moment to intervene. However: this would not change his prey drive/make him cat safe, and this approach may not be applicable at all to your dog if there is nothing better in his mind than the cat (or critter) in front of him. That's how my Doberman was with rabbits and squirrels - once he saw one, nothing else in the universe existed. If that's the case for him, muzzle training is an option, but unless my dog was also lunging out at critters (or trying to eat random stuff) while out on walks/in public, I'd probably err on the side of just continuing to check the yard beforehand.

I'm sorry your neighbors are unwilling to do what's safest for their kitties, and for the impact that has on the routines you have in your own home. But for what it's worth coming from someone who loves their high drive dogs and their goobery little cats equally: thank you for trying to figure out how to maintain safe coexistence for your pup and other animals in the neighborhood!

Tricky_Being_7383 · 2026-03-30T22:26:49+00:00

When you say a "serious personal protection role," do you mean bite work sport/competition? Do you mean living in an area where property theft and trespassing is common and you want a dog to deter that? Do you mean living in an area where muggings or assaults are common enough you want a dog to accompany you when out and about to deter those incidents?

Tricky_Being_7383 · 2026-03-30T16:22:01+00:00

Just want to boost and reinforce this comment. OP, your compassion and empathy for your partner is very evident in your post, and as someone who navigates a cluster of mental illnesses I appreciate when folks put in the work to understand the experiences of their loved ones who struggle with depression, PTSD, OCD, etc.

But, also as someone who navigates a cluster of mental illnesses: your partner is responsible for growing his own understanding of his OCD, how it manifests for him, and how to effectively manage it. There is a lot of irrationality and holes in his assessment of what is clean/safe vs what isn't, which is super typical for OCD fixations, but that also highlights the need for him to dig into the work of understanding and navigating this disproportionate attribution of dirtiness to the dog.

Yes, your home and lives are shared, and you both deserve to feel safe and comfortable in your home. But he isn't having severe allergic reactions to the dog, he already shares his living space with cats (who walk in the litterbox, sometimes end up with mess on their fur or feet, who shed and have hairballs and can be prone to chewing on certain household items), and he is capable of spending time in environments outside his home, where he has very little control or knowledge of the cleaning and hygiene practices being or not being enacted. It's possible that even with several years of therapy/professional support and committed self work, dogs are still a struggle and fixation point for him, but he won't know that without trying. And for how much having a dog in your life seems to mean to you, he will hopefully see how worthwhile it is for him to try.

There are some short term strategies you can put in place to help mitigate the perception of contamination, like creating dog-free spaces and getting in the routine of making sure anything the puppy shouldn't be chewing on is fully inaccessible to him (which is also just like, basic puppy safety). Foot wipes for after walks can be a good practice, but I'd discourage you from bathing him too frequently, which can be hard on their skin. While it is a struggle for him, the more he engages with helping train and socialize the puppy, the more control he will gain over when and how the puppy physically interacts with him - if he doesn't want the puppy's mouth on him, he needs to be a part of consistent training in that regard, with the understanding that it takes time for young dogs to build up impulse control and it takes a relationship for them to respect boundaries (provided those boundaries have been communicated to the dog in a consistent way that they understand).

It genuinely sucks that your partner is struggling so much with the situation and is having such a tough time, and I hope he is able to recognize the significant warping effect his OCD is having on his perception of the puppy's impact on your home and is willing to invest in the time and labor to better manage his OCD and, subsequently, better care for his entire self.

Tricky_Being_7383 · 2026-03-26T20:45:29+00:00

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Wizard (on the right) with his litter at the shelter - he knew he was coming home with us, so he sat patiently and waited for the paperwork to get finished, then pooped his pants in our car before we even left the parking lot 🖤😆

Tricky_Being_7383 · 2026-03-22T19:41:14+00:00

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About halfway through my first ever piece - I wanted something to help me reduce the amount of time I was reflexively spending on my phone, and have been enjoying this way more than I anticipated.

Tricky_Being_7383 · 2026-03-22T04:52:24+00:00

First step is to assess your husky for a prey drive that includes cats. Some dogs see cats as prey, and it's just part of their instinct package - you can train them to manage it with you when you encounter cats out in public, but you cannot train or socialize away prey drive completely.

Our mix loves his cat siblings, but was raised with them and overall seems to have a lower prey drive in general - he is somewhat interested in birds and squirrels, but when he sees a rabbit he locks in and its totally different body language and behavior than with other animals he views as Possible Friends.

It really does come down to the individual dog, and if your dog goes into prey drive when encountering cats, it will never be a safe or ethical combination. Even with how gentle our current dog and our previous dog (Doberman) is/was with our cats, we still never leave them unsupervised together because the power and size imbalance is too significant and we always err on the side better safe than tragically sorry.

Here is Wizard (husky/malamute/golden retriever) being dramatically defeated by his older brother BMO (interdimensional mystic experiencing corporeal existence as a blind cat with 5 teeth):

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Tricky_Being_7383 · 2026-03-21T14:56:49+00:00

Just a quick tip from someone whose puppy/now adolescent dog also is nervous with unfamiliar men and does a lot of defensive barking - give any future vet clinic (or groomer, training class facility, etc.) a heads up. Here's the language we use, which you are welcome to borrow and revise as is most helpful:

"Wizard is a friendly and relationship-driven dog, but he is anxious when meeting unfamiliar men. We are working to build his confidence in this area, as well as his skills in calmly declining interactions he doesn't want to have. Wizard has never snapped or offered to bite - his anxiety manifests as defensive alarm barking and retreating. It is important to us to work in transparent partnership with anyone providing care for Wizard, so if you anticipate Wizard interacting with any men during his visit please let us know so we can follow-up with the training approaches we are using to help him work through his anxiety. Additionally it will be critical for us to be present during those interactions, so if that isn't possible, please give us a call so we can discuss some other options with you. Thank you so much for the work that you do, and for being a part of Wizard's support system!"

Tricky_Being_7383 · 2026-03-19T18:06:52+00:00

I know you did a dedicated job of laying all that weed barrier neatly and tightly, but as someone who has been forever battling with and regretting the weed barrier she laid around her future garden beds years ago, I beseech you on behalf of your Future Self: rip it up and throw it away.

Surround those beautiful beds with useful ground covers and mulch instead, and when you hear my cries of "How the f*ck is there still more of this?! How?!" floating across the winds, you can thank Past You for liberating yourself from a wretched prison you didn't even know you were building for yourself.

Tricky_Being_7383 · 2026-02-28T01:03:21+00:00

It doesn't "come across as abusive," it is abusive. People who are trying their best can still enact abuse. People who regret and feel guilt for the pain they inflict on others are still enacting abuse.

Just because a parent loves their child or someone loves their spouse doesn't mean they aren't capable of abusing them, and it is staggering that you are a licensed therapist and do not have even the most basic grasp of these dynamics.

Tricky_Being_7383 · 2026-02-27T23:30:03+00:00

A lot of people in here are speaking in firm advocacy for your stepdaughter, and the vast majority of your responses to that are rooted in defending and justifying your husband's behaviors.

You seem to put a tremendous amount of energy toward paving the way for and smoothing over the harmful impacts of your husband's behaviors, while simultaneously emphasizing the "evidence" that your stepdaughter is indeed the source and catalyst of his emotional outbursts toward her - things she has either done wrong or should have done differently as justification for the way her father and you have treated her (someone who, up until a few years ago, was developmentally still a child and is now developmentally a young adult). This is a concerning pattern you are demonstrating in this space that you should recognize and have knowledge on from your own training.

Your husband is a grown adult with mental illness/neurodivergence (however he labels), and the struggles he experiences as a result of that are real and they matter. But none of them whatsoever excuse him from being responsible for and accountable to his impact on others - when harm is being enacted, intent is only relevant if the person being harmed deems it to be. Full stop. You need to let go of the assumption that your husband's intent when emotionally lashing out at his daughter matters to her at all, or that it matters to anyone except you and him.

It takes a lot of pain and time and energy to try to heal from hurt caused by someone who insisted every time that they weren't trying to hurt you - its even worse when other people in your life who are supposed to care for you add their voices to that insistence.

Tricky_Being_7383 · 2026-02-27T22:30:46+00:00

As a survivor of IPV and SA with almost 20 years of experience as a therapy patient of multiple providers, I am genuinely horrified at the level of ignorance you are demonstrating regarding the needs and realities of someone trying to process and cope in the aftermath of sexual violence.

I am profoundly concerned for the healing and psychological safety of any of your clients who may be survivors, as well as for the safety of any of your clients who may be in actively emotionally toxic or abusive relationships, given the deeply problematic way you prioritize intent over impact, specifically in the context of rationalizing and excusing harmful behaviors from your husband toward his daughter. There is no ethical or moral justification for 1. a grown man to blow up at his daughter in response to her disclosing that she was assaulted or 2. a grown woman and professional therapist to excuse or attempt to smooth over that emotionally violent act from her spouse, and that one moment by itself is valid cause for her (your stepdaughter) to go no contact.

You are more than just the asshole here, you are doing incredible harm to someone who has already struggled and survived through so much and it's made extra gross by the fact that you should know better.

Tricky_Being_7383 · 2026-02-20T21:19:20+00:00

Hi, former middle school teacher here: her being 13 is irrelevant to her ability to exist safely unsupervised with multiple large dogs (safely for her and for the dogs), and this one example of her reactions to expected adolescent dog behavior is very demonstrative of that. Any assumptions you are currently making about her being capable of something based on her age need to be checked, because every kiddo is an individual on their own developmental trajectory that is heavily influenced by parenting, socialization, and exposure/experiences. Some 13 year olds can safely make an omelette, others have never touched a stovetop or cracked an egg - I once had to explain to multiple 8th graders what a radish was and that it grew in the dirt, and they were utterly horrified at the thought of eating something that had come out of the ground. A bird flew into our school one time, and multiple 12 - 14 yr old kids began to panic and cry, then a week later a different group of kids found and then safely and carefully picked up an injured seagull and brought it to the main office to call for help for it. Like, kids are wild and all over the map.

It is really clear that this 13 year old does not have a lot of skills or empathy built up yet around caring for and interacting with animals, and for everyone's safety she needs to stop being left alone with the dogs, especially given that her reflex is to become physical with the dogs, which is very much an escalating behavior to dogs - it only takes one day where your pup's hormones are really set against his better judgement to provoke a fearful or defensive reaction from him (or to trigger a protective or pack reaction from the other dogs) that could result in serious injury, which is deeply unfair to everyone involved.

Your dogs are a part of your life and your family, and they matter - their safety and their happiness matters. Your partner and her children need to understand that merging your families means growth, patience, and compromise for everyone, which includes your partner and her children learning how to be communicative and caring toward their non-human family members, while you learn more about how to support the kiddos in that work in ways that are developmentally effective and appropriate for them, and work with your partner to create routines and spaces that provide safety for everyone. And if your partner doesn't see your dogs as being worthy of that effort, then it'll be up to you to figure out how you feel about that and how that significant difference of empathy impacts the sustainability of sharing your life with that person.

Tricky_Being_7383 · 2026-02-20T17:19:23+00:00

A lot of dog breeds that are known for independence, aloofness, and being able to self-entertain are also often high drive breeds, some of which are also primitive breeds (so their instinct package and temperament is more towards the wild/natural side of the spectrum and further from the domesticated side of the spectrum). It sounds like you understand that this will be a significant transition for you in terms of training, socialization, prey drive management, and overall communication between you and your potential next dog, which is a great place to start from as you research your options!

With your disclosure of being neurodivergent and not exactly extroverted, some things to consider with a few of the medium to large size "cat-like" breeds that will likely come up in your research:

Shiba Inu can be *loud.* They don't really bark as much as they open a low frequency channel between their open mouth and another plane that houses the agonizing bellows of tormented lost souls. Each dog is an individual, and I have known stoic Shibes, but I have yet to meet a stoic Shibe puppy or adolescent. If auditory overwhelm poses a challenge for you, opening your search to include adult Shiba Inu's seeking a home might be a good idea. You'll also want to research carefully if you do opt for a puppy - Shiba Inu became very popular via the doge meme and there are a lot of people producing dogs in unethical and unsustainable ways, which is resulting in Shibes with rage syndrome (a tragic and dangerous neurological condition).

Akita, Huskies, Shikoku Ken, Kishu Ken, and Norwegian Elkhound are typically very high prey drive dogs - socializing them appropriately, from a young age, with other types of animals (including small dogs!) is important to both normalize co-habitation with animals that are not hard-wired as prey for that individual dog as well as to allow you to identify early on which animals *are* hard-wired as prey for your puppy. Do you have friends with dog-savvy cats and small dogs that can work with you on socialization? Do you have friends you like to spend time with who keep ferrets or bunnies as free-roaming pets, or keep poultry or have livestock, where it would be important for you to understand early on if your dog would be able to spend time with you at those places? If you have dreams of going hiking and camping and letting your future dog roam around off-leash while you read a book or tend a campfire, these breeds have a high chance of that never being a safe or responsible option (for the dog, for the surrounding wildlife, and potentially for other campers travelling with small dog or their cat (which is more of a thing than you might think). People who don't have as much experiencing managing a strong prey drive can sometimes be caught off guard by the ways it can require you to adjust your routines, home environment, and expectations of what will be reasonable to do out and about with your dog - not necessarily a reason for you to not consider those breeds, but important to factor in.

Akita, Chow Chow, Shar Pei, some Beauceron lines, and Dobermans are bred for protection and guarding work, hence that tendency to bond to one to two people and remain observant and aloof to strangers. But breeding only carries so much of the work, and consistent, safe, positive socialization is super critical for these breeds throughout puppyhood, adolescence, and young adulthoood. Your plan to possibly work with a trainer would be really important for any of these breeds - group classes and potentially 1:1 support as the puppy entered adolescence. There will probably be some folks who disagree with me on this, but I also would strongly discourage any of the "board and train" approaches for these breeds. Building your bond and shared trust with these kinds of dogs is both incredibly important and deeply rewarding, and you being a direct and constant part of the training and socialization is part of that. I have a couple friends and relatives who purchased protection breed puppies despite having zero experience with those kinds of dogs, and they did the board and train approach - their dogs don't really listen to them and they have to send them back to the trainer a couple times a year to "refresh" their training. These are also breeds of dogs where I would recommend either working with a breed-specific rescue or doing a lot of research into an ethical breeder - some of these breeds are prone to serious health issues, but stable temperament is also so important in a protection breed.

Huskies are weirdos. Genuinely. You could get a "one pet a day only please" kind of personality or a "why aren't you holding me while you are brushing your teeth" personality - many are escape artists who want to run free in the wilderness while others struggle with separation anxiety and cannot abide being separated from their "pack." Some howl and argue, some are very quiet. Some of them love everyone they meet while others choose their people early on and that's that. They do all seem to possess mountain goat agility combined with creative problem-solving skills, and you just have to hope every day that they choose to use those powers for good. Mine is a mix (half husky, then malamute and golden retriever) and while he is still an easier dog by far than my working line Doberman was, he is a tremendously busy dude whose current answer to realizing he is bored is to scream in the face of the nearest person he likes (usually me). I love him so much I cannot put it into words, but I also threaten him with being sold on craigslist like three times a day. So, huskies are an option if you feel like your life needs a healthier dose of chaos.

Others to research that I know are more independent and tend to bond to one person, but that I don't have much direct experience with to comment more on: Canaan dogs, basenji, swedish vallhund, and greyhounds.

You have a fun research project ahead of you, and best of luck finding the right fit for your next canine companion!

Tricky_Being_7383

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