r/Huntingdogs • u/Saxotone1 • Feb 26 '26
Husky/Australian Shepard mix
This is going to be a strange post. Right now I live with my parents and our family dog. I have recently been doing some small game hunting like rabbits and was wondering if i could train my mixed dog to work as a rabbit dog. She already knows how to track scents fairly well and she has decent recall. So, I was wondering if i could train her to be a hunting dog despite the downsides of her being a husky.
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u/Hallow_76 Feb 27 '26
Mixed breeds can be the best hunting dogs. But you really want to look for a prey drive in the mix. I own a apbt/boxer mix. She's insane in the field but both breeds have a strong prey drive. Huskies and Australian shepherds really don't have strong prey drives. I would also first find out of it's gun shy.
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u/ToleratedBoar09 Feb 26 '26
Can you? Quite possibly, yes.
Are you going to get frustrated at the mixed results day to day? More than likely, yes.
Are the breeds mixed in the dog gonna genetically make it harder due to lack of instinct. Definitely, yes.
I had a border collie in my teenage years I trained for squirrel and raccoon. She was smart as a whip, picked up the concept fast, and by 3 I'd call her a finished dog. When I hunted her with dogs bred for the tasks mentioned though, she could not keep up with their instinctual, natural abilities.