Feeling Frustrated

[StarrBrightt]

Ok so I am feeling a bit frustrated and overwhelmed, i think. SO we have only had Loki for a week. So far he had a plastic crate chewed huge hole and got out, then we buy a metal cage also got out. So we decided to let him just roam the house since he was not staying in the cage, he pees allover the house when we are gone. And this morning while holding my 9 mo baby, he pushes me out of the way to try and run out the door, i scolded him for that. I bought an everlasting treat that I only give him when we are gone. He destroyed our venision blinds yesterday. He is 2 yo and does not pee in house when we are home. he also cowers when we try to put him in the crate.

 

I know a week is not long and he still is getting adjusted, but i am about to close on my first house and do not want it destroyed while we are at work. I am not sure what to do? Leave him out of crate , maybe confine to kitchen and re house train? force him to be in the cage and put a bunch of locked and zip ties and hope he will get used to it?

 

I have had many dogs but never a husky and i am having a hard time ..please help.

[PaulG]

Crate training I can not help with never used them do not even have one.

Bored energetic husky is a bad thing so all I can advise is a long walk and if you have a good fenced area off lead run

(need 5 foot fence min) every day before you leave him. My husky gets about 5 miles at least of walking every day if you

live close enough go home for lunch and give small walk play ball.

get another dog, a husky on its own is bored even with loads of toys they are a pack animal and need the company of people

and dogs more than any other breed.

I am sure others here will be able to help that is about all I can think of that will help

[Andy]

They are escape artists.

If you can get him in the crate zip tie the corners and middle of all edges and sides.

We have lost 2 sofas and a chairs to my guys chewing.

 

Try to wear them out physically before crating or leaving them.

toys like kongs and puzzle balls that they have to work at to get the treat, even an empty soda bottle with the top off and treats inside.

 

Leave a radio playing 

 

all helps to lessen separation anxiety and boredom.

[Cascara]

Hi,

 

That is a tough situation a new husky and a young baby. I would start by deciding what you want from your husky. Personally I confine mine to the kitchen  when we are out. A plastic cage must've made a good chew toy lol. The metal cage will be better but if he hasn't ever been in one before then you have to gently and firmly introduce him to it. No-one wants pee everywhere. Do you know anything about his history? His background why he was re-homed at 2?

 

Huskies are a different breed to other dogs, they are unique rascals and the owner needs to love that uniqueness and work with it

[StarrBrightt]

The person I got him from lied a lot. He was posted as a 9 mo nuetred male. Afte I got him his ribs and spine are showing a lot, like very bumpy when you make a fist, so he is super skinny. I called the micro chipp people they said he is 2 yo and he is not nutered. Also the guy I bought him from is not even the owner but his brother. I gues his brother got deployed. So I do not know much about him. He is malnourished and i think he may even been beaten cause he cowers when i put him in the crate. he does bette rnot crated, just have to figure out how to stop him peeing when alone.

[StarrBrightt]

also we are in process of closing on our first home next week and will be putting up a fence. WHat type would be best? Right now we have no yard for him to run we are in a townhouse, so that is prob [art of the [problem. but at the new house we have a mus room we could confine him too until he gets more house trained when alone.

[Carly]

hello, well firstly training is a long frustrating process for both pups and their owners as everyone is trying to learn the boundaries and build a relationship. the best advice i can give you is to hang in there,

 

you will feel frustrated for a long while to come yet i am sure, i think if i remember correctly it took about 7 months in total for my Skye to be totally trained in her crate without pooping and performing.

 

Holly came to us already crate trained though she escaped from it regularly until we employed the use of padlocks (only because she chewed the zip ties off!).

 

The thing to remember is that crate training really is tough love, i wouldn't trust either of mine as far as i could throw them if they were to be left outside the crate to roam teh house, having them crated for us is as much for their own safety as it is for the actual house.

 

Things you can try are;

 

Leave a radio on....or in our case the girls have their own TV

Provide plenty of toys - a filled kong is a good one, i filled mine with peanut butter and froze it

Leave by a different method so pup can't see you leaving

Change your process for leaving because will have learned all the things you do that lead up to you actually leaving

A ticking clock can be a comfort as it reminds the pup of its mothers heartbeat

A plug in adaptil is good as it omits a pheromone that calms them

 

I am sure some others will have some good ideas for you as well, good luck, it honestly does get better 

[PaulG]

I am guessing but

I would guess he is not house trained and was an outside dog. I would crate him and begin house training and keep him in a room that

has Lino flooring and for added easy clean get a few tubes of silicon bath sealant and run a thin line around the edge of lino and

skirting board. will sort of turn it into a wet room and stop pee seeping under the lino.

when your out put him in this room and lock the door with a bolt or locking door lock for added safety so he cant get out the crate then

jump up and paw claw the door open

[PaulG]

Fencing for husky 5 foot minimum 8 foot better 8 foot plus 4 foot loose anti climb over hang even better 20 foot with razor wire

even more so but a husky would just tunnel under that. so you will also have to think about going down under the ground about 4

feet as well as having a buried horizontal layer of mesh too you are talking zoo or prison level security fencing if your leaving

a husky out un supervised for a length of time.

so a 5 foot garden fence made from a hard to climb material is your best bet no mesh netting that a husky can get a toe hold on to

climb, so a nice strong wooden fence would probably work as long as they are being watched

[Cascara]

Wow Paul 20 foot fence topped with razor wire, I know I am concerned about someone stealing my pup but that fencing would hold many a prisoner lol!

 

We used 2 metre high chain link and sunk it into a concrete base, the garden will be a mess but the fence keeps them in.

 

I think the key has to be exercise every time. Huskies are much more content and manageable when exercised properly and that may not be easy with a young baby to think about as well. I got an old fashioned sturdy pram and then a cross country pushchair so we could go for long walks, then later a harness so I could carry the babe on my back and walk and walk.

 

What kind of exercise does your husky get Starrbrightt? Does he get a good run before you go out? Is that possible? At least that way he will be empty (mostly) although uncut boy dogs pee and pee and peemarking everywhere they can it seems.

[SibeHush]

Loki has issues, no offense, because of improper, or quite possibly, limited/no training all together.

 

I find with the Northern breeds you have to have their complete trust and unquestionable respect in order to overcome the gaps in training.

 

Scolding, as I imagined you did while pushed out of the way with an infant in your arms so he could enter the yard, may not necessarily be the best approach (although sometimes necessary). Anger, from my experience, doesn't foster respect, rather it grows fear, and fear when it comes to training makes for a sly dog who does things to avoid punishment but continually looks for alternatives.

 

As an example of proper training... I would have placed the baby in a crib or handed it off to it's mother before retrieving the dog and doing a forced training session of entering/exiting protocol until the Loki displayed the behavior I desired. I'd have stood at the door with it open, giving a large enough gap to tempt the dog to run out, and body blocked him right before his exit, pushing him back from the door, until he inevitably sat down away from the door and looked towards me for instruction. At which point you give you're cue that allows him outside- but not before he asks what is desired of him.

 

Cowering when being placed inside his crate is a result of negative enforcement and improper crate training. Depending on the severity of his anxiety you can ether attempt to re-do his crate training focusing on positive reinforcement, or you can find an alternative and remove the crate all together- an alternative being a destruction proof room in which to confine him while away.

 

Peeing on the other hand, if house trained, is likely the result of separation anxiety- something to be expected from a dog whose been re-homed. The cure for this, is trust. You have to earn Loki's complete trust. You're putting a creature in a situation in which is has little to no control of it's circumstances and is completely dependent on you for the basic necessities of life. At this present time, Loki does not trust you enough to be comfortable in such a situation.

 

The summation of my answer... the cure is time and effort.

 

The first three months were also a nightmare for me when I brought my girl Dakota home with me. More often than not I hated my situation and regretted my decision when I added her to my family. I had owned several various breeds previous and she has by far been the hardest breed to live with but now I'm perfectly happy with my decision. The hard work I had to put into her only elevated my emotional attachment.

 

A husky will ether build you up or brake you down.

[Emma]

When we rescued Bear she had terrible separation anxiety. She was fine when we were home but would destroy everything in sight and go to the toilet everywhere if we went out She had a massive fear of confinement. She only had to see a crate and she panicked. Honestly, if she was lying against the wall and someone stood next to her then she would freak out and move away immediately. Time, patience, and trust eventually calmed things down and now she's a happy and relaxed dog. We never did manage to crate train her though. There was an incident where she tried so hard to get out of it that she ended up taking the skin clean off the top of her muzzle....she was only in there for five minutes or so. That was the day we decided to concede defeat and look at alternatives.

[StarrBrightt]

Thank you everyone for the great imput. I think we are going to not re crate train and do confinement in the new house with the mud room to get his peeing under control and maybe slowing unc onfine him. We have the crate in bedroom so if he decides to slowly scope it out it is there but do not want to force him to use it because he is already afraid of it.I think once we move into our permenant home and have nice big fenced yard he will be easier to manage.  for now i give him a nice long walk for about an hour after dinner. Otherwise we do short walks to relieve himself. currently he is free roam, because town house is small. once we move in 2 weeks we will have tons a of space and i think everyone will be happeir.

[StarrBrightt]

also while on th esubject of loki. he is so super skinny 41 lbs spine very visable. CUrrebtly on iams but i feel there is better food out there. I was looking at blue wilderness or costco knock off nature domain., WHat do u think is best to help him get to a healkthy weigth. this poor dog, i think he may have been through a lot, i kno wit is going to take time for him to be comfortable  but we are so glad to give him a better life.

[Cascara]

Crates are not for everyone or every dog. I call them cages, because that is what they are. A few years ago I took on an 8month old husky who was caged most of the time, when I went to see her all the carpet around the cage that she could reach had been chewed and eaten, I always disliked cages but at that point I hated them and could not understand why they were needed. We successfully re-trained the pup and she had a wonderful life, cageless.

 

However, the new husky pup we have now was born in a cage and weaned in a cage and so we ended up with her in a cage at night, but she chooses to go in and it is her 'cave' her den and she loves it.

 

Choose what is best for you and your young family's safety. You can then work from a place of safety knowing you are doing the best for Loki aswell

[PaulG]

Wow Paul 20 foot fence topped with razor wire,

 

We used 2 metre high chain link and sunk it into a concrete base, the garden will be a mess but the fence keeps them in.

Lol the 20 foot fence was meant as an extreme joke

2 meters = 6 feet 6 inches

[PaulG]

I would try for a long walk ball playing games in the morning too a tired sleepy husky doesn't get up to as much mischief

as a bored energy filled one

[Jay]

For food, you can check out dogfoodadvisor.com.  I recommend a high quality, grain free diet.  IMHO, Iams is not that great.  I feed mine Taste of the Wild, it is reasonably priced and good quality.  I have also heard that Costco's grain free food is very good and it is a good price.

[Clare70]

Sometimes it helps us to understand  our dogs if we see things from their point of view.

 

Clearly Loki has been poorly cared for, he's under weight and shows signs he's been hit.  He's in a new house, with new people and a baby, it's bound to make him anxious and insecure.

 

It will take time for him to settle and trust you, huskies are intelligent creatures and any form of change can really affect them. 

 

Ideally it sounds as though he shouldn't be left on his own at the moment, it's a pity you can't take some time off to be with him while he settles in.  Ideally he should be left for very short periods of time, say 5 mins then extend this time by 5 mins each time.  He needs to know you are coming back to him and slowly he will gain confidance and be more secure.

 

The peeing is a sign of insecurity, so do not scold him. Just clean it with a product not containing ammonia as this smells of pee to a dog and he will do it there again. Give lots of praise when he goes outside as dogs respond better to positive reinforcement than negative.