Hi there!

Im charlotte n I wondered if you guys could give me some advice. About 3 weeks agp me and my partner Kelly bought a 6 month old (now 7 month JUST) husky pup called Layla from a family who could unfortunately no longer keep her due to his missus being pregnant. We are having a couple of issues with her though and wondered what you guys would recommend.

We have a crate for her and ever since we got her shes been peeing and pooping in it, but when we take her on walks she pees n poos outside n we get her to come over once shes done something, get her to sit and give her a treat n some praise. What is the reason behind her doing this in her crate? How could we stop it?

Also, her poop keeps going from normal to loose. Her food has been changed as the current owner had her on Wagg which had 28% protein in it...no wonder she was abit nutty! Our neighbours are husky owners and have been for years and they recommended Royal Canin as that has an ingredient in it to stop the runs etc. She is being fed the correct amount. Ive had her to the vets and the vety said she just needs to put on abit more weight. We have tried the whole no eating thing for 24 hours n it only works if you don't catch her with her head in the bin!

Also she has been known to nip. Not as often now. But I did go to get her bone out from under the sofa and she nipped the side of my face which of course didn't please me n she was crated straight away. Any tips on how to stop this?

She goes on about 1 to 2 hour walks a day along the riverbank and that's usually enough for her. We are first time husky oweners and any training tips or any kind of tips would be greatly appreciated!

Welcome!

For her pooping in her crate etc, you need to wash it with an enzyme cleaner to eliminate all traces of the smell to them. If they smell it they still think it's ok to do it. Also you should check the size of the crate, if it is too large, a dog will use part of it as their toilet, I believe the rule is that they can stand, turn around and lay down with little trouble, but not too much larger than that. Some crates have dividers to help expand as the puppy grows.

For the food I am not very good with the nutrition issue, so I have to leave that for someone else. You can try plain white rice or a bit of canned pumpkin to help alleviate the loose stool.

The nipping you need to stop, but you should never use the crate as punishment area. They should associate their crate with good things. We use our bathroom/bathtub for time outs. If she nips, you need to immediately tell her NO firmly, and take away any treat that caused it. Once time out is done and she takes it nicely, you can reward her. Some people hold the muzzle when doing this, we have never really needed to, but its up to you. Just be firm and consistant.

Walks are really important but there is a rule of thumb that puppies should walk no more than 5 minutes per month they are. So for Layla that is 35 minutes. You want to keep stress on their joints and muscles to a minimum until they are about a year old, then you can start running more, or training her to pull.

Hope this helps, if someone else could chime in on the nutrition that would be great.
Kelly

Hi Kelly,

The crate is a rather large one but that's the one she came with from the owner. Could I buy a divider for it do you think? its big enough to get 2 husky pups in her size and lay them side by side together stretched out.

You see our neighbours told her her time out zone is the crate. And if shes quiet and calm then you let her out. Don't worry the bone that was under the sofa is LONG gone! If she does start to nip I say "AH" and she stops. I think the nipping was a part of a game with the previous owener. As she is doing it less.What product would you recommend for cleaning out her crate? I got one from Pets at home that is meant to stop them doing it in the same place again but it doesn't seem to be working!

We use Nature's Miracle and it works fairly well for us. I'm not sure where you are from, some products differ or have limited availability in certain countries.

You might be able to purchase a divider, try your local pet store, they might be able to order you one.

I really would try and find an alternate time out spot. The crate is somewhere safe for them, you don't want it assiciated with negative feelings. Otherwise when you leave the house and crate her she might think she did something wrong.
There is no reason to completely remove high reward treats like bones, but just hand them to her when she is in a calm state, reinforce her taking them from you gently, and if she jumps/nips, Make her sit and calm down until you feel she can take it gently.

If you cant find a divder i read you can put a box in there to make it smaller.. What i did i made my own divder out of some wood.. Just get creative.. It doesnt have to be anything special just a safe way to make the area your puppy stays in a little smaller.

Okay I suppose we could make our own divider. Ill get the missus onto that shes more of a DIY girl than me!

Thing is for the time out spots, you litrally cant leave her in a room on her own without her doing something she shouldn't. lie stealing a sock from the wash basket. We did take the bone off her and put it away when we felt she was behaving badly. This isn't just my first husky its my first dog. Not the case for my missus as she was brought up with dogs.

She has toys in her crate. I even put a blanket in for her to sleep on yet if she poops she puts the blanket on it. Why is that? I take her out in the morning to do something and last thing on a night before she goes in the crate for bed. Yet I come down in the morning she has pee'd in it and pooped.

Can anyone in the UK recommend a good cleaning product for the crate then that will get rid of the scent so she wont re offend in there ?

Is there an option to put the crate in your room while you sleep? I know my dog when she was a pup hated being separated from us and whined until we caved, but the pooping might be a stress reaction. You could try crating her in your room, that way she isn't alone or feels stressed at night, and you could potentially catch and interrupt the behaviour and immediately take her outside.
We used to get up in the middle of the night to make Tika go outside just to avoid any accidents.

Our room isn't big enough for her crate and our double bed. Besides we don't want her in our room like the other couple had her. We want her downstairs because no offence to her when she poops in it n pees in it, she stinks the place out. I understand it might be due to separation from us but I suppose the fact the other people lets say "babied" her hasn't helped

I think the reason you should have her in your room is so that she doesn't poop and pee in the crate. It would help you remember to wake up and let her out.

The crate shouldn't be used as a punishment i.e time out if you want her to associate it with somehwhere she wants to be. When used correctly a crate should become a safe place for them...

With the peeing/pooing in crate you should be taking her out every 2 hours until she can hold it through the night. Ours are nine months and still let them selves out to go to the toilet and very rarely would they go the entire time without needing to go to the toilet.

When my boy was younger, we had his crate in our room. He would cry at odd hours of the night to go out. Eventually we took the crate out and he would sleep with me and my boyfriend. He then started to sleep through the whole night and would lick us if he needed to go potty. It gets better with time! I now can trust our boy to roam free at night. He usually goes to bed when we do and sleeps at the end of the bed or on the floor on my side. He always wakes us up to go potty and its always about 7:30 am