So my almost two year old Siku has always had anxiety in any place that isn't our home. Even in places he has been a million times. He just paces, can't sit still, and you can tell he just isn't comfortable. Even after lots of exercise, you can tell he is tired, but he just can't stop moving around and on occasion crying. Does this happen with anyone elses huskies? Is there anything else that I can do for this? I've thought of maybe purchasing the thunder vest, but I thought I would see if there were any other or better solutions first.

Hi Erica! My Gus is the same way! He is 8mths old, and a rescue. He is such an angel when he is at home with us. Doesn't even react to strangers coming in and out of our place. But whenever we take him anywhere, he's either (1) very excited and won't listen, or (2) very stressed out and anxious.

For example, I took him to a work picnic on the weekend, he was pulling me a lot when we were walking, so I would stop very often. Everytime we stopped, he would start screaming. He's done this before on just regular walks. Finally, when we got to the actual picnic, I was just standing there talking to some people, and he starts whining again. But not really a whimper. Almost like a wheezing whine. His tongue hangs out, and his face just looks very stressed out.

Lately, he has been whining in his crate at night too. He used to sleep in there very well. But now, he wakes up every night at around 4am and starts whining and panting. I try to ignore him, but he doesn't stop until I get up and correct him. All i do is say in a stern voice, "Gus! No!", and he goes right back to sleep for the rest of the night. I know that kind of goes against all crate training advice, but it seems to be the only thing that works with him.

He used to do this in our condo lobby. So everytime we walked through the condo lobby, we would sit and wait for him to calm down. When he did, we would give him treats to reward him for being calm. I am hesitant to try this when we are out though because he does show some signs of food guarding with other dogs.

I started a thread recently called Teaching your dog to settle, and I think it's a similar question, how to get him to settle in public. I got some helpful replies, but I'll be interested to see the replies you get as well.

Yeah, I saw that settle thread, this was kind of an older one. I tried to do the thunder vest, didn't work so I returned it. My holistic vet has given us natural stress pills but I haven't used them yet, they kind of freak me out even though I know they won't cause a problem. I have been thinking about trying to teach settle the way the thread suggested but the thought of a 55lb husky thrashing around in my arms right now hasn't seemed to appealing to start, believe it or not!  

I saw the Settle thread too! Didn't realize there were so many replies though! I'll definitely try that out. I think it will help if he understands a command related to settling/relaxing.

I just wonder why he is so stressed out. Sometimes, it doesn't look like it's out of excitement. Sometimes it just looks like he's afraid and wants to get somewhere to hide or run away. I think it's time to get the treats back out for training. He is very food motivated! I just have to be careful if another dog approaches.

Yeah, and I can totally understand his anxiety because he is a rescue and I'm sure he could still be adjusting? But Siku has been with me since 8 weeks, and he has been to a lot of these places often. He does great in public, unless he see's someone he knows and goes freaking insane! But in like houses he just doesn't understand that its okay to lie down, and not pace. I guess we are in the same boat and out comes the treats when he good at other peoples homes.

Ha! I started the thing with him laying on his back in my lap at home. It has been working, but obviously isn't translating to outside yet. I want to get the click to calm book Kristina recommended, but haven't had a chance yet.

My husky doesn't generally get anxiety, but my GSP is extremely anxious and is so especially at other peoples houses. He also has a potty problem when were gone for long periods of time (work), so a friend suggested we use Valerian Root to help calm him down. It doesn't sedate at him at all but I noticed he's calm enough to listen better and also falls asleep easier.

Our Gus has separation anxiety so not sure if MAYBE that has anything to do with his overall anxiety when he's not at home? We give him a calming treat when we leave him, and he will howl for a little while when he is having a bad day, but generally, he is getting much better and sleeping most of the time that we are gone. He still does an anxiety pee sometimes, but much less often than before! I am hoping that he just needs to grow up a little bit, and become more mature. We bring him in for his neuter next week (EEEEEEK!!!!!), so I'm sure you will all hear from me when that happens

Overall, he just seems like a little ball of stress in new environments. He used to be a rural dog, and now lives in downtown Toronto haha. But he seemed to adjust to city life fairly quickly. He stopped being afraid of crossing the street after about a week we brought him home. And we try and take him out with us as much as possible to get him used to new environments.

Interesting, how much do you give him?

I mean I'm obviously not a doggy therapist but Wyatt has separation anxiety. He came from a not so good home so he sees my hubby as his "savior". I really didn't realize why he behaved the way he did until the vet suggested that was why he pees and poops in my house almost every day. After that, I noticed things he did at the dog park, like eating grass obsessively and drinking water like it's going to run out. He does this at my moms and brother in laws house too. He also can't sit down when he's not at home and it's very exhausting watching him. He's 7 years old now and not really getting better no matter what we've tried (other than Valerian Root). I got him the liquid drops and put about 12 drops on a treat, just when we know he's going to be in an anxiety causing situation, and sometimes at night because he'll walk around our bedroom all night and poop in the house. So far it's worked for about a week and only had a porblem one day. I really just don't have the heart to give him Prozac or other things like that.

Danzig's Mommy wrote:

He also can't sit down when he's not at home and it's very exhausting watching him.

This is exactly how Siku is! He just doesn't feel safe enough or whatever it is to sit down anywhere accept our house. Its very exhausting watching him, and everyone hates having him at their house which frustrates me. My parents are very good about having him there and they understand how he is, but my boyfriends parents always say stuff and get mad that we bring him over, which pisses me off cause they make comments about how Nikolai can come over anytime because they love him and all this crap. Its like I don't tell you I hate any of your kids, so don't tell me that you don't like seeing either one of my dogs. Its just rude!

I think that's exactly what it is. Wyatt tends to be emotionless so it took me awhile to figure out that it was more than him just being weird and that he's scared. People shouldn't say things like that! Everyone that watches our dogs know he has issues so they don't say anything too rude, but my mom has gotten frustrated with him.

Yeah, I like his parents but they can just say some really rude things about Siku to the point where I have gotten very angry with them. They just don't understand his personality, and that its not his fault that he is like this. I haven't left him yet at any kind of overnight place and don't trust anyone to watch him because of his stress levels, and they always like make fun of me for caring to much cause he is "just a dog". They have a english bulldog who does absolutely nothing but sit around, and they just come and go as they please because they have someone who can watch him whenever so they don't really have the concept of owning a pet that they have to be with and not vacation every other weekend.

My holistic vet recommended Resources Anxiety & Stress, and just give him two pills a day and then kind of start again as if you are socializing a puppy and eventually you can get him off it and he will have realized those situations weren't as stressful, and it should calm him. But I have yet to really try it to attest to those results. We aren't people that get off of our normal schedule often so I would hate to medicate him every day for something that might only make him stressed one weekend a month.

I agree with you about medicating for something that might not happen, I like the idea of valerian. I've had valerian tea myself and never had an issue, plus its nice that you only use it during stressful situations.

Yeah, I think those pills would be more to use when we move and everything for him is changing at once every single day but just not now and that is what has held me back. I will have to try what Dietra does and see if that helps in the meantime!

Our vet gave us prozac. But we never used it for him. Gus is improving all on his own, but still has his bad days. He's not too anxious at other's people's homes. He's more annoying than anything else 'cause he's very curious and likes to snoop around. But doesn't appear to be stressed out. UNTIL it's time to leave, then he starts singing us tunes because he's afraid we'll leave without him. Then the second we're out the door, he starts pulling like crazy even though he has no idea where he's going.

I'm going to keep Valerian root in mind though. I had never heard of that until today.