Hello!

Apologies for the long post!  But I thought it would be good for everyone to have a good background on what we've done so far.

We adopted a rescue husky a month ago, and he is now 5.5mths old.  We realized very early on that he had some separation anxiety whenever he was left alone.  We have tried crate training - this only seemed to make it much worse.  He would howl, pee, pant, drool.  Then we tried just confinement in a smaller area.  He just jumped over his gate (which is already extra tall) and destroyed things.  This would also send him into howling fits.  Finally, we came up with a new theory that maybe confinement of any kind makes his anxiety even worse.  We came to this theory because at night, he sleeps in the living room all by himself, with no destruction or protest.  So we are now trying out no confinement at all.  He doesn't howl or cry anymore.  But he does get a little nosey sometimes.  As long as we are good about clearing off all counters, and anything he can destroy, he generally just stays in his area with his toys and tasty treats!  The only problem that we still have is that he pees.  He usually pees right at the front door.  But yesterday, he peed on the COUCH!  He is 100% housetrained.  This only happens when we leave him alone.

At the moment, we are bringing him to a doggy daycare while we are at work because I don't want him to be alone for so many hours.  Also, he comes home very tired, which helps with keeping him calm during our separation training.  In the evening, when we are home, we try to do 1-2hrs of separation training.  My question is has anyone experienced this?  And was the anxiety peeing resolved once your husky learned to get over his anxiety of being alone?  I see so many posts and articles about other people dealing with the same thing, but rarely ever find any success stories  

We would LOVE some tips or ideas on how to resolve this.  Or just encouragement from anyone that has gone through the same thing.  We feel like we are on the right track as he has improved a lot in the past couple weeks.  But who better to reach out to than a husky community!   Thank you!

If he is improving then it seems you're doing good and I'm sure you'll have it under control soon. Every dog is a different case it seems and with rescues it's hard to know what they've been through so you know what might set them off. Have you had him outside playing before you leave with ample opportunity to pee? I guess it's about figuring out if he's peeing because he just can't hold it or if it's rebellion, though the tragedy with the couch would lean more toward rebellion. I adopted an older Husky and while she doesn't pee on things when I leave her she just wigs out for the first five minutes, clawing at the door and jumping all around the house and up on my coffee table so she can see out the window and try to watch me. It's really hard on the table and the things that used to be on it. I've only had her a month and she seems to be getting worse the longer I have her. What do you do for separation training when you're home? Don't lose hope, it sounds like you're doing great.

Hello,

I am experiencing a similar issue.  We received our bundle of joy a month and a half ago.  He is now 4 months old.  I am having a difficult time crate training him.  I read some of your posts and they were very helpful, especially, the ones regarding separation anxiety.  Ice would poop every night in his crate and every time I left the house.  I decided to sleep in the den downstairs the past 2 nights and place his crate by the door.  He didn't whine or poop in his crate!   It was very refreshing to not get up to a stinky house and nasty task.  Although, I am still being greeted with this each time I leave the house.  

Ice doesn't poop or pee in the house while roaming around.  It only happens when we leave.  I am going on vacation soon and hate to ask a relative to come and sit with him to be greeted with poop each time she leaves. I have 3 weeks before I leave for vacation.  What can I do to get his anxiety under control by then?  PLEASE HELP!

Here is a pic of our ICE ICE BABY!

Have you tried playing music on low at night? I have a radio on all day even when I'm at the house just so when I leave she has something that stays consistent and she doesn't get weirded out in a quiet house. My uncle used to raise Papillons and he would leave the radio on 24/7 and it made weening so much easier. Same with calves. He used to have a dachshund that would poop all over the house when he left for a long time out of spite. Yes, spite and that was remedied by rubbing her nose in it a couple times. Though not the recommended method, it worked for her. You shouldn't have to go to extremes like that. Your puppy will learn.

Yay replies! Thank you so much for your replies! I was starting to feel a little lonely out here

TwisterII, our Gus used to go instantly crazy when we left too. It used to be instant howling the second we walked out the front door. The separation training that we do at home just consists of us leaving him alone. We started off with desensitization exercises. I literally spent one entire evening just walking back and forth to the door, then sitting back down, then unlocking and locking the door, then sitting back down, then opening and closing the door, then sitting back down, then finally leaving, but coming right back in. I did this until he just stopped reacting to these sounds and to the "routine" of us leaving. It wasn't until we had him at this point that we started to actually leave him alone. Right now, I start with just 5mins alone. Come back in for 5mins. Then out again for a longer period of time. We have a webcam setup on him so I can see when he is about to freak out haha. It's VERY boring outside in the hallway! But i do find that he does get better and better. The time that he peed on the couch, we were actually out completely so we might have pushed him too far (we were gone for 2hrs). Thank you for the encouragement! I would suggest you try out some of the desensitization. I find that if they are in a calmer state when you actually leave, they tend to not freak out as much. Also, I always give him a tasty treat when I leave. I leave the TV on for him too so it is a familiar sound.

Icemama, we also had to leave Gus for a couple days WHILE we were in the middle of all this separation training! I will admit that leaving him did take a toll on the training. But it did not take too long to get back to where we had left off. We placed him in a dog boarding facility. We went with boarding because we felt that it was the safest, least stressful solution.

This might seem like a silly question, but do you think allowing him on the couch would make him NOT want to pee on it? He is not allowed on the couch or bed right now. He has peed on both of these once haha. Both were during times of anxiety though.

Thanks again for your replies.

TheBadGuppy wrote:

This might seem like a silly question, but do you think allowing him on the couch would make him NOT want to pee on it?  He is not allowed on the couch or bed right now.  He has peed on both of these once haha.  Both were during times of anxiety though.  

Thanks again for your replies.

I really didn't have any advice on anything but I don't think this part would be true. Yuki was allowed on the couch when she was a puppy but she peed on it 3 or 4 times until I had to stop letting her on it. Link was allowed on our bed the first couple weeks and he came to us completely house trained, yet he peed on the bed for some odd reason or another and is obviously not allowed anymore. I don't know the reasoning behind why they peed on the couch/bed, but to me it does not seem to make a difference whether they're allowed to be on it or not.

Thanks Mobezilla! I was leaning towards your answer as well haha. The first couple times that we left him alone with no confinement, i did catch him jumping on the couch AND the dining table while watching him on his webcam. But once he realized that i will NEVER leave anything for him there, he has never tried again.

I'll stick to the no-couch and no-bed rule! Thanks for your input and experience!