Hello everyone!

I have a very active, 2y/o male (still intact) who has lately taken to chewing again. I take him on a walk every morning and my husband and I go on a run with him every night. When we're home during the day he has access to both indoors and outdoors, a kiddie pool, TONS of toys, and he can run the back yard (which is pretty big). When we are gone he is crated (and does well) and when we are home and moving about he doesn't chew stuff.

HOWEVER, our work schedule has changed so sometimes if I work late he will wake me up in the morning to go out (usually between 4-6am). I will let him outside and then leave the door open (like I usually do) and go back to sleep for another hour or 2 before his morning walk. During this time is when trouble starts. He comes in, takes his toys outside (which is fine), then comes back in and takes our things outside. My shoes, boxes, my bags, my retainer, the toothpaste, a box of epsom salt...lots of stuff. He doesn't tend to EAT it he just shreds it up. None of these things are on the floor...most are behind closed doors (which he has opened since he was tall enough to reach o.O)

When we were on a night shift we would open leave him access to the backyard during the whole day while we slept with NO issues (we'd check on him to be sure but nothing). But since I changed schedules for the summer he's resumed this bad habit. I'm not sure if that has something to do with it but I need help controlling it.

I'm at a loss on how to stop this since I don't actually catch him taking it or chewing (he won't do it if he knows we're awake). And he knows someone is home because he will come in and check on me then go back out. I really don't want to stop letting him run in the back yard because I feel that he deserves to run around even with our 2-3 daily walks but I'm afraid he's going to eat/chew something that's harmful.

Any advice?

I would crate him after you let him out in the morning. Until he can stop the chewing, its for his own safety. You can use bitter apple spray to get him to stop using this stuff (although that'll be pretty nasty on your retainer lol) but you have to do something to discourage him. He needs to learn that if he can't be trusted to be left out then he can't be left out. And every couple of days you can try leaving him out again. If he doesn't chew, reward him, if he does chew, back in the crate he goes the next morning. Huskies are pretty smart, he'll quickly figure it out.