So we all know about those lovely Husky tantrums right? Well Chess has spent the last 4 or 5 nights crying for no reason. He goes out running, we spend time outside, he has gone out, he has food and water but he still starts crying around 7:30-8 every night like clock work. Vet says there's nothing wrong so I'm guessing its his new way of throwing a tantrum but I can't get him to chill out. Thoughts?

Also, the last 2 nights, he's been barking at nothing in the middle of the night. He'll wake me up by barking but when I get up to look, there's nothing there. And it's not just once a night. It's 2-3 times a night. Normally I'd just let him outside but we live in an apartment so that's not an option.

I have had (and occasionally still do have) this issue with Orion and in his case he does it because he is bored. At first I couldn't figure it out because he gets 2 walks a day plenty of love and play time, lots of training etc so I thought something was wrong, I took him to the vet, contacted my breeder, read everything I could find but sure enough he was just being a brat - it's kind of his version of a little kid whinging mmmooommm iiimmm boooored!!!!!

I've found a few things that help...

Having his toys on rotation - he gets sick of toys quickly and won't play with them anymore so I have a big basket full of them and he only one or two at a time then after a week they get traded for others, when he hasn't seen a toy for 4 weeks its like its new again .

I keep a lot of puzzles on hand to keep him entertained - his favorite is a hollow ball like thing which has lots of holes on the outside which I stuff with strips of fabric that he can shake round and pull out all the fabric "destroying" the ball.

Frozen Kongs - Orion is a major chow hound so anything relating to food gets his attention quick but I have to mix up what I put in there often or he complains, his favorites are peanut butter, apple puree and Yogurt.

I've also noticed that he never does it on days where he has had interaction and play time with other dogs so I try and organize as many puppy play dates for him as possible (unfortunately there are no doggy day care facilities where I am) and I am doing obedience classes with him too. I would love to get a second Husky one day, I know Orion would just flourish with a companion but I want to be surer of his training before I contemplate that!

As for barking at night, I ignore Orion when he does this. It sounds mean but initially I always went to check and see what was up until it got to be a habit just to get attention and when I stopped giving it to him he just gave up barking at night - it took awhile though and a couple of pairs of good earplugs!

I hope Chess settles down soon, gotta love those tenacious husky tendencies!

By the way I love his name with the reference to the Cheshire Cat, I have a British Blue cat which is the breed thought to be the Cheshire in the original Alice and Wonderland

So, I've noticed lately that Dizzy wakes up in the middle of the night too. I think he's just had enough sleep or something. He never barks or cries, but I've heard him drinking water, moving around his crate, and chewing. I leave water and a himalayan chew in his crate for him and I've heard him working on it a lot lately. His crate is about 8' from our bed, and I've had a cold, so I've been waking up coughing and noticed this recently. Also my hubby is a professional musician, and comes home around 1-4 am frequently, and he says a lot of times Dizzy is awake and just hangin out in his crate. Maybe try leaving something out for him to chew on or keep him busy when he wakes up at night. He's probably just bored.

He has his bone to chew on at night and believe me when I say he LOVES this thing! Thankfully he didn't bark last night. Maybe something really did have his attention the last couple of nights. That or he was mad at me because when he did it the night before last, I made him come get in bed then held onto his harness and every time he'd try to get up and run to the living room, I'd wake up and pull him back down and make him stay by my side. Let me tell you, my arm hurt after that one though lol.

I thought it was boredom too but he started it as soon as he came in from his run yesterday too. He won't do much of anything all dang day except sleep (my dog loves to sleep on the couch during the day so that he's right by me) but come 7:30, he's awake and crying. He has toys out. We have 3 different types of Kongs (different levels of difficulty basically), 2 ropes, 3 bones (well one huge one, the end of a bone, and then what's left of an end of a bone), a tennis ball, a baseball, and a squeaky to. He still cries.

It might still be boredom and pent up energy if he sleeps all day. Kenzi is inside all day while we are at work and as soon as we get home she is ready to do something and she doesn't quit until we make her so we can go to bed. She sleeps in my husbands recliner most of the day. We walk her, run her and rough house with her every night and she still does the "mmooooomm, I'm boooord!" actions with me the instant I sit down every time I sit down. We rotate toys. She never has access to all of her toys. I want her to remain interested in them and if she always has access to everything they stop being fun. So every few weeks I pull and "old" toy out of the closet and it's like she gets a new toy all over again and she will give me peace.

Ill try cycling toys more often.
How'd you get her to not tear stuff up during the day? I have classes starting in just over a week and I don't want to traumatize him by putting him in the kennel (he HATES the kennel when it's closed)

Cycling toys hasn't helped. He sits there, plays with his toys, and cries while he plays. I've tried getting down there and playing with him but he doesn't want that. We cuddle all of the time so I know he's getting lots of love. I'm going to see if my neighbor will run him farther and harder now. Maybe he'll mellow out a bit. I've noticed though that a lot of this started once we got him on new dog food. I finally got him on something good for him and now he's EXTRA energetic!

Cries while he plays? That seems weird. I don't know how old your husky is but Kenzi is between 3 and 4 years and has calmed down a lot so she doesn't usually destroy stuff as long as we exercise her hard and on days she may have gotten less exercise or seems more worked up than other times I give her an empty plasic water bottle or something since she really likes that, or an old newspaper to draw her away from eating our stuff while we are away. She still has her moments when she might get into some of our stuff but it's not very often, and when she does we put the fear of god in her. I wish I could be more help with him. Maybe he's depressed?

Do you think you could post a video of him crying? Is he really distressed when he does it? Orion is a very vocal to the point where I now think something is wrong when he is quiet and he makes noises at his toys all the time some of them very loud. I'm not just talking about wooing (although he does that too!) but a whole range of sounds some of which to be perfectly honest if I heard from another dog I would be seriously concerned   it's just the fact I have had him from a baby that I know he is just being a dork.
Do you have any other animals? Is there a chance that he is lonely and/or sad by himself during the day so is protesting to you later?

I tried to get a video but he knows when there's a camera out lol. He didn't cry much today. Hoping he doesn't tonight like he did last night. I guess there was something outside because he wouldn't get out of the window and kept crying like crazy. I didn't get much sleep