Hello! We are new Husky owners, and our cute Kiana is now 5 1/2 months old. The vet said she is entering adolescence, and it's obvious. She knows basic commands from puppy school and is in advanced training, but she only minds when we have treats. We practice training her every night, but when she is not in a "training session," she will ignore us.

For example, she loves to grab shoes, blankets, couch pillows, etc and dash around the house. She no longer responds when we say "NO! Drop it!" and thinks it's a game. We will even give her short "time outs" in the bathroom after she misbehaves and make her do some commands before she returns, but she goes right back to it when she's done. Sometimes she nips at our feet and hands when she is frustrated and wants our attention or when she doesn't want to follow a command. She challenges us every day.

Kiana gets two 30-60 min walks a day and some playtime in the evening. Any suggestions for curbing this bratty behavior?

You can't curb it all together.  It is a normal part of their development and they have to go through it.  It isn't really possible to train their nature away.  They are as a breed designed to be stubborn and ignore you at times.  They generally aren't motivated to please you. They are motivated to work for you and have a role in your family/pack.  

You can mitigate it and harness it (no pun intended) and make small improvements on a day to day level, but you aren't gonna be able to completely remove the stubborn, feisty, independent, defiant nature all together.  For one, that is a hallmark of the breed generally speaking, and two, this will be exaggerated and compounded during this age period and will last until almost 2 years of age.  You aren't dealing with a behavioral problem to be trained away or covered by obedience training.  You're dealing with an essential part of her nature right now.  If you do manage to get her to stop challenging you in A she will move on to challenging you in B....etc.  

Huskies are very mouthy, both verbally and physically.  If you get a group of them together and let them play it is all teeth and mouths and vocalizations.  It looks and sounds like a bunch of viscous animals in a gladiator ring.  It's how they show respect and friendship to themselves and with their people by being physical and vocal.  I don't mean to suggest at all that you should let your pup mouth you at will whenever.  But I just want to contextualize it in a bigger picture and let you know that this a completely normal part of their nature.  It's not a behavioral problem or anything you've done wrong.

Various people use various methods for mouthing (teeth-on-skin....notably this isn't "biting"): yelping loudly, physical corrections like muzzle grab or a light pressure in the mouth with a hand, and stopping cold and walking away leaving the pup alone are the most common.  With ours I used the walking away method mostly and my partner used the light pressure method. I found that what he wanted in fact was just engagement and socializing (again, they show you they like you by putting their teeth on you).  So in turn, to correct the behavior, removing myself worked best and he would connect the two soon enough.  Also, do not do anything whatsoever to promote it: no wrestling, no tug of war, no rough housing, no frantic petting or patting or anything.  The trick is to never let it be self rewarding.  

Eventually, when she's older, you or a family member can begin teaching her context specific behaviors.  With my Husky, once he was 7 or 8 months old and a bit more cognitively developed, I would start getting down on all 4s and engaging him.  The teeth came out immediately, BUT, it was my provocation and my pace.  This is when I allowed him to mouth me and get rowdy and play like I am a Husky. When I'm done I am standing and doing anything else, if he mouths me he gets corrected and I walk away and ignore him.  They have to learn how to be versatile in different contexts.  But the point is that they need to mouth, it's just what they do.  Eventually when they see that you are a source of their needs and you are providing them with fulfillment they will in turn respect you and trust you even more and even better learn to take shape off of your cues and your leadership.  Once you are able to teach them about context it gets a whole lot better. My Husky will essentially beg me to get down on all 4s with him, but until I do, he for the most part respects my boundaries and won't mouth me.

Think of it like a light switch. If she controls when the light is on, you lose. You need to teach her that you control the light. Until you can do that, your best bet is to stick to prevention rather than correction. Stop any and everything that makes her mouth you all together if it is her controlling it.

I hope some of this helps.  

Good luck.  Your road into her adolescence has just begun.  They seem to ebb and flow on a monthly cycle.  One month is serene, next month is hell.  One month you melt at how sweet they are, next month you're at your dentist from grinding your teeth from stress.  Watch for her cycles month to month, respect her age phase and her essential needs, and just own up to her good and bad aspects, and your relationship will be that much better for it.  

She's still young and the really respectful bonding is yet to come.  It's wonderful.

Jeff, Thanks for the response! That was very helpful. (And hello to my fellow PAC NW Husky owner). I'm glad to know that the mouthing is not as bratty as I interpret it. We are having our first baby in two months, and we have been working so hard to build trust and respect with her. (She is definitely great child training for us). Just tell me that it's worth it! :-)

No problem.

My favorite areas to chime in on these days are teenager issues, mouthing, respect and trust development, and the ever so controversial issue of Husky nature (nature/nurture, if you will).

Where are you in the PNW?

I have no ongoing direct personal experience but in general they are known to be wonderful with kids. Link is super sweet and gentle with kids we see out and about. I let a 1 year old kid feed him treats by hand in a brewery about 6 months ago and he was approached him like a delicate flower. And then of course he probably threw a tantrum with me 10 minutes later when we had to leave, but hey, that's normal. Ebb and flow

Well then I will probably be asking you for more advice!

I'm in Portland, OR. We moved here in August and really like the PNW so far.

Link is beautiful! As a 1-year-old, what is he like at home? Does he want constant entertainment like my pup? Does he ever like to sit by you and be pet? How much exercise does he require at that age?

Kiana was much less hyper and "bratty" when we were running her, but recently our vet said to stop and walk her until she's a year old and her growth plates have developed. Now we have to get more creative :-(.

Oh cool.  There's a fairly active member whose screen name is Jalepeno...... who has a dog named Bodhi.  He lives in Portland.  I love Portland.

Generally Link is super calm and chill at home.  We worked a ton on calming training and my partner and I are both pretty quiet, sedate people. I can get him going if I'm on all 4s anytime at the drop of a dime and he'll sometimes throw a ball for himself and chase it, but he's very calm at home.  

We've intentionally developed him to be a self-sufficient, non-needy dog.  We give him a lot of respect for his space and things and he returns this nicely. He's not cuddly at all, but he is quite affectionate.  He's very proximity oriented and is rarely alone in a room.  He keeps a close eye on us and he will follow me especially around the house. My partner is way more physical with him and he'll cuddle him and hug him and kiss him (read: annoy the crap out of him) and he tolerates this just fine, but he certainly doesn't melt over it or ever ask for this type of affection.  Link is my shadow and my working dog, for sure.  He has to help me with anything I do and follows me everywhere.  He likes to lean on my legs or sit/lay on my feet, but that's about it.  I am pretty sure if I never touched him with my hands he wouldn't mind.  Generally he doesn't seem to enjoy being petted very much.  He'd much rather lean on you or nibble on you, ha.  The one exception is when we get home after being gone a bit he requires a butt scratch and a chap (where they sit) rub.  He's not much of a licker unless I'm stressed/upset about him or I get out of the shower--he has to get all the water out of my beard

You gotta read between the lines a bit with them it seems.

He's never on us, but always near us.  He has free roam of the house except for our bed and he essentially has 3 beds: one in our room, one downstairs in the living room, and one in the kitchen foyer area.  If we are gone more than an hour he is in his crate.  The longest he is crated in any given week is 6 hours.  

He gets walked 2-4 miles everyday, jogged on a soccer field every other day, and dog park visits usually once a week, at most 3.

Your vet would be agreed with by the majority of members here.  I have yet to jog with Link on concrete at all, but we do jog on a soccer field or on grass.  Once down and once back, that's it.  My best friend on here gave him a joring/pulling harness for his birthday and I haven't yet begun using it properly, but I do use if to train commands and for orientation.  I intend to skate with him in harness, sledding for sure, and maybe biking/scootering but that kinda weirds me out.  I am a hockey player so I am an excellent skater and am very much in control on skates.  Bikes/scooters......meh.  Kinda sketchy.

Link's best friend is Korra, a Husky.  Her owner is a dear friend of ours and the other night we summed up the difference between Korra and Link nicely: Link is sweetly affectionate, Korra is sweetly complacent. Korra is a very high alert dog, super erect ears all the time and her mind is racing top speed, but you can hold her and hug her and dress her up and fling her over your shoulder like a rag doll and she loves it.  Link is more relaxed and independent, he hates any type of physical embrace or being held but he likes to be near you.  

When Korra comes over she constantly rearranges his things and removes everything out of his crate and he just watches, while sorta sighing.  She could take a bone out of his mouth though and he wouldn't flinch and they could wrestle for days on end.  Those two are a perfect match.

I'm glad to hear that he's calm. You two sound like great dog owners! I would love to hear more about your calm/independence training. I praise Ki a whole lot when she is calmly chewing her bone or relaxing, but she doesn't seem to care. I wonder if she even hears me saying "good girl!" Haha. But other than that I don't know how to help her be happy on her own.

And you are so brave to skate with your dog! Good thing you are experienced. We've thought about road biking with her in the future but it kinda sounds like instant death in the hills around here.

Unfortunately a lot of Calming Training seems really harsh or cold-hearted to a lot of people.  It involves a lot of ignoring them and waiting for very strategically timed moments for affection or attention, an ungodly amount of discipline and patience, and a lot of refraining from engaging with all the stuff people tend to let puppies do: jumping, barking, tugging, wrestling, tantrums, begging, mouthing, crying, etc.  

I guess to put it one way you have to make yourself immune to things that are cute now and imagine the 50 pound dog you want in 2 years.  That's kind of the gist of it

We also tried to promote his self-confidence as much as we could, which I think is an important piece of calming training.

Best example: stairs. We had 4 flights of stairs in our original apt building and the first time he saw them, he froze and cried--not what we desired.

2 choices here: bend down and tell him "it's okay don't be scared" while petting him (read: promoting fear of stairs and dependency) OR go down the stairs ourselves and call him to us encouragingly (read: promoting self-confidence and viewing us as leaders to respect and trust).

Obviously, we did the latter. We taught him to be calm, look to us for guidance, and be confident.

Now we have an independent, self-sufficient dog.

That's the best example.

CourtneyLynn04 wrote:

I wonder if she even hears me saying "good girl!" Haha. But other than that I don't know how to help her be happy on her own.

Here's a great example too.

We don't just say "good girl" right, we say "GOOD GIRL!" which is a type of stimulation that generates excitement. An alternative could be just calmly, quietly approving of whatever she just did and carry on. Body language is way more important to them than the English language.

I was warned once about a Goldendoodle named Monty who lived in a house we were visiting for dinner. We were told that Monty will jump and nibble and probably pee upon our arrival. I figured out my gameplan. I let my partner go in first. When he did, Monty lost him mind and jumped, and nibbled and yes, peed all over.

I then walked in and I was next. As he approached I just stood tall and firm and held out my hand (like blocking a punch) and stared at him. Monty froze, sat down, and cried because he wanted to jump so bad. I just claimed my space without opening my mouth. Meanwhile, while my partner is wiping pee off his leg, Monty's family just kinda went   All night, he layed on my feet calmly.

Just to illustrate how we can better communicate with them at times non-verbally, or more calmly.

I agree. I think people also have a hard time accepting calming training because it can seem like you're doing nothing, or ignoring a problem. In reality, you are accepting that your puppy is going to behave like a puppy and with patience and calm communication he will mature. If you follow Jeff's advice your puppy will naturally mature out of these phases. Many adult dogs that have issues have issues because we promote them as a puppy. Also, many people think that because of an action they took, they 'fixed' a problem a puppy was having. For example, puppy biting/mouthing. It gets really intense for a while and someone might employ a strategy to 'fix' that behavior. After a few weeks or months, the mouthing decreases, so that person might think, "hey, i did it. I fixed the problem behavior." In reality, the puppy simply left the teething phase and matured both physically and mentally and moved onto a new phase. Yes, some of these phases are headache inducing, tear causing, and can piss you off to no end but as Jeff said, some are blissful. At some point you'll reach a good phase and you'll see the bond your husky has formed with you. That might make you cry too.

Just remember that when your husky puppy throws a fit, they are being a typical young husky. You're not doing anything wrong, sometimes they just lose their heads. I bring Dizzy to work with me and people always remark on how well behaved and calm he is. Even in his most rage inducing awful phases he was always calm at the office. It was a different environment and he was more connected to me and just happy to be with me.

Link and Dizzy have very similar personalities and Jeff and I were wondering if its because he and I are so similar in how we approach puppy raising and that we also have similar personalities. Aside from instinctual behavior, your dog is going to be a reflection of you and your relationship with her. It may sound all touchy feely, but that's how I see it and that's been my experience with it.

Also, to answer your question about exercise, I'd suggest doggie daycare. I started sending Dizzy when he was around the same age as your pup and not only did it do leaps and bounds for his social skills it totally wore him out for a couple days. Best investment ever!

Thank you Jeff and Jen!  (or shall I call you the dog whisperers).  It's so true that "ignoring" my pup has been the best punishment, even better than reprimanding or putting her on her back.  I guess I'll have to do a better job of hiding anything I don't want chewed.  

Jen-Should I be worried about diseases or aggressive dogs at doggie day care?  I've considered taking her to day care/dog parks, but I worry she might be too young and susceptible to disease.

You both have beeeautiful dogs, by the way!

I personally do not want to be called that He'd probably sue us anyway if you did.

Do you really think your puppy has done anything to even come close to warranting a disciplinary roll?? Seems a bit harsh or dramatic for a puppy, the overall effectiveness of rolling at any time aside.

Oh and thanks! They look very similar indeed, all around. Dizzy just has a bar and bit more color on his face.

Jeff

just this week she jumped on the table and broke a ceramic bowl, knocked over/chewed the house plant (and then tried to eat the fertilizer in it), and tried to assert her dominance (by peeing) on the vacuum cleaner. All of this happened while I was watching and firmly gave her the "leave it" command. We also put her in a down-stay while we eat on the couch, but she often gets restless and tries to claim that space and our food by jumping and nipping at us.

What kinds of behaviors should I label "puppy" behaviors and which ones warrant a time out?

As long as she's had her puppy shots, and at this age she should have, she'll be fine at daycare. Daycare places temperament test dogs to make sure they aren't aggressive and usually try to group them together in play styles. Sending a puppy to daycare is kinda like sending a kid to school, she'll be exposed to normal infections and might pick up one or two, but nothing life threatening again, as long as she's had shots. Dizzy got puppy warts, and a cough once but both went away without treatment and he was totally fine. The equivalent of a cold. In terms of the dog park, it's definitely something to try but just make sure you keep an eye on her and the other dogs. Socializing (dog parks, daycare, etc.) is important and definitely not something you want to skip.

CourtneyLynn04 wrote:

Jeff

just this week she jumped on the table and broke a ceramic bowl, knocked over/chewed the house plant (and then tried to eat the fertilizer in it), and tried to assert her dominance (by peeing) on the vacuum cleaner.  All of this happened while I was watching and firmly gave her the "leave it" command.  We also put her in a down-stay while we eat on the couch, but she often gets restless and tries to claim that space and our food by jumping and nipping at us.  

What kinds of behaviors should I label "puppy" behaviors and which ones warrant a time out?

I would say all of these are puppy behaviors, also peeing on the vacuum cleaner is not about dominance lol. Probably fear or an accident, possibly marking but she's a little young for that. Are you crate training? I would just put her in her crate if you are planning to eat on the couch. That's not really her claiming space, that's an impulse thing. Food smells good, I want some, I'm gonna try and get some. I think one of the keys of having a puppy is not putting them in situations they can't handle and then punishing them when they act like a puppy. Eventually she'll be able to handle sitting on the floor while you eat. Right now, she can't. I taught Dizzy a hand signal for when he's bugging us while eating. When I give the signal he leaves or lays down, basically it tells him that he's not getting any, and to go away or i'm gonna lock him in timeout.

The way I taught it was to give the signal and he knew i had treats. He would do all his normal bad puppy things then when he got frustrated and looked away i'd reward him. Then he'd have to move away or lay down to get the reward. If he didn't do any of these things and got more riled up, I would put him in time out. Right now, I'm sitting at my lunch with meatball parm, and he was begging, I gave him the signal and he went to go chew on his bully stick.

You could try tethering her to you so that she isn't able to jump on tables, etc. And so that you can quickly correct her when she is about to do something bad, AND quickly reward her when she does something good. If she can't be trusted, she should be constantly monitored (i.e. tethered to you), or crated when you're not able to monitor her.

I agree that a lot of this is just part of her development. She needs to push her boundaries in order to learn what those boundaries are. But for her to learn those boundaries, you need to be prepared and always ready to correct her when she crosses them. Part of her behaviour could be because she just doesn't know that it's bad yet, and part of it could be that she just thinks it's too much fun!

This is a good thread if you just want a little comedic relief (at the expense of some husky parents haha), with a side of useful advice haha
https://www.itsahuskything.com/t11577-to-all-of-you-with-teenage-huskies-i-sympathize?highlight=teenage

I second Jen's praise for daycare! We did daycare for a couple months too. The greatest benefit with daycare for Gus was that he was super tired in the evening which allowed him to focus on training, and also to help with some separation anxiety training at night. And it helped him socialize with other dogs while under constant supervision.

Yes, she has been crate trained--That's a marvelous idea! Maybe we are expecting too much of her right now. We are having our first baby at the end of April and have really set the bar high for her. We really want to prepare her for her future best friend :-).

Thanks, Maggie! Your pup looks just like ours, by the way. How do you correct your Sib when she's being mischievous?

I think we have been kind of lucky in some aspects with Gus because he isn't really mischievous when we are home. Key words being "when we are at home"! Gus had really bad separation anxiety, so most of his bad behaviour came from that. But I don't think you're having that issue with your pup so I won't bore you with those details haha.

We never disciplined after he did something bad. For example, if we came home, and he had peed somewhere, or tore something up. It was cleaned up and ignored. Gus knows "ah-ah" as bad. So whenever he jumps on us, we give him an "ah-ah" and turn away and ignore him. If he LOOKS like he's about to steal something, i do "ah-ah" and "leave it". If he DOES steal something, i grab whatever treat that is closeby, and tell him to drop it, then give him whatever treat i have. I once traded him a chicken bone for a grain of cooked rice!

I think the important thing is to teach your pup to pay attention to you, and that all good things come from you. For the "leave it" command, have you tried practicing it when she's not all hyper and already about to steal something? It might just be that she doesn't understand the command fully yet. We used to do training sessions during Gus's dinnertime, and his reward was kibble (so he didn't get too many treats and give himself an upset stomach). So we just ran through and drilled into him the basic commands. Even though he knew the commands, it was teaching him to focus on me and not just running through everything he knew!

Nowadays, Gus knows most of his commands, but still has his teenage husky moments. He knows "leave it". But he also knows that if he's far away enough, I can't get to him fast enough when he ignores my "leave it" command! When I tell him to go to his room while I make his meals, he'll run around in circles howling in excitement. I just ignore him until he looks at me, then i repeat, "go to your room" calmly. when he does go in there, i say "good boy", also calmly so as not to get him all hyped for more zoomies haha.

You mentioned that she was less hyper and bratty when you were running with her. So i'm sure that a lot of this teenage behaviour is just due to too much energy. So i think that if you start there, and continue regular training, everything will fall into place and you'll get into a nice training groove!

Thanks, Maggie.  How old is your cute puppy?  Kiana is a master at "leave it", but only when she knows there are treats involved...(she will even let us put it on her nose!)



I love the kibble idea!  Ki isn't old enough for us to leave her unattended, but she does try and get our attention in the evening (even after two walks )

It's weird because I will be giving her my full attention, playing with her (usually fetch or throwing the rope) and she will pause, run for something "forbidden" like my shoes, and dash under the table so my pregnant self can't get her.  She's really cute when she does it, but I wish she would listen!

haha that's impressive! Gus has NO self control when it comes to food. Gus is just over a year old now! We adopted him when he was around 4mths old, so we just kind of made up a birthday for him. He's actually a caramel-ish colour along his back, and his ears are very orangey. But some of his pictures make him look pure white.

Leaving a long leash on her might help when she dashes off to steal something in the middle of playing! I wouldn't tether her to you while playing though, especially because you are pregnant! But having something to grab might give you an advantage She sounds really cute and playful!