Hello,

My name is Eric and I have a husky that will be a year come July. I am having some real big issues. For one, she tends to go pee and poop in the middle of the garage. It's strange because she will pee outside every time I take her in the backyard. Also, we're trying to break her from using potty pads in our room. We keep her locked up in our bedroom when we are sleeping. She sleeps at the end of the bed. Another problem that has recently occurred is the destruction of our house. She ruined a cushion of our new couches. I have put blankets on top of the cushions and she still removes the blanket to dig and chew on one specific cushion. Also, we left for vacation for a week and she made a hole in our drywall by the front door. My sister, the idiot that she is, locked her in our garage and she destroyed our crown molding, weather striping and dug another hole into the drywall in the garage. What can I do to help with all this terror? I also have another dog that is a Cockapoo. My husky tends to beat up on her and our two cats. I have used the inside of a paper towel role to discipline but no dice. Should I get a training collar or even kennel? My wife doesn't want me to kennel her because she feels its mean that my other dog would have free roam. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

The reason your puppy isn't potty trained is because she has way too much freedom and a complete lack of training. There is no good reason why she shouldn't be crate trained and if your wife thinks it's mean to have one dog free while the puppy is crated then I'd suggest crating them both.  

Crates are not mean. They keep dogs calm, safe, and clean and they protect your house from your dogs, especially your puppy.

I get the sense that your puppy has basically no boundaries . This is 100% more mean than crate training,  as you have a puppy with 100% access to whatever she wants whenever she wants and she clearly can not handle it because she is destroying your house and making your lives miserable. That's a lot of power and responsibility for a 7 month old puppy.

 I would suggest starting some overhaul training for boundaries:

--proper crate training immediately including while you're away and at night
-no more sleeping on your bed. This puppy is in desperate need for some structure and boundaries and while it may not be obvious,  this is compounding your problems significantly.
-more walks, but proper and structured.  No lunging or pulling , no shenanigans or free roaming. Hire a dog walker or day care service to help if needed
-substantially reduce any affection inside the house
-substantially reduce any playtime in the house that excites or riles her up
-major threshold protocols at doorways and with food. Patiently waits for your release before moving forward at all
-she should be leashed at home when you're there and taught the Place command,  where she is encouraged to hang out on something calmly.

This is a ton of work but the results of it as a whole are undeniable and they will help your puppy adjust to living in your home, which she has not been yet taught to do.

I'm assuming she's hyper and rambunctious.   Given all of what you've said she needs some serious state of mind training and she needs to learn how to just hang out calmly with you at home. Right now, she is CONSTANTLY stimulated and gratified by everything.  She's like a faucet constantly running or a light constantly On.    It is high time to train her Off switch now. She has proven she can not handle being constantly On and she is screaming for you to teach her Off.

By the way, where are you located?

P.s. Hitting your puppy causes two things: excitement and eventually, fear.

Neither of these should be a foundation for your relationship with a puppy.

I agree with Jeff with the crate training i keep my 5 month old puppy locked up while my 3 year old is able to roam when he has earned the privilege of being out of the crate all day i.e no pooping or destroying of the house then he will be able to not have to be crated i am also in the process of teaching my 5 month old that the cage is not a bad place which to be honest isnt easy he still doesnt like it and he does poop and pee in there but eventually he will get used to the crate. I used to think crates were bad also but they arent they help keep my house from getting destroyed and like Jeff said they keep the puppy disciplined.

I agree with Jeff and Rachel. Allowing your puppy to run free is like having a 6 month old human baby allowed to roam free in your house naked while your both gone to work. Nothing good can come out of this. Crating the puppy is for every ones benefit, and the best way to potty train, since typically dogs will not go to the bathroom where they sleep. BTW, crating a dog is not mean, a dog needs their own quiet, safe place to go, most huskies prefer a den type place to call theirs, a crate is perfect for this. You need to start from scratch and train, train, train. Exercise the body and brain, good behavior will come if you do. If you approach everything with the puppy, with a human baby mentality, you will realize that you would not hit a baby with a paper towel roll(I'm sorry, but that is no way to properly discipline anything).

You have your work cut out for you. Time is running out to turn this pup around, the way you and your wife is handling this now, will only result in a very bad situation with an adult dog. Adult dogs poop and pee in larger quantities, make large and more destructive messes, and more importantly with little exercise, and heavy handed discipline, it may backfire when pup is older, and you may end up with a dog who becomes reactive vs passive. Often times this ends up with a beautiful husky in a shelter or put down. All of us have seen this too many times.

If you don't know how to correct any of this, please ask more questions here, or call in a professional in home trainer, who can train you, your wife and your pup. Good Luck.....You have such a cute pup, and with proper training and proper discipline and proper mental and physical exercise you will have a wonderful companion.

I'm glad you made that connection Renee.

This is precisely why so many Huskies get abandoned to shelters or rescues.

Yes Renee exactly!

Elacher, while it may seem that the responses you've gotten are "heavy handed" and "critical", but they're really not.

We love our dogs, we love your dog and since you came here asking for help, we presume you love your dog, too. I'm all too often the one who comes across "heavy handed" but Jeff beat me to it and, while everything he said bears repeating, I won't.

If what has been said upsets you, please, take a step back and review what you've written and how we've responded. While it has been said that there are much better ways to correct your pup, we're not trying to put you down or demean you - just help you have the pup you love become the dog you want.

Thank you for that disclaimer, Al...fully on board with you here

All of this was simply a direct response to the info provided.

Some of the things that I've gathered in becoming a dog trainer and building towards client interactions:

-we rarely see a problem in foresight, always in the now when it gets really bad or overwhelming
-we L.O.V.E our dogs, a whole lot, and we approach them first and foremost with our emotions
-it is very difficult for us to acknowledge our faults and failure in relations to our dogs
-so often we think "we've tried everything" when often we have tried very little
-we don't see the reasoning behind what our dogs do, frankly, because there is none
-we think that affection and love are the keys to solving problems, but they often cause them
-we find difficulty in administering boundaries and limits to our dog, because we love them so much
-it can be very difficult to not only seek advice, but really hear advice about our dogs


One of the great lessons learned from dogs is how to move on and start fresh, right now.  It is as simple as making changes in ourselves that will effect a comparable change in our dog; their behavior is a function of our provided expectations and structure.  

This puppy can turn around for the benefit of the whole family, no doubt.

Elacher10 - I, too, endorse all of the above.

In addition, crate training keeps them safe...They can't chew electric cords and get shocked. They can't eat fabric things that could become a lethal bowel obstruction. They can't dive through a window and get into the street and hit by a car. They can't get a cupboard door open and eat something poisonous. Etc. etc, etc.

After a year, my dog has earned some significant freedoms. What I have noticed is, if I or another human is not there or a dog to play with...he sleeps. YHour pup will sleep in his crate.

Man, thanks for the criticism. Maya has been great up until I left for vacation for 1 1/2 weeks. She has never torn our carpet, out holes in our drywall or tore up our couch until now. My only issue with her was that she would run into the garage or in our room to go to the bathroom. She goes outside fine when I take her. She has guidelines. She isn't aloud to run rampid. She is typically only home falone for a few hours out of the day. She knows how go sit, stay, shake and say I love you. She gets walked everyday and never really tugs. Our runs get better every time. My wife finally broke when she left for work and maya tore another hole in our drywall. We just got a crate. Now how would I go about crating her? She sleeps on our bed. My wife feels safer with her there when I'm working Midnights. She never leaves the end of the bed unless my wife gets up or when I get home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mn5HTiryZN8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7lyzbgTXjU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgMXd6OReiY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ka2x-yMSzM

A Husky puppy does not make anyone any safer in a bed. It's time for you all to work on your emotions around your dog and start doing what's best, for her.

The ensuing screaming and crying from the first nights of crate training will keep the bad guys away.

Speaking of emotions, although it's covered somewhat in those videos, I want to stress that it is extremely important once you start crate training to remain emotionally neutral at all times with the crate. When putting her inside and letting her out, any emotionally charged interactions you have with your dog will be detrimental to your goal of successfully crate training her. The crate must be the most banal thing in the world. No bid deal in any way.

So:

-no talking to your dog inside it
-no good bye or hovering over it when you leave
-no excited greetings when you return
-no affection given when you return

It is critical that the distinction between when you're home and when you're not home is minimal, ideally non existent. Crates are an exercise in discipline and calmness for your dog so if you expect her to enjoy it and be calm when you're gone, then she needs to be calm when you're there.

If goodbye and greeting becomes a big deal, an emotional charge, or full of excitement, then you are planting the seeds for separation anxiety and your crate training will be stressful.

Really soak that in before you start.

Jeff your comment has helped me too since i am also crate training with Oakley.

Nice to hear, thanks.

How's it going?

So far so good there are no problems going in and out of the crate but hes still learning the only problem now is accidents in the crate even when i let him out on my lunch breaks.