I though I would do another thread because it's been awhile since I posted about Finley and I wanted to post about some of these things and Im hoping I can get some feedback on if this is typical husky behavior!

He is about 7 months old now and is getting very big, about 70 pounds or more. He is a very strong dog and likes to play hard. He can really let you have it with his paws when he is worked up. Our situation is that we spend most of our time in our master bedroom because thats where the nice tv is and it has a sliding door to the back yard and he can come and go. His crate is also in this room. We do not let him out into the other parts of the house because our cat is just too trusting of him be he is too rough. He has already had his mouth on her head and his paw on her back. I think he is playing but I do not trust him with the cat. He is just too rough.

This problem seems to have gotten better but he seems to want to eat everything he picks up, like it is a prize or something. He picked up a 3 inch by 3 inch bag of trial treats that was packaged in very hard foil packaging and when he tried to get it from him, he swallowed it whole. Of course we called the vet and the vet said to just watch him closely. That night when we were sleeping he woke us up and went over by the door and threw it up. We were so happy. At this point his toys are limited. Nothing made of cloth because he will tear it up and then eat it. He ate the tail off his octopus and then threw it up in the middle of the night and when I went to pick it up, he aggressively snapped it back up and ATE it again before I could do a thing. In a few hours, he threw it up again and this time I grabbed it. We have bought him Kong toys made of the toughest rubber and bit by bit he will tear bits off it and eat it so we stopped that. He has a few nyla bones now and a couple of rubber balls and thats it. He has really gotten better though at fetching as we do it about 6 times a day.

I think the worst problem is that he is so very mouthy. When he seems frustrated because he seems to be huffing and puffing his teeth go right to our hands. Or he will bury his head against me arm, stick his butt up in the air and then pinch my skin and it hurts like heck! We have tried a lot of things but we still have this mouthy problem. Sometimes it feels so good to just PET him but it never lasts for long.

Some days he is just relentless with my wife. She can't clean the bedroom or rake leaves because he is all over her. On my day offs he does it with me and I fully understand what she is talking about. He will be so worked up for a period of time and then he will just crash for an hour or two but when he wakes up, its on.

He usually starts off sleeping in his bed or his crate but sometime during the night he will jump up on our bed and fully take whatever space he wants. We both have woken up to sore backs because we let him have his way and will scrunch up while we sleep. Probably not a good thing but we are pushovers.

Finley does not eat or drink normally. He drinks but putting his nose and mouth in the water. Then when he is done he trails it all over the place. He is not a big eater so sometimes I actually hand feed him his dog food. He seems to love to eat it from my hand. He has eaten a full bowl of dog food this way. Again I ask, normal??

He has stolen the remote a few times and chewed on it. Same thing with our glasses and my wifes phone. We keep a close watch on everything now and it has gotten a bit better.

Finley has really changed our lives. We cant really leave him alone in the bedroom and we wont leave him out in the back yard. We have crated him for an hour or two and it has been fine but recently he has began barking. We do love Finley and would never give him up. He has already been through that with his first family who gave him up to a shelter and we wont do that to him. He is ours now for better or worse. Not to mention we have some info that he came from a backyard breeder. I guess what Im asking is will it get any better as he gets older?? We do spoil him and he really is a big baby. The other day he caught his foot in the lawn and you would think he cut his head off he was yelping so loud for us. Poor baby, we felt so badly.

One more question. We have used the gentle leader and he hates it, so that is out. We had great success with the Easy Walk Harness but it cut into him so that is out. What are other choices that we can try as far as a harness goes? I love walking him but he does have periods of pulling and I don't want him to hurt himself.

I will surely appreciate any advice anyone can give me!

Wow, he sounds like a handful.  

He also sounds really bored and understimulated.  What are you doing for an exercise routine?  What about training or other mental stimulation games like tracking, find it, etc?

Granted he is well into the bratty adolescent teenage phase but I would assume that he just needs some more physical and mental stimulation.  It seems like he is begging you for more of something, no?

Also, I know you joked that you all are pushovers, but really, he shouldn't be dictating things this much like sleeping arrangements and walking equipment.  I wouldn't put too much weight on the idea that he "hates" something.  He may just be used to getting his way, and more freedom, and when he protests and then you come in, sure enough, he gets it.

How often, what form, and with what intensity is his exercise?

He has definitely entered the teenage phase as Jeff said. A question I have is, how old was he when you got him? Has he always been that mouthy?
If you got him before 8 weeks old, that could also be a contributing factor. It's possible that he never learned the proper manners from the rest of his litter mates. But again, that's only if you got him too young.

I think Jeff is spot on when it comes to the exercise. To me it just sounds like he needs more physical and mental exercise to tire him out.

As far as the harness, try the Walk Your Dog With Love harness.
http://walkyourdogwithlove.com
It's like the easy walk harness but I've never heard of it cutting up a dog.

Thank you both for the replies. As far as exercise goes, I walk him about 5 times a week. He also gets exercise during the day chasing a ball around the yard. We do that about 5 or 6 times a day and each session ends when he gets tired of it and stops playing. Sometimes we take him for car rides also. He has one Kong puzzle toy that he likes to eat his food from. Its really hard with toys because he tends to destroy them all which is fine but when he eats things like that, it scares us. We got him when he was just over 3 months and we are his second family. We dont know how old he was when his first family got him, he may have been very young but we dont really know.

He has done a basic Petsmart training class but there was only one other dog in the class. He did fairly well but he really was a handful. He is pretty good at basic commands. Sit, down, drop, look and come. When he goes to other parts of the yard where we cant see him and we call him, he always comes.

I will check out the harness, thank you for that. I do enjoy walking him.

Well here's just a blanket suggestion that is going to apply to nearly everyone who owns a Husky at this age: he needs to be walked more, and definitely more often than 5 times a week.

For most Huskies the bare minimum is twice everyday, so in your case that's more than twice more than he is currently getting.  And for the most part, playing with balls and in the yard does not get you the results you need as proper exercise would.  Playing is tiring, yes, but very temporarily.  Playing is free form and allows them to have fun and bond, which is super important.  

But structured exercise, the kind that makes them feel like they have a working purpose and that they are working with you, is the kind of energy draining they need to truly tire them out and is also the kind they need to start correcting behavioral problems that are related to too much energy build up from lack of exercise.  

It's great that you love walking him because he needs more of it.  

Playing generates excitement and more rambunctiousness; exercise generates relaxation and calmness.  Exercise taps into their working nature and their mental needs in a way that play does not.  

I hope that makes sense.  It sounds like he is begging you to meet his needs better and I am willing to bet that more exercise will do the trick.

That said, he shouldn't be jogging on concrete or pulling anything right now, he's too young.

But walks at a good, concerted pace or running around/jogging on soft grass is fine. The important thing to note is that you want to keep it as little stress on his joints as possible. In general, grass is okay but concrete is not in terms of running/jogging while he is still growing, obviously because of the hardness of the surface.

Thanks. I did a lot of researching on harness's and found one I really liked so walks 2x a day will start soon. No worry about jogging as Im past that point in my life but I was a letter carrier for 32 years so walking is no problem for me!

yeah, the right harness makes a huge difference. Our regular harness for Link both front clips and back clips and when it is front clipped we keep him in a tight heel as much as possible, but back clipped is for more free roaming and lately, running in the parks and hiking.

It's been over 18 months since I made this post and our world with Finley in it has changed so much. Finley is so much happier here in Nevada with a few acres and things to keep him from not being bored but he has calmed down a lot. He sleeps a lot during the day now. Sometimes inside and sometimes outside. He gets his walks and Im looking into a bike soon as Im not going to try roller blades but I think a slow moving bike would work perfectly for us. Right now it's 8pm and we are on the couch watching baseball and a year ago I would never have thought we could have a night like this! When I play guitar in here he is right here with me also. He loves Chloe, the little pittbull, blue healer and whatever else mix and she is perfect for him as she is a player. He gets along with our cat but Im careful still but they do very well. He has come along way. I could never pet him without him mouthing me and biting me but now it's normal for us! Our yard is fenced in nicely and he is not much of a digger so the other day we left him outside so we could go and run some errands and were gone for about two hours and when we came home it was like we were gone for a year! I thought Huskies did not act like that??? I know this post is a bit disjointed but everything about him is so much better. He starts the night off sleeping on the bedroom floor and eventually ends up in the living room on the couch with the cat right about him. He usually comes in around 7am to see if we are awake and then he leaves again. I get up and sometimes he wants out and sometimes not and then our day starts again. Day by day he is showing less and less signs that he was an abused puppy before we adopted him and all the hard work has surely paid off. Anyway, that's his progress report!

I just caught up on Finley. Wow, I am so glad y'all stuck with him, and worked through your problems. Such a happy life you have provided him and he to the both of you. Huskies bring on such positive entertainment, haha. My girl is the same way, we leave for a couple of hours and she acts so joyful that we are back. It just brings a smile to your face. This has been a great, feel good update, thank you for sharing, and please continue to do so.