Long time reader first time poster!

We have a lovely 9 month old red named Kais and we love him to pieces but are still having some serious issues. Wondering if anyone had any advice?

He is walked/taken to the puppy park every day, fed quality food, brushed often, has many shady/air con areas to rest during the day, lots of toys with play time every day. He is independent around the house, sleeps alone and unable to reach us (bedroom door closed) during the night, and does not need to follow us around (unless he is bored, or he knows it's almost walk time).

He STILL can't be left home alone, not for even 20 minutes. It used to be a howling issue (a bad one... his record is around 3.5 hours of straight howling), but that has now escalated to chewing. Things he would never think to bother about while we are around, are ready to be destroyed when we aren't. It's like every time we close the front door a completely different dog comes out on the other side. Having another dog around doesn't help, trying a different house/yard doesn't help, we don't always have time to exercise him twice a day but that is what we are trialing at the moment, along wth leaving some treats and toys. During the day he usually just sleeps it away, but as soon as we aren't home it's like sleep must be impossible.

We love him to pieces and we would never give up on him, but there's no denying the issues with had with both money and property (we have housemates whi have had items ruined)

After months of this, we are open to all and any suggestions.


Thanks in advance everyone!

Is he crate trained?

Crate train.

We attempted to crate train as a puppy and were met with alot of resistance and physical attempts of his to bash out of the crate, no matter how slow we trained him and every box we ticked. We could buy a bigger crate and try, however my concern is there will be weeks (not eveey week, but some) where he will be home alone for 9 hours. I've read that it is dangerous to leave an active dog in a crate that long every day, it can undermine training, dog can become anxious and fearful of the crate, etc

Is his crate in your room? A bigger crate is not the answer, since he will go potty in a crate too large. Obviously he is untrustworthy to leave roaming around, and quite honestly most puppies are not, and even many full grown adult huskies are not trustworthy to leave roaming a house alone. Crate training is difficult, I do understand, but for the dogs safety and the safety of your items you have to do it. If the crate is not in your room, I suggest that, that way he can smell your presence even if you are not there. There are several threads on the forum on how to crate train. The biggest thing, wear him out prior to leaving, have a frozen kong with a snack in it, have the crate just large enough where he can turn around but not able to potty, and lock the crate, he will get used to it, he will see it as a routine, and he will be safe, having a sheet or something to cover the crate so it appears more like a den, and it being a little more dark may also calm him more.

There are several people who leave their dogs crated for a full work day. It can be done, you just have to make sure that they are getting plenty of exercise and stimulation BEFORE they go in the crate for that long, as Renee said. If you don't want to crate him that long see if maybe a friend who works or lives nearby can come on their lunch break and take him out if you can't come home on lunch. Also, if the 9 hour days are only occasionally then you might look into doggy daycare on those days. At 9 months he's plenty old enough to start going. Aside from completely dog proofing a room you don't care about to keep him in, crating is your best option. It is normal to meet with a lot of resistance to crate training. These dogs are notorious for separation anxiety. If you give in to their resistance the resistance will only get greater as they know it is getting them what they want. What all did you try when crate training? There is also a sticky on crate training in the training sections with a lot of ideas you might look at to see if there's anything you might not have tried before to help.

I'm not sure the information you have read is accurate. Many people on here use crates and are working people away from home for 9-10 hours. Yours is still a young pup - he WILL get into things, he will destroy things...he might even hurt or kill himself. Think electric wires, eating something that will cause a blockage or poison him. It is safe in his crate.

Really, you have to, calmly, kindly, be the boss - your pup needs some boundries. No matter how much he complains.

I am one of those people that crate their dog for 9-10 hours a day 2-3 times a week. The other days she goes to daycare. We started crate training from day 1 when Gabby was 8 weeks old. I admit that she was really easy to crate train and even as a puppy would hold her potty all night around 6 hours. We just made sure she was always comfortable in it and got lots a praise and treats for going in it. It also help that we had 2 crates (one in the bedroom for bed and when we left and one in the living room for training type purposes). The one in the living room was a smaller "cat" sized crate. We just left that one open and whenever she would go in it she would get a treat and we would close the door for 5-10 minutes at a time. It was great and we could do this 5-10 times over the course of the night to teach her how good the crate was. We were able to do this for a month or 2 until she was to large for it. To this day "Crate" is the one word she will almost always do on command more than any other word. It takes a lot of time and patience and your will have to be very consistent on your training.

Hope this helps!

We started crate training Red as soon as we got her home at 3 months old. Initially my husband and I had opposite schedules but we would crate her every so often. She spent more time out of the crate than in because one of us was always home. But we always put her into the crate during either of our bedtimes. Since my husband went back to day shift with me (he works longer hours though), about 5 months ago, Red has to be crated anywhere from 7-9 hrs on weekdays. Initially she tore up all her bedding but she's gotten a lot better now. She has never once gone to bathroom in her crate when we started crating her for longer periods of time. We even ended up getting her a larger crate for her to comfortably stretch out in and she isn't afraid to go in it on her own when she wants to rest or eat her treats. Currently we are letting her loose in the house when we are away for about 1-3 hrs at a time and we haven't had any potty accidents or items chewed up so far. By loose, I don't mean that she has access to every single room. She's confined to just the living room and wires are hidden but she's allowed to stretch on the couch, floor, her crate or her dog bed if she so chooses. So I agree with others to be consistent with the crate training no matter how much your pup might hate it at the time.