Alpha broke out of his crate last night, thankfully destruction was to a minimum. I knew huskies were escape artists but it was only his second night home! He's currently using a plastic crate because I'm concerned the wire one I bought was too large. The plastic one is for up to 30 lbs and the wire is 30-70 lbs.

Tips? Should I go ahead and move him? I couldn't find a divider for the large crate.

How old is he? Where would you want to move him? If he sleeps near you at night, he might feel more comfortable. Huskies hate to be alone.

He is almost 9 weeks old (2 days from being 9 weeks). I mean move him from the smaller crate to the larger one. He also isn't in our room, he's in the living room, would that help?

I don't crate Jessica so I'm no help at all. As you may have noticed, the forum is notoriously slow over the weekend but you should see some response on Monday.

Actually you may be helpful! What do you do instead of crating? I don't know how to house train without one. Our rescue is completely housebroken, we don't crate her at all but she came to us that way, and while she is well trained she shows signs of not having been trained in the nicest way.

We would be open to trying this without a crate, I just don't know any other method.

I only use a crate at night and while we aren't home, the rest of the time we monitor him.

In what manor did he escape from the crate? Did he break it or unlock it? Using zip ties on seams that he can stretch apart will make the crate more secure on that front. If he is unlocking the crate look into getting a gun lock or a carabiner clip and a little length of chain. Just enough that you can loop through the gate and whatever slats there are on the side of the crate to prevent him being able to just pop the door open even if he does get it unlatched.

Well, Jessica, first you have to realize that I'm retired so I'm home most of the time; secondly I live in an area where I'm not too concerned about my dogs getting hit or taken - running off for hours at a time, that's another matter.

Avalanche pretty much lives, by his choice, on the front porch.  I have a 30 foot lead for him out there and he has some toys (Jolly Ball and tennis balls) he plays with.

Sasha is a 'velcro' dog; she wants to be around where I am - she's not too close, just so that she knows where I am.

If I'm home and they're both inside, they have the run of the main part of the trailer; the back part is closed off so I can control the temperature.  Avalanche has chewed a few things, but he's learned that I don't appreciate it.  Sasha has a 'plastic bone' that she'll chew on from time to time but neither of mine are really chewers so I don't have that problem.  (( I don't think I've had that as a major problem with any dog I've had for years ))

I sometimes take both dogs with me when I leave the house, sometimes just one, it depends on where I'm going and what I'm doing.  While both are good around people, I tend to take just one when I'm going someplace where there are many people since it's rough to control both of them when they get a chance to play with someone different.

If I leave either (or both) at home Avalanche is on his lead out front; Sasha is on a 10 foot lead in the house (my excuse for a crate) simply because she leaves me a wet spot in the kitchen when I leave her loose.  I swear she waits til she hears the Jeep start and goes piddle - just because.

Before I got my Husky's I've had Labs for the past several dogs and I was never concerned about leaving them at home if I needed to.  Once a dog recognizes that the house is his den I tend to think that most of the house breaking problems go away.  It also seems to be a lot easier to get Labs to recognize the entire house as 'home' than it is Husky's.  Probably because, by nature, Labs are more laid back while Husky's tend to be more high strung; while both my Husky's and my previous labs are happy to go hiking with me, the labs were content to just be around where the Husky's want to go more.

As I said, I'm not a lot of help here .....

He removed the door from the crate, it's fixable and I can try the zip ties. It was only his second night in the crate so it doesn't bode well.

I work full time and so does my fiancé. He'll be able to let Alpha out 3 times per day on his breaks and I get off before 4 so that should work nicely. We have a fence but I'm scared someone would steal him because he's so little and cute. We're purchasing our first home which has a privacy fence so that will be fantastic.

Hard sided crates are a little harder to get secure as there aren't as many places to hook your security equipment to. If you don't mind altering the crate and have a drill sitting around, you can drill through the lip to give you better places to run zip ties. I would see if I could find the divider online for the other crate but he will grow fast so you will be ready for the other one before you know it. As for containing without a crate, I'm with you and wouldn't leave him outside. I too have a 6 ft privacy fence and I don't leave mine out. If you go the outdoor route I would get a wire kennel you could put a dog house in and then lock the kennel. If he can escape a little crate now though the backyard will only be the next step for a dog with time to burn as he gets bigger.

That's what I'm worried about is that I may have an escape artist on my hands. He's been home two days and already got out of the crate, I'm sure as he gets older he'll be harder to contain. Our older dog is an escape artist and we are hopefully the new privacy fence is going to be a deterrent.

Jessica, get a cardboard box and rig it so it fits in the bigger crate, rather than ordering a divider. They do grow fast, but since he is still being potty trained you need the divider. So find a cardboard box, probably the safest item to use as a divider over wood, and place it so he has just enough room to turn around, you already know how to use crates, so I wont get into all of that.

ETA: Unless you can find a metal sheet of some sort that can fit instead of cardboard.

I literally just finished doing some rigging with cardboard before I read your post! Lol! Maybe it will hold, and maybe the wire crate will be more secure than the plastic one! Also moving him into our room tonight to see if that decreases his desire to escape.



Poor pup has the hiccups, we just finished his last meal of the day. I forgot how much work puppies are! But we've made it through the day so far with no accidents and I'm already noticing an improvement on the dandruff.

And we peed and pooped in the wire crate. I think the area I blocked off for him was still too large... We're going to go back the the plastic crate for now and I'll try to better secure it. I don't want him to think its ok to potty in the crate.

I'm not sure why he did either, he woke up whining at 3 and I took him out and he peed and pooped, then we got up for the day at 6:30, and he pottied outside again.

Puppies have a way of finding that one tiny spot of uncovered surface and using it. Whether they really need to or not. Sometimes change triggers little accidents more than anything. I wouldn't look at it as a set back. He will get there.

Hmm, when is the last time he drinks and when his his last meal for the evening? I'm wondering if it's possible he's eaten too much/too late, before bedtime. Pooping atleast twice between the time you go to bed and the time you wake up is kinda a lot isn't it?

@Artic_Wind - twice overnight, not really, this is only a 9 week old puppy she's talking about, but that is a valid question.

He ate his last meal around 6:30. We didn't go to bed until like 11. I took him out before bed. He is still having some soft stool, probably from swapping foods as we just got him on Friday afternoon.

@Al, yeah, I suppose (I must have blocked those times out of my memory, lol) just seems like a lot to me, once in the crate, once at 3am and then again 3 hours later at 630am, I'm assuming Jessica is letting him out before bed too. 9 weeks is young though.

I also gave him that blanket, which I'm realizing was a bad move because he buried his poop.

I can move his last feeding to 5...

The change of a new home AND a change in food will result in a puppy going a lot. It took Sofie until she was maybe 4-5 months old before she stopped pooping like 6-8 times a day. Crazy right? She at 6 months poops about 3-4 times a day, I just don't think their little bodies process food as efficiently as larger dogs, even when we feed quality foods. I say anything under a year old, you're going to have some slight issues. Last meal at 6:30 is good, and I imagine in a week he will be more consistent to frequency and consistency.

Jessica, I have read about pups born and raised outside, have a difficult time adjusting to not going potty in their living area, my Miya was one of those, and again it may take a short while for him to adjust. At 9 weeks he will have to go every 2 hours, and again with my Sofie it seemed she went every half hour(to pee, never in her sleeping area, because she was born inside). With the larger crate, I would not use a bed, looks like in your pic you did, use an old towel instead or nothing, make it so small that all he can do is lay in a semi circle and not be able to spread out at all, make it so he can only turn in a circle to readjust, no extra space at all. If he ends up going potty with such limited space, then 2 choices the plastic crate, or taking him out every couple of hours max. Keep the crate, whichever one you use in your room, it will be easier to hear him, and he will have comfort knowing you are there.

It could be very normal Jessica, so I'm not sure moving dinner time up would even help that much. It seems he is going in about 3 hour increments so it may just be you have to let him out every 3 hours for a short time. Soft poop I DO remember with mine at that age, haha, so I'm thinking that's pretty normal. As far as the blanket, I remember being told the puppies don't need something "soft" the way we *think* they do...if Alpha starts chewing on the blanket, tearing pieces off and swallowing them, it could be pretty dangerous as far as getting a blockage or something, and then there's the covering of the poop so not sure if you should use a blanket. It's your call though, I didn't use blankets with mine and they slept just fine

Thanks for the advice... I think one reason he is having an issue, other than being a baby is that the person I got him from appeared to have him in a shed or garage (from the photos, I really hope it wasn't inside her house). His individual picture he is literally staring up at the camera, lying beside a poop. So hopefully we'll be able to get him accustomed to being in a clean environment. I've fostered dogs from worse situations, the smaller crate appears to be the better option assuming I can secure it... I also think he thinks of it as his den as he is voluntarily napping in it with the door open atm.
And we moved him to our room last night which worked out well, only cried for about 5 minutes and then slept.
Good news was he couldn't escape from the wire crate... Yet...

And we just got back from the vet, we have coccidia. Yay for byb! -_-

Well that explains his poops. Poor baby.

I messaged the lady we got him from and she said "He never went outside with us and all the other puppies we had were fine."