Well for starters, this is my first husky, but not my first dog. We have had a great many dogs. Primarily German Sheppard's. Our last dog was a golden retriever. We unfortunately lost him to cancer in October. Soon after we adopted a husky pup. As of now he is 9 months old. We have not been able to get him house trained. We have tried it all. Crate training was our first stop. He did poorly with that. He had absolutely no problem with eliminating in the crate. No problem with laying in it. Which I've never seen a dog do before. Usually they try and keep their immediate area clean. We tried a feeding schedule. That also didn't work. We will sit and wait for him to show signs of having to go. Then try and get him out and he either won't go, or he will only pee. And then poop inside after we come back in. We tried giving lots of praise when he did right. Sometimes we thought we had made a breakthrough, then the next week it all comes undone and we are back a square one. He is a very smart dog. But very stubborn. Or almost as if he is trying to tell us that he will not go out side and that he will go inside if that's what he wants to do. We've been struggling with this since November. It seems as if we have made no progress at all. We are at the end of out ropes with him. We don't know what to do. We've never had a dog we haven't been able to house brake. He is not yet nudered. That our next hope. But I'm doubtful that will help the situation. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I am assuming he came from a horrible backyard breeder situation where he was brought up living in his filth. When you take him out to potty and he pees but doesn't poop, are you running him around and getting him really excited for a bit before bringing him in? Mine very rarely just go down the steps and find a place to poop, even at 7 years old. They have to run and jump and play for a bit to work it out of their system. This is especially the case if you have interrupted them in the middle of trying to poop inside and then take them out. It's like starting all over again for them. I would still stick to the feeding schedule. Even if you didn't see any immediate signs of it working in the long run it will help you out.

Welcome to the forum Rob....I can't add much to Jenn's comments...I was wondering on the crate if you made it as tight of a fit as possible? With my older girl I didn't crate, but she had the run of a garage, and she was from a byb, so going in close proximity to her sleeping area concerned me as well. At about 11 months old we moved in to our house, and I caught her once going in the house, I immediately said no and took her out, and praised her like she won the lottery. She never went potty again in the house. I would suggest when you are home to have him on a leash, so you can catch him in the act. And like Jenn said allow some run time outside. Personally with my girl, it was her age that I think did it, so continue practicing good training with him, and I have a feeling as he approaches a year, it will click for him.

He did come from a backyard breeder. But it didn't seem like a bad one. It was a very well kept up farm. He and his siblings were kept in a very nice out building that had a dog door to go to a large outside pen. They seemed to be using the bathroom in the outside pen and living inside the building going in and out at their leisure. We have a difficult situation as far as our schedules go. I work nights. And my mother works days. So usually during the week, he spends the day crated. And the afternoons and evening out in the house. Our goal is to get him out of the crate full time. We actually have made this transition once. He did exceptionally well. Except for pottying in the house. He is very well behaved for the most part. He knows he is suppose to go outside. It just seems like he is unwilling to hold it in until we take him out. Leashing in the house isn't really an option we can use. He ends up getting tangled around everything. He is just a very stubborn dog. And a recent development with his crate training, he has discovered that it he orients himself the right way, he can pee out through the bars of the crate. It's incredible. I've never seen anything like it. When we do go outside, if he has to go, he will. But he also has a very big problem with getting distracted. Almost like an extreme case off ADD. He will be mid potty, then stop to watch a leaf tumble across the yard. Or the neighboring 5 doors down opens up the door to get the mail and he must sit and watch him until he goes back inside. God forbid someone is cutting the grass. Or doing yard work. He watches them like he is watching a tv show. And wont do anything else until its over. Our trips outside can last upwards of 45 minutes sometimes with nothing to show for it. Then as soon as we get inside, he goes into the kitchen and goes. It's unbelievably frustrating.

Rob that helps some in giving advice....the leash idea is to leash him onto you or your mom, not having the leash loose. If he is attached to you, you will have to know his cues of going potty in the house. Pups born outside and not in a home, tend to have this problem, so in a way, yes not the best of byb's, again, I feel your pain, I had similar issues. The challenge is Rob....your pup needs some manners and a little stricter training. Even if he knows the basics, sit, laydown, stay. How is he at leave it, drop it? Many people use leave it, not only for items you do not want him to have, but also in the distraction/focus training. He needs to learn focus on you. How much exercise is he getting? I know it sounds ridiculous that I am asking these questions over a potty issue, but they are all intertwined. Since you are familiar with gsd's, then you can add a strong dose of stubborn, and a smidge of independence to it on top of a high drive gsd, and you have a husky. They are equally smart, but, they are so stubborn, you swear they are dumb, or deaf, or my favorite advice to give, your husky thinks you are talking to the husky behind him, lol.

firstly, use his name every time you give a command, secondly, pretend he is in boot camp for a gsd, and train like he is one. If you don't know any focus drills, I would start teaching him leave it. You can also start working on watch me. For my gsd, I use 2 squeaky balls, since she is in love with them. It works to bring focus on you. In the house, have him tethered to you at all times, that way you know when he is starting to sniff around for a potty break, take him out and praise, praise praise, find a high value treat only for potty, and also verbally praise. Lastly, step up any physical activity, and include command training as part of his exercise, so he has a tired brain and body. He is trying to take advantage of being a husky, I swear they know this, haha. Teach thresh hold stays, make him sit and wait at the door, make him sit and wait for his food, teach him place command, pick a spot where he is accessible to you, preferably tethered to you, and have him lay down and stay.

Huskies mature faster than gsd's, and he is in the terrible teenage phase, being a spoiled brat, by placing restrictions on him, teaching him respect of you and your home, will result in a well behaved, obedient dog, giving him too much freedom now, is only going to create more issues as he gets older. I hope I could help some. But I think the issue is not being potty trained, I think the issue is too much freedom, not enough exercise, and not enough training.........let us know if we can help more.

He is pretty decent with commands. (sit, stay, come,) he knows leave it when referring to items. I have not tried it for distractions. And usually with leave it, he hesitates. Almost like hes debating weather or not to listen. Lol. Its not his best command. I've tried training him to sit in a particular spot in the room. Especially for when visitors come by. But he is doing very poorly with that. And he loves to jump on people. So we are working through those. I'm not as worried about those because he is making progress there. We just seem to be stuck with the potty issue. I will try using a squeaker to get his attention. He loves his squeaky toys. We started restricting his freedom again last week. So we will continue on with some of these tips. I'll check back from time to time with some progress updates. Thanks alot for your help!

I have an 11-year-old Chihuahua, and he came from a pet shop (yes, I know; I didn't know any better at that time). He was used to going to the bathroom where he slept, so house training was extremely difficult. Even today, he's not fully house trained, but I've found that I can greatly reduce accidents if I take him for walks rather than just letting him out in the yard. Walks keep them outside for a substantial period of time so they're not inclined to wait until they're home to poop, and the movement loosens their bowels so they have a much easier time emptying out. I would suggest going this route with your Husky until he gets the idea that outside is the only place it's okay to go to the bathroom.

I understand it's not always reasonable to take your Husky for a walk 6-7 times per day so he can get house trained, so the times I'd strongly recommend taking him for a walk would be before breakfast, after lunch, and after dinner. Those seem to be the most crucial times. Once he's house trained, you could eliminate the lunch walk and just let him outside in the yard as needed between the morning and evening walks.

Rob, I'mgoing to put my curmudgeon hat on for a minute or three.  Your attention to him during this adjustment phase is going to make all the difference in the world later on.

The purpose behind having him leashed to you (or your mother?) is so that:

• You are aware of him when he starts looking for a place to go potty..
  
• He can't jump on people when they come in r are moving around. (If he starts to jump up you step on the leash, if one end is attached to him and you have the other ehnd attached to you he has to go down.
  
• A quick motion of the leash will bring his attention to you.  
  
• Will make helping him learn manners much easier.
  

You've replied that this or that isn't feasable.  Sorry, you're going to have to make them feasible or you're going to have a spoiled brat that no one wants to be around.  He'll accept being in his crate for periods of time - if he knows that the reward for getting out is doing something ... and there have been several suggestions about what you can do to make his 'out time' enejoyable to him and beneficial to you.