Hey guys

TL;DR: Husky aggressively chews at door to be let inside. 10 year old dog that knows all the house rules, why behavior change? Goes through all punishment and continues to break door. Has toys, food, and treats yet behavior has arised in past month. Goes on two walks a day. Getting old? Separation anxiety? Sick?

New user here but have encountered a weird behavior with my 10 year old husky, Niko

BRIEF HISTORY:
-3 Huskies, Koda, Niko, Luna
-Koda is the leader, biggest one, most obedient, male
-Niko, second male, quiet type, very obedient when it comes to food
-Luna, female, sneaky type, vocal, obedient when it comes to food

Niko lately has dropped some weight now bordering the female (40lbs to a fluctuating 30-33). He now AGGRESSIVELY pursues coming inside the house. To the point of biting/scratching the handle, grinding his teeth on the bottom of the door, to the point where we will have to replace the door soon. He is so insistent on coming inside, where he'll go through whatever punishment (nose flicking, outside cage, leashing to post, 'bite' collars, and physically bringing him up to the handle and giving verbal cues) and continue thrashing the door. They get two walks a day so i don't know where the frustration or stress is coming from. I can tell he is stressed from the panting, nose licking, and anxious behavior. What is strange about this is that he has NEVER done this, happened this past month. He is not some puppy anymore and knows all the rules of the house so where is this behavior coming from? Looking for a solution, father is getting pissed off about the door. Is he sick? Wants to always go into his room and be isolated, he acts normal once he's inside and has always been kind of to himself. Any thoughts or training advice would be greatly appreciated... In order to save the door might invest in a shock collar because we can't replace the door... would love not to place him on that but running out of options..


Best regards,
B

Punishing a dog for something that is clearly stressful for this animal is only going to make the situation worse and you will end up hurting your dog. You are looking at it all wrong. Instead of looking at is as this dog has suddenly become a bad dog that I have to brutally train this behavior out of, look at it as what could have happened to this dog that would make him go against everything he has been trained. Sonic booms, lightning strikes, aggressive dogs lurking around the fence or coming in the yard if the yard is unfenced could all instill new fear in any dog. My girl will rip any door down if someone is shooting fireworks or guns nearby. If I punished her for being scared all I would be doing is leading my dog toward a heart attack. What happened, could have happened, or changed a month ago?

I would get dog to vet pdq, as I would bet something organic rather than behavioral. Just my gut speaking if behavior had been uneventful all these years and no major environmental changes.

Niko did suffer a traumatic event, a california storm blew one of our fence boards out of place and he was able to escape. Happened around 10:20ish at night and we were unable to find him for the night. We got a call in the morning from a pet hospital that was 30 minutes away from our house (have him chipped) and turns out someone picked up our dog off the street (gets kind of confusing at this point, didn't take dog to local pet hospital, took dog all the way to maybe their respective neighborhood then proceeded to drop niko off at hospital?) He was a little shaky in the car ride home but his behavior returned to normal after he reunited with the other two. If this has caused the separation anxiety, how would we go about changing his behavior through positive reinforcement? Cause right now he has us trained to come to the door every time he bites or scratches the door...

To save the door...pebble smart doggie door bell. We have one, works great, treat cup built in to train. Sturdy. Ours had been up over 2 years, I think.