Hi Guys,

So I got my little puppy Bella about 5 month of age. she's trained to sit, stay, come, shake hands etc.. basic comands, but only works when we got food in hand. most of the time she would ignore her commands unless we got food in our hand or a toy.

Lately for past two weeks she has been excessively barking at as for no reason. her routine is as follows wakes up at 7:00am goes to down have her meal, once she's done with her meal goes back upstairs and immediately goes back to sleep for 3-4 hours.

once she's up she starts to play around, and continue to nap and play till around 4:00 PM. at around 4:00 she starts barking at me and my brother for no reason. she seems to whenever see my brother look at him and bark. just non-random stop barking till 10:00pm

she does start attacking the table once threes food on it, or jumping on us once we got food. she always steals something and runs away with it food or fruit or whatever.. we cant seem to put an end to her stealing food and maybe eating something that can harm her? how can I stop her from jumping on tables once she smells the food?

Also she is play biting alot, we tried to redirect her attention to toys and stop playing with her when she bites, but she still does bite us no matter what, its not a strong bite or anything, but still she's biting.

I would like to know how to stop the barking, biting, and the robbery! thanks

Okay, Ali I'm going to live dangerously here.  We seriously need more information here.
Is she crate trained, do you use a crate?
How much exercise is she getting?
While you got her at 5 months age, that doesn't help us know how old she is now? (Okay, you've probably mentioned but do you mind if I don't go look at your other messages to find out?)

In both cases - biting and barking - Bella is trying to tell you something.  16:00 might be a good time for a walk and if the brother isn't a full time resident with you, she might see him as a novelty to play with.

Stealing food - argh, that's a problem and a half.  I know of two reasonably workable solutions to that, the first is to crate her while you're eating (if you use a crate) -or- since you say that she knows "Sit, Stay" take her into another room where she can see you and tell her to stay ( and repeat ad nauseam till she gets the idea.)  
That unstated part of this comment is that she NEVER gets human food.  Use kibble (or canned or raw) for her diet and treats for training.

I've done my damage, I'll let someone else chime in here ...

My only real questions are what Al asked about how much exercise she gets? Structured exercise like a walk. Not just playing around the house and in the yard.

What is her total food intake for the day that you give her, not counting what she steals?

What kind of boundaries have you set for her and how do you enforce them? Is she allowed to go wherever she wants in the house? When she steals something what do you do? When she's barking and jumping on you what do you do?

Pups start pushing boundaries as they age so if they never had any real tight boundaries to start with it can be real crazy and they can become such brats. You have to completely reteach manors in some cases. Put a leash on her and when she goes to jump up give it a tug to correct the behavior. When it comes time for you to eat feed her her meal at the same time so she has her own food to eat on so she isn't as focused on yours. If you crate you can also give her something like a raw bone or bully stick to chew on in her crate while you eat.

My only addition to this is, she probably is feeling better and needs more food. Up her kibble intake and that should slow her need to steal food from you.

You gave us a brief description of your dog's schedule, but failed to mention any exercise. That's a huge concern, especially for a husky. If you don't wear a husky out by using up their excessive amounts of energy, they'll let you know it. They'll white/talk/bark more to get attention, they get into trouble, they break rules, they'll damage things. They'll do anything to get the attention they crave.
My dog's are up at the crack of dawn and get a couple miles of running in early in the am. They get let out at noon to run around the yard and wrestle with each other. They get more yard time at 5pm. After supper they get a mile walk. And if the weather is nice, they even occasionally get a late evening walk (probably 2-3 times a week). On top of that, they are outside dogs, so they have some other stimuli also. They have a tether tug and a pool outside to play in. Inside they have a digging bed, and another toy tethered to the kennel. We also swap all the toys every day to keep the experiences new.
If we deviate from this, for even a day, we pay for it with an unruly, uncontrollable dog.

Our dogs are outside dogs, so I don't have experience with the food issue, but here's what I would try first. Crate the dog, or at least leash her to something solid, but make sure the dog can see you eating. If she whines or fights it, no rewards. If she calmly waits while you eat, then she gets rewarded, with the appropriate treats (not people food).
You could also consider feeding her at the same time, or making her wait till you are done to get fed. That may cut back on the stealing as she will have her own food.

Upping the kibble she has may help, if she's underfed. But my husky would literally eat until he popped, so if I were having that issue, no amount of kibble would solve it.

Okay I need to answer all your questions before you guys would be able to help I guess

@ALJONES Sorry we got Bella at the age of 8 weeks, she's not almost 5 month of age.
She is crate trained, but we stopped using the crate at the age of 3 month as we got her a huge sofa and she slepps on it in my bedroom right next to me or sometimes on the bed with me.

The weather in Dubai is to hot gets to around 44C at noon therefore we cant take her outside more than 5 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes at night for a walk, other than that shes active at home plays around alot and also sleeps alot . I was thinking of trying to teach her to walk on the treadmill at home to exercise


My brother live's with me, but i assume she barks at him because she wants to play with him or wants his attention.

Stealing food she sometimes just goes into the garbage or whatever she finds steals food and run's away, i follow her open her mouth and tell her no bad girl and take away the food.

@TWISLLER 15-20 minutes per day, sometimes only 10 minutes.. of e maybe use the treadmill at home for exercise still don't know if that's a good idea?

She eats 200g of kibble and almost 2 cups of chicken and 2 cups of rice give or take chicken and rice..

she's not allowed to go into my brothers room as he put a small blockage on the floor, umm she is not allowed to pee on anything except the pee pads we got at home and she does follow that, shes not allowed in the kitchen and another room we put somewhat of a wall on the floor to block her from going on. so she's not allowed wherever she wants . when she steals, barks, and jumps on us we tell her no push her gently down say no and point at her and say NO, rarely somtimes we tap her on her noose sometimes if it goes way out of hand we put her in my brothers bathroom close the door and lights for 5 minutes (naughty spot)

she has her meal 3 times a day, but ya I think we will start giving Bella her meals once we eat, and will use a leash to pull her tug her down once she jumps on us..

I think I need to start setting boundaries for her as I don't think she has any proper one, but maybe I am wrong.

Bella is in inside dog in the villa that is air conditioned 24/7 as outside it to hot, but she does go outside to poop and back in the house, she does at night sometimes poop inside the house and I have to clean it up its because we cant take her out in this weather..

Bella would eat her stomach out and throw up, she's never full.

I think she is feeling better and is becoming more typical of a husky puppy testing you. Setting up boundaries is a must, teaching her obedience, having rules. My husky girl never bothered with garbage, my gsd did, and I let her knock it over once, it scared her and she has left the garbage alone since, lol. I would set up some rules and give her a little more playtime indoors, and perhaps do some leash training inside, since they are notorious at pulling, that will give her some direction, rules, and teach some calmness, letting her work her body and mind is very important, especially during the husky puppy crazies.

As she ages she will definitely need some more exercise to keep you sane. We have had members train their dogs to walk on treadmills with great success. Starting her getting used to the sound of it and how it moves earlier rather than later is a good thing. I tried to get my girl to walk on it but alas, she was too fond on traditional walking to take to it. I made her stand on it and sit on it while it was off and would treat her. Then I would make her stand beside it while it ran on low and gave her treats for not running away from it. Hardest part was the actual walking on it. She only wanted to lay down and fall off the back of it but Bella is still young enough and small enough she should be able to get the idea of walking on it with time and slow introduction if you wish to give it a try.

MiyasMomma wrote:

I think she is feeling better and is becoming more typical of a husky puppy testing you. Setting up boundaries is a must, teaching her obedience, having rules. My husky girl never bothered with garbage, my gsd did, and I let her knock it over once, it scared her and she has left the garbage alone since, lol. I would set up some rules and give her a little more playtime indoors, and perhaps do some leash training inside, since they are notorious at pulling, that will give her some direction, rules, and teach some calmness, letting her work her body and mind is very important, especially during the husky puppy crazies.

What kind of boundaries should I set for her? And and how would I teach hef to be obedient? Also what kind of rules. Forgive my ignores Bella is my first puppy and I did some research but maybe not enough.

I do train her once a day with a clicker for 15 minutes to sit lay down shake hands stay speak and look at me. In addition I give her treats while training the above when she is silent and not doing anything.
As you said I need to put rules and boundaries. For example if I open the front door of the house she would run to the street without hesiststion.. or she barks randomly or eats random stuff and steals stuff.

I will defiantly increase her excersis, but what other thing would you recommend focusing on to get her to be a calm good girl and being obident. Also should I reintroduce crate as her home? Should I keep a leash on her once she's indoors and starts acting crazy? Please shower me with all your experience and tips. I would say I'm all ears, but it's a forum so I'm all eyes. lol probably sounds lame.


She did escape today once the door was open dan to random people and started cuddling them and alsmot crossed the street

Ali, I'm going to go off topic for a line or three - I'm amused by the way people answer questions on forums (this and a couple of others I inhabit).  For some it's a conversation, for some it's strictly question and and answer and for others, rather than answering they give their experiences (the latter is me, generally; though I do ask a lot of questions).

I'm surprised at your weather, I knew that the UAE is primarily desert but expected that the coastal towns (Dubai) would be tempered somewhat by the Gulf.  (( Now that was really dumb - I just googled the current temp in Dubai and it's only 87 - it's also 02:00 )) I see that the airport was at 104 (40c) today so our temperatures aren't all that different, what is different and is a real killer for man and beast is the humidity. Dubai at 77% during the heat of the day yesterday and mine is currently (17:00) a highish 22% - it rained last night so I'd expect it to be out of the 8-15% normal range. This time of year I'm hitting the high 30's and low 40's with generally extremely low humidity.

Boundaries:
Mine have free run of part of this house trailer - the part I live in, the remainder is either unlivable or used for storage.  However, at night, two out of the three are crated since I've gotten tired of wet spots in the kitchen.  Until I added my latest pup I've never used crates but have come to think of them as a real saving grace.  Sky often dozes in hers during the day - I think just to get away from Sasha.  Free run does not mean they can get into / onto anything they want. Because of hair my bed is off limits - generally I expect mine to keep "all four on the floor."
I have dog and human food delivered since it's a lot easier than traveling to get it.  The bag containing their food sets on the floor, they could get into it but they've been taught that "it's mine" and I share when it's their mealtime.  
They also seem to migrate to the kitchen when I'm fixing a meal and if I drop something, it stays on the floor until I either pick it up or tell them that they can "get it".
Invading the garbage is a real no-no and will result on the offender getting stuck on a house lead for a couple of hours.  
One that I'm working on - and isn't going to happen - is this idea of doors.  I'd like to be able to leave the front door open for the breeze, but if I did I'd have three dogs outside and all three like to roam (it's safe enough since there's little traffic but I've found Avalanche 4-5 miles down the road.)
What I do enforce is that they set and wait for a lead before they cross the threshold - either going in or out.

So to put it more into an answer:
They aren't allowed to get just anywhere without permission.
Food is mine unless I tell them otherwise.
Four on the floor unless invited up.
Ask to go out if you need to use the water closet.  

While mine are considerably older than yours, I do - upon occasion - use a house leash if one of them has been doing anything they shouldn't.  Having a house lead and having it attached to you (or your chair) gives them a little room to wander and let's you know what they're doing - meaning you have the option to correct them now.
Improper behavior - sniffing the garbage can, for example - will be met with "No, you better not".
Sasha doesn't want to "come up" for attention - she wants all four on the floor; Avalanche will come up when he's asked to; Sky isn't sure, but she's a real small Husky so when she stands up on her back legs she's still pretty close to the ground.

---

Looking at the pictures you posted, I'd say she's pretty much pure Husky - and a pretty little girl to boot.

I wouldn't expect her fur to change much, at 5 months I think she pretty much has her adult fur though it might change some when she blows her coat the first time - and even in Dubai she will blow her coat, possibly only in the spring rather than normal twice a year (mine have a heavy blow in the spring and a real light blow in the fall)

One of my favourite lines - Raise the puppy you have now to be the dog you want it to become! It's a lot easier to teach correct behaviour than to unteach bad behaviour.

Enough for now ..... your turn - or anyone else ...

Hey guys.. so my family is fed up with Bella they want to give her up, I wont allow this to happened I need to train her on a few points the family told me that they cant handle anymore and we must fix it. Either I have to train her properly or move out and get an apartment for myself and Bella.

The points that I am facing are
1. Bella does have Pee pads around the house, she tends to use them, but sometimes she just ignores her pads and pee's at two spots, one just in front of the bathroom next to my room or downstairs in the saloon in one spot, next to that that spot there is a pad sometimes she goes on the pad sometimes just next to the pad
If she find anything like cotton or cleanx or whatever she starts biting it and tearing cutting it
She always jumps on us when we have food. she wont let us eat in peace she starts jumping on us whenever she smells food. we tell her no she doesn't listen.
when we say no she barks at us and start running back and forth
If she does something bad I want to approach her and tell her no she starts just running away.
when we take her for a walk she digs up poo and wants to eat it

Consider this as my first inquiry knowing the facts about Bella's's age exercise etc and please provide me with your feedback as I want to help correct Bella's bad behavior

We are considering building her an outdoor house with an AC possibly could this fix her being loose in the house and doing whatever she wants?

The space is quiet big:

Hey Abaroud!

That's a lot of barking

Its quite obvious that your husky isn't getting the needed amount of exercise. I find no amount of indoor time beats going outside and actually running around, smelling things, and just the mental stimulation of an exterior environment. 15 minutes a day seems WAAAYYYY insufficient ...While I understand the limitations of being in Dubai...I still think that is no excuse for exercising with your dog more...Here are some ideas...

• Change the time a bit...find the coldest part of the day and start going out with him at that time...be it at 3am in the morning...your dog needs to exercise!!!...If you acclimate your dog slowly to the temperature outside, it is possible to get them used to it. Just watch your dog carefully, bring lots of water with you. Shade, and lots of breaks are key.
  
• If you're worried about burning his paws, there are booties you can get for your dog to protect his feet from the sun baked concrete
  
• I love the idea of getting a treadmill for him...get one FAST! As some members mentioned the sooner your introduce, the easier it will be...
  
• I'm not saying you need to run outside with him...but definitely more than a 10 min walk...that's for sure! To put it into perspective, I'm outside with my husky for at least 3.5 hours/day! I find 1 hour of outside play is equivalent to like 4 hours of inside house play. The outside smells, sounds and environment just physically drains the dog a lot faster for some reason...
  
• Have you considered bringing your dog to doggy daycare? Lets him interact with other dogs and, I'm assuming in Dubai, would be in a large a/c building. Let your dog learn some manners through social interaction while giving him the mental and physical stimulation it needs
  
• Go swimming with your dog! I feel like teaching your dog to swim would be amazing! Keeps it cool, and the energy it would require for your dog to doggy paddle in the water expends a lot more energy than running...
  
• Get him enrolled in some training classes...
  

Good luck! I honestly think a lot of your husky problems stem from the build-up of energy and lack of an appropriate outlet to channel it to. Don't dilly dally, start now! I'd hate for you to be forced to leave your family.

Cheers!

Aside from the many ideas that Husky911 mentioned you can try hide and seek with your pup for some more mental stimulation. Put her in a sit and stay while you hide a treat then release her to find it.

To teach no running out the door put her on a leash and have her sit by the door, open the door, when she gets up to go out tell her no, give leash correction and close the door. Make her sit again, open door, if she tries to go out say no and give her leash correction. Tell her to sit. If she will sit calmly with the door open then give treat. Repeat until she gets the hint.

On the extra room. In my opinion I wouldn't do a room for her. It will more than likely serve to isolate her from everyone in the long run and reduce how much people time she gets which will incite higher rates of separation anxiety. Building a room will serve a similar purpose as a crate would. I would go back to crate training before I would build a kennel.

Peeing: Potty pads are hard to break. They pretty much tell a dog it's okay to pee in the house and it's not easy to explain to them that the pads are what is okay to pee on and not the rest of the house. I assume you intend to keep her on potty pads for the duration of her life and not transition off of them later? If you intend to transition to her going outside later then I would do it now. I would use that leash Al mentioned. Leave it on her, gate off parts of the house she isn't allowed in and if you see her go to squat anywhere that isn't on a potty pad grab the leash, give correction with a firm no, and take her to where you want her to do her business whether outside or on a pad. Treat when she goes on the pad.

It's 90 degress (32C I think) with around 80% humidity today and I will take mine out. I have acclimated my dogs to that life though. Every summer we do several miles a day in those conditions. The key is working up to them being in it and making sure they have a lot of water and are in the shade.

Many of your problems can be solved with exercise and everyone, not just you, being firm with boundaries.

Amil, it's me with questions again ...
You haven't mentioned - that I remember - how much time Bella spends at home alone or how much time you and she are together / separated.  It seems to me that you might have a multigenerational family living in that house - that's common in some cultures and unheard of in others, and I don't have any idea about yours.

The reason for those questions basically is to ask how many different people does she have to ineract with?  If she's your dog and you're responsible then it's time to step up and be the sole responsible person.  You can't control how others interact with her, you can tell them what you'd like and what she needs but if they choose not to then it's on you.

If you work / go to school - and at 25 I figure it's more the former than the latter - and she isn't receiving the corrections to her behaviour from them when you're gone then it's time to pull the crate out and crate her when you're not there.  If everyone isn't consistent in how they treat her, then she is going to learn that she doesn't have to pay attention to anyone.

Looking at the pictures of the patio.  You have 'garden space', I'm guessing about 1m square, just to the left of the barbecue pit.  Since the only plants that I can see in it are weeds, that might be the perfect place to train her to go potty.  Of course that means that it's up to you to teach her that that is the only place to go.  Leaving her out there or building a kennel out there is probably going to cause her to bark/howl and lead to problems with neighbors - workable if you train her for it but probably not a good option.

I and others have suggested a house lead - have you tried it?  If you have her, literally, attached to you when you're home, you're going to know what she doing and can correct it immediately.  For example, if she squats, pick up the leash and lead her to the outdoor potty or the nearest potty pad; if she barks, you can pick up the leash and distract her - which will probably result in her not barking.

I suggested that you put her into a set/stay while you're eating - and until she gets the idea, you're going to spend more time correcting her than eating - have you tried it and how does it work?  It's important that you let us know how she reacts to any of the suggests that we've made and that you've tried and those that you haven't tried and why you haven't.  We can offer suggestions all day long but since we're not there, we don't know what has or hasn't been tried and what has or hasn't worked.

I get a kick out of Cesar Milan, he's presented with a problem dog and after spending 15 minutes with it the dog is miraculously "right" - nope, sorry Cesar, it doesn't work that way even for the best trainer in the world (which, imho, you are not!).  I can't think of anything that I teach a dog once and then find that it's unconditionally correct in that behaviour from then on ... it takes time to teach a dog what you want and even then there are times when there are mistakes.

Final note, I live in the American desert.  Today the temps going to hit somewhere between 40-45°C and my dogs and I Live without A/C - thanks to a very low humidity; oddly looking at your weather your humidity isn't that much higher than mine, your 30% during the day to my 15%  My dogs all hunker down during the day but when the sun starts to go down, their activity level goes up - play time or run time.  You might want to take her onto the patio of an evening and see if she'll fetch (good luck!) or play fight with you or just play with her to get some of that restrained energy burned off.

So i started working on giving my pup more excersis, she's going in her small pool for the past three days she learning how to paddle in the water. We also walk her 15-20 minutes a day and give her way much more attention. She has calmed down and it seems she is being more obident now. She still does want to challenge me and attack play bite me. I raise my finger and say no she backs off for a few seconds than mouth open attacks I push her off and say no and this goes on for a while until she becomes to aggressive I put her in the bathroom with nothing to play with for 5 minutes as a naughty area.. overall I think the excersis is helping. Just need her to stop bitting and the barking, but I feel like she's doing that to challenge me. Other times she barks she's talking to me. I take her out and she poops so that's great that I can pick up some ques..just hate how she attacks to bite.

I think I just need to get her to stop and introduce the treadmill.. any other tips you guys?

Ali, you're doing good. A couple of comments:

She seriously needs quite a bit more exercise than you're giving her with 15-20 minute walks. The pool is a good start - how about some pictures? Huskies and water are always a good picture combination.

When you push her away when she's barking / biting, it turns into a game for her. She does something, you push back - that just encourages her to do more of it since she's getting your attention. In a lot of worlds, any attention, even what we would consider bad attention, is better than none. You're doing the right thing by raising your hands where she can't get to them and saying "no". iF YOU STOP REACTING TO HER, SHE'LL EVENTUALLY GET THE IDEA THAT PLAY IS ON YOUR TERMS, NOT HERS. (stupid caps lock, sorry)

Again, this is where a house leash comes in handy, rather than having to reach for her collar to keep her down, you can step on the leash and put her into a "down" position (you say she knows set so down is a small step from that)

Use the search function here and look for NILIF (or NILF) which stands for "Nothing In Life Is Free". It's a way of teching a dog that she doesn't get anything unless she's doing what you want her to do.

Have you had her out on the patio, that looks like a good play space and I didn't see any holes she could slip out of.