Does anyone have any experience in crating their once destructive husky, and then down the road trusting them enough to stay out of the crate  alone?

Our girl, Bella used to destroy couches, clothes, really anything she could when she lived with her previous owners. She would also pee or poo on the floor if they were gone for even 15 minutes. Worried she'd do the same with us, we crated her in the daytime for the first 7 or so months we had her.

We felt awful doing this so decided to experiment and leave her alone for first 15 minutes, then 30 minutes, 1 hour, and so on until eventually we left her home alone for a full work day. We've been doing this for close to 4 months and she's touched nothing (except an occasional sock).. I'm incredibly happy with this behavior, but also confused.

Can anyone shed some light on if they've had similar experiences?

I'm going to offer a suggestion - take it for what it's worth. One of the things you're going to hear here is a "bored dog is a destructive" dog ... if Bella was left alone, with little exercise before or after then the chances are good that she was "bored out of her gourd!" and thence destructive.

That she isn't tells me that you're giving her a lot more exercise (and probably care) than her previous owners were. Your walks with a pack - great; the hikes - excellent. It boils down to saying that she's getting enough exercise that she doesn't have to try to burn it off when no one's around.

That says a little about her and a lot about how well you're doing with her.

With my experience with Kota the first time that we left her alone was because I was traveling for work and the day I came home was the day my bf had to go into work. He works swing shift at the time (3:30pm to 11:30pm). There was at least a 6 hour gap before I got home that day and it was only our 1st week that we had her. My bf gave her a walk before he went to work. I came home with a lovely surprise in the 2nd bedroom. All on the same spot. It appears to to be 2 peeing marks and 1 pooping. It was not fun at all. The 2nd time she had an accident, we went to go watch a movie for 3 hours. We took her out prior to that. Came home to peeing on the same spot she had the last accident. After that, we crated her but she destroyed her new bed the first time, 2nd and third time she escaped the crate. Gave up on the crate after that. But I really think it was because she was still trying to get use to us and our habits. She didn't destroy the house at all. The longest we have left her is about 5 hours so far and have been lucky. All she does is sleep.

Now my younger sister's experience a little different from us. She only had her husky for about 3 months but had to crate her. She works 8 hour days. But soon after her neighbors complained of her howling and barking, she had to test her out of the crate. Good think is that she stopped the barking and howling. Only had a few accidents and was great after that. However, just recently, she happened to lose her toy in between some boxes. Got her toy out after making a mess of things and realized she had more "toys" to destroy. She became destructive after that. Let's just say, the CD was not round anymore. After a few more tries, she became less and less destructive again. My sister believes it's because she got bored and didn't get as much exercises. This was at the time of the Napa, California fire. The air quality was bad and she couldn't take her husky out as much for exercises. She has gotten better now that she has her regular play time again. P.S. My sister takes her to the dog park 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours at the dog park. This is what tires her out.

Hope that helps.

(No 2 huskies are a like!)

I've had dogs that started off crate trained but could later be trusted to roam the house uncrated.  I've also had well-behaved dogs that suddenly seemed to lose their minds and gleefully destroy things, so I had to start crating them.  It really all depends on the dog's personality, the dog's life experiences, and any changes the dog undergoes.  Most dogs get mellow with age, but sometimes an experience will make them behave "badly."  

For example, Kiki, my Shiba Inu -- a VERY well-behaved dog, best I've ever had -- suddenly became a bit destructive after a thunderstorm knocked a tree onto a bunch of power lines in our neighborhood and shorted out the power in dozens of houses -- including ours.  It happened while we were out, so I'm guessing poor Kiki got scared out of her mind and developed separation anxiety. After that, we always had to crate her when we left the house.  

On the other hand, my American Eskimo Dog, Max, was a very destructive puppy and had to be crate trained.  Once he was about three years old, though, he mellowed out and didn't really need crating after that.

I'm a big believer of exercising your husky, and keeping to a routine. Huskies always have this terrible rep of destroying everything in sight. But as many people here mention, it just stems from them being bored, and antsy to go out and play.

Echo is a couple of days shy of being 1 year old and he's never destroyed or chewed anything in my loft before. He gets 2-3 hours at the park in the morning and another 1.5-2 hours at the park at night, and he just eats or sleep in between those times. Doesn't bother me, doesn't even play with any toys at home.

I also mention routine, because I swear huskies can either tell time or have an internal clock. Half an hour before meal time he starts waking up and pestering me, and does the same half an hour before we typically head out to the dog park. Break up that routine, and that's when he starts misbehaving, acting crazy, pulling/playing with all his toys and paces around my loft or whining.

Great example of this is his eagerness at going to the park. He's AWFUL to walk going there, lunging at anything that moves, pulling like crazy, smelling, marking, tasting and touching everything. People that walk past me always gives me cut eye at not keeping my dog at bay. But walking home after 3 hours, he's the sweetest, calmest best walked and trained dog ever.

While there are a lot of devices out there to control and tame your dog, I think the single most important step is to exercise your dog to get results. By exercise, I also don't mean walking on a leash. I find you really need to run, or go to a dog park where he can interact and wrestle with other dogs. I always say 2 hours of leash walking = 30 mins of play at a dog park.

P.S. I don't use the crate for Echo. I only used it to potty train him as a puppy. He's been crate-free since he was 4 months old =D.

I don't believe crating is the answer one way or another to destructive behavior.  We know that Huskies are full of love, energy, and adventure.  Sometimes that translates into mischief.  If you catch your Husky doing something she shouldn't, just tell her NO. (After the fact it won't register nearly as well).

Husky911 hit the nail on the head.  If you exercise and drain their energy, the likelihood that they will become destructive decreases dramatically.  Exercising doesn't mean just letting them out in the yard...it means taking them on long walks, runs, trips to the park, adventure, etc.

We always walked our girl 4 times a day and took her everywhere we went.  In the home all she did was sleep, eat, play, and love us.  She never destroyed or damaged anything of ours in the time we had her.

She would rip an occasional stuff toy apart.  But these were given to her to do as she liked.  One time I told her NO to ripping apart a New stuffed toy I had just given her.  From that point forward she never destroyed a toy again.  I felt a little bad. I kinda liked seeing her primal joy while destroying toys - I just didn't want it to happen within the first 5 minutes of giving them to her.