I'm not sure what to do, my 10 month old is so incredibly destructive it's driving me crazy. I live with roommates, and she is constantly destroying their things. Which means basically I am responsible and have to pay them for new things, repair stuff, etc. Recently she dug up half of my entire carpet, leaving me with a damages fee of ~$400 that I'll have to pay when I move out. I live my life around my dog's schedule, taking her out for walks, to the park, tiring her out anyway that I can and nothing helps in the long run. I love her with all of my heart but the stress of all of this is really getting to me and I don't know what to do! I feel like every second of the day I have my eyes on her and the moment I look away something else is chewed up, eaten, or ruined in some way. I'm sure her age has something to do with it, but ugh. Someone tell me things will get better

Meg, they do eventually grow out of it, well most do. What type pf mental stimulation do you do? Some times it is more mental than physical tiring to why they are destructive. If Finley does not have clear and concise boundaries, then they become destructive to. Did you ever take Finley for puppy classes? If so I would sign up for a more advanced obedience class, if not she is young enough to enroll in a puppy class. Obedience training is often times more tiring than running 5 miles. At home you may find that she needs to be tethered to you, so you can keep track of what she is doing. If when you are gone and no one wants her tethered to them, then I would crate her until you do get home.

I've gone through this sort of thing, but sounds to me like normal "teenage" Husky/sled dog behavior.  Is your dog crate-trained?  If not, I highly recommend it.  How many roommates do you have?  What kinds of schedules do they have?  Do they help with the care and training of your dog?  If they ignore your dog when they're around, that could be a problem when it comes to training your dog.

I totally sympathize with you in terms of dealing with dog destruction. My family had a Malamute -- similar to a Husky but bigger -- that was incredibly destructive because at the time we didn't know anything about crate training, etc.  Storm became a family legend, and he's also the reason why I absolutely love the Spitz/Nordic dog breeds. That love was hard-earned because Storm was NOT an easy dog to have, at least in his youth. Storm was 80+ pounds of fur and pure muscle, and he did all of THIS and more before the age of 2:

-- Storm ambushed people and bit their ankles until he became too big to hide under the furniture.

-- Once when Storm wanted to be let outside, we didn’t get to him fast enough – so he broke a window to let himself out and then broke another window to let himself back in.

-- Storm gnawed the chrome headlight covers off of my Volkswagon Bug.  There were actual teeth marks in the chrome.

-- Storm ate -- ATE -- countless sweaters.  It's amazing he didn't get an intestinal blockage.

-- Storm reduced a large garden to a crater in one day.

-- Storm killed every raccoon, opossum, and rabbit that dared to enter our backyard –- and he dug WWI-sized trenches through the yard while trying to get at a mole.  

-- Storm dug up all of the TV cable that was buried in the backyard and tied himself against the side of the house with it.  

-- Storm knocked down several trees -- yes, TREES -- one of which landed on a glass greenhouse and destroyed it.

-- Storm punched out a guy I was dating and knocked out one of his front teeth with one paw.

Yep, Storm was a canine wrecking ball, but we still loved him to pieces. He was very easy to forgive because he was just so good-natured, personable and loyal in his own way.  Once he was three years old, Storm mellowed out considerably and became a really, really great dog. That was right about the time we finally learned about crate training.  You probably could have heard all of us smack ourselves in the heads from a mile away: "D'OH!" Boy, did we feel stupid.

I got Misty last September as a crazed 2-year-old shelter dog.  She was friendly but a real pain in the behind and had never been trained in ANYTHING.  We crate-trained her and it was totally worth it.  The only thing she's destroyed in the house so far this year is a cheap pair of earbuds.  We only crate her when we're out of the house, otherwise someone is always with her.  Easy to do because we have a small house.  

>> If so I would sign up for a more advanced obedience class, if not she is young enough to enroll in a puppy class. Obedience training is often times more tiring than running 5 miles. <<

Oh, yeah -- Obedience classes do help. In addition to helping us learn to handle Storm, Storm became an absolute dream to walk on a leash. Good thing, too, because he could have taken us all on a Nantucket Sleighride at a moment's notice if he wanted to.

Number 1 with a teenage husky - tether her to you in the house so you know what she is doing and can intervene. Number 2 - crate when you are not at home or when you are home but cannot watch her every second. Number 3 Obedience training - she needs to learn "No" Sit, stay, come, place. Heel, to my mind is optional, depending on where you walk and the conditions. In general, I don't use heel as we walk mostly on rural, sparsely traveled roads. We do, however, use heel when walking city streets, festivals, congested parks.

For in the crate, PROVIDED SHE IS OK with bones, you might want to give her a raw, real bone to chew. BUt, the first few times, you need to watch her like a hawk...a bone bigger than her mouth that she cannot swallow whole. Hopefully she will not be an aggressive chewer that risks swallowing large pieces that theoretically can cause an emergency. You also want to make sure she does not aggressively guard the bone.

Another exercise that is good for fostering in-house calm behavior is the sit on your dog exercise

http://caninelifeskills.com/sit-on-the-dog-exercise/

  Oh, Amy -- Thanks for that reminder!    I swear, my brother sat on Storm for two years!  Yeah, it helped!  

Heck, my husband says his older brothers sat on him for a year when he was a teenager -- and it helped him, too!

Along with the great advice above I would add:

If time, and weather permits, you can take her out for a good bike ride, jog, dog park, etc. in an attempt to stimulate her both physically and mentally.
They love to run and see new places, making them well suited for trotting along side a bicycle.

Invest in a number of "tough toys" specifically targeted at aggressive chewers; our American Bully seems to manage to destroy every "indestructible" toy we bring home from the pet store, so we keep a number of different types and styles for her at all times.

OMG Faye, did I have to smile at your post about Storm. I KNOW it's not funny, but having had a Malamute, I can totally relate. My Malamute was a dog like no other, and why I LOVE these fluffy northern breeds. To this day, I can vividly remember walking into the dining room, and seeing a 7-8 foot peach tree with a very happy Malamute gnawing away at it, then him getting up and bouncing over to me, then back to the tree, like "look what I found!, isn't it the greatest stick you ever seen?!"

I don't think it's always boredom, or being under stimulated. I was a kid when I had my Malamute as a youngster, and so were my brothers and sister AND his best bud (besides me ) our Husky Nikita. This boy was anything but bored or under stimulated. A puppy/young dog is much like a human kid...leave them unwatched and trouble finds them. It just is. I think the best advice is as stated above and keep her tethered to you and crated when you are not home.

Just weighing in to second the tether and crate mantra. I do it to protect my wild thing, not to protect my replaceable things.

We also have crate traditions (Amazon echo playing classical music for dogs, mommy pheromone spray, kong filled with wet food, etc.) just to go for my nightly 5K with Grant.

And her leash is D-ringed to my belt loop all day, even at the office. She is 9 weeks old and already pretty good at heeling. And let's not get into the stuff I've pulled out of her mouth already (ok, one was a dead lizard) and replaced with a toy.

Chris. I'm laughing. Early on with Ami, walking a trail I had tho track down his throat and retrieve a desiccated squirrel by the tail and haul it out...And we won't discuss the mitten full when he was in his poop eating stage and I didn't know what was there. Brushed my hair out of my eyes...

>>OMG Faye, did I have to smile at your post about Storm. I KNOW it's not funny, but having had a Malamute, I can totally relate.<<

It IS funny, Jimmy. Even the guy who got his tooth knocked out -- He and his family took it well, and insurance covered everything; so it just became another Storm story. I'm laughing at your story about the peach tree. Yeah, that's exactly what Storm did to the trees in our backyard! And, yeah, I agree -- I don't think he was bored, because we played with him ALL the TIME. I think he was just a very smart dog taking advantage of having a full acre of wooded yard and run of the house -- and having FUN with it. In the grand scheme of things, it was only stuff -- and Storm mellowed out into a great dog, and we ended up with a boatload of great stories about him.

Chris -- If you have a Spotify account, there's a great playlist on it called Music for Dogs. Is that the one you're using? Alexa/Echo Dot will play it if you just ask her to play Music for Dogs.

Oh, Amy, wow! At least you had gloves on. The little girl went back to the spot and tried to eat the dirt where the lizard had been, too. Haha Such glorious memories!

Faye, I'm using Through a Dog's Ear by Lisa Spector, which is free on Amazon Prime. A recent study says it doesn't work, but Sophia doesn't know that. She's still happiest when I'm right there while she sleeps, but the kong is enough distraction to get out the door before she cries.

She knows the alarm beep when a door opens already, so when we come home, she a-roos at us from her crate. All is forgiven by the time she's out, and you can tell all she did was nap.

Misty Mia Husky wrote:

>>OMG Faye, did I have to smile at your post about Storm. I KNOW it's not funny, but having had a Malamute, I can totally relate.<<

It IS funny, Jimmy.   Even the guy who got his tooth knocked out -- He and his family took it well, and insurance covered everything; so it just became another Storm story.  I'm laughing at your story about the peach tree.  Yeah, that's exactly what Storm did to the trees in our backyard!  And, yeah, I agree -- I don't think he was bored, because we played with him ALL the TIME.  I think he was just a very smart dog taking advantage of having a full acre of wooded yard and run of the house -- and having FUN with it.  In the grand scheme of things, it was only stuff -- and Storm mellowed out into a great dog, and we ended up with a boatload of great stories about him.

Chris -- If you have a Spotify account, there's a great playlist on it called Music for Dogs.  Is that the one you're using?  Alexa/Echo Dot will play it if you just ask her to play Music for Dogs.

I'm glad you said it was funny cuz I DID laugh out loud, LOL. At the time Pasha brought the peach tree in the house, I panicked! Not cuz of the tree, lol, but cuz the carpet was only a week old and my mom would FREAK if she saw it and all I kept thinking was I cant let Pasha get in trouble, LOLOL. Pasha was my comforter shredder as a youngster. All of them mine too. Some didn't even last a day, just brand new comforters reduced to what looked like it snowed in my room, haha. Like you said though, Pasha too grew up to be the most amazing dog I ever had. I miss him to this day! He lived to be 16 years old and I was so greatful my last huskies started their first two years of life with him. My favorite memory of him with them was when they'd be tearing through the house at 100 mph, lol, and he would be walking toward them and they'd come to a skidding halt right in front of him...he'd just lift his paw and put it on their forehead and like magic, they'd sit down. It was AMAZING to see.  

Anyways, it is really *just stuff* like a mother and father would do with a child, just try and make sure that stuff that is left at their level, is nothing that can harm them. That means if they are a wire/cord chewer, make sure it's not plugged in, get into the trash, find another place for it or take it out more often, things like that.