Hi all! I just joined this forum because I just got my 9 week old white SIberian Husky last week (when she was 8 weeks). She has been great, and I've really enjoyed being a mommy, but there are some barking issues I feel i need to nip in the butt before they escalate any further. Luna has become very anxious and impatient as i prepare her food bowl, and instead of sitting quietly and waiting, she barks at me the entire time while in the kitchen! I tell her to sit to receive her food, and sometimes she still barks at me then at which point I wait until she is the most calm to give her her food. Never do I give her the food if she had just barked at me, yet she is still continuing this behavior. Even though she sits for the food, I can tell she is still extremely excited and don't feel as though she is listening to me or even paying attention to me for that matter. I would like to have a calm obedient dog that pays attention to ME and not the food in my hand . Does any one have any suggestions other than telling her to sit ? She also barks when she wants to be let in at the sliding door. I usually come to the door and wait for her to stop barking to let her in, but that has backfired on me because now she just barks nonstop until i come to the door, and then stops when she sees me so that she can get in! I'm obviously doing something wrong here, help please ! Any advice would be appreciated to train my pup to bark in moderation.

First off welcome! As most people here know, I'm a strong advocate for hand feeding puppies. Not only does it help with early food guarding, and taking things gently out of your hands, but it helps establish who has control of the food, you! You can pick up your hand whenever you please and eventually she will start to look to you for food and not at your hand. It won't happen overnight so patience is key. If she starts getting overzealous while eating and you feel teeth at any point, say ouch! and remove the food, stare her directly in the eyes and say in a low voice "no bite" and end the feeding session for about 10 mins or so. To this day if I say ouch to Kale while playing he immediately lets go and stares at me in the eye as if to say "omg im sry!" lol I hand fed Kale the first 4-5 months that I had him (got him at 5 weeks) and he is a gem with food. The cats can even walk by him and he could care less. Mealtime training is second hardest to crate training in my opinion. Kale was almost 5 months old when he finally looked me in my eyes and not just stared at the food when I gave him his release command lol

As for the barking to be let in, I'll let someone else weigh in. I've never had this problem since I had never left Kale alone in my backyard when he was young.

Luka used to go absolutely nuts when it was time for food... i would have to physically hold him down, say sit and then let him go - at which point he would charge his food... squealing barking, the whole lot... you've only had the little one a week, give it time, he is probably just nervous that 7 other puppies are going to run through the door and eat all his food - he will learn within a month that all that food is for him and then you'll have the problem of him eating half and walking away Just my 2 cents.

edit: probably won't even take a month, i'd say give him another 2 weeks, just carry on what your doing and he'll get it eventually! Luka will sit in front of his bowl now and i can leave the room to fill his water bowl, come back, and he'll still be sitting with all eyes on me.


as for the barking to be let in... how else would he let you know that he want to come inside - especially if you aren't watching him...

good luck with your pup!

I'm getting the sense that people don't typically let their puppies outside without supervision - whoops ! Maybe I will stop doing that. She seemed to be fine outside on her own playing with her toys and exploring so I just allowed her to do her own thing while I went inside for a bit. And if I do I won't think of her barking to get in as a bad thing since she IS just letting me know she wants inside. Thanks for that dose of common sense!

And for the barking while feeding ... I may try a mixture of the hand feeding in the morning ( when my roommates are sleeping ) and having her sit for her food for other feeding times . Hopefully she will catch on that she does not need to bark to get her food ! Thanks for the pointers - please offer more if anyone has any!

Opps, forgot to mention that she still needs to sit and wait even with hand-feeding

With our little guy now almost three months... I use to put my hand in his bowl while he was eating even putting my fingers I. His mouth while he was eating. Still occasionally do it to keep him calm. I also take away his bowl and give it back and he would patiently wait for it. Never heard the hand feeding but that sounds like a great idea.

As far as the sitting before food - eventually they do catch on but do it with everything. I do it with his water bowl, his treats, food, to go outside, when we play, etc etc. My thought if anything he learns obedience and stays calm.

+1 Raz

When you take the bowl away put something yummy in as a treat, that way they know when their bowl gets taken they get it back with something better inside I did that after the hand-feeding stage. I always stick my hands in his bowls, even to this day; taking kibble out putting kibble in, putting carrots in, maybe pumpkin, he licks my fingers when I do haha

Cali would get excited when I was making her bowl also, she's 4 y/o foster, and after just a couple days of working on her, she now goes to her room while I make the bowl up, and move it to her dining area..then she leaves her crate when I say. All I would do is look at her and say, " I am making dinner, where should you be? She'd look around, and I would say in a questioning voice...room? and then she got it the third day or so. Been peaceful ever since.

I love the idea of putting something in. Haha. Awesome!

I'm sure leaving him outside unsupervised is perfectly fine as long as your yard doesn't have any dangerous obstacles or ways for him to get out... my back yard at the moment is pretty good, well fenced and i let Luka out there sometimes, but he is still partially supervised by me (even if its from inside) to make sure he doesn't hurt himself.

Just an update...the hand feeding seems to have started working pretty well after the second day! I do it in the morning when I do not want to wake my roommates from her incessant barking, but i have made a game into it. I tell Luna to sit and stay, walk two steps back and call her to come (she refuses to come when called, I'm trying to teach her). When she comes to me, I ask her to sit once more and hand feed her a bit of the food. I continue telling her different things to do so that she doesn't know what to expect, and this has really helped calm her down at feeding time and pay attention to me, while helping her learn new commands at the same time! However, for her second feeding of the day I do not have as much time to hand feed her so I just feed her from the bowl like always. Hopefully I will be able to see an improvement in her behavior when bowl feeding soon! thanks for the help guys

Hey guys, I wanted to ask some advice on walking my girl Luna.I thought i'd just add it here rather than making another thread. I know she is still young, but whenever we are walking and she sees a person nearby, she plops and lays down on the ground in a scared and cautious way. I try to get her to stand up on her own, but she only does when the person either 1. Leaves/walks away, or 2. Greets her and she realizes that they are friendly . I try to stay calm so that she can see that people are nothing to be scared of and give a quick tug on the leash and let go, but nothing has worked yet. Any ideas to what might help? Thanks in advance !!

I know our little guy struggled with that at first he'd be timid and afraid but he's gotten better - and continues to do so. So maybe giving it some time.

Not sure how old Luna is - but our little guy is only 3 months old. Not sure if this helps you any.

Luna is only 2.5 months . What did you do when yours would be afraid? Stop and let him lay down or try to get him up again?

We would try to get him back up and tug a bit and after some tugging he'd eventually go. Even now sometimes he'll see somebody on their drive way for example and he'll sit on his butt and watch. I think more curious than anything. But we just give him a tug two or three times and tell him to come on. Tugging but letting him walk by himself.

It's easier when the person doesn't acknowledge him - when they do and want to come to him he'll approach them cautiously but in a playful way jumping back and fourth.

I use to think Aspen was just a wuss but I think it's common. Being cautious.

Hope that helps. Good luck!