Hello all,

New husky owner here. Before I get flamed for having an "uncrated" husky, allow me to explain: 10 months ago we adopted a husky who is now about 3 years old. I've always been a dog lover but only got into huskies recently when I read about that horrible story of those poor sled dogs up in BC, Canada last year.

I've always been drawn to creatures that are more difficult to manage, more headstrong. I respect animals that don't see why they should obey every direction without a treat. The more I learned and read about huskies, the more excited I got about adopting one. So after months and months of deliberating and discussing (we took the decision very seriously since there's zero chance I would ever give up a dog once bonded) we contacted our local husky rescue group and found our dog.

She's the most perfect thing ever and we fall more in love with her every day. Even when I'm swearing at her fur as I constantly pick it off of every article of clothing I own and every meal I make, for some reason I love her even more because of the the damn shedding. And even when she destroys some furniture or a couple DVD's, though I may be mad on the surface, I'm always secretly proud of her for doing it; for refusing to be bored and for curiously finding things to entertain herself and for not really caring that I might have been fond of some stupid piece of plastic.

But that brings me to the issue: when we leave her alone for even short periods of time, she will often destroy things. We've gone through the trial and error process of learning which things she will and won't go for, and at this point our living room/kitchen (which she is confined to during the day) looks pretty bare, with all of our belongings seeking refuge in the bedrooms.

Now I know the first thing someone will say is "She needs to be crate-trained!" But hear me out: my girlfriend and I work long hours right now, and she is alone for about 8.5-9 hrs during the day. We originally didn't anticipate this, but our jobs are requiring a lot of time right now. It isn't always the case, but will be for the forseeable future. That being said, I still think she's better off with two people who love her, then being homeless, so we're doing our best while feeling wracked with guilt. I'm not against crating her in general (and we do have a crate) but I think that's way too long to leave an animal confined. When we leave for short periods of time, we do occasionally put her in the crate. She hates it for anything longer than about 30 minutes, but she seems mentally okay with it for up to 2 hours. That's about the point where she really starts to freak and nonstop cry. When people are around she's totally fine though and often goes into her crate on her own. She's actually the calmest dog I've ever owned. Other husky owners are astounded when they meet her and ask what kind of training we've done. Though we did teach her the normal sit, stay, lie down, shake and roll-over stuff, which she loves to do for treats, I really can't take credit for her calm and patient demeanor.

The best solution in our opinion is to get another dog so they can keep eachother company (and because I want another husky!). We're hoping our landlord will bend on the whole "1 dog only" rule. But until that happens, could I get some opinions? Again, the issue is that she is alone for such a long time, and I don't feel comfortable leaving her confined to a crate for that long. Keep in mind that there's nothing left in the living room/kitchen that she can get into to hurt herself (we put locks on the fridge and cabinets). So what's the best thing to do? Giving her up isn't an option obviously. Right now I'm kind of inclined to just let her continue to rip up a pad of paper or a dvd case each day (she has the amazing ability to demolish the case without harming the discs) until we can re-adjust our schedules to be around for her more or get her a friend. Is this crazy? Am I totally wrong about not crating her for 8-9 hrs? Any thoughtful responses would be appreciated. Thanks all.

Chris

(PS None of this was something we didn't anticipate before we got her. In fact, we planned for her to do far more damage and decided we were okay with it and still went ahead with it, and neither of us regret it at all. Basically we're just wrestling with our own guilt that we can't give her the one thing she wants, which is to be near us.)

HI Chris!

Thanks for providing so much information It really helps when trying to give advice to know everything! Kudos!

Well, I'm going to start with some questions anyway, lol. You may have already thought of some of these, maybe not... but I'm going to ask anyway

1. How far do you work from your home? Is there anyway one of you could come back for lunches?

2. If you can't come back, do you have a neighbor or pet sitter in your area that could give her a break in the middle of the day?

3. What is her exercise routine like? Does she get morning exercise and exercise at night?

4. Are you in a house or an apartment complex? (Ie- would whining in the middle of the day bother neighbors?)

5. How much crate training have you done with her? What's in her crate with her when she's in there?

My opinions and advice will differ depending on the answers to those questions... but I will be honest in that I DO think the safest thing for her is to crate her. It's not just protecting your stuff, it's protecting her. If she has a tendency to destroy, at some point you WILL forget something lying about that she could choke on, cause a blockage, or poison her. It's just human. She could turn to drywall, chords, electronics, anything once she gets bored enough with your DVDs and other things. Crating protects her from that.

8.5-9 hours a day isn't ideal- I'm with you there, but if it's temporary, I think it's the safest option and honestly not that bad. John and I keep our threshold at 10 hours. We've done 12 but we don't like to. But 8.5-9 isn't horrible and I know plenty of people that happily and successfully crate for that long.

I think if someone (you or a sitter) can come in the middle of the day to give her a break, THAT would be ideal. Our pet sitter will do a 30-min visit for $15 and if we did it every day, I'm positive she'd give us a discount too.

You could also try daycare once or twice a week. Ours are usually exhausted for a day or two after a full day of daycare.

What I do NOT recommend is getting another husky right now. There are too many complications seen and unforeseen that could happen with a second husky. My thought process is ALWAYS iron out the kinks before you get a second. Never get a second husky to "solve" a problem (in this case, the destruction of your current husky). Chances are you'll end up with twice the destruction and twice the headache.

While I totally understand and appreciate the guilt you feel... you'd feel even worse if she killed herself or severely injured herself because you felt too guilty to crate her. What if she broke the CD while she was chewing on it and sliced an artery? Just because you've been lucky so far, doesn't mean you will continue to be so. My apologies if that sounds harsh, I don't mean it to be, but it honestly is the reality. I just would never take the chance that she ends up seriously hurting herself. I'd rather her be crated and solve the issue through exercise, training, or confinement.

Just my

I was/am in a similar situation as you in regards to adopting an adult husky (same age and almost same term of ownership!!) with some good behaviors and a sweet demeanor, but with seperation issues. If she's chewing up CDs and your furniture, you need to know (and you probably do know) that she could ingest those things and could easily end up with an obstruction. Clearing your counters and locking your fridge/cabinets is not the only thing you need to be worried about. Crating is really something you should look at as more positive than you locking her up for hours on end.....it's a safe place for her to be. For example, Niko found a coffee cup we had missed on the back of a counter and pulled it off, and dropped it on the floor. Shattered glass everywhere. Now, somehow both he and our lab managed to stay out of it, but we could have come home to VERY cut up paws and blood everywhere.

Look into getting a dog-walker. If you're gone that much, it will be good for her to get the exercise and get out to go potty. Look into doggy day-care for a day or 2 per week if you can. (I know this isn't always an option.....where we live neither of those things are readily available [daycare] or affordable [dog-walker]). We HAVE a second dog. Our husky is slightly better behaved with him there, but not enough to say that a 2nd dog is a solution. Something else to consider is that a 2nd dog could 'learn' the behavior you are tyring to extinguish right now, and you could potentially end up with TWO dogs with seperation issues.

Do you and your girlfriend work the same hours or do one of you go to workbefore the other and get home earlier so you could cut down on her time in a crate? Do you have a long enough lunch hour and live close enough to your place of employment that you could go home and let her out/take her for a walk?

Truthfully 8 hours (roughly) I believe is about the average for a dog to be crated. That is what most adults work schedule is. Having said that - I don't crate. I've had Bella since she was 10 weeks old - I got her acclimated to the crate enough to where she can be in it if need be and then put it away.

If you can get her to really enjoy her crate by giving her treats and toys in it (would take time) - there's no reason that you shouldn't reasonably be able to crate her for that long. Exercise and really tiring her out before she goes in will also help tremendously. A lack of exercise is also the number one reason why ANY dog is destructive.

Another thing you could do is look into having someone come over for an hour or two while you're at work to let her out of her crate and play with her or just let her roam around for a little bit.

I'm also a firm believer in "Anything bad that can happen, will happen". Crates are WONDERFUL tools used for protecting your dog. You (general) can say "There is nothing out that she can get into that could harm her" until the day that she gets into something or eats something you would have never thought .

I also think getting a 2nd dog for the sake of the first dog is a terrible idea and I do not advocate this for anyone readily.

But these are just my opinions.

gladahmae wrote:

I was/am in a similar situation as you in regards to adopting an adult husky (same age and almost same term of ownership!!) with some good behaviors and a sweet demeanor, but with seperation issues. If she's chewing up CDs and your furniture, you need to know (and you probably do know) that she could ingest those things and could easily end up with an obstruction. Clearing your counters and locking your fridge/cabinets is not the only thing you need to be worried about. Crating is really something you should look at as more positive than you locking her up for hours on end.....it's a safe place for her to be. For example, Niko found a coffee cup we had missed on the back of a counter and pulled it off, and dropped it on the floor. Shattered glass everywhere. Now, somehow both he and our lab managed to stay out of it, but we could have come home to VERY cut up paws and blood everywhere.

Look into getting a dog-walker. If you're gone that much, it will be good for her to get the exercise and get out to go potty. Look into doggy day-care for a day or 2 per week if you can. (I know this isn't always an option.....where we live neither of those things are readily available [daycare] or affordable [dog-walker]). We HAVE a second dog. Our husky is slightly better behaved with him there, but not enough to say that a 2nd dog is a solution. Something else to consider is that a 2nd dog could 'learn' the behavior you are tyring to extinguish right now, and you could potentially end up with TWO dogs with seperation issues.

Do you and your girlfriend work the same hours or do one of you go to workbefore the other and get home earlier so you could cut down on her time in a crate? Do you have a long enough lunch hour and live close enough to your place of employment that you could go home and let her out/take her for a walk?

Wow. You and I just seriously shared a brain!!

ETA: You too Ceara! We're all on the same page apparently!! LOL.

lol! All us Siberian owners share brains!

First off THANK YOU for such a good post and not missing or leaving out info for us to guess about
i hate crating BUT for the first 1-1.5yrs of adopting our then 1 and 6yr old husky we had to crate them because they were still adjusting to our routine and what their place in our home was. we were gone from 6-8hrs a day, i hated doing it with our one girl being older and her joints but we did test the waters a few times with being gone only an hr or so and coming home to something eaten when we THOUGHT we moved everything out of reach they still found it. i think what worked for us was routine, in the morning they get a walk and then breakfast and a treat and we leave, then we get home and they have dinner and then a walk, or a walk then dinner and a treat before bed. we go as far as only giving the one treat (bone) before we leave the house at any time, so they know that they get this one treat and we leave. they are really smart as you know. after that 1.5yrs we tested again with blocking them to just the down stairs and removing EVERYTHING and so far so good, again, if we forget to move something, say the newspapers, you bet we come home to them eaten!

so for you i would say not crating is ok if you don't care if your stuff gets eaten, but i would be worried if she is eating the plastic! i would try to get a walk in before you leave for work, and try a treat filled kong or other mental toy for her to have during the day, giant rawhide or bone. give her something to do during the day thats not eating your stuff! could you pay someone to come walk her mid day?


Edit: wow a lot got posted as i was typing....

Do you have a dog proof room or can you gate off a room that's dog proof? My first reaction, of course, is just to crate her. I've left mine in their crates for 8hrs on a regular basis when both my boyfriend and I were working. They would just sleep through the day and I'd take them to the dog park in the evening to run around like crazy.

In your case, I'd remove anything she can chew up (CD's, DVD's, trashcans that can be pushed over) and just leave plenty of choke proof toys out for her (nylabones, kongs...not things that can be ripped up and have a piece get stuck in her throat). Before you leave tire her out with a good run or a short training session (you can really wear out a dog by just training them something new). Give her a kong filled with kibble and peanut butter to make it harder to get out. That will give her something to do as you leave.

Work on teaching her that her toys are much better to chew on than DVD's or the couch.

Honestly the best thing to do with a new dog is not to just expect it to destroy thing and be just fine with it. You shouldn't set the dog up to fail like that, hence putting it in a crate or a dog proof room. If you never give them the chance to chew on things they shouldn't, eventually they will never learn to do it in the first place and you won't have a problem. If they do chew, go back to not giving them the chance to do it again until they learn that it's not something they should do. Same applies when you are potty training.

I hit submit, saw your rely, and just started laughing because we had said almost the same thing! I've learned SOOOO MUCH here in a month! It also helps that it's a lot of what others told me when I joined and asked for help with similar problems

gladahmae wrote:

I hit submit, saw your rely, and just started laughing because we had said almost the same thing! I've learned SOOOO MUCH here in a month! It also helps that it's a lot of what others told me when I joined and asked for help with similar problems

Great minds! LOL.

Yeah, I wrote all that before a reply had been made and then I hit send and there were already 6 replies before mine!

Have you tried leaving some toys hidden around that are OK for her to chew? Such as a few kongs or other bones with treats inside? Mine show no interest to plain kongs but really like when I stuff crap inside them and then "hide" them. Like on a chair or under the fridge door or in their empty food bowls. That may keep her occupied better (and safer) than whatever she can manage to get her paws on.

What sort of exercise are you doing in the morning? If you can manage to run or jog i'm sure that would help things a bit too. Regardless 9 hours is a long day and you won't be able to knock her out for the entire duration that you're gone... but some form of exercise in the AM would probably benefit a lot. If you're brave you can get a harness and go rollerblading. I do that with mine and they are nice and wiped out especially when they pull hard

Crating of course is always an option but working her from a max of 2 hours to 9 will take some time and a lot of dedication. I'm not saying that it isn't worth doing but it just may not be possible to incorporate that at this time.

Thanks for the replies so far. To reiterate, guilt is admittedly what's driving all of this. The second dog thing was just something I've heard so many husky owners with more experience than I say: "They're so much better with a second or third one." so I kind of took it at face value. But I definitely appreciate that it could be just double the trouble. Any time you get a dog it's something of a gamble.

Since a lot of you asked similar questions/made similar points, I'll respond to Tori's questions:

1. How far do you work from your home? Is there anyway one of you could come back for lunches? No chance. We both work further than 30 minutes from home.

2. If you can't come back, do you have a neighbor or pet sitter in your area that could give her a break in the middle of the day? Not in our area unfortunately.

3. What is her exercise routine like? Does she get morning exercise and exercise at night? We try to give her lots of hikes and runs 2x daily, with bigger adventures on weekends. She's worse when it's raining and our options become limited, but normally I'd say she gets a healthy husky dose of physical activity.

4. Are you in a house or an apartment complex? (Ie- would whining in the middle of the day bother neighbors?) Apartment unfortunately. Our landlord is upstairs, and yeah her whining all day would probably not be great, but maybe that's just the way it has to be.

5. How much crate training have you done with her? What's in her crate with her when she's in there? We've been working on her with it more and more as time goes on. She's got some terrible notches in the backs of her canine teeth and when we first got her she was fearful of outdoors and big open spaces and was often too on edge to even go to the bathroom on walks until she just couldn't stand it any longer. The vet said he thought those were signs that she was probably left in a crate for extremely long stretches of time. She loves to den and feels safe in small places, but at the same time, once she's constricted by the crate door closing (or sometimes even by a hug) she starts to whine and wants to leave. So it's a work in process, but I have a feeling whoever had her before us just left her in the thing all the time without easing her into the idea.

Unfortunately my girlfriend and I both work almost identical hours and we don't really have any reliable options for getting our dog relief during the day. The only daycare option nearby is insanely expensive and caters to guilty rich people instead of guilty middle class people like myself.

I'm kind of relieved to hear that a lot of people leave their huskies crated for a full work day. It's hard for me to come to terms with that, but maybe it's the best way. If so, let me ask a follow-up question that is probably common: what size crate should she have? The recomendation we got from vet/other husky people is a "large" size crate that is basically just big enough for her to stand up, lie down (but not stretch out) and turn around, so that's what we have. It's fine for an hour or so, but again, I would just feel so guilty not letting her stretch out all day like she loves to do. The guilt in me wants to go get her some giant metropolis-sized crate with a balcony, washer & dryer hookups and a walk-in closet. But seriously, would it be bad to just get her the "extra large" size crate designed for 100+ lb dogs so she could at least have a lot of room? She's just under 50 lbs.

The recommendation is roughly about a 36" crate described exactly like you said "enough for her to stand up, lie down and turn around". Most dogs in a crate with more room than that will eliminate in their crate and just go lay on another side of the crate. Dogs don't like to lay in their own waste so a bigger crate can regress house training sometimes with even one accident allowed in the crate.

If you live in an apartment you don't have any neighbors you talk to/do weekend get-togethers with/hang out with that you'd be willing to ask/trust to come play with her if you offered them a few dollars?

I really enjoy the "condo-crate" idea xD Made my day.

Oh and just to explain a little more about her chewing DVD cases. I was exaggerating a little bit. She actually isn't much of an "eater" and doesn't eat plastic. She prys them open, puts a few holes in them and discards it. We made plenty of new husky owner mistakes earlier on and learned to be way more careful, and frankly got lucky. She once got a whole tin of chocolates, brought it to the couch, opened it up and when we got home she was sitting on the mound of chocolates without having eaten one. Like I said, lucky. But we take that stuff very seriously.

So anyway, I'm not saying it's a GOOD thing that she finds things like DVD cases to puncture frequently, I'm just saying it's not like she's devouring the thing.

The other unfortunately thing is that her favorite thing to chew are those damn antlers. We have a whole herd of them, but then of course we can't leave her alone with them because they're all throat-shaped. And we've heard bad things about the other things she likes, pig ears, hooves, cooked bones, rawhide. So we don't give her any of that. She has no interest in any non-animal product toys at all. The kong with some peanut butter she enjoys, but that's done in under 5 minutes.

Try freezing the peanut butter in the kong and putting her food in it. You can also do yogurt frozen in them. Freezing them will make it last a bit longer.

Bella has an Elk Antler that's probably a foot or so long (the larger kind) and I'm pretty sure there is no way she could swallow that. But she also just likes to shred and chew things, not so much eat them.

What size antler are you giving her? A large or extra large elk antler shouldn't be a swallowing concern. I understand that they're expensive, but they are quite durable and much less scary than some of the other options.

Domingo wrote:

What size antler are you giving her? A large or extra large elk antler shouldn't be a swallowing concern. I understand that they're expensive, but they are quite durable and much less scary than some of the other options.

They are INSANELY durable lol. Bella is a chewer and she hasn't even made a dent in her antler.

Yeah, I leave my girls elk antlers with them if I'm not around. They are big and I doubt they could choke on them.

I use a 36" crate for dog shows, cause it's a good size for my girls and easy to move around. But at home I use 42" crates, so they can stretch out in them. Unless you're having issues with her potting in her crate, I don't think there's any reason not to get a big one. Mine usually end up sleeping together in the same one. It's cute! We just leave the crate doors open and have them out on our porch which is our dog proof room. My girls are 2yrs and 1.5yrs old and I still don't trust them in the house when no one's home. I doubt they would actually do anything, but I just don't chance it and it's easy since we have the porch.

SaraB wrote:

But at home I use 42" crates, so they can stretch out in them. Unless you're having issues with her potting in her crate, I don't think there's any reason not to get a big one.

My thoughts exactly. The "only room to sit, lay, and turn around" is for potty training purposes. Otherwise the larger the better, especially for a long duration.

Okay well maybe I'll think about getting her a bigger crate and keep working on the crate training. But see, I say that, and then I immediately think, "What if there's a fire? I'd rather her have some chance of escaping rather than being trapped." I think I may just be hopeless.

I know she'd definitely do way better with those antlers around too, so maybe I'll also see if I can find more of the big ones she can't choke on. It's tough to know how to be a good parent and give your dog the right things these days because every single dog treat/toy you try to look up, there's some group of people saying "WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T GIVE YOUR DOG THIS THING!"

Anyway, thanks to everyone who responded. It does help just to hear that others have gone through the same things.

Chris_C wrote:

Okay well maybe I'll think about getting her a bigger crate and keep working on the crate training. But see, I say that, and then I immediately think, "What if there's a fire? I'd rather her have some chance of escaping rather than being trapped." I think I may just be hopeless.

You are your own worst enemy...

I agree on getting the bigger crate. If there is no issue with potty training, I'm sure she'd be just content to be in her crate and chill with a big antler. Good luck!

We used to have a sticker to place on the window so that a firefighter would know there was a animal in the house. I had forgotten all about that! I should look for one again.

I just Googled "fireman dog sticker" and a few selections popped up.