Hello my fellow husky-owners. I know i haven't posted here in forever, life has been so busy for us lately as I just picked up a 2nd job & starting back school again. Anyways. Our Shelby is now 9 months old, & we are still having some problems with her since we got her at 4 months. (maybe we suck at training? lol).

Problem #1: She still continues to whine & scratch at her cage all night when we leave her in there, I don't remember the last time we got a decent night of rest! & even though she has a ton of toys to play with she will still continue to chew up everything & pee & poop on the floor when we decide we want to leave her out of her cage at night because we don't want to deal with the whining. (this is probably our biggest issue right now)

Problem #2: When my guy & I leave her with his parents & go to work all day, she will NOT eat until one of us comes back & sits in the back room with her.

Problem #3: Still really skittish around my fiance's dad..She cringes whenever he tries petting her & blah blah.

HELP!

Where is her kennel at night? And how much exercise is she getting during the day before nightfall when she's crated? If she's being crated in another room, try moving the kennel into your room. And if she's being crated in your room- try moving it into a different room. I know some of my dogs are fine crated if it's in my room but will not shut up if it's in another room.

At 9 months old she most certainly can hold her bowls over night. Approximately what are the hours which she's crated? 10pm-7am? She's probably using the bathroom during the night in the house because she's wound up and getting into things rather then sleeping... Or perhaps there is food/water out all night? If she's not on a set feeding schedule I would change that as well...

As for your fiances dad... Honestly I would just tell him to ignore her. I have a foster here who is afraid of anyone/anything that's not familiar. So I just tell people to ignore him completely (IE don't try to pet or "reassure" him that "it's OK") and he will approach and come around on his own terms. When a dog is so skiddish and fearful the worst thing to do is force them to interact because it doesn't do anything other than stress them out more. If she decides to approach him he of course can praise her but in a gentle way where he isn't going to frighten her away. A slow and easy "good girl" is sufficient. There are other methods such as tossing treats to her periodically but it's just really going to depend on how skiddish and how stressed out she is around him.

Thank you for your response. We crate her in our room & we unfortunately can't move her cage anywhere else in the house because there isn't enough room. & because we pretty much work all the time & get home late at night she will be crated anywhere from 2-3am-11:30-12 in the afternoon. But we made a mistake by letting her sleep out of her crate after she got fixed & had her E-collar on & she got pretty comfortable with that & was pretty good for a while about getting us up in the morning to go potty, but she doesn't get us up anymore, she just goes when she feels like it. until recently i've been having to clean stuff up there almost every other day & it is getting old, I'd like to hire a dog-walker because she doesn't get out enough with both of us working all the time. We are really trying to make time to get her out but some days it is impossible. & her food & water dish is always downstairs separate from her crate. So since she won't eat when we are gone, she eats at night when we come home late, which isn't what we want. I tried re-introducing her to her cage again by getting her a few new toys & putting treats around the area & inside the crate but she still wants nothing to do with it..

I'm confused, when is she crated? Both at night and while you're gone? For most of the day, then?

If she doesn't wake you up to go pee/poo, you'll need to set an alarm to get up and let her out. You need to get her on a schedule - huskies love a routine. A dog walker while you're gone sounds like a great idea.

she's just crated at night. His parents take care of her during the day, they just aren't mobile enough to take her on walks