I know I've been 'gone' for a few months.....lurking mostly since things have been quite busy here. As some of you may remember, we had some issues with destructive behavior when we got Niko. Crate training was mostly a bust, but kenneling him oudoors when we're not home has been great. I'm absolutely convinced that his original owners must have done that, or that he was an outside dog 90% of the time.

Here's the issue: between the time that my husband goes to work in the morning and when I get up (so, between 630am and about 8am) he gets into something and eats/destroys it every.single.day. For awhile it was the trash. We remedied that by putting a chair in front of it. However, at 230 this morning I was woke up by the sound of him pushing the chair out of the way to get into the trash. So, it's time for a baby lock there. BUT, he's also chewed up a few shoes (hasn't done that in the year+ we've had him) and the last 2 mornings he's chewed the corner off the couch pillows and pulled the stuffing out of them. Now, that's not tooooo horrible since the pillows don't really have a function other than to be in the way, but it seems that things are kind of escalating. Our routine hasn't changed. Our food hasn't changed. We are getting really fed up with going to be wondering what we'll have to clean up in the morning now, especially since we had about 6 months where it wasn't an issue!

Is he getting enough exercise during the day? Possibly take him for an extra long walk at night and see if that helps a little

Welcome back!

from reading your description, my main question is how much exercise he gets. A lot of dogs get destructive when they have pent up energy. Does your hubby walk him in the morning before leaving? if he is getting loads of exercise, maybe your husband can give him something to do in between the time he leaves and you get up. Like a full kong with frozen peanut butter or pumpkin. Something that will take him time to undo.
Tika started randomly grabbing clothes and shoes a few months ago. If there was a drawer or closet open, while we were at work she would go in them, and drag tons of clothes onto her bed. Now, before leaving for work every morning I make sure all drawers and closets are closed, and that she has her favourite toy to keep her distracted. with a few exceptions it has worked very well.

Hope this helps
~Kelly

Yeah, exercise isn't the greatest, and while I know that can be a contributing factor, I kind of feel like that's not the whole issue. When we first got him he had seperation anxiety, which is part of why crating wasn't great for us (and we worked at it for several months).....he ate out of one, and destroyed the other, and the anxiety was the cause of his original destructive behaviors, in my opinion. He doesn't chew up ANYTHING during the day when people are awake. He doesn't get into ANYTHING at night (except for last night) that I know of. It's always always always after my husband goes to work....sort of like he forgets that there are still 4 of us here, and my huband leaving is like him being abandoned in the house.

None of what you just wrote convinces me that it's not exercise.... so I'm not sure why you don't think that could be the issue?

How old is he now?

I would first off recommend you increase his exercise in the mornings. We run ours for about 30 mins every morning. You dont have to do anything drastic, but have him walked maybe right before bed or first thing in the morning to give him the chance to burn off the energy.
Then when your husband leaves he should be given something time consuming in order to distract him. We give kongs, but there are a few toys that you can shove kibble into and let them try to get it out.
This will use up some physical and mental energy, and he will be less likely to chew.

You can also put the baby lock on the garbage, and make sure that nothing is within reach. We have to do that every day, otherwise we are setting ourselves up for destruction or theiving.
Ripley went into a garbage bag the other day that I was getting ready to put out. She walked off with an ear of corn, I disciplined her to try and break the habit she has but I was more mad at myself for giving her the chance to get into it.

~Kelly

Exercise would be a big help but here's a simple trick we did. Years ago when I would leave 2 hours before my wife for work. I was leaving a light on when I left. We found out if I turned all the lights back off and the house was still dark the dog would just settle down and sleep at least til the sun came up.

Huskies need a large amount of exercise so if he isn't getting sufficient amounts of exercise I would say that is your #1 factor to why he is chewing things and getting into trouble at night. Although, anxiety could be helping with that. Maybe as Kelly stated, before your husband leaves in the morning he can play ball with him, give him a toy, distract him in some way and then right before he leaves bring him in the room with you? Then Niko will know that you are still there and he isn't being left alone

I can't offer anything as I'm totally new here and we just got Jeter last week. I can tell you that he crys when I leave and sits by the front door. Today was the first time I've been home and Kim left. Jeter went to the door and cried for a bit then came down with me as I did some work downstairs. From what I've read and the tiny bit I've seen i can only guess that you are right and that Niko wants attention. I know it sucks but can someone get up for a but for a few days to occupy him and get him into a new routine? We're just getting our own routines so hopefully I can speak from experience then. Thankfully Jeter likes his crate so we have that as a backup. I'm sure others will offer ideas as I'd love to see them as I hope the destruction ends for you and so I can keep learning!

Koda wrote:

None of what you just wrote convinces me that it's not exercise.... so I'm not sure why you don't think that could be the issue?

How old is he now?

I'm sure exercise is a contributing factor.....I just can't see how it's *the* factor. On the weekends, we don't have a problem 99% of the time.....which is also when my husband doesn't go to work.

He's somewhere between 2 and 3 we think. The shelter said he was 2.5 when we got him, but the vet laughed when he saw that on the paperwork and said no way.....he's 1.5 at the most. And that was a year ago.



Not sure why I can't get multi-quote to work, but yes Tika, we are going to be increasing exercise once the kids get back into school. That's in 2 weeks. It's almost impossible for me to wrangle 3 kids, including an infant, plus 2 dogs to go for a walk, and we work opposite shifts 4 days a week, which makes getting walks or runs in in the morning or at night a challenge as well. Baby locks in general are going to be installed since our youngest is on the verge of crawling, which should eliminate the garbage as a source of entertainment. We've tried the kongs, etc, and what usually happens is that our lab steals them.

Still sounds to me like an exercise issue, is he getting more exercise when your husband is at home on weekends?

You have your problem... he's not being stimulated. Exercise means a lot of things. It can mean physical exercise, but it can also be mental. When you are home on the weekends, he's being stimulated. His family is around and without realizing it, you're giving him plenty of "exercise" by being around him. Talking to him. Playing with him. Training him. Paying attention to him.

When you're doing your routine during the week, he feels left out. He doesn't have the same stimulation that he normally does. He doesn't "forget" that there's four other people upstairs. He is awake and he's not being entertained. Some people can't wake up and then go back to sleep. Some dogs are the same. I would wager a guess that if your husband didn't wake him up and let him out, feed him, etc, that Niko wouldn't be an issue either.

He's also still in that energetic age where he needs lots of stimulation. He's likely at the end of his teenage years. He's also a rescue... and rescues tend to "come out of their shells" at the 6 month mark. It's quite possible it took him about a year to come out of his shell. Every dog is different.

Either have your husband ignore the dogs when he wakes up, or have him walk, play, or exercise him somehow before he leaves and I think the problem will stop.

See? That's why I asked. The 'entertainment' value is something I didn't even CONSIDER. The wealth of knowlege here is fantastic.

I'll talk to my husband about not letting them out/feeding them in the morning, but I suspect that will just lead to a lot of woo woo woo-ing since Niko decides some mornings that 730 is when he MUST go outside, and then come back in and have a drink, and then go BACK outside. And he'll wake up the whole house if I don't do what he wants.

Why don't you shut them in the bedroom with you until you wake up? We shut the door a d have ours sleep in our room tonavoid waking up to surprises. When chris leaves he gives the dogs their antlers and shuts them back in the bedroom. They typically go back to sleep and all is well

mheath0429 wrote:

Why don't you shut them in the bedroom with you until you wake up? We shut the door a d have ours sleep in our room tonavoid waking up to surprises. When chris leaves he gives the dogs their antlers and shuts them back in the bedroom. They typically go back to sleep and all is well

That's also an excellent suggestion. When one of us wakes up super early, if the dogs want to get up, they do, but when the first person leaves, the dogs are shut back in the bedroom to avoid incidents.

Embry had horrible SA until he was a little over one. It instantly stopped after we got Zoey, and now we can even crate him and he's fine. Is your other dog with Niko when you leave?