Hello Everyone!

Newbie here...to this site and to owning an over energectic husky, Bandit! Am I ever glad I found this site! I LOVE it! I love looking at the different huskies you own. Beautiful dogs.

This is my first husky and let me say, he is definitely giving me a run for my money...literally. LOL. I'm not new to the high energy level as I have a Border Collie as well. From reading some of the posts, I'm assuming some of his little quirks is a "husky thing". LOL. Some are cute and some, well, not so much.

Will he ever outgrow the destructive behaviour? He has a million toys and do you think he will rip those apart? Absolutely not. The only thing he has not chewed on is the couch...knock on wood. I have tried crate training him but no such luck when I first got him at 6 weeks. He HATED it. Should I try this again? Any advice on crating him would be much appreciated.

Food, garbage and anything that is not his aggression. He gets nasty and has bit me a few times now. He is ok with his food but if he steals human food or gets into the garbage or even gets ahold of something he shouldn't have he gets so nasty. I'm thinking training might be good for this one. Anyone experience any of this or is it just him? He is pretty scary when he bares all teeth but I just show him that I am not afraid of him. Is that a bad thing by doing that?

Neutering...I have not done this yet. I keep hearing that a husky will not grow to their full potential and will stunt their growth if I do it before they are 1. Is there any truth to this? I would like to get him done but I don't want to do it just yet if it is true. Any takers on this?

I have millions of other questions but just want to keep it short as possible. A few days ago, I almost just gave up on him. But when it came down to it, I couldn't do it. I'm so attached to him and he has my heart. So, I turned to the internet for help and found this forum. I'm just going to put my all time, resources, and money into him. I seen too many husky's that are trying to be rehomed and I can't do that. He is mine and my responsibilty. Aside from all that, he is a great loveable, cuddly dog. I love my furry little monster!

I just need to get some help with the breed and training for him and training for me! LOL. Funny thing is...my brother has a husky, and NEVER had he done anything of sorts. He was perfect except for the fact that he is an escape artist. He found a loose board in the fence that my brother was not aware of but he was. Went gallavanting. Pound called my brother 5 times in a week and a half. Finally found out Dakota's secret. Smart little bugger. Anywho, yes, all dogs are not the same. They have their own little personalities.

Sorry for the super long post and if I posted in the wrong forum. I'm gonna keep reading the forums and get some more advice and any advice from you husky owners is greatly appreciated!

Thank You!

Bonnie

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This is my first husky and let me say, he is definitely giving me a run for my money...literally. LOL. I'm not new to the high energy level as I have a Border Collie as well. From reading some of the posts, I'm assuming some of his little quirks is a "husky thing". LOL. Some are cute and some, well, not so much

Welcome to the forum! Definitely a very different and independent breed but when you have them at the point they want them- amazing companions and friends for life! First question how old is he? Easier to answer questions when we know an age

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Will he ever outgrow the destructive behaviour? He has a million toys and do you think he will rip those apart? Absolutely not. The only thing he has not chewed on is the couch...knock on wood. I have tried crate training him but no such luck when I first got him at 6 weeks. He HATED it. Should I try this again? Any advice on crating him would be much appreciated.

My first question for this is how much exercise/mental stimulation is he getting? Alot of the time when a husky is exhibiting destructive behaviours it is because they are not getting enough exercise. Training is also a great way for mental stimulation and a 10-15 training session will help alot!

Crate training I would suggest crate training him if he is showing these behaviours so that he cannot hurt himself by chewing on the wrong things. Typically they do hate it but with time and consistency (lots of it) they can learn to love their crate. There are lots of threads on here about crate training and how to go about it It also helps with potty training your pup

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Food, garbage and anything that is not his aggression. He gets nasty and has bit me a few times now. He is ok with his food but if he steals human food or gets into the garbage or even gets ahold of something he shouldn't have he gets so nasty. I'm thinking training might be good for this one. Anyone experience any of this or is it just him? He is pretty scary when he bares all teeth but I just show him that I am not afraid of him. Is that a bad thing by doing that

I would personally start off training as it is beneficial for both you and the dog. This is called food guarding and if you google/youtube it there is many information sites and videos to help out. Cally showed food guarding tendencies and I started to give her a higher reward. So when your dog is chewing something bad- say.... a piece of bread from the garbage, offer him one of his bones with some peanut butter in it and then take away the bad stuff. Eventually your dog will learn that when he shares, he gets a better tastier treat. There are many different approaches to this but training would be my first recommendation.

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Neutering...I have not done this yet. I keep hearing that a husky will not grow to their full potential and will stunt their growth if I do it before they are 1. Is there any truth to this? I would like to get him done but I don't want to do it just yet if it is true. Any takers on this?

Not sure on this as I have a female, I'm sure someone else will chime in but I know a few people here have had their males neutered before a year...

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I have millions of other questions but just want to keep it short as possible. A few days ago, I almost just gave up on him. But when it came down to it, I couldn't do it. I'm so attached to him and he has my heart. So, I turned to the internet for help and found this forum. I'm just going to put my all time, resources, and money into him. I seen too many husky's that are trying to be rehomed and I can't do that. He is mine and my responsibilty. Aside from all that, he is a great loveable, cuddly dog. I love my furry little monster!

They are.... the most stubborn, hardheaded dog but when you have that training perfect and you put the time and effort into them, the end result is most definitely rewarding. Don't give up on him, hang in there and come to us for any questions! I'm not a professional but everyone here has great advice and opinions!! Welcome again and good luck with your pup!

Thank you for the response. I will definitely look into all of your advice.

Bandit is 8 months old. He does get a lot of exercise. I walk him for an hour before work and then after work I take him to the dog park for about 2 hours, every single day. On the weekends, the walks and dog park are longer.

I will definitely look into training. I spoke with someone at a training school and they have behavioural training for food aggression. They would like to see him and decide where he should start.

I do training with him here at home and it does only last about 15 minutes. He gets bored. He is very smart though. I also read on the forum about the Nothing Is For Free training. I started this 2 days ago and seems to be very effective. With that said he has been good since then. I don't expect him to be perfect all the time but some of the time would be nice. LOL.

I am for sure NOT giving up on him. I refuse to. He is my challenge and I will get this right. I love him to pieces. And you weren't kidding when you say that they are stubborn and hardheaded. And people think that I am stubborn, he takes the cake. LOL.

Thank you again.

Well sounds like you are doing everything right. Sometimes you just get a bad egg :p It also could be that he's reaching his "teenage" phase which is definitely one of the difficult times to get through. But kudos to you for sticking with him! For the training, even if you just do like 3 or 4 five minute sessions throughout the day if he's distracted easily. NILIF is definitely a good tool for training and I know it is strongly recommended on this site and used by many. I use it all the time, it should also help with his resource guarding a little bit

Welcome!

For the chewing there are a few threads, you can try spraying the couch spots with bitter apple spray, it tastes bad and discourages them. Please give crate training another shot, make the crate a calm place for him, you can start by leaving him in for a few minutes at a time, and when he goes in, give him a treat and close the door.
Work your way up to longer, but always make sure he gets a reward for going in calmly. Eventually he will see it as a safe spot. Try to never use it as punishment, that will make it so much harder on you if you have to crate him.
The garbage picking. Get one with a lid. If you have a lid, get a baby lock. If he cant get in it, he cant eat anything that would choke him or make him sick. I'm not a big fan or redirecting him with a treat if he steals from the garbage, I kind of see it like rewarding him for stealing, but to each their own.
I would make him drop whatever he had, take it away, and when he calms down then praise and give treats. That way he associates the reward with the action you want.
The nipping and biting you need to practice rewarding the good and not the bad. If he growls interrupt him, for us often a sharp Hey! and poke will do the trick to stop it, when he calms down, reward..If he is that possesive, interrupting him will make him stop for a second. Work on Leave It commands, or Drop It with a toy or treats and eventually you can transition this into the possesive garbage theft.

Welcome to husky teenage hood! Its a handful but please try to stick it out, its very much worth it

Lots of great advice. I love this forum. Husky teenage hood...Oh My...

As for the garbage, it is in cans. Never thought about baby locks. Although I do have them on the kitchen cupboards. He opened them one day while at work and chewed every last piece of plastic containers and bowls. How he did it is beyond me. They are too smart for their own good.

He is very possesive. I could accidently drop my hairbrush or anything and he snatches it right up. I do tell him to drop it or everything you reccommended but does not work. He hovers over it and growls like crazy. I do distract him with his toys. That somewhat works.

I am going to do what everyone is saying. Patience, patience, patience....

I have never experienced any of this with my other dogs. Completely crazy. I'm now up for the challenge. You all have highly motivated me! LOL.

Possessiveness you should be able to curve with NILIF training.

Is 6yrs old too late for NILIF training?

NILIF training

Search brought up only two results off the bat but there are loads of threads in the training forum dealing with NILIF.

You should be able to get the basics off it from those two posts.

Hand feeding will also help.

~Chris~

ETA - apparently linking directly to search results is a no no.... Fixed links.

Off with his nutz he doesn't need them any more.

Here4thePics wrote:

Off with his nutz he doesn't need them any more.

Here4thePics wrote:

Off with his nutz he doesn't need them any more.

lmao

I don't think you need to worry about stunting his growth by neutering. I got Hayden neutered at 4 month's and he's 26" tall & 70 lbs now.

Don't worry about stunting his growth. Neuter him.

Crate him - Appa still doesn't LIKE his crate, but he goes in it just fine and sleeps when we leave the house. He will NEVER walk into it on his own, but he knows it's just part of the routine of us leaving the house. Honestly, we didn't do the whole "build up" thing. He could no longer come to work with me, so he went in the crate. It took about a month before he didn't cry for 30 minutes every time he went in (i had a video camera set up so I could watch from work). Now my wife stays home every day so he only goes in a few times a week whenever we leave the house to go do something he can't come to.

Great advice has been given on the resource guarding. follow it.

This is just me, but your dog sounds over exercised to me. An hour a day walk plus 2 hours at the dog park a day would have KILLed our guy at that age. When he's over-tired he's worse than when he's under-exercised. I think of it as the little kid that stays up too late. Cranky, cries at the drop of a hat, nothing makes them happy, they don't WANT to sleep, but if you calm them down for 30 seconds they collapse and sleep. If we've been really active (hiking and playing and such) and Appa gets cranky or "off" I know he just needs to sleep. Sometimes I'll massage him until he relaxes, other times I put him in "time out" (not his crate) and within a few minutes he's out and wakes up a much happier dog. I'd be tempted to try lessening his exercise and see what behavior changes happen after a week or so of less exercise - but to each their own. Some believe these dogs are inexhaustible.

LOL...OK, off to get neutered then.

As for over exercising him, maybe that is possible but even just at home he is go, go, go. He never stops. LOL. After the dog park he does calm down and sleeps for awhile. And before work I just want to make sure that he gets outs since he is in all day. I'll try to lessen it and see what happens. And I hear ya with the crying/whining, Bandit never stops.

Thanks for all the great advice. I have been following it all and so far so good.