Hey All!
(Warning...this is long...If you don't want to read the whole thing, scroll down, the main question will be all the way at the bottom!)
My fiance and I bought a husky puppy as our "big kid jobs" slash "college graduation" present to ourselves. We researched the living kittens out of dog breeds for four years and finally decided that a husky would be the right fit. We love that our new little guy, Sneaks, is as content to rip the limbs off his toys as he is to cuddle up in our laps in front of an episode of Killer Karaoke. His training is coming along beautifully and he is bonding wonderfully to us. He also loves his kitten sister, Cortana (ah, boys and their video games). Thank god! Cortana was probably my biggest fear, but I think since she is a relatively calm little cat and Sneaks has known her since he was a 12-week-old puppy, he doesn't know that he's genetically determined to want to kill her. Tehe. Hopefully that stays the same. The problem I am running in to though is with leaving him home alone. He isn't home for more than four hours by himself, but in that time, he manages to tear anything he can get his proportionately-too-large paws on. He is crate trained, but I am trying to step up from that now that he is nearly 8 months old. Maybe it's too soon, I don't really know, but I would really like to get to the point where I can trust him to be home. He is VERY well exercised, he goes on a 3-5 mile run twice a day, plays with toys and humans in our 2 acre back yard for probably 3 or 4 hours a day, and has time to run independently in our yard. I have tried baby-gating him in puppy-proofed areas of the house (he jumps the gate), giving him a kong filled with everything from little dog snacks to frozen peanut butter (he gets bored and moves on), crating him (his howling is starting to disturb the neighbors), leaving him outside (he digs), everything. We have an 8' fence with escape prevention mesh all the way to 3' below ground level, but we live in a climate where, in the summer, leaving him outside wouldn't be an option. I just don't know how to help him.

In short, what do you all do to keep your huskies occupied when they're home alone?

Thanks!

You can try stacking two baby gates in the doorway, one on top of the other.

Do you leave a tv or radio on? If there's any way you can mimic household sounds while you're not there, it might help. Especially if he's not too dependent where he needs to know where you are at all times. Then he might be fine with just believing you're in the kitchen or something because that's where the noise is coming from.

Did you wean him off the crate training gradually? Like, leave him alone for 5 minutes then come back inside? If you can find anyway to be outside and watch him inside without him seeing you, you could gauge his behavior. You can go back in the house when he plays with his toys or lays down. Anytime he stays out of trouble. If he starts causing trouble, don't go inside, and don't punish him. Just wait for him to get bored and go back to an "approved" behavior. That way he associates doing good things with you coming home. If you were to try this same method and go inside when he starts acting up, he would associate causing trouble with getting your attention. If that makes sense.

Also, because if he's really getting into something troublesome, you can try this method indoors too. Hide in a closet or something but don't let him know where you are. Your fiance can help here. You can act like you're leaving and go hide in the bedroom closet. After a few minutes, your fiance can block him in the bedroom and then leave the house. This works if you can see him from where you're hiding. If he starts trouble, you can toss a paper ball, squirt him with water, shake a can with coins, anything to interrupt the behavior but he CANT know you're there.

I weaned him gradually, but it seems like right about the 3 hour mark, he gets too bored to function. If I come home after 2 hours 55 minutes, the house is fine. If I come home after 3 hours and 2 minutes, there are piles of pillow fluffing and bits of clothing everywhere. Ha. Maybe I should try watching him after three hours and see when he stops being destructive. Thank you! I will definitely leave some noise on for him tomorrow and see how that goes!

I second stacking baby gates. I'm going to have to do this once Lucian gets bigger. I have two cats that have free roam of the house. One he chases all the time, and the other who stands her ground, and will smack him one. So the double baby gate method will work for keeping him in the kitchen, and hopefully keeping the cat out of the kitchen. The one cat will jump right over one gate. So I want to be sure I don't come home to a dead cat when he's older.

We kept them crated till after 2yrs old, and then we weaned them out of the crates and husky proofed everything. at 8 months old go back to the crate, safer for him and your house and your kitten.

I've never crated either of my dogs... as puppies or adults. I have very, very well trained dogs though and would never suggest someone do the same unless they were very diligent with training and exercise like I was. Mine never have had an interest in destroying carpets, furniture, or cords like a lot of dogs I've heard of... haha.

I keep mine crated during the day and he doesn't make a peep. He loves his crate, in fact around 10-11 pm every night when we are sitting on the couch, he will leave us and go to the crate for bedtime on his own. Our guy also hasn't had any interest in destroy stuff that doesn't belong to him, however we haven't tested it outside of being home alone for a few hrs when he accidentally escaped a crate that was partially locked. I think he would do just fine on his own but I'm not willing to test that theory until he's older

I say go with crating, it will definitely be safer for everyone and everything until he's older.

Sneaks went to the vet for unrelated issues (a check-up because he contracted Parvo when he was little) and we asked about this. Turns out, it's separation anxiety. So he'll be having some noise left for him, his new little thunder shirt on, and lots of treats when momma and daddy leave. Hopefully that'll do the trick. I really don't want to put him on tranquilizers unless he really needs them. Has anyone else dealt with this tranquilizer-free?

Ours have a run outside which is fantastic, they can run around to their hearts content and then curl up under the tree or sit in their kennel (garden shed)

we have a "dog room." we use the spare bedroom for my girls. they have their giant kennel with blankets in there to sleep on. and tons of toys and bones. we used to crate them, but tthey would howl non stop. we were too scared to let them roam freely, so we puppy proofed the spare room for them lol. its worked out great and the neighbors hasnt said a word of them making noise since lol.

i assume they keep themselves occupied together haha. the toys and bones being backup.

Our girl hated the crate since day one. We have tried letting her have free roam of house, however she likes to poop on the livingroom floor. She doesnt destroy anything but I rather not have our home stink and a mess to clean everytime I get home. She now has a 10 x 10 kennel out back complete with a roof. In there is a dog house for her to keep warm. She stays outside when were not home. Im hoping to put a doggy door off the garage and put her kennel up against it so she can come and go as she pleases and I dont want her freezing when it gets too cold.

Mine are all crated because honestly, I'd rather have my house looking nice, then giving them full run. Embry even though he's 3.5 is still crated. He had terrible SA as a puppy and ruined our first apartment, now that he has 2 siblings his SA is gone and I know he'd be fine if I left him out, but I don't know how Zoey and Ares would react, and I don't trust them yet

Outside in kennel about 20X25ft. Fully insulated doghouse big enough for both Adobo & Biko with room to spare. Even when I feel its real cold out there it often is a chore trying to get Adobo to come in the house. 20F doesn't faze her a bit, Biko willingly comes in thinking there must be food coming or he would stay outside also.

Here4thePics wrote:

Outside in kennel about 20X25ft. Fully insulated doghouse big enough for both Adobo & Biko with room to spare. Even when I feel its real cold out there it often is a chore trying to get Adobo to come in the house. 20F doesn't faze her a bit, Biko willingly comes in thinking there must be food coming or he would stay outside also.

Thats awesome. I want to get the expansion panels for nira so I can make more room for her with a platform and den.