Our Sasha is now five and I'm struggling hard with the idea of leaving her uncrated. At first crating was a must, obviously. Then we started letting her out more but gated all over the place so she was basically never out of eye sight. Then we started trusting her more and more with the run of the house. She's known since she was a pup that the cats are in charge so she doesn't mess with them, and she's even gotten used to having two rabbits (in a huge playland cage I made) and not looking at them like they're lunch. They're just two more roommates. The only two places she's not allowed are the bathroom and the kitchen because a) trash can, b) cat dishes, c) fur everywhere and in our cooking. Other than those, the only naughty things she gets into is that she seems to have an affinity for used kleenexes in the trash cans. >.<

So nothing too disastrous like shoes, furniture, etc like when she was just a pup. But still, I'm terrified. She's normally a very good, very sweet dog. But, as with probably most huskies, she has ... uh ... mood swings. She accepts that we leave for work, shopping, family outings, etc and we put her in her crate. 99% of the time she doesn't even seem to mind. But that 1% - as soon as we leave she'll flip over her water and food dishes out of spite. I've seen her crate being bent around the door. I can never figure out exactly what the problem was - did she suddenly have to go potty while we were gone even though we let her out before we left? Is she just mad and being a spiteful brat this time?

Sooooo ... I struggle with trying to go away and not crate her at all. Part of me says she'll stare out the windows for an hour and then get in the wastebaskets, then go to sleep on the couch. Typical husky stuff - I could live with this. What I care about is coming home to a hole in the wall or a door she chewed through, a couple of dead rabbits and cats, my brand new sofa gutted, etc.

I have a friend who set up a video camera in the house, then left, drove around the block and parked, watched the video from her phone to see what her dog would be up to when she was gone. But she doesn't have rabbits or cats so other lives weren't at stake in the amount of time it would take her to get back home. That's the only thing I can see, that if it was me, would have me a bit worried. I was going to suggest to try leaving for short amounts of time, come home and see how she did. This is kind of a tough one though! She'd probably be really good! But then that one time of someone coming to the door and getting her riled up can change things. The cats I personally think, could take care of themselves, but the rabbits...not so much. Is there a way to move them to a room she has no access to?

I'm of mixed minds on this type of situation.
In my situation I have three dogs; one will normally go with me when I go to town (er, I'm retired so most of the time I'm at home) and it's not always the same dog, it depends on where I'm going.

Avalanche travels with me most often because he's a good traveler and enjoyable to travel with. When he stays home, he's on a long lead off the front porch. I live in a very remote area and have no concerns for his safety being left outside - of course he has shade and water available.

Sasha - she's finding herself more often in her crate when I leave her at home. She's not destructive but invariably she'll leave me a wet spot in the kitchen - so she's normally crated, she doesn't like it but she will tolerate it well.

Sky - regrettably this (not so) young girl is always into things if I leave her out at home. In fact she's gradually finding herself crated whenever she's in the house. She counter surfs and no amount of verbal correction seems to have any affect. After Sasha's left her puddle in the kitchen, Sky has decided that it's also fine for her to piddle there as well.

I also have two cats who can get in and out, so I'm not concerned about the dogs bothering them - they don't bother them anyway ...

In your case - as with two of mine - I think it's better, in the long run, to go ahead and crate her. You have too many things she can get into that she shouldn't; for her safety and your peace of mind crating her is the better option - IMHO.

What you might want to do is to get a cheap camera that you can position so that you can see what her problem is with crating. You said "as soon as we leave ..." foolish question, are you sure that it's a soon as you leave or just sometime while you're gone? If she's been crated with only a little exercise of has been crated for several hours (a work day?) she may just, upon occasion, want something to play with and the bowls are handy (and possibly the only things in her crate?)

Al - with Sky. Know that tune, we only let Z'ev out of crate highly supervised. I will say this, though (yea yea, I'm sort of hijacking the original thread)...an ecollar, even just used on a vibrate setting goes a lonnngg lonnngg way towards controlling counter surfing. Cured Ami, doing a very nice job with Z'ev (I left the back side of the house with him in the laundry room, he started to scratch at the door - at the very first scratch, zap, not a big one, just a little one, and he no longer scratches any doors!

As for the original thread - once burned, twice shy. My very first husky from way way long ago totally trashed our first apartment. ANd that was just the beginning. Every time we left the house, something was done in from the time she was a puppy the first night until she died an old lady. Either crates weren't invented then or we just didn't know about them Wish I had. We knew things were done in the first few minutes because one day, I left, got 5 minutes away, forgot my pocketbook, went back and all her usual trash etc was strewed around. She was sleeping on the couch by the time I got inside - maybe 5-10 minutes gone. SHe also one day, pee'd in our bed, I swear, purely out of spite!