Hi everyone, I'm new to the fourm and I could really do with some help/advice!

First off I have two huskies, the youngest is Rocky, he is 17 months old and very well behaved. & then I have Echo.. she is 3 years & 5 months old and she has always been reasonably well behaved until recently. It's come to the point where I am tearing my hair out and I cannot cope much longer. Basically my mum past away and I moved back home with my dad last july (the house she grew up in) to keep him company as we were all going through a horrible time. Up until january she was fine but recently she has started being incredibly naughty. I'll list the things as it will probably be easier to read and understand what she is like/the way she has been acting. It may not seem like much but it's making me, my boyfriend and my dad seriously stressed, and they've even said they 'hate' her. I honestly don't know how to fix this.

- She is constantly whining, e.g she whines for her food so we give it her but she won't eat it, because she wants something better, she wants our food
- She doesn't like being outside in the garden even with Rocky, but she has to have the back door kept open so she can go out, so as you can imagine we are constantly freezing
- She has become very naughty on walks, she even whines on them (she gets plenty of excersise)
- Rocky even starts growling at her when she whines, as if he's telling her off

Any help or if anyone wants to know anything else please ask. I am at my wits end, so any negative comments please keep them to yourself.

Have you had her checked out thoroughly by a vet recently? I don't really know for sure what is going on but I'd try taking her to get checked out if you havent already to see if something may be wrong she's trying to tell you about.

OR it could the recent changes of events. Sometimes that can be traumatic for a dog (esp huskies im told) when their whole living space changes.. perhaps she just needs to settle in where you are living some more?

This is mostly speculation..sorry I couldn't be more help :/

Welcome, first off I'm sorry about your mom....

Is Echo spayed? how long have you had her? maybe an incident happened during the moving process that upset her or her idea of the pack order?

Thank you both.

Echo has been checked by a vet and they can't find anything wrong with her, but it's not a whine like she's in pain, the majority of the time she will whine whilst wagon her tail and giving me the 'I'm being naughty and there's nothing you can do about it' eyes, lol.

Echo isn't spayed no, at the moment I can't afford it but I will get her spayed eventually. She has just come into heat now so has been howling alot, which I much prefer to the whining. I can't think of anything that would have happened other than my mum passing away but we had been living in our own house at the time and she was behaving there.

It seems like everyone I ask nobody knows the answer :-(

Disclaimer: I'm not a dog behaviorist. It might be a good idea to consult one.

Whining could be for any number of reasons. Common ones are: appeasement (if she's scared), stress/anxiety, or just seeking attention. It's important to note that her normal around the house whining might be for a different reason than whining when she wants something like food.

Since you already had her checked over for medical problems I'd start looking for other signs of stress. The problem is that they tend to be things dogs do so you're looking for them in excess or higher frequency than she used to do them before she started misbehaving. They include: excessive shedding, chewing on walls, pacing, scratching, and yawning. (See what I mean about them all being normal things? It can be hard to tell). Another good cue will be her posture when she's whining. Try to look at her tail, back, and ears. There's the obvious one where her back is curled, her tail is between her legs, and her ears are back and down; but there are other postures which could indicate other causes for the whining.

With regards to the food, make sure everyone's consistent about not giving her people food. If it really seems like a ploy for attention or demanding your food you might want to try some status reduction techniques like hand-feeding. Take her dinner and put it on the counter. Take a small handful and ask for a basic command (sit, down, touch, etc.). When she does it reward her by giving her the handful of food. Repeat for the whole meal. If she's only eating one meal a day you may only want to do it for half the food and give her the second half in the bowl for a behavior.

Walking... Define naughty. Whining might not be naughty so again, look for postures that might indicate why she's whining. If she's doing other typical naughty husky behaviors (pulling when she's not in her pulling harness, digging, eating things when you tell her to leave them, etc.) it might be good to take her to an obedience course. Even if she's already gone through one, repeating a course might be good for reminding her what the expectations are of her when she's on a walk.

With respect to the garden - I'm not sure I follow why the door has to be open. Does she have a way to signal you that she wants to go out? We bell trained Crispin so if we don't notice that he's at the door he can ring the bell and we'll come take him out. He also knocks when he wants to come back in (side note: he's generalized this and will knock on any closed door he wants to go through). Providing her some way of indicating she wants out/in might be helpful so that the door can be kept closed. Again, status reduction can be applied here by making her wait while you open the door until you give a release word.

Is Rocky aggressively growling? When he does, does the whining stop or get worse? More information about this could be helpful.

Something we've done for Crispin's barking is teaching him a quiet command. We hold our finger to our lips and shush him like a librarian in a TV commercial. He doesn't always calm down, but when he sees the hand signal or hears a shush he'll at least stop barking now. I can go over how we worked with him on this if you're interested in going this route.