Hello,

Thanks in advance for reading this, it ran on longer than I expected

I have had a husky (Orion, who is on the left in my avatar) for about a year and a half now, and I recently decided to add one more to my pack. I found a husky on Craigslist. She (Rayna) is about 13 months old. The people I bought her from said she was housebroken and crate trained. They said they just didn't have enough time for her between work and school. The first week she was ok. We gave Rayna her own room with her food and crate in it (Orion has his own separate room). The first night, we put her in her crate and she was crying like crazy, so we brought her into our bed, and she slept the night perfectly. The next day my wife and I both go into work, so we just locked her in her room all day (not in her crate). The following night we try just putting her in her room, and all is fine, she cries for a very little bit, then sleeps the night. This continues for the next week or so. The only weird thing is that she will urinate on any blankets or on her bed when she is locked up.

Now, here is the change in behavior. Two nights ago, we put her in her room to go to sleep, but she is crying constantly. We go into the room to discover that she had chewed on molding around the door. So we bring her into our room to sleep, and she slept the whole night. The next day, me and my wife go out to lunch, and we put her in her room and we come home to see that she chewed her door moldings more, and somehow chewed off a piece of the windowsill which is behind a desk. No idea how she got to that, lol. We have IP cameras in both the dogs rooms so we can pull up the video and audio feed on our iPhones when we are away from home. We notice Rayna is constantly crying and pacing and standing then sitting the laying for hours when we aren't home. So after all of this we decide to crate her again. We put a couple of toys in her crate as well as her bed. We come home to see the bed complexly shredded, as well as her toys. We also see that she urinated in her crate (even though the owners said she is both housebroken and crate trained). I was always led to believe that dogs won't urinate where they sleep, so I found that very odd.

So then we decide just to leave a couple of toys in her crate while we were at work. We figure what's the worst that can happen, just a shredded toy or two? Well, I come home after work today, after her being alone for about 5 hours, and I find this:


So now, we have no idea what is going on. When we are home and she is out and about, she is fine. No accidents in the house, and her and Orion play perfectly. But now, she can't be left alone. It breaks my heart that she is crying for hours when we aren't there. This is all while Orion (who is about a 1.5 years old) sleeps the whole entire day, everyday.

I read up on dog separation anxiety, and the symptoms seem to fit it almost perfectly.
Anyone have any suggestions on what to do? Maybe she needs an owner that works from home so she won't have to be locked up? My wife and I are getting really frustrated and discouraged. We are questioning whether or not getting her was a mistake

Thanks guys and gals...

Aw, poor girl...My girl is only 4 months old and she is the same way when I leave her except she doesn't destroy things. I work from home so I am with her almost all the time so when I do happen to leave her she goes crazy and cries, howls and roams the houses back and forth to every door until I come back in! However, if she is well exercised before I leave then she will just lay down and sleep. It is definitely separation anxiety I keep going back and forth about getting another husky to keep her company.

Sounds to me that they didn't really know what crate training was. You can try a crate like a varikennel, its the airport kennels, they're enclosed and there's no removable bottom for her to chew. Definitely tire her out beforehand and leave kongs for her too. It also sounds like she wasn't crated at night. Since she sleeps fine with you guys, I don't think she sees the crate as her bed which is why she's OK with peeing in it. I would start crate training from the beginning, leaving her in there for a little bit at a time, feeding her in it, etc til she calms down.

It's possible they weren't being entirely honest. A lot of dogs don't act like their usual selves (for better or for worse) until they've had some time to get used to their new surroundings.

Ya, I am definitely going to try some frozen kongs. I just hope she grows out of this soon. With the exception of this, she is such a sweetheart. I will look into the varikennel.

This is just so different from Orion, os I am not used to it. He wasn't even close to being this bad as a pup.

Sometimes I will go into Orion's room in the morning to let him out, and he will just lift his head, look at me with his tired eyes, probably think to himself "does this guy seriously think I am getting up right now?", then goes back to sleep.

Thanks so far

Why not put the dogs together? I know that Cato goes berserk if he can't see Delilah when we aren't there. When he is crated in the same room she is, he relaxes.

I thought about that, but I feel like I would be disturbing Orion's routine. He seems very content by himself.

I agree with Megan you should crate them in the same room so they can see each other and give them frozen kongs. I would also tired them out as much as possible before I leave or before I put them down for the night. I know you Don't have to crate Orion but maybe if they were crate together in separated crates in the same room.they would be happy together..

There is always someone at home here so I pups don't have to be crated for very long but when we do we always crate them in the same room so they can see each other.

I agree with putting them together, why get 2 dogs and keep them apart unless ur home? I would crate them both in one room and see how it goes, do you not want them sleeping in your room? Huskies are pack dogs and love to near their humans. I understand she is new and I would not want a fight to happen while ur gone but having them crated together should be ok.

I'm with everyone else here. Try keeping them together in the same room. Since you can monitor them from your phone maybe put them together on a day when you don't have to work. Leave like you are really leaving and step outside for a few. Watch them from your phone but stay near by in case there is a problem. Then if they don't do well you can step in immediately. If they do well together then you have your answer!

You may need to crate train her. Does she go in her crate willingly? When she is in her crate, does she seem relaxed? You may also need to train her to be OK when you're not home.

Here's my experience:

When we adopted Ginger, she did not like her crate. She would absolutely refused and not want to go in. So we had to work on that slowly, give put treats in her crate. When she finally did go in to get her treats, she ran out as fast as she could. So the next step was to let her get her treat in her crate, and then make her sit in her crate for a while (door open). If she sat there, she would get a treat. So eventually she got used to going in her crate and sitting there (door open). Next step was to get her to be OK to sit there with the door closed. Then the next step after that was to have her in the crate with the door closed and then we'd leave the house (we were just outside). So we did this very slowly, over a period of 2-3 weeks until she was comfy with us leaving her in her crate up to 4 hours (no toy or kong) - she would be laying down when we got home.

Storm on the other hand was a different story. No matter what we tried, he simply did not like his crate door closed, or if it was, we had to be somewhere he could see us. However, he was perfectly fine while we were gone being outside the crate. Of course, this took a while for us to do also and we had a webcam that we could view on our phones. We would leave 15 minutes and watch, then 30 minutes, then an hour, then 2 hours.

It could be that you will need to take the time re-crate train Rayna. Suggestions on getting her tired out before leaving is also good. That may be as little as a walk around the block or as much as a 3-5 mile run. Expending her energy should help with the destruction. But if she does has separation anxiety, you will need to work on that slowly by leaving at small increments of time at first and building up.

With Storm, he shredded his bed in his crate and the blanket we threw over his crate to make it more 'den' like. When we started leaving him outside of his crate, we watched him pace in the beginning but by the time we worked through it so he was OK, it was several weeks.

Keep in mind, his nervousness did affect Ginger, so there was a period of time where it was difficult and we felt house-bound.

Thanks for all the suggestions...

We will try putting them in the same room and see what happens. I really appreciate all the answers and suggestions. We will also try the thing with getting her comfortable in her crate by giving her treats, as cmanding suggested.

Today, while I was at work and my wife was at her moms house, Rayna managed to escape from her crate twice. Now we will put keyring hook things around the latch to prevent that from happening. The little bit of time we were out, she didn't destroy anything, so thats a plus.

Thanks again!

UPDATE: After 2 days of putting Rayna in the crate in her room and then just putting Orion in the same room, there is massive improvement. She was alone for about 6 hours today while my wife and I were at work, and all the times we checked in on them via the camera (which, between the two of us, was quite often), they were both quiet and sleeping. They were up and crying for about 15 minutes (after being alone for about 5 hours) but they quickly laid back down and went to sleep.

I call this one 'Synchronized Sleeping'


Yesterday, however, they got into a fight over food. Rayna is a bit food aggressive (towards Orion, not us). Any idea on what the best course of action will be to alleviate that? Today I was having them both take turns eating out of my hand, and then I would tell Rayna to sit and stay while I put food on the floor for Orion to eat. It went good, just not sure if that'll be effective or not.

What would I do without you guys? lol

Thanks again!

Awww. My boys do that too, they'll lay exactly the same way in their crates (or even on the rug). It's almost like they discuss it. Or maybe Halligan just follows Kane's lead. Anyway, good luck to you, I'm glad the same room seems to be working out for you.

Glad the sleeping in the same room during the day is working for you guys..

The food problem I think you are doing thing right just keep it up hand feeding on at least the Rayna will help. consider feeding in the crates seems to help for us.. Blaze want nothing to do with kerian when she gets aggressive about food he would just as soon be alone in his crate.