I know there's alot of threads on this already but I couldn't find one with the same problem I have. I have a 1 year old female Husky that I've had for about 3 weeks now and my biggest issue with her is that I'm bound to her eternally, or so it feels like atleast. She doesn't have separation anxiety from me, she could give a crap who I am or if it's Jim-Bob down the street, she just doesn't want to be alone. Doesn't matter who she's with, a person, another dog, a horse, (I wish my cat would get over himself and be her friend so maybe it will help) as long as she's with someone. It's so bad that when I use the bathroom, in the amount of time it takes for me to go in there and come back out ( what, 30-45 seconds maybe?) she's already whining and howling and either digging in her crate or running back and forth in the house. Right after we got her when my husband got up and left for work at 5:00 she didn't realize I was still in the bed and the first morning she howled and paced, running back and forth for over an hour before I finally got out of bed and told her to calm down. As soon as she realized she wasn't alone she was fine, even with me in the other room with the door shut. We left her in her crate once and she dug, howled, and bit the walls of the crate (bending them) for four hours straight. I didn't realize it was that bad until that day. The thing that absolutely blows my mind though is that I have left her in my truck for an equal amount of time and she curls up and goes to sleep. For the life of me I can't figure out why I can leave her in the truck literally all day and she's fine but I can't even walk into the other room without her losing it. I have done everything I know how. I took her on a very long walk (several miles), gave her a bone, left the tv on for noise, didn't make a big deal about leaving, was gone for maybe 20 mins and I could hear her howling from the street when I got back. So I came in and ignored her, didn't let her out of her crate until she was calm. I know everything says another dog won't help, but I almost feel like it would. I have left her at a horse show before tied to a horse's stall with another dog in sight and horses around and left for half an hour or longer and she was fine. She really doesn't care whether it's me or not, which makes me think if she had a friend she'd be okay. Any thoughts? Anyone ever had a similar problem? I really don't want to medicate her but I'm literally almost to the point of putting a service dog in training vest on her so I can just go to target and get shampoo. It's getting too warm to leave her in the truck and I have to move on with my life but I know it's cruel to just leave her and let her freak out and "oh well." Help?!

When my husky mix, Ilya, was just a couple months younger (she's approaching 9 months now), she had horrible separation anxiety. She would panic in her crate from the moment you left the house til the moment you returned it seemed. She would poo in her crate and be covered in it by the time you got home. We tried leaving her in the garage and she ate the door frame off the door to the house and nearly chewed a hole in the wall. AND, just like your dog, she was an angel in the car. I found myself taking her everywhere, which probably didn't alleviate the problem. One day we left her home and the little stinker somehow opened the garage door and was sitting on our couch when we walked in. She was calm. Nothing was destoyed. And to my amazement, she didn't even potty in the house. Now we just leave her out of her crate whenever we go somewhere and she does fine. I know thats a huge risk, especially for huskies. That was just our experience. Good luck with your pup!

I may come to the point where I risk it. She has defluffed our couch already once when we were outside on our patio and she was not. We also have let her sleep roaming the house and she defluffed it then also. However we had only had her for a few days so I may try again the longer we have her and the less stressed she is, the more comfortable and familiar with me and such. Thanks for the info!! Totally don't get why she can stay in the car. But we're in Georgia and it's already too hot to leave her. Maybe in the morning time or at night but during the day she'll roast. Hoping it's something that works itself out!!

This is the best short video I've watched for Separation Anxiety. Its short and direct - we've had to start from square one all over again with Nova. He has Separation Anxiety bad too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jgG8CEDefo8

You need to factor everything: What is her back story? Was she abused? Did she come from a family or rescue?

Very helpful video! When we first got her I thought it was a learned behavior and I ignored it, but as the days went by she didn't get better and I could see obvious signs of true anxiety. The pacing, panting, howling and the never calming even after hours. I don't notice any signs of abuse, but she was a PAWS puppy and we got her from the couple who adopted her from paws. We ended up with her because she and the wife didn't get along. I don't think the wife ever hit her, I believe the problem was the wife never set any boundaries for her and let her do what she wanted. So yes of course she bolted out of the door running away from her, chewed on all her shoes, and drug her on walks. Luckily she does well in her crate and goes in it on her own half the time, so maybe I just need to start leaving her for 1 min at a time and slowly increase it and just hope she does well with that.

Which PAWS is she from?

We're in Georgia. The armpit of Georgia, to be exact. Haha. I thought about going back to them and just asking about her, see if anyone remembers why she ended up there. Might be helpful to figure out what's going through her mind.

heather.jane19 wrote:

We're in Georgia. The armpit of Georgia, to be exact. Haha. I thought about going back to them and just asking about her, see if anyone remembers why she ended up there. Might be helpful to figure out what's going through her mind.

I would - just to make sure there isn't anything they aren't telling you.

Does she go to another room to play? Or is she your shadow?

We're working our our "stay." She's pretty good about just laying where she is when I'm walking around doing things. We're in a one bedroom apartment and the rest is all open, so "the other room" is only our bedroom or the bathroom. We're moving in a month or two, my husband is military, we will be getting a house with a yard and much more room for all of us. For a Husky she's actually very calm, content to sit and chew her bone or sleep. She gets bursts of energy and throws her toys for herself but other than that she's very chill. We go on walks every day, get out and sniff stuff. Lately she's been a little more of my shadow, but we're also working on our "come" and just trying to bond a little since I'm her new mommy. Everyone that has ever met her that knows anything about the breed has kind of scared me with saying that she won't ever come back if she gets loose, so I want to have that one down pat just in case she ever gets off the leash. I'd like to hope that I'm not making her separation anxiety worse by anything that I'm doing, but she also came to me with it so hopefully not?!

rachm408 wrote:

I found myself taking her everywhere, which probably didn't alleviate the problem. One day we left her home and the little stinker somehow opened the garage door and was sitting on our couch when we walked in. She was calm. Nothing was destoyed. And to my amazement, she didn't even potty in the house. Now we just leave her out of her crate whenever we go somewhere and she does fine. I know thats a huge risk, especially for huskies. That was just our experience. Good luck with your pup!

I know it's like 2 months later... But since I posted this Mila literally was going everywhere with me. If I couldn't take her then I wouldn't go. I couldn't leave her with my husband because every time I did she would have an accident in the house, even though he walked her and let her do whatever she wanted on that walk so the next time I walked her, the entire walk was dedicated to reminding her that she knows how to behave. So I quit leaving her with him and just took her everywhere with me, and as it is getting hotter here in Georgia I am super grateful for the remote start on my truck. I can set the air to max, and then remote start it while I just run into Target or somewhere for 10 mins and I don't worry because she has the air on. LOVE IT! But anyway, so yesterday my in-laws were in town (whippdee freakin doo ) and we had to go to dinner. Couldn't leave Mila in the truck so I took a huge risk and left her on our apartment balcony while we were gone. She eats out there, and usually will go out there by herself if I leave the door open. We were gone for two hours and I was just praying for the universe to throw me a bone and not come home to her covered in blood trying to kill herself out there. We got home and everything was just fine! No poop, pee, or vomit. She didn't scratch on the door or bust through the glass panes, she didn't chew the frame right off to get inside and she wasn't stressed either! It was amazing!! Wish I had tried it sooner! So I also decided to just go ahead and not make her sleep in her crate last night either. She didn't get on my couch (she's not allowed), she didn't chase the cat at 2 am and wake up the whole neighborhood, she came and got me at 7 when she had to go potty, and then she went right back to sleep when we came back in. It was awesome! Now I feel bad we've all been suffering, I should have just tried it a long time ago but I just didn't trust her. I probably wouldn't leave her inside for a long time just yet but for a little while she'd be okay. Ahh! I'm so excited, I just thought I would share.

I'm glad you found something that works for her! Did you ever find out from PAWS what her situation was?

I went to PAWS because she wasn't eating an I was going to ask what they fed her and if she ate it, and they said she never even hit their floor. She came out of quarantine and went straight to petsmart and got adopted, so nobody really knew anything about her and they only vaguely remembered her. So idk how or why she ended up there. My guess is either she ran off and got picked up by animal control, or somebody surrendered her because she is a handful and if you don't know how to handle dogs I can see how she would be a little terror in someone's house (hence how we got her).

One of the main reasons we got Salina was because of Demons separation anxiety. Ever since we did the only separation anxiety he has is when Salina leaves.