Hey everyone! We are bringing our husky pup home in 10 days and want to crate train him. He'll be just shy of 11 weeks when we bring him home. Most people in this thread seem to order 42" crates. I obviously don't know exactly how big Bear will end up. His dad is pretty decent size and his mom is small. Since he's a male I'll assume he'll take after the dad a bit more. I did read where one person mentioned their husky grew out of the XL crate and they had to move into an XXL. Should I go ahead and get an XXL with a divider or will an XL (42") be sufficient? Thanks!

I have three dogs (and two crates) My Alaskan Husky male is quite a bit bigger than my two female Sibes and even he will fit in a 36" crate with no problem.
I'm glad you're reading - cutting down on the amount of space he has to spare will help cut down on him dedicating part of the crate to potty and part to sleeping.

You'll probably get other answers to this as well so I'll go continue fixing supper and let others have their chance.

You gonna tell us anything about yourself and your furless puppies as well??

aljones wrote:

I have three dogs (and two crates)  My Alaskan Husky male is quite a bit bigger than my two female Sibes and even he will fit in a 36" crate with no problem.  
I'm glad you're reading - cutting down on the amount of space he has to spare will help cut down on him dedicating part of the crate to potty and part to sleeping.

You'll probably get other answers to this as well so I'll go continue fixing supper and let others have their chance.

You gonna tell us anything about yourself and your furless puppies as well??

I just posted that "Introducing Bear" thread. Thanks for the info. Maybe a 42" will be a better but I'll see if anyone thinks otherwise!

How big was the dad? My boy is way out of standard at near 70 pounds and 27 inches tall at the shoulders. He fits just fine in a 42 inch crate. Most Huskies won't outgrow a 42. There are a few really poorly bred dogs that get crazy sized but you can usually spot them by horribly out of standard parents. If the mom is normal sized and the dad isn't crazy sized then you should be fine with the 42 inch crate and a divider.

TwisterII wrote:

How big was the dad? My boy is way out of standard at near 70 pounds and 27 inches tall at the shoulders. He fits just fine in a 42 inch crate. Most Huskies won't outgrow a 42. There are a few really poorly bred dogs that get crazy sized but you can usually spot them by horribly out of standard parents. If the mom is normal sized and the dad isn't crazy sized then you should be fine with the 42 inch crate and a divider.

I don't have measurements on the parents, only this photo. I can measure them and get better photos when I go back on the 3rd to get Bear. I would say dad is good size and mom is small, but then again I'm a husky newb.

There is really no way to ever know for sure, you're really going to just have to take a chance. As has been said, the vast majority should fit fine in a 42" crate. I have a 36" and 42", and my boy fits in both although I much prefer to use the roomier 42".

Melanie, I presume you want to get a crate before you bring your pup home. Rather than wait until you pick Bear up to get measurements, why not just ask the breeder for the parents' measurements beforehand? The breeder should already know how big their dogs are and if not, it only takes a few seconds to get them. This way you can have everything set up and ready in advance.

Huskyluv wrote:

There is really no way to ever know for sure, you're really going to just have to take a chance. As has been said, the vast majority should fit fine in a 42" crate. I have a 36" and 42", and my boy fits in both although I much prefer to use the roomier 42".

Melanie, I presume you want to get a crate before you bring your pup home. Rather than wait until you pick Bear up to get measurements, why not just ask the breeder for the parents' measurements beforehand? The breeder should already know how big their dogs are and if not, it only takes a few seconds to get them. This way you can have everything set up and ready in advance.

I thought I'd posted on this thread again with an update but I guess I didn't?? I hemmed and hawed over what size to get him and finally decided to just go with the Midwest Life Stages 48". I know the 42" would have probably been fine, but if he ends up a big boy like his dad is, I want him to have plenty of room. Worse comes to worse I can leave the partition in part way, but I really doubt I'll have to. Thank you for the feedback.

So, Luna is pooping in the crate when I am at work. She has occasional accidents while I am home, but they are infrequent, and usually pee.
She is having diarrhea, which I have started giving her pumpkin mixed with her dry food.
I think she is having stress poops in the crate, but she doesn't avoid the poop, she ends up covered in it, and its is all over the crate as she scratches at the crate trying to get out.
She has had 5 baths in 9 days due to poop accidents.
I had her in a wire 36" crate with the divider in the middle, but I switched her into her smaller plastic travel crate. She seems to do better, and calm easier in the travel crate, but not sure how long she will fit in there.
I have been sleeping downstairs with her in the living room, and she does well overnight. So the accidents really are only when I leave her.
I don't have an option to have someone come take her out while I am at work, so do you guys have any other ideas to keep her from having the poop accidents in the crate?

Thanks all! I know it will take time, but I don't want her to think that it is okay to have these accidents.

If you can't let her out (when you're gone), you can use extra-large potty pads, since she was probably paper trained by the breeder. In a large crate, you can give her a pet bed (if she won't destroy it) and a potty pad beside it.

11-week-old Sophia dislikes her own poop so much, she will cover it with the potty pad on the rare occasion she uses it. But she is only left alone for an hour or less while I run with Grant, and I think she has the routine down because she's calm now when I return, and sleepy, like she just woke up. She also sleeps through the night, then goes potty outside in the morning. (I was getting up at 5am for potty breaks just last week.)

You can run with her outside until she poops once or twice before you leave her in the crate. Also, no food for an hour or two before you leave her. I do think stress poops can be reduced by playing music (Sophia prefers Mozart this week) and providing soft light, similar to nighttime. I also think the Adaptil helps with separation anxiety. Some experts say you can give her a short bully stick in the crate, but an indestructible chew toy is safer for longer periods, just depends on the puppy. She needs to chew, though.

This too shall pass! They grow up fast.

An aside regarding potty pads: Since babies wear diapers for the convenience of the parent, we use potty pads for our own convenience, because we want to leave a puppy alone (unnatural as that is) and we don't want to clean up a poopy puppy. What isn't ok (to me) is expecting perfection and punishing potty "accidents". Potty pads are a kind way to say, "I expect you to take care of yourself as well as you can while I'm gone" instead of trapping a baby in a cage without options for taking care of herself.

Right now I'm working on being out of sight without Sophia calling for me, as she's quite Velcro. Grant was quiet, but I never left him alone for any period of time as a puppy. Not sure if it's nature or nurture at work here. She is getting less yippy.

Hello all! I recently got a husky pup, after doing some research, I got her 2 weeks ago at 6 weeks old and she is doing very Well! Potty training is going as smooth as it can I suppose, no accidents at night or in her crate..
But I do need help!
I did not research enough on crate training and I pulled the whole "get the puppy on Friday, crate her on Monday upon going to work" mistake... big mistake.. She does not get crated at night and she sleeps with me in bed, no accidents in my room, the past 5 nights now, but she will still pee in the house during the day while we are home (I'm working with her on it). However I work early in the morning, at 4am.. so we wake up at 2am, go outside, she eats while I shower, we go for another walk and do not come inside until she goes number 1 and 2, then we typically relax for 10 minutes before I need to crate her.. when that happens, she begins to be frantic.. nonstop whining and howling, I live with my brother and his girlfriend in a two story townhome, with neighbors just on one side of us and I'm not sure how they've been so patient these last 2 weeks.. my pup doesn't destroy anything in her crate or eliminate in there, she's usually only in there for 3-4 hours at a time (one of them let her outside or I come home for lunch break) I don't think it's separation anxiety because she does fine when I'm not there but other people are, I just didn't properly introduce her to the crate.. She will go in her crate on her own thru the day to check for food (I feed her in there) or to grab some toys out, but she won't stay in there, to nap or otherwise.. I'm worried because I NEED to have her crated when no one is home or for the period of time im at work and my roommates are sleeping upstairs, and I don't have the time to slowly ease her into it, we work on crate training and positive associations on my days off, but when I go back to work , I have no choice.. I'm considering taking a week off work to help desensitize her and work with her on training, as it's not fair for my pup, roommates, or neighbors, to keep her howling for 3 hours at a time.. any advice on this would be great, especially for people who work early shifts or have similar issues.. thanks in advance! By the way, yes, she has a bed, safe toys, one of my old tee shirts, and a small fan that blows slightly in there (she likes the white noise) I do not feed or water her atleast 30-45 min prior to her going in and not after we have been outside..