Hi all,

My sibe seems to have got seperation anxiety quite suddenly after never having had it before. She will now howl and bark and stare at the window when I first leave.

I have walked outside and sat in my car listening and she tends to stop after about 5/10 minutes however I am scared because i once got a barking complaint from an unknown neighbour.

She is left downstairs witht he tv on, her kong filled any plenty of chews but i dont think this is a boredom issue, just more of an initial protest. She has started to be a bit better since Ive let her have all of downstairs and not just the kitchen / back garden as she can watch my leave at the window rather than throwing herself at the kitchen door.

Any suggestions?

forgot to mention that she is 10/11 months old and this has never happened before when left in the past!

the only thing i can think of it that over the last few months I have arranged things nearly every day of the week (monday - thurs) whereby she goes to doggy daycare, families / friends houses, whilst im at work. It may be that i have reversed the good work i did by getting her used to being on her own sometimes and made her not have to face her own company much?

I would guess it's because of the change, you switched up what she was used to so she is anxious whenever you leave again. What has been really helping my puppy handle separation has been crate training. You just have to make sure that you aren't making a big deal out of it when you leave and when you come home, so her anxiety doesn't get worse rom the excitement.

Does she like staying in a kennel? I would maybe start getting her used to it so she stays safe when you're gone since she is having tantrums.

My puppy has just turned 9 months and started doing this as well. From about 6 months and on, the days she didn't go to daycare we've left her in the hallway with two gates up. She would eat her bully and go to sleep, not a peep from her. Then, the other day for the first time she started testing the gates and got out. My worst nightmare yet she didn't destroy a single thing. My first thought was that she was just thirsty since we don't give her water while we are out and it was a hot day. So we put her water bowl in the area with her because it's typically in the kitchen and she still pushed the gates around to get out. Btw, she's not that strong. It's just that these are play pen panels just forming a barricade and can easily be moved but she's never tried moving them before. We have been taping her the past few days and noticed she will eat her bully which lasts about 30 minutes, then moves the panels and goes to the window (her favorite activity even when we are home) for about 2 minutes, gets down off the couch and howls for 3 minutes, and finally just falls asleep on her bed. Is this something to be concerned about or possibly a phase she will outgrow?

Currently, she's been left alone for 3 hours with this escape artist situation with no issues. Prior to this behavior, we've left her for up to 6.5 hours. She gets long walks before anytime we leave here so there isn't a change to exercise. I know right around 9 months is the start of being a teenager.

Well, I don't think it's seperation anxiety. To me it sounds like a normal husky growing up and realizing she can 'escape' from her gated area. I would suggest installing some more heavy duty gates if you need to keep her confined, or using a crate. I have our alcove gated off for Dizzy with normal height baby gates and he's only jumped it once, but I don't think he remembers, because he hasn't done it since. If he did start jumping it, I'd probably just have to start crating him again (we have cats), but as is, we leave him in the alcove with the gate locked. The other option would be to just keep it as is, it sounds like she doesn't get into too much trouble when you're gone, so maybe you can allow her some freedom, just make sure there is nothing she can get into that might be bad for her (cleaning products, medications, etc.), and remove ALL food from the counter, even if you think she'll have no interest in it, don't leave it to chance. I left my first husky loose at home one time and she did great, except she found a loaf of bread on the counter and ate the entire thing!

*edit - also keep the bathroom doors closed, huskies are notorious for loving to play with tp

Thanks for the reply. I didn't think this was separation anxiety but the howling was throwing me off. We actually have the other gate blocking the bedroom and bathroom doors because it's carpeted in that area but she's left that gate alone. I'm fine with her roaming but the island surfing I dislike so I may just move the one gate to the couch cushions near the island to block it off. Do huskies avoid jumping on furniture if there's something in the way?

It depends how determined she is to get up there, ha ha.