Ok, so this is my first post on this forum and I have to say that I'm in love with the forum! Everyone is so kind and helpful! So here's my problem,

My fiancé and I have two purebred male huskies. Atticus is 10months and Kronos is 4 months. They're beautiful and incredibly friendly dogs. A little background about them, we got Atticus when he was 12 weeks and Kronos when he was 10 weeks old. Atticus was potty trained in 2 days but Kronos was a nightmare to potty train!!! He made a mess everywhere during the process. Peeing and pooping constantly! We knew how to crate train him by only giving him a little bit of space but he just wasn't understanding! However, we didnt give up and now he is potty trained besides peeing every once in a great while in his crate.

But, the main problem we have with them is their whining, screaming, and howling!! Mostly, they do this when we have company over at our house. Not only is it embarrassing that our huskies are mom stop whining very loudly but they don't listen when we try to discipline them. They're inside our house in the crates when company is over. What should we do? We've tried everything! They whine constantly when we have friends over and it's gotten to the point where I don't want friends to come over because its awkward
Help!!! any suggestions welcomed!!

Are you leaving them crated the whole time you have guests?

Have you practiced having guests come over to work on getting the appropriate response you desire?

Just curious about your goals so we can help with a solution.

If I'm reading your post right..you keep them in crates when company comes over??

I could and would never do that. You would only be adding fuel to the fire IMO. If my girls get a little too riled up, then they are separated by a baby gate. I live in a one bedroom apartment, so they can obviously still see us. I tell them "SH!" and I give them a treat when they are quiet. Once they have settled down enough, I let them out again. My girls know that no means no, so all I have to utter is an "AH AH!" if one of them, Sheba especially, starts to get jumpy and nippy. She stops right away and then I call her over to me and give her a treat.

This is something you need to train just like everything else. Put them on a leash first and work on having your friends or whatever come over and give them treats for being quiet. If they don't have a quiet command maybe start working on that.

When I mean business, my girls know it. In the beginning I had to keep one or both of them on a leash and give them a quick "AH AH" and then treat them for calmness.

How do they act when YOU come home??

Fully agree with Kelsey, and also part of having a well behaved dog is training humans who you interact with. Prep them in advance to your goal for your dogs and make sure they are consistent with what you are trying to teach them and HOW you want to go about them doing so.

Well, they're well behaved in their crates when its just us at home. Since we recently got our youngest puppy, the two of them are still getting used to eachother. It's utter chaos when they're out of their crates together. Kronos jumps and nips all over poor Atticus who just wants to be left alone. When Kronos bugs him too much, Atticus gets a little aggressive to try and get his point across which makes me nervous so I end up seperating them entirely. Therefore we tend to keep them in their crates the majority of the time so when they're let out to play in the house they're very hyper and hard to control. We want to start house training them so they can both be out together and just lounge around with us. Atticus, the older one would love to lay on our couch calmly and watch tv with us before Kronos was part of our family. Now, if we let Atticus out but not Kronos in order to avoid the chaos, Kronos gets very jealous and howls in his crate so we end up keeping them both crated...

And no, we haven't practiced this with our guests. We just try and tell them no when they begin to howl. Sometimes it works but most of the time they insist on howling until they tire themselves out.

Ok so it sounds like a problem you're dealing with is both of them having an enormous amount of pent up energy. You will probably never get them to behave calmly at a level 2/10 if they are starting out at an 8/10 already and have no outlets.

How do you exercise them and drain their energy? Could you strategically time this prior to your guests arriving? If you put an excited, high energy, stimulated, pent up puppy in a crate they are gonna stay that way or escalate higher. Same with new excitements like guests arriving.

Okay well the first thing I think you should do is let the dogs work things out themselves. If you keep separating them you will only help to build up the tension between them. Dogs work things out..like dogs. Part of puppy hood is learning manners from older dogs. If your puppy is never given the opportunity to learn that he is being a rude, obnoxious puppy, then it will become a ticking time bomb. Maybe not with your other pup, but if you bring him to a dog park for example and he does that to an older dog, he will be put in his place and it will be hard. Dogs learn from other dogs, and you are taking that away from them. They will never learn to get along if you keep separating them when they have a disagreement. I know it is scary, and your puppy will probably cry bloody murder, but you HAVE to give them a chance to work things out.

The more you keep them in their crates when they are home, the more crazy they will get. You've noted this yourself. They sound like the are under stimulated and under exercised quiet honestly. How much exercise do your pups get?? Your 10 month will need a lot more exercise then your younger one. Also how much MENTAL exercise are they getting??? Like training session wise? How much time daily do you devote to their training??

If you keep saying "NO" to them but they continue with whatever they were doing before, eventually they are going to be conditioned to the point where "no" is just another word that comes out of your mouth.

Right on Kelsey.

I know it's frustrating but they're winning and you need to take control starting with energy drainage in appropriate ways and providing guidance to exactly how you expect them to behave. "No" without knowing what "Yes" is going to result in failure.

in order to drain their energy we try and walk them nightly at least 1-3 miles. That does tire them out and they love it as well. They love being outside! The only problem with syncing the exercise when company comes over is simply the timing. I work part time and go to school full time while my fiancé works 12hr shifts on the ambulance so we exercise them when time allows.
I think tonight I will attempt to let them both play in the living room with me. I would like to start doing this more and more each day so we can eliminate crate time all together except at bedtime! What should I do if they start fighting?



By the way, Thank you so much guys! This seems very helpful and I cant wait to implement it!

People on here are happy to help

What do you mean by fight? Huskies play viscously rough together.

Well, when Kronos bugs Atticus too much then Atticus will get real rough with the little guy and even try to grab his neck. Freaks me out! A couple of times I think Atticus has grabbed Kronos too hard because he yelped out in what seemed like pain. I saw blood on Atticus' nose once after they got done playing. It was just a very tiny drop, but still. As their mommy it made me nervous. I just want to be able to relax while they play instead of fearing how vicious they're truly being with eachother because I do see teeth and hear the occasional growl.,

You should search "rough play" on here......it will put you at ease. There's videos too. Also search "intervene" for a recent thread.

Great! Thank you!

They both definitely need more then one walk a day. Your 4 month old should only be gettin about 20 minutes of structured exercise--meaning a walk. I walk my girls 3-4 a day, everyday. Definitely step up the exercise for both, but be mindful your 4 month old can't and SHOULDN'T keep up with your 10 month old.

There is a HUGE difference between dogs just having a spat and actually fighting. 9 times out of 10, it's more noise and looks then anything. When they actually fight, you will know it. The atmosphere changes and they get this look on their eyes and you know it's on. Even if you here a yelp, DON'T do anything. If you here a yelp just watch over them and their body language. It's kind of difficult to explain over a forum. But seriously, 9 out of 10 times it's nothing.

Ill definetely start bumping up their exercise! That does being up another problem for myself though. I've tried walking them together by myself and its a mess since they still don't get along 24/7. They quarrel and the leashes get tangled. Any help for walking them by myself? They're great when my fiancé and I walk them together because he walks Atticus and I walk Kronos and they do good side by side.

I'm glad that their rough housing is normal! That puts me at ease. I'm going to let them at together tonight when I'm home with them and I'll post back on here to let you guys know how it goes! Fingers crossed

I don't have any experience walking two Huskies, but I wonder if them not getting along is just them being Husky puppies wanting to play. If you're not allowing them outlets for their playfulness and bringing too much negativity and tension to them with "No's" and your stress, it's just gonna get worse.

Sounds like you could reconfigure your ratio of yes : no with them. Puppies do better with more positives than negative. They definitely need structure and boundaries firmly in place, but overall they should have more opportunities for your approval and that can only come from your guidance.

I had issues with not being able to walk Kay and Maya together for about 6 months i think. I can now walk them together with minor issues, they're fine unless they see another dog then i have to keep all three separate and not let one hit into another. I have no one to help me so i just walked them separately until they got along better, then i walked them together.

Rhia and I walk our puppies together and they do fine but we always let them rip each other to shreds first so it's not that difficult

But again, calmness is the product of prior exertion.

I have a 14 month old male husky Balon and a 11 week old male husky Loki (add in a near 2 year old female lab Ruby lol). Mine get rough too and I did worry about the pup at first. When the pup gets sassy Balon will put him on the ground! Like if he tries to take Balon's nylabone. The pup appears to be a bit dominant as well so I expect they will sort this out by themselves, I only intervene if I feel the pup could be injured. A little yelp doesn't make me necessarily worry, but I certainly keep an eye on them. So far it's more Balon holding onto Alpha lol. He is "teaching pup Loki". The lab is so submissive she just wants to play with both of them lol.

I always think its a good idea to "watch" the action. But huskys do play rough for sure!

Thank you Jeff .

I have to walk both my girls separately right now too. I hate it. I have to walk both of them at least 30 minutes each time. Today it is sleeting/raining/snowing. But that doesn't mean I can just not walk them. It has to be done, that's really all there is to it. It sucks, I know. But if you can't control one dog, you definitely cannot control two; and you definitely are not training them to walk nicely on a leash either. I understand you are busy, we all are. But you gotta do what you gotta do.

I don't know if you over looked what I said, but you really can't walk your 4 month old as far as your 10 month old. You are putting way too much strain on his young joints. That is why walking them together just won't work. With young puppies there is this general "rule"..5 minutes plus their age in months. Your pup is 4 months, that's how I got the 20 minutes for a walk. When Sheba was younger, I thought I was doing the right thing by walking her the same amount/distance as I was walking Kennedy. I meant well, but I was doing a horrible disservice to my dog. They are puppies. They will keep walking with you even if their little legs are screaming to stop. That is why I'm really advocating against walking them together.

Like Jeff was saying; if you are stressed and freaking out while walking them, they will pick up on it and start to act stressed. They don't know why you are stressed, so that makes them even MORE stressed. You have to be cool, calm, and in charge. I'm not talking "Alpha" here. I am talking you are their fearless leader and they know they can count on you to protect them. Yanking on their leashes and screaming bloody murder at them to "STOP!" is not going to help anything (not saying you are doing this, just giving an example).

With Sheba, if I even have an OUNCE of self doubt or anxiety, she picks it up like a radar and just flips out. She is a VERY scared and reactive dog. After walking her and Kennedy together for almost her whole life, I have to walk them separate or she just gets SOOO worked up and out of her head. It's a sacrifice I have and I am willing to make for the betterment of my dogs.

Nobody said it was going to be easy .

Teaching them to be calm is not like teaching them Sit or Down or Leave it. Calmness is a state of mind and it's much more complicated to achieve. It's not going to come from commands or spontaneously.

It can be done though with practice and consistency and confident leadership and guidance.

Balonsmom: that's funny because my little one tries to be dominant as well. Glad to hear I'm not alone with this!

Sheba..: I think I forgot to distinguish between their length of exercise. My fiancé walks Atticus for about 3 miles while I do half or less than half of that with the little one. The little guy will actually tell me when he's tired. We go in circles around our block which is not very big. (4laps=1mile) and when we reach our front yard he either runs past it to keep going or he will go and lay down and that's his way of saying "ok mom I'm done" but thank you for telling me that they don't need the same amount of exercise until the little guy is older. When I'm home alone with them I have been walking them separately but while I'm out with one I can hear the other one inside the house howling in jealousy. But like you said, you gotta do what you gotta do.
I'm going to let them play tonight to cheer them up and allow myself to work on being calm.

Thanks again everyone!

This I learned on another forum and verified it with our own Siberians:
Q: You know how you can tell Huskies are playing, not fighting?
A: There is less blood.

OK, it might freak you out a bit, but as we have seen with ours, they play rough. We have a 3 month old pup and several adult dogs, When an adult is fed up with those needle-sharp teeth, they wrinkle up the flews and show ALL their teeth. Sometimes they put teeth on the pup, and only once in hundreds of interactions have we heard a Ki-yi-yiii because one guy was a little too hard on the pup. And then one of the Aunties got in his face because he was too hard. Every young animal learns by playing, Grabbing and shaking is imitating the kill shake. When they get tired they may lie on their backs and do some "jaw fencing"

Heck, if I was shut away whenever new and exciting people came over, I too would holler. Enlist some friends for role-playing. Have them come in and you train the dogs how to behave around new people.

I appreciate walking them separately because they can pull your arm off. Kinda what they are designed to do. We settled on Gentle Leader chest harnesses - the leash clips in front of the chest and if they lunge it pulls them to the side. This allows one person to walk two Huskies. It does not take more than a few hundred tries (Siberians are a teensy bit headstrong) before they learn they cannot pull so hard. I would never recommend a head halter for Siberians. Our Avalanche would occasionally run to the end of the leash and have her head whipped around, very hard on the neck. Train them to "on by!" or "leave it!" which means ignore the wonderful blowing leaf or tasty cat and just keep walking.

Sounds great! We also use harnesses. I love the ones we use so thats not a problem. They both do really well on walks when they are separated so i think we will continue it that way
We do need to start practicing better human interaction with them and it sounds like role-playing will be the best way to go. All of our friends have dogs, so when they come over they do understand and are polite about it so i think they will be willing to role-play with us. ill tell my fiance to set it up ASAP!

Here are some pictures of my baby boys, finally!

Kronos (born Nov. 22, 2012)












Atticus (born June 16, 2012)











He loves laying like this a llllll the time! ^ too funny!