Skip to Content
My Happy Husky is an Amazon associate and earns a small commission for qualifying purchases. Not professional advice, education only. More info here.

Why Do Huskies Throw Tantrums? (Solved & Explained)

Huskies are full of personality. They’re weird, funny, and dramatic. But there’s one more word to describe them: TANTRUM. Huskies are pros at throwing big fits, and this article tells you why!

Your husky might be having a tantrum for many reasons. It could be because they’re bored, frustrated, or anxious. Maybe they’re not getting enough attention, or they’re scared. Or maybe you’re asking them to do something they don’t want to do.

What’s Considered a Husky Tantrum?

What does your husky tantrum look like?

In essence, tantrums are a way for your husky to display his discomfort with something happening to him or around him. Tantrums are essentially just another form of communication.

Classic signs of a tantrum:

  • Excessive howling
  • Whining and crying
  • Showing erratic behavior in general
  • Showing erratic behavior in response to anything you say
  • Completely ignoring your commands or you in general
  • Growling or even nipping at you
  • Destructive behavior
  • Aggressive behavior

Your husky may do something else, it will be interesting to know what that is. If your husky does something not on the list, please comment below!


myhappyhusky

Psst. A quick word on training! Brain Training For Dogs is one of the best training methods suitable for a husky. Other owners and I are seeing improvement in obedience, behavior, and stubbornness quicker than ever before. I seriously recommend checking it out.


Why Do Huskies Throw Tantrums?

Although tantrums can often be quite funny to watch they often stem from something to be taken seriously. And something that as responsible dog owners, we must deal with correctly.

Most tantrums that occur can be broken down into two categories, emotional tantrums, and physical tantrums. This makes it very easy to explain

Emotional tantrums

Your husky may be throwing a tantrum for a number of reasons such as boredom, frustration, anxiety, receiving a lack of attention, fearfulness, or perhaps you’re asking him to do something he doesn’t want to do (which is a training/obedience issue)

Huskies are considered to be the No.1 most attention-seeking breed there is. If your husky isn’t receiving enough of your dedicated time and attention, it’s very possible he’s acting out because of it. Some owners have even reported their husky completely ignoring them, when they get jealous or if their owner hasn’t shown them enough attention earlier that day!

Physical Tantrums

Tantrums can sometimes be caused due to physical reasons such as becoming hungry, not receiving their expected walk, they want to be let out in the yard to do their potty business, or even after having taken away their favorite toy (yep I’ve seen it happen!)

Tantrums can even be caused by pain. Your husky could have an underlying health issue that’s causing him pain and discomfort, leading to tantrums. It may not be the case, but it’s important for you to know it’s a possibility. Ruling out health issues is always something to do first.

Popular article: The Husky Labrador Mix! The Gorgeous LABSKY

Finding Out Why Your Husky Throws Tantrums

It’s likely your husky is throwing a tantrum because of one or maybe two reasons listed above, hopefully not all of them!

The best way to understand why it’s happening is to ask yourself the following question…

When does your husky usually throw a tantrum, and what events recently occurred, or are about to occur?

Noticing patterns that lead up to the tantrum will help you understand why it’s happening. Key points to think about:

  • Do the tantrums happen at the same time every day?
  • Do the tantrums happen at mealtime or just after?
  • In the mornings when you just wake up?
  • When you’re about to leave for work (putting on your jacket or shoes, picking up your keys)
  • Did you miss taking him out for his daily exercise?
  • Do the tantrums happen when a particular person comes to your house?
  • At the park when you interact with other dogs?

There are many triggers for tantrums, so it’s really important to take notes about when they happen and the possible reasons.

Identifying what causes your husky to throw tantrums in the first place will be the most direct way of stopping the tantrum. But it doesn’t stop there, I will explain another concept below.

Trending article: Is It OK To Pick The Runt In a Litter?

How to Stop Your Husky Throwing Tantrums

Like I just mentioned, knowing what’s causing the tantrums will help you directly solve the issue, sometimes even immediately.

However, some professional trainers and dog behavioral experts believe tantrums can be dealt with in other ways. That’s by learning to control frustration and emotion.

Hmm, I know what you’re thinking… “what!?”

Dogs have emotional tolerances, just like we do. High-stressful situations lead to undesirable outbursts, just like with us.

By frequently training your husky to develop his patience and obedience, you can usually limit tantrum-throwing altogether. And it goes without saying that all the other basics must be met (exercise, house training, diet, playtime, sleep, care & attention)

The Perfect Training Exercise to Increase Patience, Self-Control, and Obedience

One of the easiest and beginner-friendly training exercises that will start developing patience and self-control is the “sit and wait” game.

You have probably already done this a million times. But now’s the time to focus on it again, more seriously.

The “Sit and wait” game:

  1. Have your husky sit in front of you.
  2. Instruct your husky to “stay”.
  3. Take a step back and place a treat on the floor and tell him to “stay” again.
  4. Wait 5 seconds, Instruct him to “go!” and let him grab the treat.
  5. If done correctly, praise him HEAVILY.
  6. Repeat.

If he tries to move off before you say go, just start again. No reprimanding, shouting, or frustration from you. This is very counterproductive.

Ways to make the game harder once it becomes easy for him:

  • Limit the times you instruct him to “stay” until you don’t need to. Eventually, he will wait for you to give him the ok.
  • Move further away from him with the treat.
  • Increase the time you make him stay before you say “go!”
  • Make him stay in one room, walk to another room (pro level).

It’s critical that you give him a lot of praise and positivity after every time he gets it right. You can even reward him with another small bite-size treat. It’s important your husky finds the game fun, rewarding, and engaging.

Don’t make it too hard before he’s ready, you want him to succeed every time, and build up to harder levels.

The goal is to train your husky to become a master at waiting. This naturally increases his patience and obedience: Two extremely important factors that will affect everyday behavior in all situations. Simple, but powerful.

Of course, in some situations, a different approach will be needed. If your husky throws tantrums when you leave for work. Then being alone is likely the issue. This may suggest your husky has separation anxiety. This will need to be dealt with in different ways.

So as you can see, it comes back to knowing the initial cause. The training method outlined above will certainly help in many instances and I encourage everyone to do it, but you should never neglect the root cause.

Evidence that tantrums can be thrown for a range of reasons! Check out this video.

Thank you to the youtube channel for posting this interesting video. As you can see, this tantrum is simply to have their water bowl refilled.

At first, you think well, of course, there’s no water! But if you listen to the owner, you’ll eventually realize this is more to do with attitude, and would probably stop after a few weeks of patience training. Enjoy!

Summary

There are many more videos just like that on youtube to watch! When your husky throws a tantrum, it may be entertaining, and oftentimes even hilarious. But tantrums should be taken seriously and understood.

Although huskies are notoriously stubborn and have big characters, tantrums shouldn’t always be put down to having “sass” if you need to, a trip to your veterinarian would even be a sensible idea.

Most Recommended For Huskies 🐶

Best Brushes For Husky Shedding

These brushes when combined together will remove dead fur and maintain your husky’s coat better than doing anything else! These brushes are a simple Undercoat Rake and a Slicker Brush.

Best Online Training Program For Huskies

Brain Training For Dogs has become increasingly popular with Siberian Huskies in the last few years. It’s now recognized as perhaps the best way to train a husky in the most stress-free, positive way.

Best Husky Puppy Book

If you would like to support My Happy Husky directly and have an easy to read and entertaining guide for training your husky puppy, check out my book The Husky Puppy Handbook on Amazon. All purchases are greatly appreciated.

Disclaimer

The advice given in this article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice in any context. Before making any decisions that may affect the health and/or safety of your dog, you should always consult a trained veterinarian in your local area. For the FULL disclaimer Visit Here


Copyright Notice: The content produced and published on My Happy Husky is unique and original. My Happy Husky makes an active effort to search for plagiarized content using plagiarism detection software. If plagiarized content is found, action will be taken.

Protected by Copyscape

Highlight not available