Why does my husky lean on me?

If your husky keeps leaning on you, this post will show you a number of reasons why it might be doing it and what you can do about it.

So, why does my husky lean on me? Possible reasons are that it has separation anxiety, it wants attention, it makes it feel safer or that it does it to spread its scent.

There are actually many reasons why your husky might do it and there are a number of things that you can consider to help figure out the cause.

Why your husky leans on you

Each of the different reasons that your husky leans on you will likely come with some clues in the way that it does it.

Below, I will mention a number of reasons why your husky might be doing it and what would make them more likely.

It is being protective

The reason that it leans on you could be that it is being protective. This would be more likely if it tends to lean on you when other people or animals are around and if it tends to be overly protective around them.

Related: Why does my husky lay on me?

Dominance

One way that dogs would assert their dominance over each other in the wild would be to mount other dogs in the pack. If your husky is trying to assert its dominance over you then it might be doing this by leaning on you and positioning itself to be in higher positions than you.

This is something that you’ll need to prevent from happening so that your husky continues to see you as its leader. This will help to make it easier to control.

Security

Huskies were bred to work alongside their owners and the other members of their pack for hours on a daily basis. The reason that your husky leans on you could be that it makes it feel more secure.

Related: Why does my husky sleep by the door?

Separation anxiety

The reason that it leans on you might be that it has some separation anxiety. This would be more likely if it tends to do it more when you are about to leave and if it becomes anxious when you are leaving.

In this case, it would help to avoid leaving it alone for long periods and to periodically check up on it if you can.

Also, it would help to train it to be less anxious when you are leaving and when you are away.

To do this you could do as follows:

• Make it seem like you are about to leave by doing something such as picking up your keys
• Reward your husky for not being anxious and repeat these two steps a few times
• Make more moves towards actually leaving such as by picking up the keys and putting your hand on the door handle
• Reward your husky for not being anxious and repeat the process a few times
• Actually open the door and go outside for a few moments then come back and reward your husky
• Repeat the above, each time staying outside for slightly longer

It wants attention

It could be the case that it does it because it is looking for attention from you. This would be more likely to be the reason if it does it more when you have not been giving it much attention and you tend to give it a lot of attention when it leans on you.

To spread its scent

The reason that it leans on you might be that it is trying to spread its scent so that other animals know not to approach you.

Things to consider

Below are some things that you can consider to help figure out why your husky has been leaning on you.

When it started leaning on you

It would help to consider when your husky first started doing it since it might be the case that there was an event that caused it to start doing it.

Some things to consider would be:

• If you moved home
• If someone else moved away
• If its schedule changed
• If you started working different hours

When and where it leans on you

It would also help to consider the timing and location of when it leans on you.

If you notice that it does it more shortly before you leave home, it would make it more likely that it does it because it has some separation anxiety. Whereas, if it does it more when you have not been giving it much attention then it would be more likely that it is looking for attention from you.

How to get your husky to stop leaning on you

If you want to get your husky to stop leaning on you, there are a number of options that you have that get mentioned below.

Ignore it

One option that you have would be to get if off you, leave and avoid giving it attention. By doing so you will be able to teach it that leaning on you does not allow it to get attention.

Avoid negative reinforcement training

In addition to avoiding reinforcing the behavior with attention it would also help to avoid rewarding it in other ways. Instead, try to train it to sit or stand somewhere else, to recognize when it is about to lean on you and to redirect its focus to sitting in that spot.

I have written more about how you can teach your husky the down command here.

Give it attention

It would also help to give it attention throughout the day so that it does not feel the need to get attention from you. Ways to give it attention would be to exercise it, train it and to play with it.

Train it not to

You can also train your husky not to lean on you by teaching it to sit somewhere else. You can do this by teaching it to sit or to lay down somewhere and then by gradually teaching it to stay there over longer and longer time periods.

You can do this by applying the same techniques as in the video below: