If your husky lays or sleeps by the door, you might be wondering why and what you can do about it.
In this post, I will show you a number of reasons why it might be doing it and what you can do to get it to stop.
So, why does my husky sleep by the door? Possible reasons are that it is being protective, it has separation anxiety or that it is being dominating.
There are many things to consider when trying to figure out why your husky might be doing it. Once you have a good idea of the cause, it will become easier for you to get it to stop.
Why your husky sleeps by the door
Each of the different reasons that your husky sleeps by the door will likely come with a number of clues in the way that it does it.
Below, I will show you a number of possible reasons that it might do it and what would make them more likely.
It’s being protective
The reason that it sleeps by the door might be that it is being protective. This would be more likely if it sleeps by the front door, it starts barking when people are at the door and it can be overly protective of you.
In this case, it would help to use positive reinforcement training to train it to sleep somewhere else.
It’s waiting for you
The reason that it sleeps by the door could be that it is waiting for you. This would be more likely if it sleeps by the front door when you are out and it doesn’t sleep there while you are at home. It would also be more likely if it sleeps outside your bedroom door when you are asleep.
If it does seem to do it because it is waiting for you, it could be a sign that it has separation anxiety. This is where it doesn’t like it when you leave and being left without you causes it to become anxious. This would be more likely if it tends to become anxious when you are leaving.
In this case, it would help if you can avoid leaving it alone for long periods and to periodically check up on it.
Also, it would be helpful to train it to be less anxious when you are leaving and while 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 exercise
Huskies are an active breed that is meant to get a lot of exercise on a daily basis. The reason that it sleeps by the door might be that it is waiting to get exercise. This would be more likely if it sleeps there before getting exercise and it does not after getting exercise.
Generally, huskies are meant to get an hour of exercise per day. If your husky is not getting that much exercise, it would help to make sure that it does.
It’s being dominating
The reason that it does it might be that it is being dominating. This would be more likely if it sleeps there in a way that prevents people from getting past.
In this case, it would be important to train it to sleep somewhere else and to give it lots of training in general so that it learns to listen to your command.
Things to consider
Below are some things to consider to help figure out why your husky does it.
When it started doing it
When trying to understand why your husky sleeps by the door, it would help to consider when it first started doing it since it could be that there was an event that made it start.
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 it does it
It would also help to consider the timing of when it sleeps by the door.
If it only sleeps there when you are away, it would make it more likely to be due to separation anxiety. Whereas, if it sleeps there before getting a walk it would be more likely that it wants exercise.
If it always sleeps by the door, it could be that it is being dominating or that it has formed into a habit that you need to change with training.
How to get your husky to stop laying by the door
Below are some options that you have when getting your husky to stop laying or sleeping by the door.
Use positive reinforcement training
Positive reinforcement training is where you train your husky to behave in a certain way by rewarding it when it behaves that way and not rewarding it when it does not.
To use positive reinforcement training to get your husky not to sleep by the door you would make it stop sleeping by the door when it does, get it to lay down where you want it to and reward it with a treat. You would then repeat the process whenever it lays down near the door.
I have written more about how you can teach your husky the “down” command in this post.
Avoid negative reinforcement
Negative reinforcement is where you reinforce bad behaviors by rewarding your husky when it displays them. It could be the case that you have been reinforcing it sleeping by the door by giving it things that it wants when it does it.
Instead of rewarding it, when it sleeps by the door, try to use positive reinforcement training to teach it to sleep somewhere else.
Make sure that it is getting enough exercise
As mentioned above, it is important to make sure that your husky is getting enough exercise. You can exercise it by walking it or getting a dog walker to do it for you.
A particularly good way to wear it out would be to train it to play fetch.