Why is my husky so stubborn?

If your Siberian husky is stubborn you might want to know why and what you can do about it.

This post will show you a number of reasons why your husky might be being stubborn and what you can do about it.

So, why is my husky so stubborn? Possible reasons are that you have not trained it to follow your command, you trained it the wrong way, you stopped training it, your husky learned that listening to you results in it getting things it does not want, illness or a lack of exercise.

There are actually many reasons why your husky could be being stubborn and it could be a combination of multiple factors. However, there are also a number of things you can consider when trying to figure out why your husky has been being stubborn. Once you have a good idea of the cause it will become easier for you to get it to stop.

Why your husky is so stubborn

The different reasons why your husky is stubborn will likely come with some clues in the way that it does it.

Below are a number of reasons why your Siberian husky might be so stubborn and what would make them more likely.

It hasn’t been trained to listen to you

The reason why it is stubborn might be that you have not trained it enough. If you have not given your husky much training it will not know how it is meant to behave. In this case, it would be important to start training it to behave the way you want by starting with the basics and following the tips mentioned below.

You have been training it when it’s distracted

If you have been giving it training, it might be the case that there is an issue with the training method you are using. If you tend to train it in a distracting environment it might be the case that there are too many distractions around and that it isn’t paying much attention to you.

Instead, it would help to start out by training it in a less distracting environment such as the backyard and then to build up to training it in one with distractions.

You stopped training it

If you did give it training in the past, it might be the case that it has become stubborn because you stopped giving it training and it got back into the wrong habits. If you have not given it much training in a while, it would help to start giving it training again so that it relearns how it should behave.

It learned that listening to you gets it things that it doesn’t want

It might be the case that you have negatively reinforced the behavior by only telling it to do things when it is misbehaving and then punishing it. In this case, it might have learned that listening to you causes it to get things that it does not like so it chooses not to listen to you.

Instead, it would help to give it lots of positive reinforcement training so that it learns to associate listening to you with getting rewards.

You didn’t train it in stages

When training your husky it would help to start out by training it to do easy things and then to build up to more challenging things. If you jump straight to training it to do things that are challenging it might be asking too much of it and you won’t make much progress.

It’s bored

Huskies are a breed that is meant to get lots of exercise on a daily basis. If your husky is not getting much exercise it might be contributing to it not listening to you.

Generally, it is recommended that they get at least an hour of exercise every day. If your husky is not getting that much, it would help to make sure that it does.

It’s ill

Illness might be what has been causing it to be stubborn. It could be that the illness is causing it to be fatigued and wanting to rest more. If it does seem like illness could be the cause, the best option would be to take it to a vet.

How to get your husky to be less stubborn

Below are some options you have when getting your Siberian husky to stop being stubborn.

Train it to do the things that you want

The first thing to do is to take the time to train your husky to behave the way that you want it to. You can do this by using positive reinforcement training by teaching it easy commands in an easy environment and then by building up to more challenging ones.

You can read about how to use positive reinforcement training to get your husky to come on command here.

Avoid negative reinforcement

As mentioned above, it could be the case that your husky has learned that listening to you results in it getting things that it does not want so it does not listen to you.

On the other hand, it could also be the case that you have been rewarding it when it does not listen to you causing it to do it more.

Instead, it would help to give it lots of positive reinforcement training so that you are able to reward it for doing the things that you want and to reinforce good behaviors.

Give it exercise

As mentioned above, it is important to make sure that your husky gets lots of exercise. You can give it exercise by walking it yourself or by getting a dog walker to do it for you.

Ensure that its diet is right

It could be the case that your Siberian husky has been being stubborn due to something that you have been feeding it. This would be more likely if it started being stubborn when you started feeding it something different. You can look here to see what you should or should not be feeding it.

Be patient

When training your husky it is important to be patient. It is unlikely that you will be able to get drastic results with just one training session. But if you stick with it, you will be able to get much better results over the course of weeks and months.

Things to consider

When it started being stubborn

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

If it started being stubborn suddenly it would be more likely to be due to things such as becoming ill or injured, negatively reinforcing the behavior, a problem with its diet or a lack of exercise. It would help to consider what else changed when it started being stubborn.

When it is stubborn

If your husky does listen to you sometimes it would make it more likely that it either needs to be trained in a more distracting environment or it learned when it gets rewards and when it doesn’t.

For example, if it only comes when it is getting fed then it would be necessary to train it to come at different times as well.