Behavior Problems in older Malamute

[chuck9872]

I have an 8 1/2 year old male Alaskan Malamute that has been having some major problems recently.  He has always had some separation anxiety when he was younger and would cry (based on how wet he was when I got home) most of the day when he was in his crate.  When he was about 4 I decided to let him relax in the house while I was at work and things worked out just fine.  Over the past couple years things have slowly gotten worse and over the past 6 months far worse.

It started 3 years ago when my wife moved in with her cats.  We put up a gate in the doorway to the cat room and he was fine with that.  About a year ago he figured out he could knock it down and would continually do that, eating all their food and pooping in the house before I got home.  Solved this problem by cutting a gateway for the cats in the door that he can't get through.

Secondly, I have always used a food/water dish that stores food in it.  Over the past year (maybe even two) I have come home to find that he's knocked this over, spilling food and water throughout the house.  Started out once in a great while, then slowly escalated to at least a couple times weekly  At first I just lowered the dish all the way down and that worked until he still figured out how to knock it over.  In the past month I've gone to keeping his food outside, so there is no food in the container, but he still knocks it over and spreads water all over the house.  A few days ago I removed it completely and found an old shelf that is his eating height and just put his food and water dish on it.  For a day and a half everything was fine, came home today to find that everything was fine with the food and water dish, but that he'd moved it all out from the wall about 3 feet along with the movable kitchen island behind it and spread all of kitchen utensils in it (along with some papers that were on the kitchen counter on the other side of the room throughout the kitchen.  In addition, he also randomly will take things off the counters, at first food until I stopped putting anything possibly edible anywhere he could find it, and now papers, bags, anything he can reach really.

I don't know if this is boredom or anxiety or what but it seems to be getting significantly worse than it was within the past few months after holding steady at manageably bad for the past year or so.  I work a normal 9-5, but have been coming home for lunch every day to take him for a short walk for the past year or so.  In addition, I almost always take him for a longer walk after I get home for the day.  About 3 months ago, a dog park opened in our town and I was taking him there, but he has always had aggression problems with other dogs when they try to mount him and have had to pull him off a couple dogs before (no easy feat with a 120 lb Malamute), and then about a month ago he attacked a dog for apparently no reason and I haven't been back since.  I honestly don't know what/who started the fight, it appeared they were sniffing each other and then started fighting.  Other than the walks I give him alot of one on one attention, ie. normal petting, but he doesn't seem to want to play with toys since a couple of years ago so I don't play with him except once in a blue moon when he gets the urge.

The only other relevant thing I can think of is my wife is a teacher and is off in the summer and home with him most days.  However, this has been the case for the past 3 years and I've never seen an increase in bad behavior when she goes back to school and this increase happened about 1-2 months after she started anyway.

Sorry for the rather verbose explanation but I just wanted to be as thorough as possible.  I honestly don't know what to do and am at my wits end; I literally come home to a mess almost every day now and sometimes twice a day and it has lately taken all of my self control not to smack him.  I had spanked him in the past and more often just yelled at him, but stopped doing that shortly after the bad behavior started getting worse as it occurred to me he probably didn't even realize what I was mad about as he'd destroyed the house an eternity ago in his mind.  I'm thinking about crating him again, but I know he will probably just cry all day long and be disgusting by the time I get home.  That in conjunction with the fact that he's been having problems with calluses on his elbows getting cracked and nasty seems like that would cause as many or more health problems than the behavior problems it might solve.  Any help or suggestions anyone can offer would be greatly appreciated.  I love this dog more than anything, but this can't continue and I have no idea what to do anymore.

One last thing, other than his last annual checkup before these problems got worse I have not taken him to the vet and have not gotten any advice from him on this.  I was hoping to get some ideas from these forums before taking him to the vet as I don't believe my vet is a behavior specialist and I honestly don't know if I could afford to spend alot of money on something that isn't life threatening for him.

[chuck9872]

Thanks for the ideas, I think I'm going to hold off on crating him for now.  I've ordered one of the DAP diffuser's as well as a Kong Wobbler to put some food in.  Hopefully between the two of them it will keep him a bit entertained and also lower his anxiety while I'm gone.  Thanks again.

[deadgamegrrl]

Yeah you might need to start with the crate again.  Maybe with an orthopedic mat in it to cushion the callused areas (if he won't eat it).  Have you tried stuffing toys like Kongs with some treats and hiding them around to give him something productive to search for?

Anxiety may be playing a role, it's hard to tell.  Maybe try one of those DAP pheromone diffusers.  Also, one of my dogs started having bad anxiety after an earthquake.  The vet recommended Anxitane (sp?) which is an l-theanine supplement.  It's pricy but you can also buy the human version for much cheaper than the veterinary one.  It made a noticeable difference in my dogs anxiety level, to the point where I was pretty amazed.

[aheart]

Hi Chuck aww, poor baby is having a time of it isn't he? It sounds like he is incredibly lonely  and that's where the problem starts. For his safety and for the sake of your poor house I think that you will have to start crating him again, At least he can feel secure when crated and not being left to be as bad as he wants to be. ha-ha I don't believe in recommending to bring another animal into the situation because that could truly be a disaster. I hope that others join in on different ideas, but that's the only thing I could come up with. He wants to be a good boy, I can identify with the dog park, having had a simular problem with my Chiahuahua/pug mix. Good Luck.