One week ago I adopted a 1 year old Alaskan Husky. Within the last year she’s had 4 homes and been in 2 shelters…plus wherever she originated. Poor girl needed a home where someone is home all the time at least for the time being. (We adopted her because we knew we could provide that) Somehow she seems to only have mild to moderate separation anxiety by this point which we’ll continue to work on.

Problem is…My body is so tired from the last week. The shelter said she was a moderate energy dog, but that must have been completely based off how she behaved in the shelter when she was scared. We go for a long walk daily, run in the yard for 15+ minutes in the yard every few hours (4-5+ times per day, if we stay out over 30+ minutes each time more like 4), play in the house, she has many chews and treat toys, and I’m happy to put dog TV stuff on.

She required a lot of adjustment and extra care at the start which meant that I wasn’t sleeping well. The past two days I have felt like I could pass out at any moment once we hit around 1pm. (We get up between 5 and 6) It’s becoming increasingly physically harder for me to exercise her without sleeping properly. I’m still only getting a few hours and I know it’ll improve soon based on the progress we’re making, but even then I’ll need a few days to catch up on sleep before I’m even kind of okay.

We’re having our first play date at the end of the week, but other than that the two of us are pretty much on our own.

Any advice?

She’s not super destructive when she wants to play and eventually will lie down if I just can’t do it. Right now she’s napping but she would rather be playing. Very glad she went to sleep, lol

Thank you

Edit: I also can not pay someone to walk her because she has 0 leash manners at the moment and is crazy strong. The only thing saving my shoulder is a leash with a bungee in the middle and a real strong padded harness. (The bungee leash is amazing, would recommend. If she suddenly gets excited and bolts for a second the elastic adds the first bit of resistance rather than it just being on her chest and my arm. Until we have better manners, I’m super glad I have something like that.)

Edit 2: she’s chewing happily and laying in front of the TV watching dogs with nice music playing. I think trying to create a calm environment to kind of explain that now is down time to relax is something I’ll need to do daily. :)

Edit 3: oh my goodness, you folks are the best! I’m going to go through this thread with a piece of paper and write down what we’re going to take and implement. Everyone gave such a fantastic and actionable response and I’m very grateful. Thank you 💕

Edit 4: we absolutely have kongs and a few other treat hiders and we’ve started doing obedience training. The only issue previously was that she was nervous and HIGHLY suspicious of treats to the point she had left a kong. The past 3 days (including today) she’s started taking treats which is great! I think someone must have used treats to trick her or something. She was TERRIFIED of them the first few days and then quite suspicious of them a few days following. The lack of food motivation (to the point of aversion) made it difficult to do that sort of thing, but we’ll be able to now 😄

Unfortunately she’s got a few tells that she was likely physically abused, but in this short time she’s gotten to the point that I can tell her “no” in a strong stern voice and she understands she just needs to stop and isn’t in any danger. Doesn’t hide, just stops and looks at me.