[jetcitywoman]

Okay, I can't wait to post this anymore. I was going to wait until my husband could post a few pictures I could link to, but I'm all antsy and about to do my own zoomies, so I'll start with text first. Piccies coming soon, I promise!

My husband and I both grew up with dogs and cats, so we're big animal lovers. Actually, I grew up in a rural area with a horse/cow pasture as my daily playground, so I learned to like animals more than people! Unfortunately, my childhood experiences with pet ownership were all examples of how NOT to care for a pet. No animals were allowed in the house, cats weren't worth spending money on so they had to eat dog food or hunt, and the dogs were chained up in the back yard. Fortunately, now that I'm old, I know better!

Anyway, for the last decade or so we've both only had cats as pets. For the last few years, Dave has been wanting a dog. So now that we're down to one precious kitty, we decided the time was right. However, we're quiet low-energy people so we definitely knew that a puppy would be a mistake. After some thought, we decided we wanted a low-energy dog that doesn't shed alot, doesn't smell, doesn't drool and definitely doesn't bark like crazy. So that left out most breeds.

We also refuse to patronize pet stores or breeders because there are so many thousands of animals being euthanized every year. So a rescue or adoption group was in order. One day Dave suggested the idea of greyhounds. We did our research and found that they sounded *perfect*. Even better, we found a really awesome greyhound adoption group very near us. (Blue Ridge Greyhound Adoption, or BRGA.ORG)

So now we're the head-over-heels in love owners of Capri, a 5-year old brindle female. Her racing name was Get Ready Capi (we can't figure out if the name is misspelled in her pedigree or supposed to be that way), and we renamed her Capri to be simple. She seemed to pick up that's her name very quickly. We found that she's been racing for about 3, 4 years in Daytona and won 30 out of 131 races. Her sire is Flying Penske, who more research shows to be a fairly impressive and valuable stud.

Capri's been absolutely amazing so far and we've only had her about two weeks. We live in a 3-story house in Virginia. She mastered the stairs in about 3 days. She picked up table manners (lay down patiently while we eat) in one day. She learned to lay down on command and with a hand signal in about 3 days. I can so clearly read her mind that she just wants to please us and understand what we want that I gush about how brilliant she is the moment she masters something. I've heard rumors that Greys are hard to train. Haven't seen that in Capri. She made the "mistake" of letting me see her spontaneously sit down in the yard yesterday, so mommy started to teach her to sit. We're shaping that one, sort of, starting from the down position and she's halfway there. I expect that soon the light bulb will go off in her head and she'll sit from a standing position and I'll fall over with happiness.

She walks like a dream on the leash, which has actually made is very easy to bond with her and build our relationship. If any of her former trainers happen to be reading this, THANK YOU!

She's also been very good with our kitty. It's been fun to watch them try to figure each other out. They keep making friendship gestures to each other, usually at the wrong time and always in the wrong language. Our kitty has always been a very sociable girl who loves people and even other cats, so I'm pretty sure that one day we'll come home to find them snuggling.

I don't think I've ever had a sweeter, more perfect dog!

[dante2zoe]

Congratulations and welcome! Looking forward to the pictures of your girl!

[iluvgreys]

Congrats on adopting Capri! She sounds like a smart lil' darling! Must post pics...

[PhillyPups]

Awesome. I LOVE the Daytona Dawgs ~ having started my greyhound journey down there with them. Pictures when you can and by the way,

WELCOME TO GT

Sit back, relax and fasten your seat belt, you are in for the ride of your life!!

[GreytMuse]

What a wonderful introduction! Welcome to the wonderful world of sharing life with a grey (or 2! ...or MORE!), I am so glad you found us!

Patiently awaiting photos of your Capri!

[Che_mar_Cody]

Congrats!!! Can't wait to see pictures of your baby!!

[jetcitywoman]

Thanks everybody. This seems like a great forum for support and answers. I'm glad I found it.

It's also interesting how she's already relating to me and my husband differently. She approaches him very playfully. Yesterday when he came home from work, he tried the turning-his-back trick to prevent her from jumping on him, so she zoomed around the house instead. She's very sweet and obedient with me, but less playful.

I've been doing the Cesar Milan trick of mixing her meals with my hands, and occasionally hand feeding her a little bit. And hand feeding her treats when she does her tricks. And we always make her calm down before she eats. She seems to have a good enough attention span to do that successfully.

[carronstar]

Welcome!!!! If you think you are in love with Capri now, just wait until you find out how exponentially it grows. I can't wait to see pictures.

[Spencers_Greyt]

Hi and Welcome from Arizona! I'm looking forward to Capri photos!

[greyzykel]

Yay! How exciting - I can't wait til we can get a houndie of our own. Pictures!

[fsugrad]

Hi there and welcome from Gainesville, FL!
Capri sounds like a wonderful girl, and of course, we can't wait to see pictures of her!!!
And after winning 30 of 131 races (wow!) she sounds like she's definitely earned a fun and relaxing retirement!!

[Gingergrey]

Hi! Capri sounds like a wonderful match for you and your hubby. Can't wait to see the pictures!

[PrairieProf]

Welcome from Iowa! Congratulations! Capri sounds great, I'm glad you're having such a good experience with her. And like everyone else, I want pictures!

I noticed my grey Beth frequently sat outdoors on hills, when her front end was downhill from her back. I was trying to teach her to sit and finally tried asking her while positioned facing down on small hills -- voila! She got it at once, and quickly was able to generalize to doing it on the flat. You might want to give it a try! (She's turned into a sittin' fool -- she does it to bribe me for treats on walks! But we've also passed an intermediate obedience class and will be continuing to advanced.)

This post has been edited by PrairieProf: 09 April 2009 - 01:25 AM

[greytkidsmom]

Congratulations and welcome!
Flying Penske was one busy boy for sure.
He is also my little (greyhound) girl's daddy

[jetcitywoman]

Ack, we had our first stair incident yesterday and it scared the crap out of me. We live in a 3-story single family home that's fairly common in the Virginia area. Capri learned the stairs very quickly - she almost had to because her bed is upstairs in our bedroom, and we often head down to the basement to watch tv in the evening. She got comfortable enough to tackle them at her own whim, often going to another floor to see where we disappeard to (when we only went into the bathroom - haha!)

So yeah, although our stairs are carpeted, I could clearly see that they were not constructed for a grey physique. Very awkward for her. Yesterday we headed down to the first floor for lunch, she ran ahead of me (she seems to prefer taking them fast) so I witnessed this. On the second from the bottom step, her right hind leg slipped off the tread and she landed on her left hind knee.

A second later, I got to the bottom all scared to see if she'd really hurt herself, and a sad-looking Capri is looking back at me with one hind leg held up. Awwww! I very gently touched her, ran my hands over her body, and extremely carefully over her knee. It only took her a couple seconds to test the foot and then put her weight on it, so I guess the pain faded and she wasn't really injured.

It was so scary not just to see her get hurt, but how to figure out the right thing to do about it. All in the space of about 2 seconds I realized that my heart was in my throat and I didn't want her to sense my fear and associate pain and fear with the stairs. I also knew that if it hurt when I touched her she might bite me. If I walked across the room to get her muzzle, she would have tried to follow. Phew, that's a real challenge!

Anyway, happy ending. She's not afraid of the stairs even though mommy can't help herself chanting "go slow go slow go slow". And only an hour later, daddy got home and took her out in the back yard for some major zoomies.

[PrairieProf]

Good, brave girl, Capri!

Beth stumbles on my stairs once in a while, but no biggie. I bet the incident will teach Capri to watch her foot placement just a little bit more. I'm glad she's doing well -- she sounds like a happy girl!

[jetcitywoman]

OMG, can you imagine a dog getting through a three-year racing career with no serious injuries and then breaking a leg two weeks into her new retirement home? Ack. That ran through my mind too. Poor beastie. It reminded me too, that she really is challenged by all this new stuff that's old hat to me.

[jetcitywoman]

Hey, finally I have a couple pictures of my girl. Here's a silly one wolfing down a rawhide bone.

[LoveMyJoseyBean]

She is a gorgeous girl!!! Congratulations, and welcome to the grey side!

[argolola]

What a gorgeous pup! Congratulations!