moofie

I knew Hector would be fine as he's just so laid back and likes meeting people, he's fine with little kids and is ok with all dogs. Throp was nervous of strangers when he first came home, but after gradual exposure was more willing to greet people instead of trying to run off. He was scared of children, but we live near a school so passed that frequently and he met my neices/nephew and the kids on the street and as his overall confidence grew he seemed less concerned by them. As Throp had improved so much we took them along to a few busy country shows and he coped with all the people and noise fine so i felt much more confident about trying a meet & greet. Our first M&G was outside a large pet store and had a fair bit of passing trade. I was expecting him to perhaps be a bit reserved as he can be shy in new situations so was fully prepared that i may have to take him home early, but he loved it and was in his element lapping up all the fussing and watching the world go with his doggy friends . He's since done a bigger M&G at a county show, which he loved until the kids performers right by our stand fired a fake gun and then he wanted to go home. If your comfortable he'll be fine meeting people & dogs then i think you just have to see how you get on, the group can probably advise you more & let you know which M&G would be easier for a newbie, non cat friendly dog. AT the ones we've been to there were main volunteers who set the stand & merchandise up and then other volunteers were just invited to help for whatever time they can manage, so it didn't matter if we stayed 10 mins or the the full 2-4hours.I'd like to do them more often but my local groups don't do very many and seem to already have a regular set of volunteers for them.

Yeah we have quite a few neighbours cats that like to sit or cut through our garden (and crap in it ). I always take the dogs out on lead anyway before letting the run as the garden is sort of fenced separate to the house and sometimes i just want the dogs to do their business not play, so the cats are generally safe. We seem to have a lot of stupid, suicidal cats in our neighbourhood that are unaware of danger of dogs, like yesterday one followed DBF and the dogs and tried to come into the house with them DBF thankfully was able to shut the door before the dogs could get it. Often the cats will take off as soon as they see the dogs, but some cocky ones just sit staring or slowly saunter off so i can see the advantage of Dunesmom's suggestion of leaving a lasting impression of danger. My granddad throws tennis balls at the ones that cross his garden as they dig his plants up, but they still go into the garden just run if they see him .

Wow! i love the dog christmas tree

That's Homer, he's the Retired Greyhound Trust's logo/mascot you can even buy a stuffed toy version.

They have some lovely looking dogs I like the rogues gallery with them all lounging out in bed

oops!

Ask to sit in on a class (minus dog)if possible to make sure you are happy with their training methods and style before handing your money over. The first training class we tried was very old school even though they'd told me it was reward based when i'd phoned to enquire, I actually walked out before the intro class had finished because i wasn't happy with the forceful methods i saw being used. The next trainer i asked a lot of questions and she had some experience of dealing with sighthounds and she was happy for us to go and sit in on her classes one night before enrolling. We had a go at sit but the trainer knew that not all greys sit so never felt any pressure and we did down stays while others generally opted for sit stays and we took a mat for the dogs to use as the floors were hard. I think its important also to say when your not comfortable doing something as you know your dog best. My partner and i enjoyed the classes and it gave us some confidence as well as motivation for training. It was an all breed class so it was good for the dogs to socialise with the same dogs for the 10 sessions as normally we only briefly meet other dogs on walks. I thought we might lag behind the others but turned out we all had our individual problem areas and we managed to pass the Kennel Club bronze test.

My boys are fine with any small dogs, but not cats. Cats & squirrels are the most exciting closely followed by rabbits and ducks/birds are of no interest at all unless they are doing a lot of wing flapping. I wasn't sure of how they'd be with cats/small dogs when we adopted as they'd not really been tested and we had no other pets to consider. I just muzzled them on our walks for the first month and it was soon apparent that cats were seen as prey (we have lots on our street), but more friendly signs were given for dogs we passed. I was quite nervous the first time they met a tiny yorkshire terrier but the signs were good and they just politely sniffed so they soon graduated from wearing the muzzles.

from England Wow sounds like a houseful, looking forward to pictures. I also have littermates but i didn't adopt them till they were 2 so missed out on the crazy puppy antics. Its great that your in touch with the rest of the litters owners. I know my boys litter was all adopted out but it would of been nice to of been able to know more about them.

from Nottingham Sounds like you have a houseful looking at the other thread, you will have to put some pictures up of all your animals Hector is very talkative so always lets me know when he wants something, be it dinner, bed or more water and he sometimes whinges if i'm still downstairs and my partner has gone to bed as he feels he has to be with me, but wants his bed upstairs. Throp doesn't care as long as he can sleep

I agree it is much more common to muzzle greys that aren't small dog or other breed friendly in the UK. We were advised by our adoption group to muzzle for a few weeks on walks so we could gauge our dogs reaction to things and then decide if they were safe to be walked unmuzzled. I noticed that when our dogs were muzzled people would keep there dogs away from ours much more than when they were not. I've never heard as many people having problems with dogs attacking as on GT so if i felt the area was high risk i probably wouldn't choose to muzzle either. My friend uses Halti head collars on her dog aggressive greys so maybe that would give you more control of the sharp end if you didn't want to muzzle. The westie owner seems very rude and if his dog were to bite your dog it would be his fault not yours. I think you could only be at fault if your dogs were deemed "out of control" under the Dangerous Dog Act which is usually off lead and the westie was protecting itself.

My pair given the opportunity would destroy things if left that long as its a game, so a 2nd dog is no guarantee and then you also have the extra costs involved.

Sounds like Zero's bored if he is looking to get more toys out to play with and eating stuff. Does he get any running in the yard on top of the walks as a mile each doesn't sound that far? The best solution is probably a dog walker mid-day which would relieve Zero's bordom and spare energy and also allow you to stick with the short walks for your schedule but i know this often expensive so not always a option. We have a treat ball that i used to stick Throp's kibble meals in to make him eat slower as he has to roll it around to get the food to trickle out, something like that might keep him occupied a bit longer in the morning. For dog proofing I read that it was good to get on all fours to help you spot what might cause a hazard or look tempting from your dogs perspective when i was adopting and it did help. Hector is a bit of naughty hound and will take advantage of items that are left within his reach, remote controls, phones, hairbrush, leather items, books/newspapers, shoes, well most things really he's happy to chew up for you. Throp's lazy so rarely initiates it but joins in if it looks fun, he likes shredding so paper and plastic are his vices. My boys get babygated into the kitchen, with some toys when we go out. We make use of baby locks for the fridge (found it open and emptied) and some lower cupboards, keep the worktops clear and shut the bin out of the room. It has made us much tidier (well except some of the high up surfaces)and we do it without thinking now. I do have to make sure i have properly locked the babygate and flipped the bottom latch securely as i've seen Hector open it using his mouth hmm he's much smarter than he likes to make out

Yay boxes back to normal. Thanks for the Chrome suggestion Jeff, it certainly is much faster than the IE i had before

My post box is broken too i have no idea what IE version i've got but will go download chrome and hope that fixes things.

from Nottingham , England. Hi Adrianne, I love the pics of Wilbur and his friends looking forward to hearing more about this handsome chap and hopefully see some more pics of his cute lil friends Jen Hector & Throp

I have 2, there brothers and came home together. We knew we'd probably end up with 2 anyway and as we were both working fulltime we felt better that they'd have company. I think greyhounds are just addictive, they are quite easy to have around and its nice to see them interact with each other. Greys may need a little time to adjust to being alone after kennel life, but you'll find a fair few people on GT that do only have 1 grey and can vouch that their dogs are happy with being lone dogs.

The racing board are talking about bringing in chipping and so on a racing forum i've seen all the negative views about tumours, migrating chips etc . With the number of animals that get chipped over the world, i wonder what the risk of those things occuring is? I decided to get the boys chipped as it seems the best way to get re-united with a lost dog as tags can fall or be taken off and i wouldn't like to rely on someone knowing who to contact with the tattoos. Neither dog flinched having it done and i had the vet scan when we went for vacinations and its not moved over the year. My brother's cat went missing and 6 months later its chip was scanned and he was returned home

Congratulations on the new addition! Wow sounds like an energy packed mix, Collies & Husky's are supposed to be intelligent breeds so hopefully that will help with the training. I saw some photo's of a collie x husky the other day, it had a husky body and typical border collie colouring, very cute

from Nottingham Sparkie & Speedy are gorgeous, kitties pretty cute too ( shussh don't tell Hector & Throp i said that there not so fond). My boys are related to both via Head Honcho/Vintage Prince and i love the name of speedy's sire "Trousers" Hector & Throp are litter brothers, but are very different personality wise which is great as i think if both were same of either type it would be too much. Throp was similar to sparkie with strangers when he first came home and would try to bolt if we stopped to talk or they came towards him, but has improved so much in the 2yrs since. He can still be a bit reserved and backs off slightly if people rush towards him (usually excitable children), but was very happy doing a county show M&G recently, he's also total snugglebug at heart. I hope Sparkie will eventually be able to feel comfortable around new people too I love the pic of foxy and his speedy bed you wouldn't think skinny greys would make a comfortable resting place, but i guess its heated.

Added my pin Hopefully its somewhere near Nottinghamshire

Welcome Home Sid! What an adorable, happy chap i'm sure he'll bring a ray of sunshine everyday

I was thinking ham, I do not like green eggs and ham, I do not like them, Sam-I-am Handsome lad, looking forward to seeing more pics of him!

No the boys aren't allowed on the sofa, it was something we agreed on prior to adoption. We only have 1 sofa too so if they got on they'd be nowhere for us to sit and we thought it may cause problems when we have guests or visiting other peoples houses. Instead they like to lay on their beds alongside the sofa, occasionally i have to pull Hector out from under the sofa because he starts off hiding his head and gradually as he's dreaming works his way under it. He just whines if he needs rescuing. Neither Hector or Throp has ever tried to get on the sofa to lay down, Hector will put front paws up if it allows him to reach/see something and Throp will put his front legs on like he's laying but with his butt still standing trying to worm his head under your arm for snuggles.

Run free Hunky I'm so sorry to hear that Hunky has gone to the bridge and so soon after Jeany It seems so unfair after just getting your family alltogether. Jenn