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Oh no . Bee Wiseman's last few years were wonderful because she was clearly loved so much. And, the more you love, the more it hurts. I hope you're able to get to the place where it doesn't hurt so much soon than later.

I think the only viable solution is professional pest control. Don't worry about your pets, bed bugs much prefer humans. I feel your pain, I was in a hotel that had them and got devoured.

Beth, I just wanted to say that I'm impressed by your strength in this situation. Continuing good thoughts from my way.

We always did this. But I think it's one of those things where you can 'hear' it, but you don't really know what it's like until you experience it. And the first time going through it, it's sort of hard to see light at the end of the tunnel sometimes.

Hey Beth, I'm just catching up on what's been happening with Steak . You guys must be exhausted. I really hope things settle down soon for everyone.

The change in routine is probably a big thing. The simple thing of letting him out of his crate full time is a change. If he was doing fine in his crate before, keep crating him and gradually let him spend more out of the crate time.

Meredith, I don't think you could have said anything more perfectly than you did. Bye, Turbo. You will be missed.

I say, go for it! It sounds like you've already put a lot of thought into this and that's the most important part, that you're going into this with a clue of what you're getting into. To address your specific questions... Leaving your dog for 10 - 12 hours a day, 5 days a week, should be fine, especially if you have someone that can let the dog during the day. I, along with a lot of greyhound owners, have a similar schedule. I have to leave my dog for 10 - 11 hours, 5 days a week, and I don't have any issues. I also do not have anyone come by during the day, she does just fine. I also live in an apartment and have no yard and that's fine too. We do two, 30+ minute walks a day, without fail (and a third short potty break walk at the end of the night) and I tend to take her to lots of places, especially on weekends, to keep things interesting for her. She seems pretty 'fulfilled' with this set up. Sometimes I set up a webcam during the day to see what she's doing and all she does is sleep . I've never really seen greyhounds wearing jackets as skin protection for play so I can't speak to how effective it might be. (Of course, I've seen plenty of them wearing jackets 'cause it's cold ). We go to dog parks semi-regularly but I do understand there is a risk with that and approach our visits accordingly.

One real effective way to teach these guys to sit is to start with down. And then lure them up with a treat. If you start with the treat at their nose and lure them up slowly, you can do the "click" when they hit the sit position. That's how I taught Lima Bean.

Congrats! Portland is a great city. I'd love to live there myself. If you're driving up from SoCal and pass through San Francisco, feel free to look me and Lima Bean up!

Oh my God, Phene. He was such a good good boy.

Just adding to all the good input so far, particularly the examples of how this is a whole new (and probably scary) world for him, one way to help him learn about his new world is routine routine routine. As he slowly starts to figure out how things work, he'll get more confident. And the more confident he gets, the more he'll be able to relax and let his true personality shine through. Another big positive thing you can do is to do training exercises with him (teach him basic stuff like sit, stay, lie down, etc.). Positive reinforcement methods like clicker training are great for this. It'll give him a way to bond and communicate with you, and ultimately help him gain confidence and trust with you in particular.

I'm regularly gone 9-10 hours a day and my dog has no problems. There are a lot of people who do this with no issues. If your dog is new to you and hasn't been used to being left that long, it's a good idea to gradually work up to that length of time though.

I don't have cats, but off the top of my head, I can already think of six different friends who have greyhounds that have lived with their cats for years.

Since you have a big back yard, and if you were willing, maybe you could host your own little greyhound playgroup at your house. There are definitely a lot of greyhounds in the Bay Area.

Hey Jen, just pill him, like above. I had to do this with some of my fosters and thought it would be hard, but it actually wasn't. Just hold his mouth closed after you put the pill in the back of his mouth and maybe rub his throat and it'll go down. Good luck! Give Ducky some scritches for me

Oh no, Josee! I'm so sad to see this

haha... this reminds of the first time I met you and George at that GW picnic... he looked like he was going to pull your arm off

Lima Bean and I drove across the country this past summer (from Boston to San Francisco) and took about two and half weeks. We stayed in motels the entire trip (except for three or four nights when we stayed with friends or family). Obviously, how well your dog does will depend on your dog. I'm lucky in that Lima Bean is pretty laid back, does fairly well with change and different environments, and loves riding in the car. Still, there were some things I tried to do to create a semblance of routine. Every time we arrived at a new motel, I'd do things in the same exact order: bring half my bags to the room, then take Lima for a quick potty break walk, then bring her to the room, then get the rest of my bags, then chill for a few minutes then feed her, etc. After a few days, she seemed to get to know the routine. You'll probably want to bring a crate with you or at least a baby gate for when/if you need to leave the room. I didn't leave her alone for the first few days, but after it was pretty clear that she was comfortable with things, I'd leave for an hour or two to get dinner. Keep in mind, if your dog gets stressed and barks, that can cause issues with the hotel/motel management so you'll want to make sure your dog is ok with that.

For some dogs, having more room is a lot better. So it seems totally fine that your dog reacted that way. A lot of people when they confine their dog to a room only use a baby gate because they find that closing the door stresses out the dog. Glad she's settled in so well! ETA: Oh... one thing you should do, make sure the rest of your house is pretty dog proofed. Even though she is behaving like an angel now, as time goes on and she gets more comfortable, she'll probably get more bold and start checking more things out. Believe me, I know

I second (or third) the suggestions to do some active positive reinforcement training (clicker training is awesome) with her. It's a great way to engage with your dog. By doing this, she'll learn how to communicate with you, that engaging with you is a rewarding thing and over time, build a strong and trusting relationship with you. You'll also be interacting with her intensely and really start to see the ways she does interact come to really appreciate it. A formal class is great, but you can also totally do this on your own. I also can't emphasize enough that it's not uncommon at all for these guys to take a long time to show more overt aspects of their personality. It's like slowly peeling away the layers of an onion over the course of months and even years.

That's one good reason to go ahead and take the week off - to help your new dog get used to holding it longer and longer. That will be a change, they're used to be turned out pretty often when they're in the kennels. Once your dog has worked up to holding it that long and knows the schedule, it shouldn't be a problem holding it for 9 - 10 hours though. That's our situation, I work all day and have a 40 min commute. Lots of people are in the same situation, so don't feel bad about that.

That's too bad about your experience with your vet. Hulling corns is definitely something that *some* vets are familiar with while others are not. Given how bad your dog's corns are, it might be worth seeking out a vet who is familiar with corns and hulling. Some others have mentioned the bee propolis stuff and that's something also worth trying. But it's one of those things that works for some people, and nobody is really sure why. Corn treatment is a bit like black magic, unfortunately.

I agree with the others who suggest hulling. You're essentially removing the corn, but the process is way less invasive than surgery and the healing period is much less of a big deal. The corn will probably come back, but as you've seen (and most people experience), it comes back after surgery too. At least with the hulling, the whole process is much less traumatic and will give the dog relief after hulling. Also, it's something you can learn to do yourself. Lima Bean has a corn and we've taken the approach that all we can do is manage it through periodic hulling as opposed to thinking we can cure it. This has worked pretty well for us.

Just to reiterate what some others have said, it'll depend on the dog. They all settle in at different rates. So it might be a good idea to still plan for the week off and then adjust your schedule as you see how things go. Plus, just 'cause you have the day off doesn't mean you have to stay in the house