Fruitycake

I just wanted to say that while Al still wants to drink the equivalent of the Pacific Ocean every time she gets near water, and she needs to go out every 4 hours or so, the lumps have been receeding! The tiny lumps aren't even palpable anymore, the collection (almost "turtle-shell-like") of lumps seem to have mostly disappeared, and the largest of the lumps are considerably smaller! The large grape one is about the size of an eraser, now. I'm glad that our vet didn't immediately throw her on Pred, but am glad that when the other remedies weren't doing anything that we decided to go ahead with it. She has said that when they are gone we might want to keep her on the niacin, but taper the pred and hope they don't come back. YAY!

The problem isn't that she has a few lumps, it's that her legs have palpable lumps from eraser sized to large grape sized nearly every inch of the way up, and they're still developing more and now she's got some appearing on her stomach and back and neck. A few of them wouldn't be a problem, but this has gotten really bad in 3 months. We first noticed one on one front leg (about marble sized by that time) and checked the other legs and found probably 5 of them. Now she's got probably 50-60 of the darned things, even though she's been on the niacin and doxy for 2 months, and they're continuing to get bigger as well as more numerous. I am wondering how much worse it could get. I don't mind a lumpy-dog in general, but there's something extremely wrong here and it would be nice to stop it from advancing. At least it's cutaneous at this point (nothing on her internal organs...yet), and not bothering her (no itching, tenderness, etc.) but I just want to know it isn't going to continue to her internal organs. The vet says this is the worst case of cutaneous histiocytosis she has ever seen, and she is surprised that it hasn't appeared on internal organs with as bad as she's getting. Thank you for the link, A_daer! I'd searched, but gave up after 2 pages of links.

Our Allie, nongrey, has "lumpy dog syndrome" (dermal hystiocytosis) and the first remedy didn't work for her (super high doses of Niacin and Doxycycline) so they added in Prednisone to the mix. Started on Saturday, and while I knew that it would likely have effects like making her have to pee...she has to go out every freaking two hours or she'll pee in the house and this is killing us. So, anyone else have a dog that was on Pred that can give me some hope? Is there any hope that her kidneys will calm the freak down and maybe need to go out every 4 hours (or, better yet, 6 or 8)? I know it affects how the kidneys deal with salt, and does anyone know if there's a food out there with excessively low salt amounts to help us get some sleep? Would that even help? I'd be perfectly happy to make something myself with rice and hamburger (and chicken feet for calcium) if it would be any help at all in reducing her need to pee.... After a day and night like yesterday/last night, I'm thinking that I'd rather have a lump of dog than have to deal with taking her out every 2 hours and coming home to gallons of pee when we can't. (Sorry boss, I can't come to work today because my dog needs to pee...all the time. That's covered under FMLA, right? <joke>) And we have no fenced yard, so when she has to go she has to go leashed by a zombie human (by 4 AM I was thinking of just plopping her in the neighbor's backyard and being done with it). (In more humorous observation, I know that the zombie apocalypse has started...at our house. It started around 2 this morning, by the second trip outside.... I promise that I will try not to bite anyone.)

Allie, our keeshond, has something for my husband's athletic shoes. She never chews on them, she just carries them around and deposits them elsewhere. Now that it's winter and they get left in the kitchen when we go to bed she'll be in her dog bed in the bedroom, whine a bit, get up and go get a drink, and come back in and drop his shoe with a loud THUNK before lying on her bed for the night. She has also been known to do the opposite: take a shoe or two out of the bedroom and leave them in the living room or kitchen (as a tripping hazard). We have a tile that was designed with her in mind. It says: "I have information pertaining to the whereabouts of your shoe"

[i said something about catching the poop] I actually find catching a greyhound's droppings easier than a keeshond's! Our first dog had really loose poo after long walks (2 blocks were "long") and it just was what I felt I needed to do for my neighbors. I'm just glad that greyhounds don't have the long hair! I have indeed gotten comments. And yes, it is kind of embarrassing, but I always think "You're welcome" to the homeowners as I stand up when there's no puddle or squidge on the sidewalk for people to step on. The best was when Monty decided to squat after a long walk right in front of a house where a lady was getting her mail. She paused, watched me, and when I stood up she said "Now that's dedication!" I'm sure I was beet red by that time, but I just shrugged and tied off the bag and said that if I hadn't caught it couldn't have been picked up. And it's just easier that way. (However I am waiting for my activities to cause an accident when we do that on the busy roads near us. Hasn't happened yet, but Monty's only 8, so there's still time!) I think that the easiest, if your dog isn't a "poop walker" (walking while pooping, and I hate that!), is the newspaper or cheap paper plate tucked under the butt when they squat. Or use a larger bag (bread bags tend to be larger in diameter than many poop bags, and they're stiff enough that they stay open when rolled).

I have to say that Monty does this, but since I'm a little bit crazy (and hate the idea of a mess on the sidewalk where anyone might step), I catch it in one of the poop bags. I have to do that in winter, because Monty's delicate toes will fall off if he steps into a snowbank so he merely belly's up to the bar, so to speak. I always start the walk with a bag rolled just so I can hold it under the edges and swing in under the tail as he starts to squat, and we've had him long enough I can tell about 20 feet before he's going to squat that it's on it's way and I will be ready. DH can't do that, and he ends up nudging him or having to pick up from the sidewalk - which in winter also means getting as much up as possible and then using snow to scrub the remainders up. And, I'm proud to say that I've only gotten messed on maybe 4 times over the past 4 years - usually when he stands before he's done. As for urine, he's always been a "weak" leg lifter, and he extends it back more than lifting it, and since that is uncomfortable for him it ends up sagging and frequently enough causing him to hit his front paw. Unless I gently go over and help support that knee.

Our Monty hates old routes, I think because he's already checked all the sniffs on that route and doesn't like covering the same territory. When I take the dogs on "death marches" (my husband's term for 3 hour walks that cover probably 5 miles or more), he's perfectly fine until we get within about 4 blocks of the house coming home, and then he realizes we're going back home and suddenly gets "exhausted" and slows to a crawl, appearing to have to drag himself down the sidewalk. If we turn and aim away from the house again, he speeds right back up to a happy trot and his ears come up and he gets his energy back. That's kind of what I picture with your boy. I've also done the thigh-into-the-dog's-shoulder turn around thing when Monty's gotten balky. I'm glad it has worked for you as well as it has for us! I haven't found treats to do much when we're on walks because his focus is on something completely different. Although if I start the long walks before breakfast (in the heat of the summer we might start at 5:30 or 6 AM), when coming home if he puts on the breaks I have been able to get his enthusiasm up by asking if he was hungry. He knows where his "hungry" [meal] happens, and puts on a relative burst of speed home at that point!

Can you gently lure him with treats on every step?

As krissy has said, it very much depends on the particular dog as to what kind of play they like and what will push them over the edge into "no longer playing." Our prior dog, a nongrey (keeshond) was very very well socialized with everyone, people, cats, children, other dogs, and would turn the other cheek...but was "The Fun Police" when at a dog park and other dogs started playing rough and making lots of noise. She'd run after them barking and carrying on, and though she never actually got involved, she was telling them to KNOCK IT OFF RIGHT NOW! She liked a little romping, a little running, but if it sounded like it might get serious (even just seriously enthusiastic play with lots of noise and bitey-face), it frustrated her. Our current keeshond is a lot more trigger happy, and she hasn't been well socialized to other dogs (she's always tense around them, and has a few in the neighborhood that she absolutely hates because they've scared her by barking at her). She doesn't do any real dog park activities, and the few times we have she's stuck close to her greyhound brother (who doesn't care about the other dogs and wants to sniff the markings or flirt with other people there) or goes between him and us like she's on a string. She gets upset when she sees others going at it, either in rough play or even edging into fight, so we're always watching her like a hawk (luckily she has absolutely stellar recall, and will do a flying turnabout even when running away to come back to us...unless there's a squirrel) I don't know that greyhounds as a group are allowed to do, but I bet that since they have kennel muzzles and they're supervised that they may not have the experience with rough-and-tumble play that you see in a dog park. Maybe it gets too intense for your boy, and as dogs will do he may be deciding that it isn't play but a fight and he's going to join in. This is one of the huge potential problems of dog parks - it can turn into a massive melee if a real fight breaks out between even two dogs if the owners can't prevent their own dogs from joining. Some dogs are quicker to join in than others (Monty, our grey, would be dead last into a fight I think - while Allie (keeshond) would be the first to jump in if anyone caused her big brother Monty to yelp and she would be aiming for blood). It sounds like you were watching like a hawk when you had your dog at the park and caught him before he could dive in teeth-first, which is excellent. Many owners don't, so they are the ones you need to be wary of (the dog wandering around with no one paying him any mind is basically free to do what he wants, good, bad or ugly). If you're going to go to the dog park, I don't think you need to worry about the breed of dog, but the way they play. Or specific dogs that Sherlock may just not like. Those that play rough or play noisy and get your boy too excited or into fight mode are dangerous if you can't redirect him before he gets involved. The absolutely safest situation would be to find other greyhound friends with a fenced area so you and they could let your dogs play together in their kennel muzzles. Then, if things get too snarky, there's less of a chance of injury. It still can happen, and you still need to be watching carefully to see how different dogs will interact, but the muzzles can help prevent injury. If you do muzzle, you want ALL dogs to have muzzles (so don't put one on him in a general dog park, because if Fido decides your Sherlock looks like someone to attack, you don't want him unable to fight back).

I'm also a paranoid pet parent, so I say if you have the finances, ask outright for your vet to do a biopsy. The fine needle aspirate (FNA) is a quick outpatient visit. As tbhounds has indicated, sometimes they don't get a good enough sample to be definitive on diagnosis, and then you would need to decide if you want a vet to surgically remove them for further diagnostic tests. My cat had lumps that turned out to be just your harmless lipomas many years ago, and just two weeks ago we had multiple lumps removed from our Allie (keeshond) because they had popped up pretty quickly and were on all 4 legs and on her chest. Turns out she has cutaneous histiocytosis (she had radiographs and bloodwork and ultrasound to verify it wasn't systemic/also affecting internal organs). The vets (all 3 of them) were perplexed because it is not common for keeshonds, and it came on so fast. Probably within 3 weeks. They got to the size of a marble on one leg, and most of the others were pea sized. She's on meds now, and we're hoping for the best and the prognosis is good with treatment. Hope she's just got some "old lady bumps"

Any chance to get him to perform outside of his normal locations (try a "down" out on a walk, or a "sit" when you're lying on the floor or with your face to a wall or some crazy thing). Some dogs understand the command only in terms of context (person looks at me, stands thusly, says thing, has treat, in this place = I sit and get that treat).

I am so sorry she had to leave you like that. No one knows what was going on with her or why she did it. It could have been anything, and though vets are good they can't eliminate all things that might have been going on in her to cause such a behavior shift. I hope your heart heals soon.

Flinching or pulling back when you have a hand appear over your head isn't because he was abused. Some just don't like that kind of approach into their personal space. I have never been abused, but I absolutely hate having anyone touch my head or face - there are dogs who feel the same. He was merely telling your husband to back off, that he was uncomfortable, in a very clear method. As others have indicated, if he had actually tried to bite, your husband would have been bitten. Dogs are really fast! He knew where he was and where your husband was and was merely making his protest clear. I know it's scary - look at those chompers and how fast they can move! - but he was really nice to merely up the volume of his protest. At this point he doesn't like having someone approach him that way, either when he's in his bed or ever, so you both may just want to back off a bit and try to get him to come to you for loving. And don't push too much on him at once. (I've heard it said that it's better to give them a little loving and leave them wanting more than to "overstay your welcome" to the point where you annoy or bother them.)

You may be able to purchase a large raccoon/cat-sized Hav-a-hart trap, IF you are allowed to move the critter when you catch it. We live in the city so we need to contact the proper pest removal services and are not allowed to move (or "be in possession of") wildlife. Glad you figured out the cause, and wish you luck in making your yard less attractive to the little monsters. Or not so little, sometimes.

I'd like to counter your comment (bolded) above. If your DH took him out and he pottied for him, I think he *did* earn the turkey neck. Sometimes to combat a fear and start a good connection between someone and your fearful dog, you need to start really small. I've heard of people rewarding dogs for merely not running away when the fear-causing-person enters a room! And your DH ignoring him when he's being good, may be a good thing too. Sometimes merely not intruding on another can be a reward (how often do you like a "stranger" getting into your personal space?). If he wanted to up the ante, your DH could have treats at his desk and periodically toss them at Dillard without making a huge deal about it. It might make spending time with your DH more rewarding in general (when I'm with this guy that sometimes makes me really scared, treats fall from the sky!). Just my thoughts. I haven't worked with a truly fearful dog, but I have done similar with shy, spooky cats. Slow and steady, and make not acting out in fear rewarding for them seems to work the best with them.

Can you try to train him when picking up a toy is playtime and when you or anyone else is just picking stuff up? A keyword like "Playtime!" and picking up toys and tossing them and being all exciting for him and then a keyword for when you're done ("all done") and you turn off your interaction with him may help. Then have an alternate term that you use very deliberately when training him that you aren't playing? For example, reach for the toy when he is super calm and if he watches you or is merely thinking about getting up and getting excited tell him the keyword ("nope" or some such) and leaving it alone and being very calm and not responding to his attempts to play. Reward him with something that isn't playing with the toy you just did not decide to play with. If you want to reward by playing, tell him "Good boy!" and "Playtime!" and find a different toy, or if you want to not have play his only reward you can wear a package of really good treats all the time and give him those when he behaves calmly when there is the possibility of his going bonkers because he thinks you might want to play and yet you don't. Progressing may be very slow to the point where you can give the "not playing now" command and pick up the toy and put it gently down and not have him get all excited and bitey. If he lunges when you aren't telling him it is playtime, you take yourself completely out of the playing field by making yourself absent (or turning you back and ignoring him and all attempts to get you to interact with him). Eventually, you may be able to get him to only respond to the trigger word to indicate you want to play, which would make having others near his toys significantly safer. Good luck! I'm glad he's a playful one, and hope you can tame his enthusiasm a little! In this situation, could you maybe use the juggling technique? Have two toys, he runs and chases one and brings it back, but you have the other already in your hand and he doesn't get it until he drops the second? This is what I've done with teaching fetch in dogs that are more enthusiastic, so I don't have to resort to keep-away or trying to get to a toy that they're closer to and apt to lunge for.

I'm with those with no alternative to walking. And I'm not looking forward to the projected high of -1 on Monday, nor the lows of -10 and windchills anticipated between -20 and -40! This is going to be like the year we got Monty, and it was miserable back then too because he was too shy to want to potty when on leash, and that was the only option for him. If it gets too cold, you would probably want to do what we did that very cold, miserable winter: take her out on leash, walk and hope for a potty, and if you (plural) get too cold, go back in and warm up but not undress/unleash, and as soon as you can feel all body parts, go right back out and do it again. And reward as best you can for being productive outside (Monty also wouldn't eat when on leash at that point, and there was no possibility of "parties" because it would make him freeze up...no pun intended). (Even if you have a backyard, you may want to be out there with her to be certain she's done everything.) Good luck!

If she urinated in the same spot that she had done before, there is the possibility that the re-wetting of the spot with the carpet cleaning encouraged her to potty there again because of the increased smell again (especially if it had been used multiple times before). It could be an "it smells like a bathroom, therefore I'll use it as a bathroom" kind of thing. Any possibility of blocking that area off from her for a while, if it is an area where she seems to think is her indoor bathroom and keeps going there? We had our front room/sunroom blocked off for about two months to break that routine with ours, and when we took the barricade down at first we started doing treats-and-training in there and blocked them off when we weren't home, and moved a dog bed in there on the exact spot that had been used multiple times when it became a "free" room again. It was a serious hassle having that room blocked off (we used an open X-pen in a crazy configuration because the cats needed to get by to get to their litterboxes), but that and doing a really good clean and blocking it off until it was completely dry seemed to do the trick. Good luck! You have my sympathies!

Over the first two months Monty had a few accidents, but moreso because we didn't understand his very exceptionally subtle signals (and he was shy about doing anything when on leash, and we have no fenced yard). And the last accident was because my husband ignored Monty's obvious signals and my stating outright "Monty has to go potty and that's why he's whining" as I went to bed and hubby was playing his video game. So Monty found the closest thing to outside (a large potted plant on the floor in a seldom used room) and tried to be a good boy. Hubby caught him ("hmm, dog is now absent and silent...") and then took him outside after interrupting him loudly...which woke me up and I was fit to kill him. Hubby, NOT the dog. Hubby certainly became "potty trained" by that situation, and never told Monty again "just a few more minutes." I'm better at reading the signals, which are still pretty subtle (Monty whines a lot, but I can hear the difference in the "I want to play" "I want to eat" "I'm bored" and "I need to potty" whines...hubby still hasn't gotten that good). If it were just hubby, there might still be accidents....

We use a martingale and a 5 foot lead, without any qualms - but Monty is completely sedate, nor does he want to chase anything! If I were worried (if he were a spook or just anxious at certain things) I'd use a harness quick as anything! One thing everyone should do, no matter which type of dog-containment-system you use (collar or harness) is to check to make sure that none of the connections have slipped looser. We have to adjust Monty's martingale maybe once or twice a month because the buckle slips just the tiniest bit and the fabric seems to relax enough to make getting it off and on a bit easier. It doesn't look like it has slipped, but it gets just the tiniest bit looser.

Definitely on the right track. And you have my sympathies, because I have had the same problem with our Monty, and the extinction burst is a really hard thing to live through, but you MUST NOT respond to it, or you continue to train that they just have to be even more persistent. Good luck, and keep up the good progress!

Dogs are, by their very nature, scavengers. That's how they came to be dogs and no longer wild canids. If there's anything that they think might be interesting, they're going to check it out (and your pup sounds like he's still being very puppy like in the "is it food? I'll put it in my mouth to check"). And unfortunately, every single time he finds anything that rewards his sniffing about the couch area that is tasty, fun or interesting enough to him, he's being rewarded for that behavior (which is already natural). Training him not to do it when you aren't there is going to be a difficult haul, because he may learn that he only gets the "leave it" when you're around (it may make him more sneaky and cause him to just wait until you aren't there to do it!). You've had multiple explanations on the "leave it" training. Much emphasis on the starting with something completely unappealing at the start. And when you get to the more appealing things, like treats or food or whatever, don't give the thing you just told him to leave. His reward should come from another hand, or another location, and put the stuff you told him to leave in another container, or move to the kennel in his spot (his "eating area") and let him go ahead and eat when you've given the OK. If you tell him to leave something and then give it to him, as another mentioned it can be more of a "wait for it" command. We do that with our dogs with their meals - have them wait and then release to eat.

A greyhound "scream" doesn't mean that there's any damage to him. It could be surprise, fear, or discomfort more than actual pain (there have been stories on here of really damaged-but-silent greys which scream so you'd think they were dying when something spooks or makes them the slight bit uncomfortable). It could be a "help, come get me" like a little kid who is being teased and overreacts ("I'm not touching you!"). I have a cat that likes to slap Monty the greyhound when he gets too close to "her" people, and she stalks him with the intense glare that makes him roll his eyes and ease himself away with all manner of submissive indicators toward the cat. She just is possessive of her people, and likes to beat on Monty's head. (I think because she was really exceptionally nice to him after his first round of seizures and she wants to continually prove that she doesn't actually like him, and that she's a hard-hittin' kitten that he has to watch out for). Sometimes she walks up to him and sits by him and purrs like they're best buddies. I swear that when she goes and plunks herself down in the middle of his favorite bed when he's not there, she has a very smug look on her face when he veers off and comes to us and whines. I think the cat is on a power trip, just like my pushy little Fruitcake. We mostly just try to run interference (easier when she's possessive of us) and prevent her from slapping him too much. I don't really know that punishment will really work for the cat, since you aren't there when he seems to do it. Can you try to give the dog some time without the pestering cat (put the cat in another area with door closed) when he gets too pushy and obnoxious, or when you're going to be away?

I have the same problem with my cat. I have to feed her really early in the morning or she'll get sick on me, the bed, or the floor near the bed. If she doesn't get at least a tiny bit of breakfast by 6 AM (after eating her last meal the night before between 9 and 10 PM), she hurls. Heaven forbid I want to sleep in! At best I get up and feed her and her brother and get to go back to bed, at worst I get up feed them, the dogs get up, Monty whines because he needs to potty, I take both dogs out and then I'm up for the day. Hope your splitting the meals up helps you with your pupper!

Judy, I give you my supreme condolences on the passing of your mother, on top of Jilly's passing! Wish I could do more than a virtual hug in this very difficult holiday season.