Fruitycake

Hope Brooks is feeling better soon! I know that people can easily get "cat scratch fever" from scratches, and having been bitten I know how deep and needle-like those teeth really are. Perfect little innoculators of whatever bacteria they have in their mouths, because the wounds close up as if they weren't even there, trapping the nasties under the skin. This should illustrate to your neighbors why their cat shouldn't be running around, though. *sigh*

I'm going to have to come into the conversation as believing that this situation is too dangerous for the cat. The dog is showing great interest in the cat as prey or plaything, and the cat is terrified (and rightfully so since the dog could kill her in an instant). The initial introductions piqued the dog's interest (oo new toy!) and terrified the cat. The cat wants to run away when faced with the much larger, dangerous predator that wants to eat her, which only increases the dog's interest in chasing and catching her. And from the description, it sounds as if the OP is new to dog ownership, or new to dog-and-cat ownership, much less high-prey-dog-and-terrified-cat ownership. Yes, with a lot of hard work and absolutely constant vigilence and secure, solid barriers between the two animals for an extended period of time so there can be absolutely NO reinforcement of the predator-prey interaction (inciting to chase on the part of the greyhound, inciting to run on the part of the cat), this might work. But the first mistake might be the last for the cat. The cat was there first, is older (slower, more prone to injuries in general and slower to heal if injured), and shouldn't have it's life put at risk for a new addition to the household that could easily harm or kill it, or be a shut in to a safe room most of the time because it's too dangerous for it to be out. If you really want to make this work, it will require constant vigilence. Real barriers between the animals any time you cannot be attached to the greyhound and supervise it - NO muzzle will protect a cat from a truly determined high-prey greyhound or other dog - and constant training and reinforcing of ignoring the cat every time the grey sees the cat. If you take a good look at your life, and the amount of work it would take to ensure the safety of the cat, and can honestly say that you are willing to do all of the work it needs, it can work. But it certainly is not going to be quick, and may never happen. Others have lived with a divided household until one or the other has passed on (and they grey could live to up to 14 years old, easily, and the cat to 18 - so maybe another 10 years!).

I am sorry that you have lost your beloved little girl. It was obvious how much you love and wanted to do right by her, and yet feared saying goodbye at the same time. I hope the love you still hold in your heart helps heal you.

It does take a dog that has never learned to offer behaviors a while to get the hang of the idea that they are doing something that gets something good. Especially something like interacting with a box, which has absolutely no inherent draw for them to investigate unless it smells good or usually contains food, or is otherwise interesting. Unfortunately you have to make it interesting, which is hard to do at the beginning. I'd go back some steps, and try training for something she actually does show interest in doing all on her own. It could be a number of things: lying on her bed, moving toward her dish at feeding time, getting up when it is time for a walk, jumping into the car when it's time for a car ride.... You may have to be creative in finding something that she does do already that you can click-reward before you ask her to do something completely foreign to her by interacting with something that is completely uninteresting scenery like a box. The box is kind of an advanced step for a greyhound, who is used to being catered to like royalty and never had to learn to figure out how to get the people in her life to give her treats!

Monty has had no negative changes over the past couple of months, and we've had multiple bags of TOTW Pacific Stream in that time. In fact, at this point, I've noticed that his most recent poops are almost crumbly. Not rock hard, but nice and firm and nothing at all like pudding!

Their response at first "finding a grey that their dog gets along with" is incredibly naive. A Boston terrier, though small and smoosh-faced, is still a terrier at heart. I don't think I'd trust him to get along with any dog brought into his home without a proper introduction. There should have been an introduction before the final pass off, in my opinion, to give everyone a clear view of the situation when not in the Boston's territory, and maybe the grey should have been brought in by his foster people to make sure that everything would be fine with the little dog (if he was not cat safe, I would have thought it would have been more controlled in case he decided to go after the Boston). I don't think I'd give the grey a chance to be attacked again, until I was absolutely sure that the Boston was acting fine around the hound in non-home settings, and then carefully re-introduced in the home with an advocate for the grey there (and a handler specifically for the grey that the Boston doesn't view as "his").

Can you invite the pet sitter over multiple times to just hang with you for a while in the room that he's protecting? Make her part of the "family" that belongs in that room? Maybe sweeten the deal with the sitter by providing dinner or something while she's there. If she does come over she can give him treats while she's in there and the rest of the family ignores him? Just a couple of thoughts....

You don't list your location, but there may be retired racing greyhound groups in your area that may have group walks or may have members that are willing to meet you to do a walk with your pup. I know that seeing greyhounds when we are out-and-about is exciting (at least for us) and have had people pull over and talk to us if they currently have or have had or even are interested in greyhounds. Since yours is young, you may not be seeing this yet (they go through odd growth spurts where different body parts grow at different rates and they can be all over the map so aren't necessarily immediately recognizable as a greyhound). I know that even though our Monty came to our house at 1.5 years, he really developed a lot of confidence from being in a group of similar dogs, so we would regularly walk with a greyhound group. Now, he really likes people and doesn't give other dogs the time of day after a quick sniff. If you can't regularly walk with other dogs who might boost her confidence, you may also want to work on teaching her that merely being with you outside is good. Bring really tasty treats and when ever there is a noise that makes her look toward the source, see if you can give her a treat for looking back at you. If she won't do that, see if you can just give her treats when she's outside with you at all. (Monty didn't like walks and would not take any treats when outside, so this may be beyond your dog at this time. Now he shows off his two tricks (target and lie) anywhere and everywhere if there might be any sort of treat in the offing!)

That sounds like a scary situation for all involved! I am sorry that you went through this and agree that maybe potential owners of any dog should be warned about sleep startle (we have a non-grey who does it, so it isn't really just greys - our grey never has never had it). I agree with reaching out to your adoption group and discussing the situation with them, and asking them what your options are now. Also letting them know that they may want to at least mention sleep startle and space aggression to potential owners may be a good idea. Our non-grey had a very rocky entrance into our household and while she never broke skin, she was on "probation" for probably a year while we worked through some serious issues. And we had a lot of dog experience before we brought her in! I wish you comfort in whatever you decide.

Monty never does this (and he's not much into the marking everywhere, as most boy dogs are). Allie, our girl dog, does the kick after every poop and after most pees. I usually can direct her to get onto pavement or sidewalk (so she files her own nails!) but if I don't a gentle "hey, get on the sidewalk" will get her to stop. She also is a marker - around one block she will pee about 4 times, a little here a little there, and will always pee after seeing another dog and getting huffy at it, or being barked at by another dog (even when it is inside a house and she can't see it).

Monty and I have a system: if he's getting close to sprinkling his front foot, I can either lift up the front paw to move it forward (with his "paw" command and a tap to the foot I need moved), or I gently nudge back the leg on the same side as the paw he's about to hit (for Monty it's his left rear leg, which he never lifts up) and it will cause him to bring it back a little and he ends up peeing on the outside of his left front foot. If he's already lifted his right hind leg and starts to sag, I will assist him holding up that leg. Yep, I help my dog pee. My husband likes to ask if I'm going to write my name or his name in the snow in the winter.

Smart dog!

I think that your grey is just showing good sense to not want to be approached by someone who is being rude or may be aggressive or too rambunctious for his taste. Putting you between him and another dog he doesn't want to meet: very smart! It shows that he trusts you to protect him as need be from unwanted attention from another dog. I'd make sure to be more proactive and making sure to be the protector he sees you as, because if you don't protect him (even from just overly friendly dogs) he may decide he needs to and become leash reactive (become one that growls, lunges, bites or snaps) himself. Keep allowing him to avoid those he doesn't want to interact with. Just as we wouldn't want to be thrown in with company that doesn't suit us, neither do our dogs. The difference is that we can rationalize it and know how long we have to put up with things if we can't avoid it (standing in line with a boor at the DMV, for example). The studying other dogs after they pass is also a good sign. He's not shut down, he's not aggressive after they turn their back, he's just checking them out. Also, dogs don't naturally approach head-on like we make them have to when we walk on a 6' wide sidewalk straight toward one another. It could be that if he were given his druthers, he'd be doing a slow "coming at them from an angle in a polite doggie way" and this is his compromise since he can't when on leash and constrained to narrow walkways. I think he's doing everything very well, myself!

I would also suggest that if you know someone is coming over and you know that you can't be watching her every second, that you put her away in a safe spot so you don't have to try to juggle her and whoever has come to the door (utilities workers, a few people for a gathering, etc.). It will relieve her of the feel that she needs to protect her space from people if she's just in a smaller space where no one is intruding on her, and won't allow her to rehearse the protective behavior. We had an X-Pen set up in the living room for a while for an unrelated issue, but if you have her trained to place in her bed in a protected location, she can see people and not be able to interact with them because of the barrier. That only really works if you either have a large living room OR you don't mind losing most of the space in your living room (this was our situation). Then people wouldn't even have to interact with her to give her treats, just toss them to her on her bed inside her "house" and everyone is safe.

What great news! Thanks for posting an update, especially so new or potential adopters can see that there is hope when things look bleak!

I work in a library and we've had many dog training books come back chewed, but eating a clicker is a new one. I guess it must have smelled at least a little like training treats! I'll have to keep that in mind if I should leave ours out.... I hope all passes without an issue. (Did you check his teeth? Monty always has a bit of debris stuck in his teeth when he eats inappropriate stuff.)

With Monty, rain was way worse than snow (though he hates stepping into snow over about 1/2 inch high). He also would refuse to do anything when wearing a rain jacket so we considered that a failed experiment after having to walk him for hours and his refusing to do anything until we'd take off the jacket and then he'd do something. I think it took about a week for us to learn that he hated it that much and to just give up and give it to another dog. Stress can cause constipation, merely through a huge desire not to go where it is yucky. If you can handle it, just keep her out with you and do a lot of walking and walking and walking which will help get the bowels moving no matter how much she doesn't want to go. If you don't leash walk, just take her out regularly enough and watch her like a hawk while in the house, so it will end up outside. It does get better! It took about 2 months with Monty to be really comfortable going to the bathroom while he was leashed, and then he had seizures and seemed to unlearn everything but his name and we started again in November when it was colder and would rain/sleet/snow/be freezing when we had to train him to do it again. I can totally relate with your frustration! If at all possible, try to keep yourself calm because any tension on your part (even if you don't think it is obvious) can cause doggie-elimination-lockdown. Monty still has this trouble with my husband who will get frustrated during the latest walks of the night and Monty is a "delicate flower" who wilts if you even think of getting upset at anything - not even him. I promise it will get better! Eventually you can look back on this and help another person through this frustration!

I'm with all of the others that question why a dog who apparently is being controlled on pheno is being taken off drugs to control the seizures. It sounds like people with schizophrenia or depression feeling better and deciding they don't need medication anymore (so they revert to the symptoms that were being controlled). Unless, of course, he is showing some really serious side effects (other than walking around even more clumsily than these long-legged, long-nosed dogs will do normally). Monty is a 75 lb dog on pheno and he's been on it since October 2007 and hasn't had a seizure since about 2 days after he went on the drug. That's after having had 6 in a day, which seemed to wipe out everything he'd learned since he'd come to our house 3 months previously. If he weren't being controlled, I'd have looked to KBr, which has fewer side effects (liver problems, which Monty does not have and is tested for every 3 months), and moved on from there - but KBr has a much longer "loading period to effective blood levels" so we started with pheno. And since it works (and is relatively cheap and easy to give), we're keeping him on it.

Heard from whom? This sounds like a modification of the "McDonalds puts worms in their burgers" hooey (http://www.snopes.com/horrors/food/wormburger.asp). For more information, please see Snopes for information on these and other rumors about McDonald's burgers: http://www.snopes.com/business/market/allbeef.asp

Oh yeah, we've had this problem. Monty didn't want to do anything while on leash because he just wasn't used to it (from track, to a house with a fenced yard where he could potty at will, to our house where we have no fenced yard and he had to potty on leash!). It took a couple of months of every time we'd walk him that we'd end up walking him for up to and over an hour to get him to potty on leash [edited because it looked like I was saying we walked him for months...though sometimes when we were in a hurry and had to get somewhere, and it was raining or cold or we were tired it certainly felt like it!], and that he only would manage to potty when we were studiously pretending not to be there. If he saw us looking at him, or if we said anything, or even if we moved he would cancel the job and we'd just have to keep on walking. We could not give treats or do any celebrating when he'd go, because he was also pretty new to home life in general and wouldn't even eat when outside. Everything had to be very low-key for him, but he did get more reliable after he discovered that it was good to potty outside while leashed. I'm glad you've had some success already, and I hope that things work so you can get her to perform adequately while you're traveling with her. If she still isn't reliable, when you're at your destination you're probably going to want to have her go back to "tethering" and keeping her with you at all times so she can't decide to scoot into another room to go potty in privacy. This will require constant attention on your parts, unfortunately, and an Exercise pen ("x-pen") can be a lifesaver if you don't have a kennel for her. If you have to leave her and she hasn't gone, I hope the family has a linoleum room you can block her in so it doesn't end up on carpet or wood or other less cleanable surface!

It is likely just a bit of the "not so hungry right now" feeling. Our second dog when we got her (not a grey, but adopted) didn't eat anything for about 3 days, then grudgingly ate a little, and it probably took over two weeks before she actually seemed interested in eating instead of doing it grudgingly. Now she's as much a chow-hound as our greyhound is! I'd just give him time and not push it at him. Put the food down, give him a set amount of time to eat (if you want to schedule his meals for a regular time) and then pick up the bowl and offer it again next mealtime. As other have said, he's not going to starve himself. You don't say where you are from, so if you also are in a hot region, heat decreases both of my dogs' appetites so it could be a factor as well. I bet a lot of your concerns are due to his just slowly trying to get the feel for his new home, and watching and waiting to see what is happening. Greys aren't terribly outrageous in their "happiness" expressions a lot of the time, and though Monty does show really great affection for people when meeting them now, he didn't for about the first 2 years that we owned him. Personalities continue to evolve in these dogs, so as Jenbo and Gryffenne say, the dog you see now is definitely not the same dog you'll see in a couple months or years in the future. I wouldn't worry so much about doing training immediately with him, unless there is definitely something you need him to do (or not do). At first, the best thing you can do is to reinforce the bonds of affection, by giving him love when he wants it and accepting his love when he gives it. Figuring out how he likes best to be touched and doing more of that is great reinforcement for all (him because he's getting what he likes from people he lives with, and you because it just feels good to make the critters in our lives happy!). I'm glad everything is going pretty well for you with your new hound (but he may test boundaries as he settles in!).

I am sorry to hear of Poodle's passing. He was quite the character. And those memories of the oddball times when things might have gone awry really show how good a pet-parent you really were. It was always easy to see how much you loved him. RIP Poodle, and say hi to all of your friends that have passed before you.

If you don't have a fenced in yard for pottying, be aware that some greys are not used to pottying while on leash/attached to a human. It can truly be a tiring experience if you have to walk and walk and walk and try not to be there anytime they look like they might be thinking of pottying. Even if you do have a fenced yard, you might want to see if he/she will potty when on leash (just in case you travel or something happens to your fence and it is suddenly required). This may be a deal-breaker for some. If you do have a fenced yard, walk the dog around the yard at first to introduce him/her to the area so he gets the lay of the land and watch the dog when he/she is out there. Check for any areas that might cause snagging or tripping if the dog should decide to zoom around. Holes, sticks, slippery areas can be dangerous to a dog who doesn't know the area.

An alternative, which is even easier, is never let them run at the same time. If your foster is going to be after her, it would just be easier to prevent any ability to perform the pushy behavior (which has got to be fun for him, and every time he does it he's self-rewarding even if you eventually catch him and stop it).

We divide the food portion for the day into 3 meals: breakfast right before leaving for work (around 7:30 AM), dinner around 5:30 or 6 PM, and final meal at 9:30 or 10 PM. It makes Monty a reliable alarm clock on the weekends (very common when feeding meals any time!), but it works for us.