racindog

America's favorite spud dish will be celebrated on July 13 for National French Fry Day. In 2019 we had such greyt fun remembering Rocket and celebrating with him which is how this thread started. I cannot say what the deal is with the difference in dates. I am clear about Rockets Spoil Your Hound Day in the fall and somehow I've wound up here on National FF Day with Rocket's blessing. Therefore I propose it is fitting to celebrate the 2020 Rocket's Fry Day on National French Fry Day on Monday the 13th. The dogs will all be enjoying fries and honoring Rocket. Please join in the fun of celebrating the one and only Rocket hound. His spirit is still strong here with his GT friends

Glad Cletus is looking so fine! You can't keep a good man down

My deepest sympathy. I did have a hound act similarly and it ultimately turned out that it was believed he had a slow growing brain cancer that caused him to have to be euthanized due to seizuring. Hugs! I understand. Never forget your boy was a good boy and still is and that he is in heaven and healed.

Good luck today Cletus! Sending love and tons of positive energy!

I have Healthy Paws. Of course they WERE wonderful BEFORE they were sold. Since then they have been HORRIBLE. Completely unresponsive and pretty much impossible to speak to or deal with. Their Customer Srvc is now overseas so if you try to contact them you waste a long time even getting through. Then all they do is just recite the same stuff that you already know and that is on the web site. No resolution for the issue you called about in the first place. They truly don't really speak American. So then they offer to transfer you to an english speaking supervisor in AZ. He doesn't say anything-just keeps the line open until you give up and hang up. Just received notice of this years rate increase for my 3 dogs ages 6 months, 5 years and 9 years. It is going up from $159.49 to $210.86 But I feel like I am stuck because of my 9 year old. She has been insured this whole time with them so heaven knows what it would cost to try and find another provider at her age. And MPthe4pack when I signed up my brand new 8 week old very well bred pup ( zero liklihood of any hip problems etc.) it was almost $50 a month then! So what with the increase its looking like ~$75/ month for a young healthy well bred Belgian Shepherd pup of around a year old! I guess the insurance companies know how much we love our dogs and have decided to gouge us for coverage-especially since vet care seems to have become so very expensive lately. I did check out Prudent Pet and Figo and both of them would cost pretty much the same or more than the HP. Of course if they are actually better perhaps it would be worth switching but I just kind of feel like they have me over a barrel and no matter what I do it doesn't seem like I'm being treated fairly. I will add also that I did not even turn in 'small' claims under $250-350 because I knew that making claims will make your rates go up(even though they deny it). In fact one year I had ZERO claims. So its not like the were paying a lot out on me.

A tip on the x-rays when/if you get them......make sure your vet offers the actual legitimate "dental x-rays." He can take x-rays with his 'regular' x-ray machine but they do NOT show a comprehensive picture. Only legitimate dental x-rays do. I had a credentialed vet dental specialist take a specific dental x-ray of my dog and it was still only around $50. Why pay the same amount of money for x-rays that are NOT as reliable and may miss something? It is an important difference. Anybody that questions it should let a certified (not a vet that just 'claims' a dental specialty) explain it to them( and that includes vets to according to what the legitimate specialists have told me).

Where on the crate is it being caught? The vertical bars on the side or between the crate door and the crate body? If he is getting it stuck between the door and the crate he is trying to escape and you are right it is exceedingly dangerous. I had a hound one time get his head through and then got his neck/windpipe stuck stuck between the door and the crate. By the grace of God my mom happened to walk in and save him. That problem can be resolved by upgrading to a better crate. If he is doing it to his wire one he will do it to some of the other equivalent crates too. IMO the answer would be to just upgrade to a Gunner. Then he will be super safe even when traveling (it is the only crate that has passed the U.S. crash tests). They seem kind of pricey at first but they are guaranteed for LIFE so you will never have to buy another one. And they will also be as safe as possible whether crated at home or traveling. If he is trying to escape it he doesn't sound like that bad of a "case" to me. Dogs with genuine issues will mangle and get out of those wire crates pretty easy so he would have been out by now. Sounds like he was just being mischieveous to me. Still you are in a fix until you resolve this because it is terribly dangerous and can't be allowed to happen again. Lucky he didn't seriously hurt himself already. You can get a cheaper different kind of crate than a Gunner but what usually happens with such dogs is they just go after the new crate in a different way by chewing on it and exploiting its weaknesses. I don't know of a cheaper crate that will safely contain him. I do have every confidence in the Gunner kennels however. I have 3 of them. They safely contain even police dogs. If you travel at all with your dog you should look at the crash tests and what happens with other kennels in a crash. Even the $1200 Variocage failed miserably. There is a section on their web page where you can see pics of some of the crashes Gunner has protected the dogs in. It is amazing. https://gunner.com/pages/testimonials Here is a link to the most recent crate safety tests. Check out the vids on the wire crates. Its shocking. The study website has many recent crash test videos for carriers and different pet safety restraints. Good info. https://www.centerforpetsafety.org/test-results/crates/2015-crate-study-results/

Can't wait to see all you guys and hounds again! Go Mountain Hounds! Counting down to blast off!

Yogurt. I'm surprised it hasn't already been mentioned. I have given my dogs 1 -4 ounces with breakfast,and more at night if they are a new dog 'getting it together.' I extremely rarely have any diarrhea issue. K9 Finest (see link) might help also and their paste treatment probably most certainly would. I have been feeding it for ~3 years now. I believe they are giving away a free fairly large sample jar of it at the web site now. The active ingredient (amaferm) helps them digest their food better. I would also 2nd the suggestion to be vigilant about hookworms or other parasites. https://k9finest.com/offer/

You are wise to have a plan before hand! Some greyhounds have never even seen a little child before and could possible confuse it with prey at first until they learn different. Then some greyhounds that have never seen children just for some reason like them and are great kid dogs. I had one like that. He was a big male, had never even seen a child before, but immediately gravitated to them and enjoyed their company! He was kind and gentle right from the start. But he was an exception! With most hounds you need to be very careful with until you are sure they understand that the baby is actually a little human and not prey. I would show them the baby, let them sniff it if they want, and then just let time work its magic. Time means months possibly, not weeks, and really I would be hesitant to trust any dog around a child (for the dogs protection as much as the kids) without supervision. But honestly I don't see a problem. The houndies will get used to the baby and will come to understand it is part of their pack family. Thats the way it should work. Now yes there are some hounds that simply have such a high prey drive it just won't work but those kind of hounds are also unusual. What you described was normal prey drive which should not be a problem as long as you calmly and confidently proceed along with integrating in your new pack member. Greyhounds are smart and they have big ol' loving hearts and they should learn and adjust without any major issues. But do understand that doesn't mean you can let them closely interact with the baby, at least at first, because I can assure you that would stress them out probably and then start a negative association right from the beginning. Show them the baby, let them sniff it, tell them who it is, and then just go about your business. You want every experience they have with the baby to be positive so they realize it is a GOOD thing and nothing to be stressed about. They will figure it all out if gently and carefully guided along like that. And never never let the child pull on their ears or poke them etc. But just be careful and enjoy the journey. I wouldn't think you will have any problems as long as you don't rush things and if you take a lot of time and always supervise.

I would get to a decent vet for evaluation asap. My main concern would be abscessed tooth and that can kill relatively quick. The reason I would be so concerned about that is because I had a dog with a blocked salivary glad that caused a big lump right on the bottom/side of her throat that the vet said was not an issue and to leave it alone. It never caused any issues and was NEVER the least bit painful. The pain your girl has probably means its something that needs attention sooner than later. JMO.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!

My deepest sympathy. She needed you when she needed you- and you were there for her. That is a special connection that will never be broken between you two. The dog picks the human. Her mission was to be with her new mom. She knew she could trust you to get her there. I know about these kind of special relationships. I understand. And I wouldn't be surprised if she doesn't send you a sign reaffirming the eternal love you two share.

Well there is this also....as wrong as it is I know there have been stupid people feed their dogs quite a few- like those little raisin boxes- and it has never caused their dogs any problem at all. With the quick treatment your boys have had I am rooing that your boys will be fine. Be sure and keep us updated.

If it had it happened w/ one of my dogs I wouldn't worry too much about it unless it suddenly becomes an actual behavior pattern. One thing to always remember about dog bites is that biting to a dog doesn't mean the same thing as it does to us humans. Dogs bite. All dogs bite. It is what dogs do. It is one of their major ways to communicate and this is how they perceive it. On the other hand humans tend to see a dog bite as an overt negative aggressive act and frankly it just might not be that. It could simply be that for whatever reason Billy felt the need to simply communicate like the dog he is-with a bite. It is extremely important to note that it was not a bite intended to do harm. If it had been intended for harm frankly her face would have been mutilated instantly. But a quick little nip that in dog terms was harmless actually proves he was NOT trying to harm her but rather just communicate the need to back off-again we may never know what actually was the trigger. But it shows excellent bite inhibition- he deliberately did NOT try to harm her. What that means is that you now know that Billy is in fact a very safe dog! You know that because he has just demonstrated that even when something happens that triggers a bite he exercises good bite inhibition and the actual damage is minor. Not all dogs do. Some never learned bite inhibition and when they bite it is with full force and damaging! So said all that to say this. I couldn't count the number of times I have sustained little bites like that form various dogs of mine. I shrugged it off as the price I pay if I want to share my life with dogs who use biting to effectively communicate to each other and us. I believe Billy is fine. I believe Billy had absolutely no intention of harming her and probably doesn't even realize he did. In a dogs view he did not because he exercised such wonderful bite inhibition expressly because he did not want to hurt her. And really if anything its a feather in Billy's cap because now you know that even if he feels pushed into a bite he won't do any serious damage. BTW, what you described is far from serious damage in a dogs mind. They are easily capable of being brutal when they bite. Dog bites without bite inhibition break bones and mutilate-it bites not just noses but pieces of the face completely off. If you share your life with dogs you will get bit, because that is what dogs do. Be a dog. Don't take it personal because they don't! Billy is still a very good boy.

Beautiful things!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!! He looks like he will be a wonderful hound! I have known you for a long time here and he is a lucky dog to have found you because you will give him what he needs to really blossom. I wouldn't be concerned with the resource guarding either. He is so new and he hasn't experienced the personal touch of DocsDoctor yet It's easily managed until he learns and matures away from it IMO-small price to pay for such a fine gentleman! Please keep us advised on ya'lls adventures. This is wonderful news! Oh yeah re:osting pictures.......this is the way that works for me......apparently this new froum only accepts 'small' pictures. Therefore open your picture in Paint or whatever and then click "re-size" and then just select how small you need to go. I believe I usually have to reduce them down to ~25% of their original size. Then re-save it and then it should post OK to GT. But thats what works for me. I just take my ordinary picture; re-size it with a photo app like Paint; re-save and then it should post OK. If the original picture is really large you may need to go even smaller than 25% but this is the process that works for me. Also I can't get it to post multuple pics in the same post like the old days. I have to post each pic in a new post since each post must be so small.

One of the most joyful experiences of my life was being blessed to be Mom to Momma Seabird and her daughter Bobber. I was also blessed to foster several of Momma's 57 babies. Momma & Bobber were were so intensely bonded! Bobber loved her Mom soooo much. She doted on her and did little random acts of kindness to her-like giving her Mom her bully stick etc. She would follow her Mom around and watch to make sure the other dogs didn't get too rough around her Mom. It was an amazing thing to watch over the years-quite a love story-beautiful. You are in for a most wonderful experience.

My heart is breaking for you. That was such a beautiful tribute you wrote. I especially liked how he would re-locate your slippers hehe. I could just see him standing there over them when you came back in! I am so glad he sent you that sign. I know how comforting that is. Perhaps he may even send another....

That picture with his bow tie is priceless. It really shows his personality. I am so sorry he had to leave.

My deepest sympathy . I was so sorry to read this this morning. I knew Trolley due to her relationship with Rocket. I wonder if Trolley and Lexie and Rocket are all barking it up right now.

It is heartwarming to know that she and Rocket are united again. Some things are meant to be.

I definitely wanted to 2nd your warning about the GPS collars. I too was burnt by Whistle after they destroyed Tagg. And I was also burnt by the AKC version which is also junk. They were never able to even provide me a single collar that actually did what it was supposed to do and finally just told me that they couldn't! I don't know of a single reliable collar now. And I spent hundreds on them before so its not like I was knowingly buying junk. The AKC one actually admitted to me that they could not give me one that would function as it was supposed to! I gave up finding one. There is a 'Planet Smartcollar' page on FB that has soem info.