greysmom

Yes to this ^^^^^ When Lilly wouldn't eat anything else we started feeding her a can of tuna day (5 oz, packed in water, only albacore). She still gets a can of tuna a day! And yes, she takes takes special blood test every year to monitor her mercury levels, which have never been more than barely detectable in 8 years. But you can use sardines, canned salmon, and the like, as toppers or by themselves.

You should do exactly what you did - calmly stand and remove him from the situation (though I would leave him outside the room until I was done eating). Then let him back in and go about your business. It's difficult to say why, but I would suspect he's pushing boundaries to try and find out exactly where your line is - much like a toddler or teenager. Firm and consistent rules and boundaries, calmly and consistently applied for him, will help him figure things out. He's not really being "aggressive" but he is pushing. If this is happening around other behaviors you might look into doing some NILIF (Nothing In Life Is Free) positive reinforcement-only training for him. This helps establish the human's place in the leadership structure of the home so he doesn't feel the need to fill the position.

If her stomach can handle it without too many issues, you might also try switching flavors/brands more often, even every day, so she doesn't have one taste in her mouth for too long. It might lengthen the time you can serve her any one food. Puppy food is good to consider as it has more calories/nutrients per can, so if you can mix it in even a few times a week it will help keep her weight up. Also pay attention to the texture of the food, which may be the issue rather than the flavor/brand. My Lilly won't eat *anything* that has lumps or chunks in it - she'll actually just spit out the whole mouthful if she feels a carrot cube!! - so I have to mash everything to a smooth pate. And one more thing - maybe she needs to eat less?? Once a day instead of twice? My seniors have almost always opted out of a meal as they age - they don't need or want the calories so they just don't eat. If she's holding her weight at a good level, one meal a day may be sufficient for her now.

Just FYI, the farther you are away from the areas that still have active racing (basically the southeastern US), the longer you will have to wait. Here in the NW we haven't had a full haul of US retired racers for more than a year, even without the pandemic. Our group used to place 150 or 200 dogs a year, and now we'll be lucky to get close to 50. People who want greyhounds greatly outnumber the available dogs - particularly if you have specific needs like your family. If you can be patient and flexible about timing, staying on a group's waiting list is probably what you'll need to do. But there are also a lot of true rescue dogs of every breed that need good committed homes right now. Whichever you choose, make sure you discuss your more timid cat with whatever adoption agency you decide to adopt from.

Yes, definitely, all of the above. And a small adjustment in thinking will help you accept this a bit better. It sounds like the group you worked with doesn't foster prior to adoption, and that means that however experienced their volunteers, and however much they *think* they know about the individual dogs in their kennels, it's still pretty much a crapshoot as to how any particular dog will react in an actual home situation. So if you consider that you received a dog and fostered her for a short amount of time, you just increased that dog's chances of finding a placement in a more appropriate home by discovering a lot of information out about her. You did a good thing, both for the dog and for your family. Cat testing relies entirely on the people doing the testing, the cat involved, and the dog's head space at the time of the test. Sometimes it's right, and sometimes it's really wrong! Dogs can lie and do very frequently! Plus, the personality of the cat in the home makes a big difference. If you had a bold cat who hissed and slapped the dog on the snout at the first sign of over interest, you likely would still have the dog - not guaranteed, but likely. But your cat isn't like that, so you need a *truly* cat tolerant greyhound. At one point we had five greyhounds and four indoor cats living together, so it's quite possible. Make sure you discuss your cat's personality with your next adoption rep. Speaking of adoption reps, the one who told you a 2 year old would spend a lot of time laying around and being quiet was incredibly wrong! You can have the occasional laid back puppy, but that's not the norm!!! Young greyhounds can be as active as any other young dog - it's their prime racing age, after all! - so you might consider an older retiree, or a bounce from a previous home next time. So wish her well and send her on her way, and look forward to a better fit for your family from your next greyhound!!

Prey drive isn't like a lot of other behaviors in dogs - it's mostly instinct and DNA - not something born out of their upbringing or nurturing environment. That is, prey drive isn't learned so it's not something that can be unlearned. You can mitigate it with distraction training and desensitization, but you never know when it will kick in and override all your hard work. If a trainer tells you s/he can permanently change your dog's prey drive, keep looking for another trainer. That being said, it sounds like you're doing everything you can do, so as others have said, it is what it is. Having a high prey drive dog means you need to be vigilant out on walks (and really anytime your dog is in uncontrolled environments). It's up to you to protect both your dog and other people's dogs your boy encounters. The other thing to do is to periodically check your yard perimeter for holes in the fencing and fill in low spots so small animals can't easily get in. We are so accustomed to thinking of our greyhounds as friends and companions that we often forget how 1000s of years of breeding can effect their behavior. The incident was upsetting and dealing with the aftermath is never fun, but your boy was just following his breeding - which you already know. Hug your boy and say a little prayer for that little chihuahua, whose owner couldn't be bothered to be be a responsible owner. If you have anger, that's who direct it towards.

!!!!!!!!CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!! (I like Fiona!!!)

Kibo!!

All those symptoms may resolve over time. Give them a couple weeks. And if ramps are easy to install I would do so - even a longer car ramp might work short term. Start with it on the ground and walk her along it a few times so she gets used to the idea first. This harness Ruffwear Webmaster may be useful depending on her surgical site. Or this one HelpMeUp

Sweep!!

Read the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants view and position on dominance. Position on Dominance Be sure to click through at the end and read the Association's official position statement. In part: "Dominance is not a natural order of power between us and our pets, nor is it a healthy or scientifically supported way to approach training and behavior consulting. It certainly doesn’t justify the use of punishment in training. An animal does not have to be dominant or submissive in order to learn—animals learn from what reinforces or punishes their behavior. They can learn from other animals in their group, from other species, and by interacting with the environment."

Every individual is different, but my spook took it every day (at a lower dose) for years and didn't have any issues. You might consider a lower maintenance dose twice a day if you think you'll need to give it long term. If it doesn't get out of his system he may not need so high an initial dose to keep him calm.

I've gotten training school dropouts at 18 months, a couple who washed out early at about 2-ish, several older adults after they were done racing, and several actual puppies under a year old - it's all about their individual personalities. They don't get "trauma" from doing what they are bred to do, and are generally happy and healthy dogs who are well adjusted to their lifestyle. Even the puppies who never trained or raced behave remarkably similarly to their successful siblings. A greyhound is greyhound!

He should begin to settle down in about a year or so. They are really puppies in adult bodies until 3+ years old. And you can still have puppy behaviors burst through until 6 years old (or older ).

Has he been tested for parasites?? Even if he has been treated he needs to be retested. In the US, hookworms are particularly drug resistant and can take months of constant treatment to clear completely - which you need to do because hooks can destroy the lining of their digestive tract. The urge to eat non-food items goes along with all this. They feel a desperate need to have something - anything - on their stomach, so they just pick up random crap from their environment, which is dangerous as you've seen. So you need to get to the bottom of his gastro issues sooner rather than later. You can begin with an omeprazole acid reducer 20 minutes before each meal. Keep him on a strict eating/eliminating schedule. Talk with your vet about a food trial to see if he has an intolerance or allergy to a protein source or a carb source. Our girl is *extremely* intolerant to any amount of chicken. Once we eliminated chicken from her diet completely, including treats (which is super hard to do!), she began to feel better.

I'm so sorry. What a horrible shock! I really hope the surgery helps give you all a bit more good quality time. {{{hugs}}}

Couple thoughts: Have your husband take over as much of the feeding and walking as he can. It will help your dog and him bond together better so the dog will care when your husband yelps. Dogs generally are here-and-now creatures, so training needs to be done pretty much at the time the behavior occurs. They won't associate the reward with the behavior if it's more than 30 secs to a minute away. You need to find a balance between a high enough value reward to get his attention for redirection, but not so high value that he will feel he needs to guard it strongly. Something just good enough. A toy, or a small peanut butter filled Kong - something he can take away from the jumping area and that will maintain his attention for about 5 minutes. If there's no such high value treat for him, then use whatever works to get his attention and redirect him from the jumping, and use the "trading up" technique to safely take it away from him after the excitement of coming home is over. I'm sure your trainer will work with you on commands to teach him to distract him and calm him down. Commands like "watch me," or "sit," or "go to your bed," can help him remain calm and in control, which is what you're trying to teach him. Make sure your trainer only uses Positive Reinforcement techniques with your greyhound. They don't respond well to negative reinforcers. Good luck and Welcome!

Remember that neck pain can often be referred from down lower in the shoulders where the scapulas connect to the muscles. And also to check each leg - toes to shoulders - with xrays/mri, as osteo can lurk there and cause limping and pain as well. Don't bother with Tramadol if they want to give you another pain med again. It's been shown to not be effective, even in human patients, and I don't know why vets keep giving it out. Ask for Codiene Sulfate, Gabapentin or Amitriptyline, or even a tolerated nsaid would be better as a pain reliever {{{hugs}}}

I might start with an acid reducer though, to see if it's acid reflux. And try and get a good piece of video with sound for your vet. He'll last for 10 or 15 seconds while you record it, then let him out. It also wouldn't hurt to keep a log of each incident, and any unusual daily breaks from routine.

If you haven't yet, search through the forum for "cat tolerant," "cat introductions," and "prey drive around cats" to help you decide how to move forward. It's difficult to tell from your description how strong your dogs prey drive is. If they are actually Galgos from a Spanish rescue, I would speculate that they will not ever be safe around any small prey animal. They had to live for too long on the streets, hunting their own food, to make that a good option. Galgos in general also seem to have a naturally higher prey drive than our retired racing greyhounds. If you introduce a cat to a dog and they shake, drool, whine, pull, stare intently, refuse to be distracted even by high value treats, it's highly likely you have a non-cat-tolerant dog that will not be safe around them pretty much ever. You can speak with a trainer/behaviorist, and a (very) few owners here in GT have successfully managed to change their dog's minds, but it takes A LOT of consistent training, and constant management. It also takes very confident cats. If your boyfriend's cats are scared or run at all, it just charges the dogs up for the chase. So really evaluate your level of commitment to this task. Talk with your boyfriend frankly about the dangers, and see what he thinks about exposing his cats to them. Your best short term option is to safely confine the cats to their own room when/if you visit with the dogs.

The Osteo Thread Part 9 The first post has links to other sites for info. The rest is the experiences of people here on GT as they deal with this horrible disease. The Greyhound Health Initiative is the portal to get consults from noted greyhound cancer expert Dr Guillermo Couto. It's completely worth the $99 cost if you or your vet have a question regarding treatment or diagnoses. If you are in the States they *may* still offer free chemo doses. The Dog Cancer Blog is another resource for owners. This is not a greyhound specific site. Their book The Dog Cancer Survival Guide is from Amazon (US) here. The Ruffwear Webmaster Harness is what most (US) dog parents of rear leg amps use to help our dogs get around. It's well made in the USA, offers an excellent fit for greyhound body shapes, and comfortable enough for them to wear 24/7. The first two weeks following the surgery are the hardest you will experience. After that, you will wonder why you were so worried and stressed out. Good luck and all our best thoughts!

Wiki!!!

Trazadone here. It's been our miracle drug since we had our spooky Cash. Felicity and Andi are fine, but (as I said in the Club) Lilly has become extremely noise phobic as she's gotten older. Even getting a pan out of the cupboard and knocking it into the other pans will send her running upstairs. Fortunately the trazadone works for her as she reacts weirdly to most drugs. I do have to sit right next to her during the worst part to keep her calm, but I'll take that over the alternative. Make sure you talk with your vet and get enough to try it out a few times before you really need it. You need to see how he reacts and if you need to adjust the dosage and timing. It does work better when it's in their system a bit before they begin freaking out. Lilly weighs about 85# and 50mg does her just right. It lasts about 6 hours for her, then she's back to normal. Andi gets 75mg for her SA and she only weighs 65#. And a dose will sedate her for 8+ hours. Felicity hardly reacts to the same dosage and she's smaller. Some people have had really good results from the (relatively) new drug called Sileo. Some have no reaction at all. It's one of those things you need to try on your individual dog to see their reaction beforehand. It all depends on how their particular brain chemistry reacts to individual anti anxiety drugs. If Spirit is on Gabapentin, you may want to try Nate on that as it can also help in cases of thunder or fireworks fears at the proper dosage and you already have it on hand.