PrairieProf

Yeah, that sounds like a pretty good description of me. She is so cute when she gets that glint in her eye and smiley mouth and starts swishing her tail.... And when she's off leash, I sometimes pull or push her a bit to try to get her going and set off a zoomie.... so I give her very mixed messages. For the reasons you point out, I won't let her loose with children or anyone else in a context where she might do that, and I only allow really experienced people I to walk her. I do worry that she's really going to hurt me by accident one day ... she really leaps up and those teeth come kind of near my head sometimes. I'm sure she does have excess energy at times, but she gets quite a lot of exercise on and off leash, as much as I can manage without a yard at my house or another dog. Often the playbiting off leash is a sign she needs to take off for a good run, but sometimes it takes a while for her to decide to do that.

Ah ha, so not being on the furniture didn't fix it! Beth barks at me sometimes too, when she gets really ramped up. But she also barks (a lot and loudly!) at other dogs to get them to run/play, so it's clearly related behavior.

A lot of people believe this, though, no? I was just reading online. Beth clearly seems very "whatever" about when she eats, waiting patiently until I'm ready to feed her whether that's before or after me. But the beds are clearly an important resource to her... though even there, she gets off if I tell her to. Well, if she's awake enough.

A lot of people believe this, though, no? I was just reading online. Beth clearly seems very "whatever" about when she eats, waiting patiently until I'm ready to feed her whether that's before or after me. But the beds are clearly an important resource to her....

Thanks Heather, I value your opinion (do you have a number of dogs who do this behavior? Beth is the only grey I know who's so bitey). Is her seeing me as "part of the pack" a problem, though? I know that part of my problem is that I'm not consistent enough; when Beth gets happy and gets a certain playful glint in her eye and maybe mouths my hand a little, it's cute and hard to correct. And when we're off leash with no other dogs I try to get her ramped up a bit so she'll do zoomies (she never bites me when she has other dogs to play with), so that elicits the behavior. And when I try to correct her, it's like she sees it as all part of the game -- yeah, she'll down or whatever, but the minute I move on she wants to jump and bite again. And "no!" makes absolutely no dent. She does do it with other people, so I'd really like to stop her doing it (and I have bruises on my arms, and her tooth ripped a shirt sleeve the other day) -- or at least to have a "soft mouth" as you say.

Beth is in most ways an utterly perfect greyhound ... confident, easy-going, well-mannered in the house, zero sleep/space aggression, does great in training classes, of which we've done a lot. She's generally well-mannered on leash as well, but her one behavioral issue (on and off leash) is that when she wants to play she'll jump and play-bite me quite assertively, and once she gets going it's quite difficult to turn off the behavior until she's ready to settle down (rattling a penny can knocks it out for a few days or more). Today we were doing an outdoor class with a trainer/behaviorist (positive reinforcement based) I've worked with some, and at one point to give Beth a break I tried to jog with her a bit on the grass, and she started the play-biting. The trainer told me that Beth does this because she doesn't see me as the pack leader. She asked me if Beth eats before or after me (varies) and does she get on the furniture/beds (yup, the beds are the softest place so of course she spends a lot of time on them!). She said that to stop Beth play-biting I have to not let her on the beds -- the height makes her think she's equal to me. I do understand NILIF and the whole theory, but the connection between where she sleeps and how she behaves outdoors, when she is obedient to other commands and non-pushy in every other way, seems sort of tenuous to me ... and frankly I can't imagine how I'd forbid the beds now after two years, or enforce it while I'm asleep (I'd have to block off my guest room virtually all the time). Waking up to Beth snuggled next to me is one of my great pleasures. Meanwhile this trainer just adores Beth, talks about what a balanced dog she is and how perfect she is for calming other fearful or reactive dogs, praises how well she does obedience exercises ... I'm just having trouble putting it all together. I also know a lot of people don't buy the pack theory now, but I wasn't able to argue that effectively.

Good luck! Beth just had surgery last week to do a skin repair where she had a ruptured cyst -- she came through it well (after a rough first night with anesthetic aftereffects) and eight days later it's amazing how much progress there's been in the healing of the incision.

I use Petzlife in addition to (or sometimes instead of) brushing. I do see a difference from using it (in our case from very good to excellent teeth), though you have to be consistent; it takes a few weeks of using it daily to really see the effect.

I am so very sorry -- so unbelievably unfair to lose one to cancer so young.

What a precious face! Hope she heals quickly.

Interesting. Beth has Mi Designer as a great-grandfather, and a fairly sensitive digestive system, though nothing dramatic like you describe. RobinM's Beau has the same relation and he has IBD.

Yes, they take blood from the neck (even for a blood sample to send to the lab). Beth once got some vivid bruising after a blood draw and I brought her back in rather freaked. But it's not a sign of illness or anything, just some leakage under the skin.

That sounds so fun -- I sometimes informally dance around with Beth, get her to circle me, etc. and would enjoy a class in this, but as far as we know we don't have anything so fancy here.

When working on recall, I always tell Beth to "wait," and then walk away from her. This was something we worked on a ton in classes. Though I'll confess that she understands the "recall game" well in that context -- not as well if she's at a distance doing her own thing.

Beth seems a good deal more normal this evening, since I picked her up at the vet around 4:30. She did have loose poop when I walked her, but it wasn't liquidy D, so I'd say things are headed in the right direction. And she ate a half cup of food quite eagerly -- I'm going to give her some more in a bit. The incision still looks like something from a slasher flick, but the vet tech swore again that from a medical perspective it looks wonderful (and the vet got a look at her too). She explained the 4" incision when I asked and it was exactly as Fasave described. So now just to wait through all the weeks until it heals up and the hair grows back.....

Thanks, this is informative and reassuring! It did occur to me that the pulled-together skin would "pull" less if the incision was a longer one. (And I'm hoping that 4" incision healed so you don't even see it now!)

Hey everyone. Beth is definitely not normal yet this morning but I guess isn't doing too badly. She slept through the night, mostly -- around 5 a.m. she started making soft little whiny noises but stopped after I lay down next to her (and spent the remainder of the night wedged into 12" of bed). She got up on her own but when we went out for a walk she had D. It might be from the dairy products last night but I just called the vet and the tech said it could be from the anesthesia too. I did feed her half a cup of food. I'm going to take her in to the vet for day boarding from about 10-4 today ... the bright idea that I could do that came to me this morning. I have an unusually hectic day (on little sleep!) and it will be a lot easier on me if I don't have to rush home to check on her midday, and can know people are keeping an eye on her all day. Oh, and the incision is looking pretty good -- less swollen than last night! Kristin, the vet gave me a no-bite collar to use if needed ... we haven't needed it yet, but it's good to know to be alert as time passes. She also has a fetching kimono she can wear.

+1 TOTW Pacific Stream has worked great for me -- the only formula with no chicken, though they have just this moment introduced a single-protein formula with lamb. And it's not as rich as many grain frees. At any rate, all the three foods you list ingredients for seem more similar than not ... I would consider something different. It doesn't have to be chicken+grain.

All hail the magic power of dairy products!! I went to put some yogurt in a bowl for Beth (and have some for myself!) and when I came back towards the upstairs room she was standing up already -- she is so conditioned to the sound of the spoon clanking on her metal bowl! She scarfed that down, and looked for more ... I gave her a blob of cottage cheese, then used the harness to guide her downstairs, where she ate half a cup of kibble with a little more yogurt mixed in. Then she went to the front door, a sign she wants to go out, so we went for a somewhat tentative walk, and she peed twice (she seems to have to go a lot, from the I.V. she had during surgery, I assume). When we came inside, I forgot I'd opened my bedroom door to get shoes to take her out in, and wouldn't you know she hopped up on my bed. But she loves it there and if I sleep in the guest room I bet she'll just stay there until early morning, unless she has to go out again during the night. So anyway, I think we're over the hump, and I got to call off my neighbor. Hopefully by tomorrow I'll just be fretting about the gruesome incision .... I really don't get why it ended up being 4" long!

Well I've called a (strong, young, male) neighbor who has a greyhound to come over in about an hour to help me get Beth downstairs -- ideally I'd like to get her out to potty but at any rate we could get her someplace safer. If we really can't get her downstairs (where the bedrooms and crate are) I guess I can get a sleeping bag and sleep on the floor of my office with her -- though that still leaves the getting-downstairs issue. She wouldn't eat anything -- wouldn't even lick an empty peanut-butter jar -- but I did give her the first Deramaxx dose from what the vet prescribed. so that should help with pain.

OK, I tried to see if I could get her downstairs with my assistance, but after I forced her up unwillingly she didn't want to take any steps at all and was panting as if in pain. Of course I'm worrying she hurt a leg or something when she stumbled, but the stairs are carpeted so I doubt she could have really done that much. She's sleeping solidly on the floor of the upstairs room right now, and I have the staircase blocked when I go down. How worried should I be if she doesn't want to move? And how will I get her down to pee later and spend the night someplace safe (her crate, I think!) before bedtime? Thinking of calling in a male greyhound neighbor for assistance in case we have to semi-lift her.... :(

Well my baby girl is home -- she seems to have done really well and got nicely spoiled at the vet (she got to sleep in the head tech's office all afternoon -- and they took pictures for me of one of the nine-week-old kittens for adoption who I guess was roaming around the back area curled up by right Beth's head in her kennel while she was still "out." Her incision looks pretty awful to me -- much larger than I expected! But both the vet and tech said that surgically it looks great. There are no stitches to be removed on the surface. She has two staples where a second cyst was removed on the front of her elbow, but that doesn't look like much. Here's one little problem I'm having, though -- while I quickly closed the bedroom doors when we got home to keep her off the beds until later this evening, while I turned my back for a moment to get something she ran up the half-flight of stairs leading to my upstairs office, a spot she likes to hang out -- and from the sound of it stumbled pretty badly on the stairs doing so (I didn't actually see). Now she's resting after standing and panting for a while and eventually drinking some water, but I'm afraid to go downstairs with her up here, lest she fall down the stairs; I hate to rouse her or force her to her feet, but I am going to want to make dinner pretty soon! Any suggestions?

Beth typically follows me if she's awake . . . she won't necessarily bestir herself when she's napping on one of the human beds! Then when she wakes up she comes to check out where I am.

I'm so very sorry. What a shocking sudden loss of a wonderful girl.

So surgery is tomorrow morning -- supposed to drop her off at the vet at 7:30. I know it's a minor procedure, but I'm a nervous mom as this is her first surgery since I brought her home. And I feel bad as she's not in any discomfort at all now but may be in a bit after they pull skin together to remove the bald spot. Really hope I'm doing the right thing! Please send her good thoughts -- I'll post tomorrow as soon as she's back home!