jetcitywoman

As you get her tummy settled you can then use treats with what I call "the Name Game" to teach her what her name is. I like this method because the dog learns to respond to his name very quickly. Start by saying Rosy and immediatly shove a treat in her piehole. do it again do it again but give it a second or two between the name and the treat do that a few times wait until she looks away from you, say her name and when she looks at you, treat her you're mostly done at this point but can reinforce it by doing that last step a few times a day for the next two or three days. If you're familiar with dog training, you'll notice that this is the beginning of "look at me" training, which itself is the foundation of other basic skills. It's also a good, positive, gentle way to start gaining the trust of a new dog.

HUH! You know, HeatherLee, we've had a few hard winters where I wished someone would invent something like a litterbox for dogs.... come to learn that they have! Thank you, we may give this a try!

Okay, I'm inclined to agree with those who said that it's probably easier to continue the peeing by the back door rather than try to teach her that the shower is her new potty spot. We have already put a hard plastic chair mat there, with a towel on top to soak up the puddle. She doesn't have daytime "accidents" often anymore now that we're vigilant, but she did once or twice a month ago. KsFrets, I understand what you're saying. When Ajax's bladder burst just after his spinal surgery and we brought him home, we took turns letting him out every hour or so around the clock until his bladder healed up. However, as an ongoing thing we can't do that. We both work full time, and have to get up at 6:30 to be at work on time, so getting up in the middle of the night every night just doesn't work for us. But we can give her her designated pee spot in front of the door.

Lately Capri's been getting us up in the wee morning hours to be let outside. For years our routine is to put the dogs out for a potty break around 9 - 10pm just before bed so that they are good for the night until we get up at 6:30 when they get the first morning potty break. This works well, until lately. I suspect it's because she's getting old, she's eleven years old now. So to allow us to sleep, I'm pondering the idea of training her that it's okay for her to go into our walk-in shower and pee there in the middle of the night. The shower floor is river-pebbles, so not very slippery, easy to clean and of course has a drain. Capri has always had a very particular potty habit - some dogs will hold it until their bladder bursts, she's not one of those dogs. We discovered a few years ago that she'll hold it as long as it's comfortable to do so, but then when it's urgent and nobody's around to let her out, she will squat and go. The "quirk" reason I know this is deliberate and not just lack of house training is that she always squats in front of our sliding glass door, facing out. It's as close to outside as she can get herself. We solved the problem (after we realized what was going on) by having mandatory potty breaks just before we leave the house in the morning and at lunchtime. But now, given her willingness to solve her own problem, I think we can use that to train her to use our shower as a potty place during the night. The trick is... I don't know how to start. The shower is where we bathe the dogs, which she doesn't like, so she won't go in there without being pulled and cajoled. We can use treats and encouragement to teach her it's okay to walk in there, but how do we show her that it's okay to then pee?

Agree with the others about listening to your trainer, but I also want to say that this sounds to me like how my Capri growls at Ajax when he's simply near her, in the same room, or even in a different room but she can hear him. She thinks she's the "police" who has to maintain house rules, and that's not actually the case. We were able to teach her that people set and maintain the rules, but have never been able to break her of the attitude of lording it over Ajax. It sounds to me like Rock is acting like my Capri and thinks your son is like our Ajax - in other words, he thinks it's his job to enforce the rules, whatever he thinks they are. Rock needs to learn that ALL of the humans in your house are to be respected, not just you and your husband. One possible way to teach this, is to do the same training we use to teach that the couch is a privilege and not a right. When Capri was allowed on the couch in the early days and if she ever growled at one of us for sitting on the couch too, we would immediately get her down off the couch - revoking her privilege. We would never get angry or yell at her. Just simple "no! get down" with firmness and not let her back up (at least for a while). So in your case, when Rock growls at your son, I would move him out of where ever he is and not let him come back until he is calm and quiet again. It will really drive the point home if you move Rock out of the room and bring your son in! Calmly, quietly, no anger. Simply matter of fact, oops, this happened and so this other thing must now happen. A baby gate would be a good tool for this, to hold him out of the room for a "timeout period". That way you can go back to your calm work without having to physically engage to keeping him out. At first he will try to immediately come back in. Then he'll sulk. Then he'll start to understand and behave. I hope this helps.

Or change the section of yard fence that is right up against the run. Make it a 6-foot stockade fence or something. I'd also change your sign to something meaner, like "tresspassers will be shot". Even if city ordinances won't let you actually shoot people, I think it will get the message across. Another sneaky thing you can try, if you want to work the small-town rumor mill: when you encounter neighbors out and about town, work a casual little story into your conversation about how someone threw poisoned meat over your fence, but fortunately you got your dogs to the vet in time. Most people will think that's just horrible and as the story gets around, the people who did throw food over your fence will stop because they don't want to be accused of poisoning dogs if they get caught. But as I said, this one is kind of sneaky, so... YMMV

Ah, okay. I thought Daytona was one of the better tracks, but I don't really follow them. I'm kind of glad they didn't breed her, but only for cosmetic reasons. She's my baby girl either way.

Thanks, it's interesting reading your perspective. Do you think Capri was near champion material? Or does it take a lot more than that to be a champ? Also if she was as good as she sounds I'm curious they didn't breed her. And Mixitup.... lol, yes that's my boy! It's interesting that I can still see glimmers of the track performance in their personalities. Capri is tenacious and bold and opinionated. Ajax is goofy and go-along-to-get-along and not particularly interested in running. I've only once ever seen him floor it and it really surprised me. His usual thing is to frolic with various gaits like rocking horse, egg beater legs, bucking bronco, etc.

I already know my dogs' track records, but curious about your perspective. Capri (Get Ready Capi) had a nice bell curve record: worked her way up the grades all the way to AA and then started slipping down to B and C when they retired her. I'm curious how typical it is to see bell curve records? And Ajax (JJ Mix It Up)... he's interesting in the opposite direction. Raced for two years at 8 different tracks, some of which were seasonal. He seems to have spent more time in a hauler. I read somewhere that dogs like him are kept up as something for the other dogs to compete against (sort of like training tools). Of course I know his real career is to be a Teddy Bear and he's a champion at that! How often do you see this kind of record?

Just have to chime in here, but if you love a dog on the Scooby list, if SHUG (who I agree is a great organization) can't arrange the transport soon enough, then reach out to us at Scooby North America. All of the Galgo groups in the U.S. are our partners and we work together on transports because they're such a challenge. If one of us doesn't have room for another dog on a scheduled transport, another group might.

We're jamming the pills down the hatch, closing his mouth and rub his throat trick. It works fine for anything except for those nasty tramadol pills. They're apparently so bitter he can even taste it hidden in a little ball of peanut butter. He can taste it in his throat. We're getting them down him, but he's really unhappy about it. He literally gags and makes me think were choking him. Ugh. Fortunately he's a really good boy, and super patient with all of this. His tummy incision is oozing and I have been alternately applying quik stop and gently cleaning it, and laying cold packs wrapped in towel on it. No muzzle, he just lays there. He gets up to go potty and comes back to bed and lays quietly. We do have a e-collar on him and he's patient with that too.

Success! He just ate a whole small jar of gerber! I'll keep all of these suggestion close just in case he decides he doesn't like the baby food. With this boy, we may have to rotate through a series of things. Thanks again everyone!

Thanks everyone! Once again the power of greytalk works! I'm going to run to the store now. He hasn't had a full meal in almost five days now, so I need to get crackin!

Oh meat baby food? Also maybe cat food? We've been warming up whatever we offer him. We have to be careful with the rich foods because he needs the bland diet to reintroduce food gently into his system.

My Ajax has been through the wringer this weekend and we almost lost him. He's home and doing fine with one issue: were having a hard time getting him to eat. He's got fresh surgery wounds on his lower back and tummy - so sore on both sides. The tummy issue was a perforated bladder which they fixed but because his insides got bathed in urine, we have to give him antibiotics. I'm sure it's mostly the antibiotics at this point that are putting him off food. Were also supposed to give him tramadol, which is bitter and he hates, which is also upsetting him. We're supposed to feed him meat and rice bland diet, which we are. We tried both chicken and hamburger. We've also tempted him with yogurt, his normal kibble, and tricky trainers dog treat which are smelly and he loves. We can't get more than one swallow or licking a spoon. He likes peanut butter, but we've used that to get pills down him before so he's leery of it now. Any other ideas to get some nutrition down him? He really must have food in his tummy for the antibiotics, so we seem to be at a standstill.

Wow, it's really wild that I find this topic here. My Ajax is going through this exact issue! OP, please do reach out to people on Facebook and also your adoption group's president. Your boy needs an MRI and possibly surgery to repair a blown disk (if he has what Ajax has, and an MRI will tell you that). Perhaps we here at GT can pitch in some donations to help you out. I'm in the fortunate position where I can afford any medical treatment my dogs need, and it makes my teeth itch to contemplate not being able to do that. I for one, will pitch in some to help you. So Ajax's story, take it with a grain of salt, it might NOT be what your dog has, but even so I think it might help you to know what someone else has gone through with similar symptoms. We've had him for about 5 years now, he's an 80-pound teddy bear. He has an odd mentality: does NOT like novelty or new things, and also does NOT like to be physically manipulated. So for example, the trick of teaching stairs by moving his feet onto each step for him, would not work for him. I once tried to push him firmly into the car, thinking that being blocked/pushed from behind would force him to go forward and then he'd see it wasn't as bad as he thought. Backfire: he instead decided that I was a bully and not to be trusted. So I had to spend a few weeks repairing that and then micro-baby-steps to learn how to get into the car. So last winter suddenly he had trouble going up our indoor, carpeted, closed stairs to come to bed. We encouraged him with happy voices and treats, and after a few weeks that went away. We assumed he tripped or something and was then afraid of the stairs. Then in late January the problem came back. In the evenings we go down into the basement to watch tv, and this time he got so bad that after going downstairs with us, he couldn't get back up again. Over a few weeks, this happened: DH tried to get him upstairs on leash. That worked for a few nights, but it was super stressful and Ajax would be panting like crazy. Then he wouldn't even go on leash, so Dh tried to pick up up and carry him. That worked for a few days but even being carried, Ajax would be panting and drooling. Then when DH tried to pick him up, Ajax screamed and ran away. See the escalation of fear and stress, we thought it was from his mentality like I described above. I wasted lots of money on a behaviorist (who didn't tell us anything that I couldn't have found here on Greytalk.) But at the same time we were taking him to the vet to see if there was pain anywhere. The vet couldn't find anything, although did notice that he hitched his hip up on one side when he trotted on a level floor. They thought he had bilateral pulled muscles in his groin. So we did many weeks of physical therapy. He did get better enough to start going up stairs, all by himself without having to be re-taught. But just about that time, because his PT took so strangely long, we took him to a neurologist. He's got a serious disk bulge in his lower back that's pressing on the nerve root for his right rear leg. Now that we have an actual diagnosis, he's scheduled for spinal disk surgery later this week. We're nervous about that because it's major surgery, but if we don't, the doctor says it will get worse until he loses control of his back legs and bowels. We don't want that to happen. So anyway, again, this might not be the case with your dog. But I do empathize!

Combining these two thoughts: "teach her to lay down reliably" and "they typically will "choose" to please you".... My Capri knows "down" by both command and hand signal. Down for her means down into a sphynx position, her most natural pose next to flat on her side. She knows it cold. But even so, whenever I ask her to down (once a day minimum because she downs for toothbrushing) she often has to think about it. Do I want to? Hmm.... Well... Okay. And then slowly sets one front foot forward, then the other, stretches her tummy, then folds her backend down. Don't fall into the "trap" of expecting instant obedience with these dogs so that you're going "down.... down.... down!.... DOWN!" Greyhounds do have opinions, so you'll have a better relationship with the dog if you give him a minute to think about what you're asking and comply. Actually, for any dog that's a good idea. I once saw a lady when out walking and she was making her dog sit at all street corners. When we met her, she told him to sit, he sat, and she snapped the leash. It was just bad timing, she wasn't patient enough so just as he sat, she leash-popped him to tell him to "sit NOW". That little dog almost rolled his eyes and sighed, but only I noticed! At least he knew she wasn't punishing him for obeying!

I can commisserate with the OP, Capri snapped at both DH and myself when she was new with us. We'd been taught to "let sleeping dogs lie" but we got careless and both had to learn the lesson the hard way. It is scary and hurtful and can feel like a betrayal of trust. But when it happened to me, I didn't take it too personally, and I was also embarrassed that I'd commited such a huge faux pas that she had to correct me like that. Once my shock and hurt dissipated, I was also extremely impressed - she pulled her punch on me. She banged the front of her teeth against my forehead. If she wanted to, she could have ripped into my face. At that point, I knew that I had a fantastic, mature and intelligent dog. She knew how to handle herself and also how to use JUST enough force to get the point across and no more. Speaking of air snaps, Ajax does this funny thing where he snaps and looks somewhat vicious. I think he does it when he's bored, sick of laying around, hungry, wants to either go for his STEENKING WALK ALL REDDY or EET DINNR ALL REDDY! He squirms into a twisted cockroach position and snaps hard like an alligator. I tease him and call him a snappy turtle. It's very different from his normal attitude, which is a total teddy bear.

If you could give a little more detail about your sessions and what you feel isn't working, it would help. Clicker training does work and it helps otherwise "slow" learned learn more quickly. But you do have to develop the skill a bit. I found that I often took too long to click so I'm not the best trainer, but try to be better. Greyhounds are all "fast twitch" muscle mass, which is what allows them to bolt out of the gate at 45mph, and also whizz through guesses about what you're asking for before you can click! Ok, that's an exaggeration. A little. But as mentioned, start very small because first the dog needs to learn how to learn. Once he gets that, he will pick up the behaviors more quickly and beg for more. Another good starting place is what I call the name game. Say the dogs name and when he looks at you, click and treat. If he is super new and doesn't respond to the name, you shape it by clicking when he turns his head, eyes or ears slightly in your direction. You know when he's heard you but just doesn't look? Click and reward that, and then hold the click later and later until you only click when he looks at you. That not only teaches his name but it starts to build a bond, teaches him what the click means, teaches him how to learn, and can be the launch point for more advanced things.

Keep in mind the concept of triggers. I don't want you to get overconfident because he's good over a few encounters and then feel crushed or betrayed because suddenly the worst happens. It's very likely that none of the littles in the park yesterday did the right thing to trigger his prey drive. What are triggers? * sudden fast movement, especially glimpsed out of the corner of the eye * squeaky type noises * tension and fear on the part of the potential prey animal If you've ever played with a kitten, all of those are demonstrated. Cats are fun to play with because their play is entirely based on prey drive and they easily respond to triggers. I've told the story before about how I lost my heart to my Capri on the day she stalked and chased me in the yard. It wasn't just that, but the hungry predator look in her eyes just before I turned and pretended to bolt in fear. I'd seen that look in every cat I've ever owned. Part of the greyhound wonderful ness is that: they still have that little bit of jungle in them.

Oh, hey I've been meaning to ask you: is your Lucas the darling little boy from GdS that had surgery to fix his bent front legs? I had SUCH a crush on him and wondered where he got adopted to. Absolutely! Robin, I didn't mean to exclude you.

Oh yes, I still say a galgo sounds like what you're looking for as a running buddy. They're not technically high energy, they ARE a type of greyhound. They run a bit slower than racers because they're not trained and bred for rocket-launched starts in a 35-second race. Their running is more, I would say, natural: around 35mph full out gallop (racers do 45+ in their sprint). And while they are capable of sustaining that over several miles, I think more often they do a mix of speeds depending on whether they're tracking prey (trotting) or actually chasing something. Galgos enjoy the challenges of jumping over things. But they are just as happy with several days in a row of chilling on the couch, so they're great companions for retired racers. Also, my example in fostering a galgo: I have arthritis and the best I can do is a walk around our suburban block or two once a day. Foster child has been just fine with that and the occasional sprint in our fenced yard. Petra can chime in if she disagrees, but I suspect that you can make up for a few days of couch-potatoness by giving your galgo intellectual stimulation instead: kong toys or Nina Ottosson puzzle games, and even playing with other like-minded dogs in your home.

Your idea of exercise is dead on for a galgo. They have the stamina to run for miles whereas you'd have to train a greyhound up to that. Galgos are also used to cross country running, which means they go over stumps, rocks, fences... (I assume or encourage you to keep the dog on leash while running with you so you don't lose him.) But yeah, a galgo could totally keep up with you on marathon training and hiking. Greyhounds are trained from early life into a regimented lifestyle where they are completely taken care of and never have to make a decision for themselves, so they tend not to be good problem solvers. That means they tend to be stalled by small barriers that are nothing to a galgo. Some examples: Capri who is my clever and intrepid "mountain goat" greyhound, had to be taught that it's possible for her to step over a fallen log. I kind of like that because it means it's super easy to give her intellectual challenges. Another example is if I have my feet up on the coffee table and she wants on the couch next to me on the other side, she fusses until I move my legs. So I get into arguments with her, telling her to GO AROUND THE TABLE YOU SILLY GOOSE! However, as has been pointed out, galgos are also great at just laying around some days and sleeping and cuddling. There are trade-offs you should be aware of. Galgos often come from poor backgrounds that include either neglect or abuse. They can also have lived in one of the shelters for a year or three before they come to you. That means they can have some issues that you'll need to work through. Anything from minor issues like having to house-train him and teach him house manners to having to work on deeply rooted fears. Of course when you apply, you tell the rescue group if you want a more confident/socialized dog. If you don't have a lot of dog experience, trying to work with a traumatized dog may be too much for you to handle. But there is a very LARGE range of galgo personalities and dispositions available, and we can also sometimes get puppies. So even that isn't a huge issue. Just something to be aware of.

What I tell people is to start teaching house rules right away, things like where to eat and sleep, not to bolt out the door or counter surf, etc. you can teach those before basic obedience, and should, for the sanity of both of you. Racers are generally used to being told everything and not thinking for themselves so if you give them too much initiative too early they shut down or get anxious. So just teach the the basics of living in hour house. Then later when you have a bond with the dog, you can get it into basic obedience training and watch him blossom into an opinionated little bossy pants. . At least that's what mine did!

Robin is right. That's another reason why it's better to work with a group who will deal with those headaches on your behalf. Also we have done it before and we know what's worked for us in the past and what to avoid. A good example is Robin's mention of avoiding connecting flights and putting the dog on only one non stop flight from Madrid to New York. Once in NY, transporting them by van/car is much easier and safer for the dog, even if it means going across the US/Canadian border. Mom3four posted at the same time as me. I'll only add that Lufthansa also has a good reputation for caring for pets, however they almost always require a connection in Frankfurt of Munich. And whenever someone allows me to stand on a soapbox I will tell everyone who listens not to ever transport an animal on United. Ever since their ground staff horribly abused that lady's greyhound a year or two ago. That was a domestic flight, and there just was no excuse for that. They call their program Petsafe, but it's anything BUT! :