Sundrop

Our current girl, Kira, does this to a certain extent. We've only had her since April and she had just turned 3 and was a rehome. She had already developed some neurotic behavior specifically around going to the bathroom (took us a long time to get her to go normally), licking & biting her feet (medical issue found and dealt with) and chewing & eating toys and other objects she finds. Our first 2 hounds never destroyed any toys and our next two loved to amputate them all, so all the stuffies looked pretty rough. The two we have now are pretty rough with toys also, but Kira takes it a step further and will eat what she tears off. We picked up all the toys when we would leave (I was able to correct/redirect when home) but then she moved to other items in the house - things out of the trash can in the bathroom (we bought a new one with a lid), things from the recycle bin (put a lid on it) and then things off the floor or tables, counters & desks, etc. Honestly, I spend about 10 minutes doggy-proofing every room before I leave the house. I move anything that looks tasty far out of her reach, close bathroom doors (b/c the counters are low and she's already eaten two hair brushes) and now I close my office door since there is a bookshelf and lots on my desk that she can reach. She hasn't eaten any shoes yet, but they all get put away in closets with doors closed. No clothing left on the floor - ever. Books & magazines are never left out anymore. Our girl actually engages in this behavior (sometimes) when we are home, so I am able to stop her with a gentle correction and a redirect to something appropriate (we have tons of toys everywhere). It has tapered off the longer she is here, but I was going to start crating her when we left the house because she was so good at finding the one little thing I forgot to secure. You might need to crate, as well. Also - our girl was a little underweight and I found that upping her food a bit (she needed to gain about 2 lbs) helped with her trying to eat inappropriate stuff. I think some of the chewing behavior was to do with her age (she was young), the bad habits she'd already picked up elsewhere and the fact that she was probably a bit hungry. FYI - our 2nd greyhound was really destructive when he would get bored. Not separation anxiety, just boredom. We have always walked our greyhounds twice per day - and we couldn't implement a lot more strenuous exercise for him b/c he had a very bad heart, but we did get into a training program to help engage his brain (he was really smart and picked things up quickly) and that helped somewhat. He never ate anything after destroying it and the behavior never fully stopped, but it got better once he was a little more mentally engaged.

Our current girl is kind of crazy like that - we noticed that she loved all the toys we have (lots and lots of stuffies) - but we noticed that while chewing, she didn't just "tear them up" like some of our greys would do - she would eat the bits she chewed off. Then we started finding half-eaten plastic squeakers, half-eaten tennis balls, etc. This is, by the way, while we were home - not separation anxiety. She is a little destructive, too - sometimes when we are home and sometimes when we are gone. She started taking things out of the recycle bin I have at my desk (I work from home) so I put a large cover on top. She started stealing magazines off tables, so I moved them all. She grabbed a couple of books, so I move those now. She raided the bathroom bin, so I bought a new one with a lid. She loooooooves to steal toilet paper rolls, so I have to close the bathroom doors. You get the picture. Honestly, she has stopped eating her toys now (we've had her 7 months). She has a couple she likes to really chew on, but we are no longer finding half-eaten stuffies (or finding purple, pink, orange and yellow bits in the yard *ahem*). She will, however, still eat the plastic squeakers (so we throw them away as soon as we see a stuffie die) and she does still enjoy prowling the house for things to chew and/or eat. We've only had one other greyhound who was destructive, and he was bad, but random (he'd go 6 months and be fine and then one day we'd come home and find a huge mess). We've considered crating our current girl when we leave, but she exhibits this behavior when we are home, too - so it's tough. We don't want to muzzle b/c then we'd have to muzzle our boy, too, and he hates them. You might have more luck since you have an only dog. How old is your girl? Our chewer is only 3 and honestly she's a bit neurotic, overall. She was a bounce and I don't think her previous "family" treated her very well - so I'm hoping with age, training, exercise and time she will outgrow this.

You might want to look for a different vet just for nail trimming (not to switch for everything, just for nails). Our old vet only took appointments and it drove me batty because they were always running late and we'd wait for 30-60 minutes just to get nails done. Our current vet takes walk-ins because they are a larger facility with more vet techs and also open on weekends. Our boy get very hostile when we touch his feet, but when the vet trims nails, he stands like a statue. I think he's a bit scared at the vet, in general, and we even told them he needed to be muzzled. They took him to the back room (we didn't want to potentially trigger him) and they said he was totally fine. They don't even bother muzzling him anymore because he just stands there...I think just to make it end faster - hah!

Totally agree with sobesmom - great post. One of our bridge greyhounds used to be terrified of the sound of spray bottles. She would run when I was getting ready for work and used hairspray. I tried showing her a few times that it was okay, and she got better, but her entire life if she heard spraying, she would leave the room.

Greys are not high strung at all. Your vet has no clue. Our boy started exhibiting weird behavior this past year. We'd had him only about 8 months when we lost our girl to osteo. We were not ready to adopt again right away. Immediately after having some large trees in our front & back yards pruned and cleaned up, he started acting strangely. The day the tree guys were here, he was running from window to window, nose dripping, ears up, etc. - which is expected. But the behavior continued (you can see the thread here, it might give you some tips, also). I was so concerned for our boy, it was hard to watch him frantically running from window to window and acting terrified for seemingly no reason. In the end, he calmed down after we borrowed our neighbor's dog to come over and spend time with him, and also just taking him with us everywhere. A couple weeks later, we adopted again and he hasn't displayed the behavior since. We took him on longer walks, brought him with us to Home Depot, pet store, etc. (just to get him out & about) and set up play dates with the neighbor's pup (they love each other). He was already getting two walks per day, but I think he likely had numerous small issues that just became one big one. Once we relaxed him and involved him more, and adopted a sister for him, he was totally fine. By the way, you mention the neighbors tell you she barks while you are gone. Are you leaving the TV on then? We always leave the radio on for the dogs when we leave - loud enough so they hear it, but not blaring, normally on the classical station. Good luck!

I am so very sorry. We lost our beautiful girl, Tilly, in February to osteo - it's a dreadful disease. I still miss her. /hugs to you and your girl

Obviously a lot of posts about this already, but I'll add my .02 also. We are on greyhounds #5 and #6 right now. Our first girl, adopted in 2004 at the age of 8, had minimal health concerns until her final diagnosis (she was gone within 24 hours from cancer). She had some seizures and was on medication and she suffered a broken toe once (she was chasing a squirrel and caught it on a tree root). Very healthy, in general. She died at 13.5 years old. Our #2 (boy) had a lot of heart issues - very serious murmur, high blood pressure, leaky valve, etc. We took him to a lot of specialists and he was on a few medications and required ongoing care. He was a couple months shy of 9 when he died (and he died in his sleep due to a heart attack). He was our first angel. Greyhound #3 (boy) was very healthy up until the end. No health issues at all except some shoulder soreness and a corn once. We lost him within a couple weeks of his cancer diagnosis at age 10. Greyhound #4 (girl) was kind of a roller coaster - she had some major seizures, one of which caused her blindness in both eyes. She regained much of her sight, but had to be put on medication for the seizures. Within a year she started limping and quickly lost total use of her hind leg. We were told (multiple times) that it was a stroke w/ no sign of cancer (even after extensive MRIs), but in her last vet visit we were given the bone cancer diagnosis and she was gone within a week at age 8. *Knock on wood* - our current 4-year-old and 3-year-old are very healthy. No issues at all except a raging foot infection when we adopted our girl that we took care of. So, we've had one very expensive due to heart issues, one semi-expensive because of seizures/blindness and ultimately, bone cancer - and two that were really healthy until the end. Can't really judge the current two since they are so young.

Anyone have advice for dealing with a young greyhound that bites/nips/nibbles when excited? We've had Kira since late April and the issue wasn't bad at first, as I think she was settling in - but now, she nips/nibbles at us anytime she gets excited (which is a lot!). By the way, she's only nippy with my husband and I - not our other greyhound or other people. These are not aggressive bites, but they can be quite painful. We always stop whatever play/fun stuff we are doing, so as not to reward the behavior - and she gets the "correction" sound. We read somewhere that one strategy was to pretend to be another puppy and as soon as she bites, we yelp loudly and act hurt - which we did (it was quite funny to watch) for a couple of weeks and that did nothing - we also tried the strategy with treats to reward her when she played and didn't bite - but it didn't seem to help. We've tried redirecting her to toys, but it's not overly effective because the nips happen a lot when we're just trying to put a leash on her to walk, or when we're petting her and she gets excited. We also try to be really calm, and that works to a certain extent, but as soon as there is any situation to get her excited...the nipping commences.

There is no such thing as "hypoallergenic" food - unless you know exactly what the dog is allergic to. We've had a lot of issues with our Finn - he was super itchy and would lick his bum like mad, and had really runny poo - after having him examined, our vet recommended administering flea treatment and bathing him in a special shampoo (which we did) and then recommended an elimination diet, which I had already started. Find a food without wheat, corn, soy, potato, tapioca, etc. - it should be limited ingredient and should (ideally) have one protein source. Keep the dog on that food for 8-12 weeks and if you can, only feed them that food. We had to switch a few times to find a protein he could handle (turned out to be pork). I then included one type of treat into his diet - also grain, wheat, corn, soy-free with one protein source (rabbit). These were the only two foods he was allowed. When the treats didn't get him itching and having bathroom issues - we stuck with those. I recently switched to another food (same brand - Acana) so he wouldn't develop new allergies to the pork. We also added in a different treat (also same brand, just different protein) - so he has two treats we rotate and is now on the second food he can handle. We've had a lot of luck using the Acana "singles" line (a single protein source). The key really is to keep him on the food for the full 8-12 weeks to see how he does. When we switched Finn to the 2nd in the Acana singles line, he initially started licking him bum again and had runny poo - even though we switched him slowly. He's just sensitive to many foods - it took him into the 2nd bag of food for the symptoms to go away, and now he's doing great. Also, might want to look at Olewo carrots and/or beets. Not sure what your pup's issues are - but I use the carrots now with our greys and I think it has helped with firmer poo. Many others here on GT swear it helps with itching and digestion issues, as well. Finn stopped itching before I added it - so I can't say it has helped with that - but they both love it and I do think it helps firm things up. Good luck!

Most of my newly adopted hounds (we've had 6) have all been pretty voracious eaters when we first brought them home. Our current two attacked their bowls like wild, starving animals - we bought some gobble-stoppers to get them to slow down. They would snatch treats from our hands and be general pests when food was out, lol. Over time, they both settled down. We recently took the gobble stopper out of our boy's dish (we've had him a little over a year) because he's slowed down a lot with eating meals. He is also a perfect gentleman with treats (I used to have to throw them at him because he would bite my fingers & hand). My point is, anyone looking at this behavior would surmise they were "always hungry" - but I think it was just the environment they came from. They ate really fast and they didn't get treats; home-living was an adjustment for them. I think this foster is just very food-motivated and wants to eat, probably not "hungrier" than any other dog. Just needs to learn how to be a pet and have some manners about it - that'll come with time.

When we first adopted back in 2004, we had no notion of getting a second one. However, she was just so easy and amazing that pretty quickly, I wanted a second. We adopted our first boy about 3 months later. Being new greyhound parents, we hired a trainer and behaviorist - as our boy has some issues. He was space aggressive and destructive when bored. Our girl, honestly, was an angel. If our boy had been our first, we probably wouldn't have gotten a second...or third, fourth, fifth or sixth!. That said, none of our greys (we've always had pairs) have ever really played with each other. They seem to like each other well enough, no fights, no arguments, etc. None of have ever cuddled with each other. Adding a second was a little tougher for us, just because our boy had issues - but overall, once we learned his boundaries and we all got some training, it was pretty easy. Feeding has always been easy - we teach them "Out!" of the kitchen so they are not underfoot and they have "their side" of the feeder (water in between). None have ever been food aggressive at all. We take two walks per day - and that is always a bit of a challenge when get a new adoptee. But, once they learn the ropes, it's not really difficult and I can easily walk two by myself (and quite enjoy it). I have worked from home since 2008, but I like that they have each other when we are not home. This was most noticeable when we lost our girl this past February - we'd lost her brother the previous April, so our newest boy had been with her only 9 months. We waited a bit longer to adopt again, and his personality changed quite a bit during that time. He became agitated very easily. He seemed scared of everything and was just, well, acting different and odd. This changed, almost overnight, when we brought our newest grey home to complete our pair - he was so much better. In the end, we'll always be a two-grey household. I almost think it's a bit mean for a dog that is raised in a "communal" environment like greyhounds, who always have loads of other greyhounds around them, to enter a new home and be totally alone. I totally understand it's not feasible for everyone to have two (or more!) but I think they like having a sibling - even if they don't play or cuddle. We love having two - they make us laugh, make us get out and walk and socialize. We have lots of playtime and cuddles when we're feeling blue. We were both saying just yesterday that we cannot imagine our lives without them.

Back to the OP - lots of good advice here - I only wanted to pitch in that our Finn was/is a resource guarder. The behavior was much more pronounced when we first brought him home - he would growl (no nipping, biting, etc.) if you came near him with a toy (especially new toys) or when we first got the slumberball bed or if he had treats and we walked too close. However - after having him for a little over a year - he rarely does this anymore. He does growl at our new dog when she gets too close to him while he is lying down - but he is just setting boundaries (and she has none!). Honestly, I think our boy was just testing his boundaries with all of us and now he is more settled. He knows we aren't going to kick him out of bed, or take his toys, or take his food - so he's mellowing out. Good luck!

Just got back from the vet - totally clean bill of health!

Great news about Jasper! So glad he's feeling a bit better and enjoying life!

Kudos to you, and your boyfriend, for being there for her and helping her enjoy her golden years! Don't let others, who do not know your dog at all, impose their thoughts and feelings about your dog onto you. It sounds like you are doing great by her and she is still enjoying life - so enjoy her as much as possible - and know that when it finally is her time, you'll have no regrets.

Oh no, I'm so sorry. We've had to say goodbye to 4 now, and had to make that tough call for 3 of them. I know it's so much harder when you still see some sparkle left in them, I'm just so sorry. I hope his passing is peaceful and uneventful. I've notified my 4 to be on the lookout for him.

Hiya! Yeah, she seems scared/hesitant - she just freezes up. So, when we've put her on a leash and walked her back there, when we walk around the perimeter of the yard, she'll come pretty willingly - but as soon as we try to walk anywhere in the middle of the yard (anyplace not protected by the fence, deck or house) - she will freeze and refuse to walk anymore. And it's not one specific area in the middle, it's anywhere that isn't protected. The times that she'll "go" on her own out there, she always stays close to the fence or deck and then she bolts back to the house. Just took her out for a quick walk on leash and still no pee. Also romped around the front yard and nothing...she was sniffing a bit like she was going to go, but nothing. Will try again soon!

Hi all, thanks so much! I typically do keep the pups on a schedule - they go out after breakfast (yard) and then we take a walk (every morning). Then they go out (yard) at lunch, then they eat dinner around 6:00 and go out right after (yard). We have our evening walk every night an hour or so later and then they go out right before bed (10:30'ish). I've just started letting them out at random times because Kira kept running to the back door like she wanted to go out (in fact she tries to squeeze through the crack of the door before I even finishing opening it)...but then she just stands there. We have stairs in the house (split level house, so half a flight up, half a flight down), 3 stairs off our front porch and on the deck there are two access points - one with 3 stairs and the other with 5. We've noticed no falls or stumbles, and no hesitation on any of the stairs. When we go out with her, she'll run down the stairs, but then she stands like a statue looking at the yard, and then bolts right back up. We'll definitely extend the time in the yard after she goes as not to encourage lingering out there! We tried throwing tennis balls for her a few times, because she normally looooooves to chase them - but she has shown no interest in those, either. We don't end walks after she goes, we just continue our normal walks - just praise her when goes on leash. She loves her walks! I was going to try a few short walks with her today. I'll also try the front yard. My husband took her out in the back (on leash) this morning while I walked our other dog - he was out there just gently leading her around, giving treats when she would follow him and he ended up out there for 30 minutes and no pee from her. He agrees with me that she appears scared of the yard. I've asked him to mow the yard pretty short after work today - our yard is somewhat torn up at the moment due to our (very rude) neighbors digging a trench from their yard to our back yard where all their rain water just rushes there - eroding the heck out of our yard. We are already planning on a major overhaul in the fall - 3 truckloads of dirt, grading, filling in dents, covering tree roots, etc. and finally replanting all the grass. We just can't do it now because it's too hot to grow grass. I've been buying bags of dirt to fill in holes (lots of voles this year) and big "dents" when i see them. But we have a lot of weeds back there and they grow really fast. Maybe the taller weeds/grass bother her? I've been checking as I wander through the yard with her every day for fire ants & yellow jackets (I'm allergic to both) and I've not seen anything. We're kinda spoiled, as we also have a guy who cleans the yard once a week of poo (BEST money ever spent!) - he covers every square foot of the yard and hasn't mentioned anything (he's told us in the past when he spots yellow jackets). Was also considering hiring someone to check under our deck and garden shed for critters and clearing them out if they find anything. We have seen opossums in the yard before (our two previous dogs killed 3 of them). Thought maybe she was scared of some smells back there? Thanks for all the advice - it makes me so sad to see her in such turmoil. One reason we bought this house was because of the nice, big yard for dogs - and we so want her to enjoy it again. I was wondering about that, myself. I'll call the vet today about getting her tested. She was on some hefty rounds of antibiotics (3x) since we adopted her because of a foot issue, and her last dose was not even a week ago. I'll definitely check it out!

We adopted Kira almost 2 months ago. Up until about two weeks ago, she LOVED the backyard (full privacy fence, about a third of an acre). She loved chasing critters (as I mentioned in a previous post) to the point that she actually refused to come in the house. She would patrol the yard, often not relieving herself for a long time and then we'd have to go get her with a leash or offer treats to get her inside. About two weeks ago, she began peeing on the deck rather than going into the yard. Each time, I hosed off the area and sprayed with enzyme cleaner - I also began walking into the yard with her and that seemed to help. Then, she began pooping on the deck. I have since then blocked access to the deck stairs, I walk her down and I wait for her to go - giving loads of praise/treats when she goes. Our problem now is that we are spending longer and longer outside with her - and she often will not pee (only poops). Yesterday, for example, she pooped after almost an hour, but would not pee. I decided to praise her for that and let her in, knowing we were taking a morning walk soon. She peed on her walk, about 8:30 am. All day, I let her out 3-4x and not once would she leave the deck, even though our boy happily goes out anytime he's outside. I didn't pressure her. After dinner, around 5:30, she wouldn't leave the deck again. I walked her down, closed access to stairs and walked around the yard...for an hour. Finally, she pooped - no pee - I praised and let her in. Evening walk about 30 minutes later...no pee. We let her out before bed, about 10:30 - stayed outside roughly 20 minutes with her, husband didn't realize she has access to the deck on one side - Kira ran up on the deck and peed. This morning, I sat outside with her for 45 minutes...no pee. She finally pooped...on the asphalt connecting to our driveway at the bottom of the deck stairs. I have never experienced anything like this. We have also tried putting her on leash and walking her in the yard, and spent 2 hours the first time (she didn't go at all) and an hour the second time (she peed, so we praised and let her in). She has been doing great up until this point, and never has any issues going outside unless she was distracted by chasing/hunting squirrels, chipmunks, etc. now she seems scared of the yard? And even peeing on walks is becoming rare. I just don't know what else to do? I work from home, so I can dedicated time to this - but I do still have to work and be at my desk.

Wow, 10 months old - she's so young! I have found, in my personal experience with six greyhounds, that the younger ones were typically harder to train. Again, just my experience, but they seem a lot more distracted, had more energy and just took a lot more patience and practice. We always use positive reinforcement (only) and lots of treats, and work in short bursts of no longer than a few minutes - but many times per day. With our first two greyhounds, we actually hired a behaviorist to come in a help us. She not only helped us train the dogs, but she helped train us to know what we were doing for present & future dogs - it helped immensely.

She just turned 3 in February and was retired early due to a pretty bad muscle tear after only 25 races. I looked at her brief racing record and she was really good. Out of 25 races (on Greyhound Data) she won 12 (!!) and came in 2nd twice and 3rd twice. I'm no racing expert, but that sounds pretty flippin' good! She's still very reactive to all critters in the yard and out on walks - we work to just ignore everything on walks, and she walks on lead pretty well - she stays at our side (mostly) but doesn't pay much attention to us. We are working on that with treats. She's our 6th greyhound and we've had other "killers" in the bunch (our yard is down 3 opossums, 2 birds and a squirrel thanks to 3 of the other 5). We've never had one so distracted that they wouldn't relieve themselves, though. I know she'll calm down eventually - she's young and all of this is new to her. Her newest oddity is to pee/poo on our deck instead of going into the yard. I've had to block off the two stairs to the deck, walk her into the yard and close the access points so she can't get back on the deck until she "goes" in the yard. It's SUPER weird because for so long we couldn't get her OUT of the yard and back into the house! She's just an oddball...and we love her to pieces.

I'm so sorry for your loss - what a lovely tribute you posted for your dear Django. I can actually picture him head-butting the bed (our dear boy Keota, lost in 2009 to a heart attack, used to do that) and his other silly antics. We lost our sweet girl, Tilly, to osteo in February - not long after her diagnosis. It's shocking, confusing and heart-breaking to watch an otherwise healthy & happy dog lose to this dreadful disease. My heart goes out to you and your family.

Lots of great advice here - and I just wanted to add that we've dealt with a truly space-aggressive greyhound before and we had to learn to respect him and his space, as others have mentioned. He was never allowed on furniture and we did not try to cuddle with him or pet him while he was laying down - we always made sure he was awake, even when we just had to pass by him while he was sleeping. Slowly, over time, he allowed my husband to sit on the floor with him to pet him - and later - he let me do the same - but we never pushed it, and we always watched him very closely for his danger signs. We have no children, but we were always worried when we saw my brother (he had two young kids). Also, our current boy, Finn, has displayed some resource guarding tendencies. For example, when we bought a slumber ball (bed) for him after our girl passed away, he immediately jumped right on it - we walked over to pet him (something he normally loves) and got very growly with us. He's also growled over toys and food. He is totally chill about his slumber ball bed now, as soon as he realized we didn't want the bed, he was fine. As far as toys go - we normally try to swap it for something better (a better toy, a treat, etc.) or we just don't try and take it from him. If we try to play and he gets testy, we just don't play. Same with his treats - those are his and we don't take them away from him - we only give him as much as he can eat in one episode so we never have to worry about taking something away from him like that. We are also working on the "drop it" command and he's doing pretty well with that - hopefully he'll be a pro with it if we ever really need him to drop something. I'm sure you'll learn lots from a behaviorist - we got one with our first boy, the space aggressive one. He was also super destructive when he'd get bored - but he was also super smart and he learned so quickly, it was amazing (and fun) to learn new things and teach him stuff. He was silly and funny and he taught us a lot. We feel like we can handle any dog now. There is definitely hope - good luck! (And we'd love to see pictures).

So very sorry to read this. Murphy was a lucky boy to have guardians who loved him so much and did all they could to keep him healthy and happy.

So sorry you're going through this - I often say the only thing I hate about dogs is that they do not live long enough. We've only had one greyhound live to 13.5 (our first one) and she was definitely slowing down, but overall, she was in good health. Her appetite slowed a couple of weeks before we lost her, and eventually stopped a day or two before. She was in a critical situation due to vet error when we had to make the choice and it still haunts me. We learned so much from that little girl, and she was my heart dog - so I understand the heartache in having to think about losing your Jasper. Of course, you know your pup better than anyone and you clearly love him a lot - if he's already refusing food, having problems walking and squatting when he goes outside, with this on top of it - I would probably have a hard discussion with the vet/specialist before putting him under for a scan. If you opt out of the scan, what are your options? Is the tumor/growth growing and are you risking putting Jasper into an emergency/critical situation in a week, or two weeks, if you do not operate/treat? It's just so darned hard making this kind of decision. We just lost our 8.5 year old a couple of months ago to osteo, and I tortured myself for weeks trying to decide what to do. I still question myself and I still miss her.