sarabz

Welcome! You've found the right community, that's for sure. We've only been owned by a GH for a little over a year but are now completely hooked. say that you gotta post pics as soon as you adopt

Agree with many of the above! When we first got Bella, DH and I would trade off in those first couple of weeks to come home at lunch and take her out (we both work close enough to walk to our respective offices). By the end of the second week, we were having to wake Bella up to take her out and promptly decided that was enough. Typically she goes 8 am to 6 pm most days. A decent walk in the morning with DH, a quick potty stop before the last one of us leaves, and then the first one home takes her on a walk (quick potty to a long walk, depending on the weather, Bella's inclination and other factors). She gets one last walk/potty break before we all go to bed, usually between 10 and 11 pm. There have been nights, though, where she's gone on a good walk at about 6 pm and refuses to get up to go out later in the evening, so doesn't go out again until 6 or 7 am. I think the last potty stop in the morning is because she thinks that's the only way she's going to get her Kong. She'll beeline out, pee and beeline right back into the building. Funny girl.

for Sterling & Kelsey - hope they're both better soon.

Ah, yes, updates! I don't really care that she doesn't like the table (I don't, either!) but when the lobby is crowded I can't have her banging into me trying to get away from it - she's caused me to almost fall one morning and has caused me to bang into other people, and that why I need her to get better about it. So, lots of back and forth near the table until she was sick to death of it, lots of yummy smelly treats on, under and around it and she's much better. She's making less of a point of lunging away from it - still looks at it a little warily but that's ok. The advice here and what I did was pretty close to what I would have done with a spooky horse so I guess I need to just bring some of my horse experience to dogs Thanks all!

She seems to enjoy her reflection in our floor-length mirror, but maybe.

There are two tables in our building's lobby that Bella seems terrified of. I can't figure out why but when she has to go past one or the other she walks as far away from them as possible. If she has to walk near them, she leans as hard as possible against me and scrambles to get by, which usually causes her to slip a little on the marble floors, making the problem worse.

I was slicing up a pork shoulder to make dinner and looked at this big meaty bone... looked at Bella.... looked at the bone.... and tossed it in her crate. I was having so much fun watching her that I (gasp!) forgot to take photos. She moved it around her crate a few times to get the right position, licked it a little, looked at me, then started to tentatively nibble. She had so much fun and wasn't very pleased when I took it away (since this was our first experience, I didn't want her to have too much the first time). I had been hesitant to feed her anything raw since we're in a small apartment - I didn't know if she'd start bringing bones and such all over the place the way she does with her Kongs. But, it was obviously a very high value treat since she didn't leave her crate. I had put a towel down so that I didn't have to wash her bedding and that worked well. She's completely exhausted now. With a great meat market down the street with very reasonable prices, I'm seeing more meat treats in her future. This is the one place that I've seen EVERYTHING - and I mean everything. Beef tongue, packages of lard, pigs' feet, every cut of beef, lamb, pork and chicken you could imagine, and much, much more.

Interesting - I've always walked with Bella on my right side, I guess from all of those years leading horses around. Typically when I'm walking with her and I have a destination or just don't want her darting around to smell interesting things, the leash is quite short so that she doesn't have much of an opportunity. When it's looser then it's ok for her to sniff around and wander. She's learned this very quickly with me, but DH doesn't shorten the leash and then gets frustrated with her wandering. Sometimes it's harder to train the family than the dog

We've taken Bella on a couple of road trips. We drove to Martha's Vineyard for a wedding last summer - stayed at a Westin in Providence on the way up and a dog-friendly hotel on the island. Most of the time she was with us, but we did bring her crate for the times that we had to leave her alone (like the wedding!) and she was perfectly fine. She really likes her crate - we keep it set up in our bedroom to keep reinforcing that it's her space so that when we have times that we have to use it (such as traveling), it's a familiar and comfy space. A Kong and a couple of yummy treats and she's a happy pup.

Is there a big difference between the regular and "odor free" varieties?

Bella gets her kibble with a little water (so she doesn't choke on it), salmon oil in the am for her seasonally dry skin and a spoonful of yogurt because DH is convinced it makes her gas issues better. She'll occasionally miss the yogurt (when I've forgotten to buy more) and will occasionally get pumpkin (if I've just made up a batch of kongs), veggies, shredded chicken, etc - if my feeding her coincides with cooking, she'll sometimes get a little something in her bowl. Her body language is really funny when she encounters something extra in her bowl - "ooh, wow, something extra!" - more because I like to indulge her than anything else. She's never had a problem with finishing her kibble nor being a picky eater.

Bella would sleep with us until about 2 months ago (we've had her since April) and now she has no interest in sleeping with us. Her crate is in our bedroom so she'll go on the bed for a few minutes and snuggle but then she goes into her crate, all on her own.

: So sorry to see this last update - run free sweet Grover

I got ours through Pet Edge - good shipping, good pricing but next time would definitely look at eBay or Craigslist.

Hi from another New Yorker!

Thank you all, really. I wish I had talked to people a long time ago. Besides my family, I mean. I tried telling a therapist, but just never connected with her. Really helps talking to dog people who really get it. I had no idea bloat was so hard to recover from, even if caught early - I thought it was more like horse colic, where there are lots of different levels of severity and if you catch it early and it's not really severe you can save the animal. Guess not. You all have helped - your words are very comforting. Thank you. Prin-Raff's Holly Go Lightly (hey, I was a kid and had just seen "Breakfast at Tiffany's") November 1989-September 1, 2000

Hi from NYC! We're pretty newbie owners, too and were sooo happy to find this site.

See, these comments are exactly why I finally posted this here. You all say the best things - not to just forgive myself but the understanding. Thanks so much.

My heart goes out to you.

I lost my Cocker Spaniel, Holly, on September 1, 2000. I've never really talked about her. She was a Christmas present as a puppy. The first dog that was really, truly mine. I missed her so much when I went to college - she lived with my mom for a while and then an uncle of mine. Then when I graduated and moved into an apartment, she came with me. When circumstances suddenly changed a few months after graduating and I decided to move to Michigan, she was moving with me. The movers had finished packing and loading furniture, the U-Haul I was driving from Connecticut to Michigan was packed and I was ready to go. Holly was acting oddly, but she was always a little odd and stubborn and I was too self-absorbed to see that something was really wrong. About an hour into the drive, when I was in a completely strange town, I realized she was really, really sick. I frantically drove around until I found someone who could direct me to a vet's office. In tears I brought her in and almost immediately the vet told me she had bloat and couldn't be saved. I was a wreck. My poor pup lost her life because I wasn't paying enough attention to her. I still have her ashes - I don't have a place to bury them and can't stand to see them. It's taken me ten years to let go of some of her dishes, toys, collars and coat, but I still have a few things. I can't rid myself of the overwhelming guilt that I killed her. It's what took me so long to adopt another dog and part of why I get so uptight with DH when something's even remotely off with Bella. Thanks for listening.

We have a tiny little kitchen and Bella just can't fit. I try to keep her out, which means all body parts out, but I'll turn around and those front paws are just over the threshold. She'll catch me looking at her and back up, slowly and reluctantly, and a few minutes later, those front pawsies are right there again Until recently she hasn't gotten the hang of cleaning up after me - now she's discovered that goodies fall and are hers if she pays attention. She is VERY good, however, about not grabbing something until I give her the ok. I can even work with the garbage can out, dropping things into it and she won't touch anything. When I cook at my parents' house, with their large open kitchen, she drives me nuts. She and the three Golden Retrievers are always under foot, so it's impossible to try to train her to stay in one place when the other dogs can do whatever they want. She also likes to watch me so that I don't escape and it's impossible in that kitchen. I'd definitely be working on keeping her out from underfoot if I could, but it so isn't worth it to try there because of the other dogs.

Congrats!!

Thanks for the thoughts! Vers - haven't tried probiotics, thanks!

I do see where people have posted that their greys don't have gas. I'm jealous. Bella's turning into a major stink-butt. She is moderately gassy on just her kibble, worse on the days we don't add yogurt but when she audibly toots and then looks at her butt and sneezes, I'm thinking maybe it's time to do something about it So, if I start trying different kibbles to see if any make her gas better, how long should I give a new kibble to see if it cuts down on the gas? And, kibble suggestions from those with less noxious hounds would be much appreciated Right now Bella's on Earthborn Holistic Adult Vantage. Thanks!

So, so sorry Pat