OwnedBySummer

Bwa-ha-ha!

In the 3+ years that I've had Summer, I would say YES, they change. All the time. The core personality seems to be the same (in her case, very sweet, loving, gentle) but sometimes she throws in new stuff just to keep me on my toes.

Summer roos -- I read somewhere that Kiowa Sweet Trey pups are excellent rooers. At home, once every day or two, she'll sphinx and yip at me and that means "put on my video of the rooing greyhound" and then we'll roo along with it. Sometimes at our weekend greyhound runs we'll get them all going, too.

Congratulations! And if you don't know, there's a big greyhound event coming up in your state at the end of September! -- Beach Bound Hounds in Myrtle Beach.

Raw duck feet are great, too! I also feed raw duck necks as they are a more manageable size than turkey necks, which I have to cut in half.

They're good with just water. I'm like Jan, I don't drink much other than water myself. And I've never had a dog who seems to want anything else. I wouldn't worry about it.

Here's hoping for tired, then. LOL! Was she like this any other time she went to camp or was this your first time? Could be a combination, too.

She sounds either lonely or tired. I'm leaning towards lonely. Cheer up, pretty Bonnie! Bring her to the run tomorrow and see how she behaves? If she perks up with all the hounds around, you'll have your answer.

Thinking good thoughts for your baby. Here's something I found on dog headaches like Xtrawld suggested: • Symptoms like rubbing their head against furniture or on your body hoping for relief of this invasion in their head. • Total avoidance of people and loud noises which only make their head pound more. • Not interested in playing and only wanting to be left alone. • Squinting with their eyes to avoid sunlight which worsens their pain. • Seeking out cool places to rest their head upon. • Not very enthusiastic about eating their meals (putting their head down to feed from their bowl can cause that throbbing)

Hi and congratulations!

Summer just went comatose when I put her on it. Not literally, of course... but talk about laid back and lethargic! Even for a greyhound! It was horrible, she wasn't herself at all.

Here's an article from my greyhound group which you may find helpful. 1. Muzzle your dogs. Give them time, they will calm down with the muzzles on, they are used to wearing muzzles both at the track and kennel, not just for racing either, so give them some time, and get those muzzles on. They are the key to your being able to relax a bit. That being said, it is possible for a dog to injure a cat even with a muzzle on, so you still need to be vigilant if the greyhounds and cats can get at each other. 2. Assess your greyhound's reaction to the cat. Signs of being unworkable include: panting, copious drooling, and persistence. Persistence means that the greyhound will follow the cat anywhere, if the cat walks down the hall and goes into a bedroom and you close the door, the greyhound will either stay at the door, or keep going back to check the door. If your greyhound shows all of these signs or even 2/3, it's possible that he may truly be a high prey greyhound (unusual) and not workable with cats. If your greyhound shows one of these signs, or stares at the cat, or whimpers a bit, it's likely they are workable. You'll be able to reassess for change each day, and you should see a gradual relaxation of signs going on, rather than an increase in signs of high prey behavior. 3. Move all the furniture away from the walls enough that your cat can get back there if need be. In spite of all your efforts right now to keep them separate, there can be an escape very quickly, and you will need a safe area for the cat to get to where the greyhound can't follow. We had our couch pulled out from the wall for months, just in case. 4. If your hounds are food motivated, before working with them, have a ton of treats at the ready. If they prefer pets, then you can use praise and pets to reward them. 5. When you're ready to start, what you want to do is reward your greyhound every single time they give you the behavior you're looking for. What you're looking for is ignoring the cat. So if the cat comes into the room, on the other side of the baby gate, and your grey looks at him and then looks away, the second he looks away give him his reward. This is positive reinforcement, a popular method of dog training. You're marking that ignoring behavior with a treat and/or praise, and that's the most important thing you can do. Keep doing that as much as you can. 6. For some dogs, positive reinforcement doesn't kick in fast enough, and you have to also do a bit of aversive training. That's a squirt of cold water and the words "no kitty". Again, the second your hound obeys the "no kitty" command, reward him. 7. Repeat, repeat and repeat. These methods have worked for us very well. The longest we ever had to keep it up was a month. There are a few other tricks you can try, they include reinforcing the cats as alpha, meaning feed the cats first in front of the dogs, but if your greyhound is getting excited around the cats at this point, it's best to wait for some of these other things, and stick to a simple method. They need to learn to associate ignoring the cat with good things happening, and not ignoring the cat with no rewards whatsoever. Some would say that aversive training will give the reward of attention, even though it's negative attention, but with some hounds, just using positive reinforcement is simply not enough. Also, don't force introductions, let them handle that in a natural way with their own timing, and try not to pick up the cat in front of the greyhound, that can start some jumping behavior that you don't want.

At the track I visited, they collect urine from every winner of every race. They used a "dixie cup on a stick" method.

I know, they're wonderful and so much more comfortable! AND there's the added bonus when they are in a playgroup, that their pretty faces actually show in the pictures, rather than a pair of eyes looking over a big bulky muzzle.

Summer's not a chewer so I can't comment on the bones and chews available nowadays. But my previous non-grey was a heck of a chewer and, toy-wise, I found the best thing was a Kong Wubba. Congratulations, BTW! Kong Wubba ETA: If she likes balls, a hockey ball is pretty tough. We also use the whistling ball with our medium-size Chuck It.

I believe you need a posting count of 50 before you can PM anyone. Congratulations on your pup!

Here's a helpful document. This is what I started out using for my instructions. How to Dremel Dog Nails by DoberDawn

I get mine from here... and you can save a dollar. The GEM Store. This is also an excellent source for squawkers. Are you using that heavy plastic kennel muzzle? If you can't get around the whole muzzle thing, I think it would at least be more comfortable if you used a lighter UK muzzle. I don't know where you get them in the US but here's a Canadian source. Awesome-Paws. For anyone needing muzzles with stool guards, she also carries a muzzle similar to a basket muzzle but softer and with padding on the bridge of the nose and the stool guard is built-in. Here's Summer in hers (the regular UK muzzle):

I also have a WWW. I use it during anything scary where I am concerned she might jump or pull (thunderstorms, crowds with balloons bursting, fireworks) or when we're hiking. Haven't found any cons... other than it takes longer to dry than a collar? Which isn't really much of a con, LOL! ETA: Ignore the harness in my signature, it's NOT a WWW harness but a cheap thing from Petsmart that I've since disposed of since the fit was terrible. It was purchased just for temporary use.

There's lots out there, I see. Here's a veritable list of them. http://www.tailblazerspets.com/products-dog-bones.php

Found one! http://backtobasicsrawpetfood.com/store/index.php?catid=37

I'm using duck necks right now, perhaps you can find those instead? How about checking with a local poultry farm? You don't have a local raw food supplier? -- they always have them.

Thanks, everyone! I'll look for it at Grapehounds while I'm in the US!

I apparently can't get it in Canada. Maybe online (didn't investigate) but the shipping cost would be crazy. ETA: There apparently is a Canadian distributor to the pet store industry -- I've emailed them to see if I can get samples before I ask my local store to bring any in for me. Here's hoping! No matter how good a food may be... it's useless if she doesn't like it.

This might help people. This is being spelled Annamaet, I am guessing this is the food? Annamaet Petfoods. And here's your dogfoodadvisor.com result: Dog Food Advisor. It explains that weird ingredient, menhaden oil -- it's a fish oil! <off to see what a menhaden looks like> I really like that the first and third ingredients are protein meals.