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I forgot to mention that. We do use DAP. I tried the collars for awhile without any noticeable difference. Now, I just give his martingale a few hits of the DAP spray before we go out somewhere. Can't hurt, might help. Truman spits his treats out, unfortunately. Even high value stuff like roast beef, he'll refuse it... or he'll take it, then immediately spit it out.

Skip a few sandwiches...

Yeah, Jen, you'll probably see him acting bad at Grapehounds. My plan is to put him in an ex-pen behind my booth. That way, there will be a barrier between him and other dogs. He usually does okay if there's a 3-4 foot buffer. Any closer than that, he starts acting crazy. Also, to answer your question, he does have above-threshold responses regularly. I'd say at least a few times per week. Very rarely does he have a calm or appropriate response to an unfamiliar, leashed dog. Sometimes it's an aggressive (fear) response. Sometimes it's more of an exuberant barking/jumping response, which might be interpreted as playful. But when he gets like this, I don't let him go any closer, because I can't predict what he's going to do. Our emergency cue right now is 'hurry, hurry, hurry!' and we just run in the other direction. He loves to run, and he responds to that almost every time. I envy people who can do sit-stays or down-stays in that type of situation. Truman is very slow with those normally. Factor in a weird surface (gravel, sidewalk) and the stress of another dog, and getting a down-stay out of him would be near impossible. That's another reason I'm reluctant to do more obedience classes. The ones we did were all so heavy in sits and sit-stays. Even with a ton of practice, I could never work him to the point where he'd do those fast or easily. I felt stupid walking around with the only dog who wouldn't sit.

All excellent information. I'm extremely busy gearing up for Grapehounds, but I plan to get busy on this when we get back.

Glad Diamond came through alright. Henry's incision was glued shut and un-bandaged too. I thought it was really odd at the time, but everything healed great.

Thanks for posting. After the problems I've been having with Truman recently, I really needed to hear this.

Roxy... Terrible news. I'm so sorry.

Thinking about you guys.

Wow! She looks AWESOME!!

Id be interested to know that myself. It would explain a lot- he is distracted by everything. Always seems like he's overwhelmed, like a sensory overload.

I also wanted to mention, I had a long conversation with the vet last night about Truman. He mentioned the possibility that he could have a condition (I forget the exact terminology) that his sense receptors are hyper-sensitive. Meaning, it could be possible that he is hearing, seeing, and reacting to touch in exaggerated ways because he's sensing things more acutely than a normal dog would.

I wasn't sure about was the evaluation. The few doctors I'd contacted on the eastern side of PA wanted the evaluations done in our home. I'd be willing to travel- totally no problem- but they wouldn't be able to travel to me. I'll see what Penn has to say. ETA: Truman was neutered at 12 months. Krissy, you might be onto something. He didn't have these types of fear problems prior to being neutered. It's almost like he got stuck.

Can someone help me to find out if there's legitimate veterinary behaviorist in my area? It seems that lots of people claim to be 'behaviorists,' but I'd prefer to have him evaluated by someone with an expertise in the pharmacology side of it too. I'm using this website, but so far as I can tell, the only 'certified veterinary behaviorists' are all the way on the eastern part of PA. That would be about 4-5 hours away. http://www.dacvb.org/resources/find/

I've tried Thundershirt, Rescue Remedy, calming treats, and low dose Valium. I've tried pre-exercising him too. Not much difference.

That could be an SA thing. Some dogs will delay any routine leading up to their people leaving. They begin making the association that "right after the morning walk and pee, mom and dad leave me, so I'm going to drag this out as long as I can.' There's a lot of good threads on here re: alone training.

I doubt anything is medically wrong. He had a big, long incision on his belly when he was neutered because we also elected to have a gastropexy done. My guess is that it was painful/sensitive for awhile, so he decided then that he didn't want touched there. Now, he probably has no idea why he's doing it, but the snarky behavior is ingrained.

I'm thinking of switching to Nexgard. Would love to know what you guys think of it before I buy, considering it's more expensive than other comparable flea and tick preventatives. I recently tried K9 Advantix- bought a year's worse, then ending up returning it all. I couldn't deal with the oily spots (which by the way, were ten times worse than Frontline). My boys got oil stains all over our bed sheets and the dog bed covers. It wouldn't wash off! I was also constantly worried about the cat, considering the amount of transfer from the oily spots onto the bedding. I wouldn't recommend Advantix.

How's he doing? Any updates? I've seen some really bad cases of immune-mediated thrombocytopenia on this board that unfortunately, did not end well. ETA: This is the thread I'm reminded of (and the reason I cringe whenever I see a thread on weird and spontaneous bruising): http://forum.greytalk.com/index.php/topic/293006-pugsley-has-bruisingblood-pooling-on-her-abdomen-what-is-this/

Oh yeah!! After Hen lost his leg, I gradually started making him re-learn stairs and jumping up into the car. Once he learned, that was the end of that, and I stopped lifting him. If I'm around, he goes up with no problem. But if it's just DBF, Henry stands there looking pathetic and waiting to be lifted. He knows who he can get over on and who he can't. Dogs are much smarter than we give them credit for!

I understand you feel upset and misled. I'd recommend giving him some more time to adjust. Even though greyhounds are often marketed as being 'already trained' and 'low maintenance,' it's a rare occasion that one will come with perfect manners, especially when it comes to house-training. Many dogs don't understand that all indoor places are off limits. Some need training with every new environment. Right now, I'd start by putting him on a strict food, water, elimination, and exercise schedule. Make sure he is totally emptied out before you leave the house. Until he becomes more reliable, you'll need to let him out often, reward the right behavior like crazy, and watch him like a hawk. If he's still having accidents after you've spent time doing formal house-training, you may find his peeing is the result of crate anxiety or separation anxiety. Those are a bit more challenging issues to deal with, but you'll find a ton of threads on here with good advice. Good luck! Don't give up yet!

Don't worry too much- this is an extremely common behavior in new greys. Batmom has a good process that involves first trading up with low/no value items- like kibble or a washcloth. From there, keep working your way up. When you get to the point where you're working with high value stuff (in this case, bones or toys), you'll have to trade up with an even higher value food. It is doable. Try people food that has a strong smell, like roast beef or braunschweiger. The most important thing to take away from the 'trading up' activity is to ALWAYS give the original item back to the dog at the end of the training session. You're not just giving in to what he wants. You're sending the message that he doesn't have to worry that you're taking his things away forever. Once that idea is reinforced, he'll have no reason to guard.

Yes, exactly! He does not want to be touched on his sides. He'll immediately jump away if I try to touch him there. He growls and snaps if I force it and try to leave my hand there in a resting position. I tried counter-conditioning with treats, but no such luck. I stopped trying, otherwise I think he might bite me.

I once had a lady tell me, "Greyhounds seem like great dogs, but I could never have one. Their faces look evil."

That's another thing that makes it harder to take Truman places. He's gigantic, plus he's a pretty blue brindle color with light eyes. He attracts a lot of attention at the events (not to mention, Henry does too because of his tripawdedness). Everyone wants to come up and talk to us, then I have to preface every conversation with, "Sorry, but this one isn't friendly with other dogs..."

Amen, sister. I'm looking to see where we can go near Pittsburgh to do an evaluation/assessment for different meds. I'll have to go to a specialist, otherwise, it will just be me saying to my vet, "Let's try this... okay, that didn't work... let's try that."