krissy
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Posts posted by krissy
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Oh man! Kili should have had her first Jumpers Q last night in her first real trial. She ran beautifully and then pulled the second to last bar. Sigh. She almost never drops bars. So disappointing. But really pleased with her performance otherwise. What a girl!
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Yay! That's awesome! For agility you'll need a dog who is not reactive so definitely keep working on that. They don't need to be perfect but chances are in any class there are going to be moments where a dog leaves its handler to try to investigate another dog so they need to be okay with other dogs for the most part.
Other than that you need a dog with reliable basic obedience and a good recall as many agility arenas are not fully fenced or the fences are low enough to be jumped.
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The dogs hold their bladders for 8-10 hours on regular working days. We generally let them out whenever we stop for food, gas, or human bathroom breaks. So on an 8 hour drive we probably let them out 2-3 times. When we've been driving in bad weather though the dogs have made do with just one.
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2 is definitely more work than one, but not by double. Walking two is more work than one, but if leash manners are good it's only a bit more work. Filling two food bowls takes twice as long as one. Training two takes twice as long depending on what you are training. But two is definitely my ideal number. It's the perfect compromise between work and benefits.
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My two greyhounds live with my 3 rabbits. Summit could care less as he is virtually no prey. Kili is low-moderate prey, but really her problem is wanting to play with the rabbits like they're dogs. I have videos of them on my YouTube and on my blog. I'm on my iPhone so can't link it up for you.
Obviously you can never leave them unsupervised together. You may also have to consider moving bunny to a large cage instead of the exercise pen. Summit I could trust with a bunny in an ex/pen, but anything higher prey I think a solid cage is best for "just in case".
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I think "aggressive" is probably a strong term to use (though the information provided is fairly vague). Sounds like there may be some space issues. True "dominance aggression" is EXCEEDINGLY rare. As in even veterinary behaviourists rarely diagnose it. There is usually some other combination of fear aggression or resource guarding type behaviour. In this case sounds like a space problem. Honestly, we never allow the dogs onto the furniture before we've had them about 6 months and have established a good relationship and understand each other's communication. This means I've had time to observe the dog's body language and find out what things make the dog comfortable and uncomfortable, and how this particular dog lets me know when it is uncomfortable with something. Even Kili who we got at 8 weeks old did not come up on furniture until she was about 7 months old. Occasionally we'll get a grumble if you bump her and we immediately ask the dog to get off the furniture (a good "off" command is therefore important prior to allowing furniture privileges). If I had a dog that sleep startled badly or protected space to the point of doing more than a grumble, that dog would no longer be allowed on te furniture while we worked on trust and bonding.
It is important to read your dog's body language and to becoming familiar with his calming signals. These tiny messages are frequently missed but are almost always displayed long before growling or snapping (except in sleep startle obviously).
If I had a dog that sleep startled it wouldn't be allowed on furniture with me and I'd wake the dog from a far before asking it to get off furniture I wanted to sit on.
If we knew more about the specific incidences we could probably be more helpful.
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These dogs are generally VERY soft. I use almost exclusively positive reinforcement. Any sort of punishment I try to set up so it is not associated with me... like setting traps on counters to stop counter surfing. I do not want it associated with me and affecting our relationship. And even so, you want to choose the lowest level of correction needed to achieve the desired response, followed by positive reinforcement of the correct behaviour.
To explain just how soft these dogs are... I took Kili to a different trainer from our normal ones because no one else offered show handling. This trainer does use some heavier corrections, however she never used anything but positive methods with Kili. Still, I stopped taking Kili there because she would get really nervous there. Any time the trainer corrected another dog (who was harder headed and couldn't have cared less) MY dog cowered and put her ears back and didn't want to perform. Just to give you an idea of how soft they can be.
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I don't think anyone was negative... just realistic. Realistically if you were researching retired racers you can toss most of that information out the window because a puppy turns out entirely different than a retired racer. People who meet our dogs remark on it immediately. Yes, to be fair we have a 7 year difference in age but that really only accounts for energy and impulse control. But their personalities are also really different. So if the retired racer was what you had your heart set on it would be unrealistic to get a greyhound puppy.
Greyhound puppies are not any worse than other puppies. But all puppies are difficult. The amount of time that goes into socialization and training is massive if you want to do it right. I took Kili somewhere every single day, often more than once a day (lunch break and after work) to all sorts of places. I drove her every couple weeks into larger cities to walk downtown and go to new stores. We did classes every week from 8 weeks all the way to the present (she's 21 months).
Raising a greyhound puppy is very rewarding, but as with all puppies it is challenging which is why everyone is giving cautionary tales. If it's the right move for your family then that's fantastic and you're in for a wonderful, crazy, trying ride.
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I think I have a video on my blog on muzzle training with Kili. It'll be a fair ways back because it was over a year ago, but it's there under the tag "Kili puppy". I'd find it and post the link but I'm stuck at a hotel with only my iPhone.
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Kili is my second dog. We got her at 8 weeks old from a show breeder. It was hell and amazing at the same time. If I didn't have specific needs that are difficult to meet in Canada, where selection is much more restricted, I would probably just have retired racers. But since I need agility prospects I like the puppy route. I'm actually on my breeder's list for another puppy in 2-3 years.
They're puppies so they're going to turn into whatever you mold them into. They will accept the things that you teach them to accept. They are completely different from the average retired racer. Kili is almost completely opposite to Summit. She has started to slow down and use her off switch now, but it has taken almost 2 years.
And as much as I love greyhounds, if I lived somewhere where they had to be muzzled at all times... I'd probably choose a different breed. I'm not sure I could deal with that. One reason I can't have a pit bull (actually, I'm in the middle of moving to Alberta... they might not have BSL so maybe I could if I wanted!) is because I don't think I could stay cool dealing with all the stigma and unfair regulations.
ETA: I would have died if I hadn't had Summit first. But lots of people get puppies as their first dog. Just realize that it is about 50 times more work than a retired racer will be and that you probably won't be getting that retired racer personality.
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My breeder said that in the past she has live coursed some of her hounds. After the chase they would go home and snuggle with her indoor cats. Indoor vs outdoor makes a huge difference. And whether it runs away.
Maybe people also shouldn't drive cars down the street because they are knowingly putting outdoor cats at risk of being run over? I mean, just ridiculous. They are accepting all sorts of risks by allowing their cats to go outside... cars, dogs, coyotes, eagles in some areas, disease, injury....
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The Arabian princess costume picture always makes me smile. What a sweet girl. I hope she and Tyler are running together again.
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SummersMom - Yes, called the Bayer rep. No contraindication, especially since it never becomes systemic, it's just incorporated into the fat layer of the skin.
For some reason I thought Preventic was Bayer's collar that is coming out next spring, but it's made by Virbac. I don't have a tonne of experience with it. I guess mostly because instead of having a collar around my dog's neck 24/7 I can just apply a topical once a month and I like that better.
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He is on Revolution but that doesn't stop deer ticks, I already had an appointment with the vet to discuss the pros and cons of switching from revolution to advantix and heartgard. Thoughts on that anyone? He has done well on the revolution and I am always hesitant to switch to an unknown but I have heard the advantix repels ticks (as opposed to them repelling me!)
You can use Advantix in addition to Revolution. Just space them 2 weeks apart. If you switch to Heartgard you'll lose your internal parasite protection (which is fine if you're okay with that).
Personally, I use Advanage Multi for Summit and only add Advantix if we travel somewhere with a greater risk level than where we live. For Kili I use Trifexis and Advantix because she cavorts in long grass and I don't want a permanent grease slick on her back all summer.
You can use a tick collar - Preventix - that's safe for greyhounds. Not sure if it's available in Canada or not.
It is not. The only tick product in Ontario is Advantix. Collar is supposed to be coming in 2015 according to Bayer.
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Run free Tori. That picture of her laying awkwardly on her bed made me laugh the first time I saw it. What a character!
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the trainers here in the ny area are who i am quoting. they found that they just couldn't get the results, the dogs didn't obtain their behavioral goals and the halti always had to be used on those dogs. the dogs never graduated to a buckle collar- one of the goals at the two schools i have worked my dogs with.
If the trainer worked with those dogs 24/7 instead of the owners I bet the dogs would learned just fine. It's not that the trainers can't get results, it's that they can't get the owners to get results.
I haven't had the best of luck with dogs on food allergy trials. Doesn't mean the food doesn't work... it means, in most cases, I can't get good enough owner compliance with my instructions.
If I trained Kili the same way with a halti as I have with her martingale her leash manners would be in the exact same place. I never tried a halti because she was never bad enough to begin with that I felt I needed the extra control. But how I trained her would have been identical and once I had better control I would have continued the training... but on a martingale.
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Mine don't shred stuffies but they love to toss them and run with them and shake them. Kili has a great tug too.
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What size (Adult or toddler) for a leaky girlie greyhound?
And how do you keep them on?
Do you make a slit for her tail or not?
Yeah, I have never interacted with a diaper.
Get sanitary panties for intact bitches. Kili is 60 lbs and we got the largest size. They don't fit exactly right but you can use an elastic to gather up the excess material on the back. Or for a slightly smaller girl one size down might fit nicely. I almost bought the smaller size for Kili but I wanted her to have lots of leg mobility in case she has to wear them for agility class.
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the halti isn't really a training tool. once it's off the dogs are back to what they started with.
That's because people don't actually train the dog when they use a halti. The halti simply gives you more control so the dog can't surprise you if it darts. You still have to actually train by showing the dog that the darting was a mistake and rewarding good loose leash walking when it happens. You can't simply put a halti on and expect it to train the dog for you. It doesn't train your dog any more than a collar or harness train your dog, it only gives you more control while YOU train the dog.
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Interesting. I'd be curious to see how you start teaching this. The point they show in the video could have been trained in any way with the owner's actions simply becoming a cue. For example... Kili's visual cue for "wave" is my raising my hand... so it is basically mimicry. Except she wasn't trained to mimic in the actual learning process.
The nice part of this method is that it promotes attention and focus on the handler. The part I don't like is that it requires absolutely no "thinking" on the dog's part. The dog just does as it is shown.
As the article states though, most of us use multiple training techniques. I use a clicker to train some things but not others. And as the dog becomes adept at learning I tend to use less clicker, and less luring. I rely more on shaping and the dog offering behaviours and actively thinking and trying things.
This could be an interesting addition to the training toolbox... but as I said, I'm curious about the very beginning stages of a dog learning to learn this way.
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You should see ribs on a greyhound. He looks fine.
The problem is most dogs are overweight. In my practice I would say that at least 60% of the dogs/cats I see are overweight to some degree.
A fat greyhound is a very sad sight to see.
(A fat any dog is a sad sight to see, really). -
I wouldn't worry about the weight if she's really 10 months old. They tend to be beanpoles at that age anyway.
This was Kili at 10 months old. Rail thin. But eating well, training well, extremely active.
I tried increasing her food and at one point was trying to feed her almost double her daily suggested intake. She didn't put on weight, she just got horrible diarrhea. I decided to back off and just feed her what she was supposed to be getting and try not to worry about her weight.
This is Kili at 20 months. She filled out just fine all on her own.
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I will try to call Bayer on Tuesday when I'm back at work. My understanding is that the pyriproxyfen is added to control the immature flea stages (eggs and larvae). The pyriproxyfen falls off with dead skin cells. It was also added to Advantage (but not Advantage Multi) to make Advantage II. As far as I know it is safe for sighthounds, but I will make a specific inquiry on Tuesday.Krissy, I'm very glad to hear it's the same product! Can you tell me... someone today mentioned that K9 Advantix II (vs regular K9 Advantix) is unsafe due to the extra ingredient which is added as a biting insect repellent. I believe the added ingredient is pyriproxyfen. I wanted to see if my vet would order Advantix II for me this year instead of the regular Advantix but obviously I don't want it if it's remotely unsafe.
ETA: and if it wasn't safe for sighthounds you would have no tick product. With the II products on the market the original Advantage/Advantix are no longer available once the current supply runs out. Luckily I don't think it matters.
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I was hunting around in these threads to see if there's any information about Advantix II being unsafe for greyhounds (it was something I heard today so I wanted to do some research -- note that this is about Advantix II, **NOT** regular Advantix) and spotted your comment about the good stuff that kills ticks being replaced/removed in the Canadian version. Can you tell me more? -- the sole reason that I use K9 Advantix along with Hearguard, instead of using Revolution, is for the tick protection. But if I'm not actually getting that ingredient in the Canadian K9 Advantix, then there's absolutely no point in using it.
I don't know what "good" ingredient you guys are talking about. As far as I know it is the same. K9 Advantix in Canada is labelled to be effective against all of our tick species. I have not heard/read anything about it being unsafe for sighthounds and our Bayer rep did not mention any contraindications either (except for cats obviously).
(A fat any dog is a sad sight to see, really).
Fun In The Summer Sun.
in Training and Behavior discussion
Posted
She looks good Janette.
One major thing... I wouldn't ever run a dog with a leash on. Ever... especially loose and dragging... especially on contact equipment. It's just a bad idea. If she steps on the leash and trips she'll fall off the dogwalk and potentially hurt herself, or at the very least scare herself and be reluctant to get back on. When I practice I usually run Kili in a collar and a lot of agility people think THAT'S bad. Having a jerk to her neck when she tries to take off doing zoomies might prevent the zoomies from happening but doesn't address the underlying reason WHY they are happening, and potentially will just give her a negative association with the equipment. So, if it was me... I'd ditch the leash. If she takes off doing zoomies... well, then she takes off doing zoomies.
Zoomies. There are two major possibilities. Dogs do zoomies when they are stressed to release tension. They also do it just because it is fun. It is important to identify which is the case. Either way it helps to run the dog ahead of time. If I have any say in the matter I always run Kili HARD for about 20-30 minutes before we go to a trial. She needs the edge taken off so that she can focus, otherwise she's just crazy and out of control. If the issue is stress... take the pressure off. Sometimes we don't realize that we're creating pressure... so think about your body language, your voice, etc. Reward more frequently. Do shorter sequences, reward, let her run a lap, take a break, then do it again.