XTRAWLD

LOL Pauline. I was planning to tonight after researching LOL!

Sorry to add to this thread (I totally feel like I'm hijacking it I"M SORRY) Kasey is allergic to chicken, but I heard feeding him raw chicken isn't the same as the chicken found in kibble. Can I truly have raw chicken in his diet without him going crazy with allergies or do I still have to avoid that meat?

Thank you Sandra....I'm revisiting this. My calculation is one bag of high quality kibble (due to Kasey's allergies) is $69 for 35 lbs. We go through two bags in six weeks roughly = (70 lbs kibble for $138 for 6 weeks). Reduce that to 4 weeks and the monthly calculation is $92 a month (at best) for 2 dogs!! UGH, when I type that out I'm nearly disgusted. Actually our "local" butcher is in Brookville and we are on pretty good terms with them - but we've never done a "raw" agreement. I'll have to get a list of things to ask, etc and see if what he has is even available. We used to live in Halton region so that butcher was close to home at the time. However, I work in Mississauga, so....I'll do some more research, and let you guys know how we fare! We do have a freezer we could stock. I was thinking, the time to get it all together might be just upon pickup of the meat....separate everything out for their daily feedings ahead of time before freezing, and then we are good to go. Thank you for the encouragement. Here I go to continue on my quest.... OH MY and I totally forgot to add, I'm about 5 minute drive away (at work) to Maple Lodge Farms......

Reminder, if you want to get her out of the crate instead of just coaxing - attach the leash to the collar, and never pull from the collar directly with your hand. She will have to learn that you are the boss, and if she always gets her way, she will know she can get away with a lot. Greys are creatures of habit and routine. The track life is spot on with feeding and elimination runs. They typically go out 4-5 times a day, and know when they are going outside it is to do their business. She's still very new so this is a lot of getting used to for her, but you are alpha to her and she has to learn this and not have her be the boss.

I complained to the Kong company a couple of months ago. Ryder destroyed a Kong product - can you believe it? Their claim to fame is having an indestructible toy. Well, it was more like a Kong stuffy that bit the dust, but if they stand behind their product then I will put them to the test. In less than a couple hours Ryder decapitated a Giraffe Braidz toy. He absolutely loved it, chewing, squeaking and boom, off went the head. I thought, their products are expensive enough as it is so I'm going to complain. I received 3 x 20% off coupons in the mail for the next toy. I was really hoping for a freebie replacement, which is what I asked for, and assumed I was receiving based on the email communication. I guess 3 coupons would suffice and it's certainly better than nothing. What am I going to do, complain about the complaint? I don't complain often, but find it worthwhile when something really irks me. Most companies do value customers and their business and if something is wrong they want to know about it, and rectify it so you don't go off blabbing how much they suck and then word of mouth snowballs, and risk more business loss, etc.

I'm surprised to hear the winning poll for this so far is under $50 per dog/per month. I've always fed kibble because I thought it would be too expensive, time consuming and too inconvienient to do raw. The do well on kibble, but of course I'd always like them to be better. Feeding raw means you know what is going into their system, not the myriad of ingredients on the labels. I would like to read up on this again. I came so close to going raw about 2-3 years ago when we went through Kasey's huge allergy testing. The only butcher we know is nearly an hour away. Any mentors that are currently in my circle are about that far away as well. Which also makes the raw thing more difficult.

We had issues with Ryder about 3 months in similar to this. There were roofers on the streets in our neighbourhood and all the noise completely spooked him. He refused to go outside and do ANYTHING. If we did manage to get him outside (forcefully) he would stand with his tail tucked and not try to pee/poop. If he did try he would constantly be looking around him ready to bolt. He would PULL me around the neighbourhood just hoping to get home to his safe place. He had to wear a harness because there was too much pressure on his neck from pulling. I had to keep the windows closed in the summer so he wouldn't hear any nail guns, etc. Trying to encourage him to come out of the house with treats worked, but then he would refuse treats as we walked. Turning him around into another direction only helped for a short time. What worked? I took him for a 1.5 hour walk and started no where close to our home. Hubby drove us to my parents house which is about 5-7 minutes drive and only about 5 km away. I brought a bottle of water and treats. For the first 10 minutes he went hay-wire like he would at home, but as we kept walking he calmed down. He obviously had a lot of pent up energy too. We walked very busy roadways (6 lanes wide) so there was a lot going on, cars, buses, trucks, other people, other dogs, other smells. After that walk, he was fabulous and has been since. I understand you have knee surgery which isn't the best for walking a long distance. Is anyone able to walk her for you (that knows how to handle greyhounds)? I'm a true believer that the long walk and change of scenery will work.

Oh my goodness. Sending thoughts your way!

I have enrolled Ryder into obedience training. Not because he won't learn anything or misbehaves. My ultimate plan is to get him into AGILITY! I'm so excited. Of course we have to walk before we can run (literally as well!) Obedience training will take about 6 weeks to complete, after which I can enroll him into agility - provided he's a good student. Our first start date is this Thursday (4 days away!) I'm happy we've had 10 months with him in our home before throwing him right into school within the first month. I could tell the day we got him that he was "different" from Kasey. He has the willingness to learn, is very food motivated and really wants to please. He's incredibly sharp. He already learned commands early on such "sit" and "paw" and "on your bed". He can go up and down stairs relatively quickly but carefully stair by stair, as opposed to Kasey's three jumps to get up a flight! We are working at home regarding "down" as in "lay down" and "wait". We've cleared him of nasty habits already, including counter surfing and jumping up (thankfully). I will admit to something. It is much easier training one dog, when he is the only dog in the house! We trained Kasey for our regular household rules relatively easy. But trying to train Ryder with Kasey in the room is almost a one-upmanship. I think though, Kasey has made Ryder a very stable dog, and has likely contributed to his behaviour in the home in a great way. Kasey is alpha to Ryder. I plan to keep some updates rolling regarding our weekly obedience training via this thread. Stay tuned for things he (and I) learn!

Hi everyone, I remember this forum from many many moons ago but have only signed up now. I'm sure I'll see some familiar and some unfamiliar folks on here! We (the hubby and I) are owned by Kasey since 2005, and now more recently Ryder since May of last year. I hope to research the forum and make some good friends along the way and maybe even provide a bit of knowledge! We have learned a lot about greyhounds through the past 5 years of just owning Kasey alone. He suffers from allergies and we've been through EVERYTHING. Ryder is nearly the "perfect pup". I truly believe if we got Ryder first, we would not know so much about the breed (or even dogs in general) as we do through Kasey's trials and tribulations. I'm sure the stories will come out as the forum threads and visited! Today we are taking "the boys" out for a nice hike and some geocaching since the sun is shining nice and bright for this first day of spring!