Riverhound

Before you assume he "wants" to get up early, please have him checked/treated for a UTI. I thought my Joe was just a pain in the neck -- turned out he had a painful infection. It didn't obviously show up on tests, but one round of antibiotics helped and a second round fixed him completely. Of course, you could just be "lucky" and have a natural alarm clock!

Sounds like they need a dog that's been fostered, and need to start working with the dog before they bring it home. Like, have the foster family teach it regular stairs, then bring it to the complex a few times with really amazing treats to lure up and down the stairs (raw meat!). That way, when the dog comes home it already has some experience and won't be completely freaked out! Good luck to them!

Oh, god, I am so very sorry! :f_pink

:lol And I'm clearly a slow learner! She did it again at breakfast. When Joe was pesty, we used to crate him -- but the crate was downstairs then, and I think that it made him dislike the crate for a while. I do like the idea of putting her in her bed when she's acting up, so we'll start that. She's really showing us what a good boy Joe is! It's funny; he's stopped counter-surfing and trying to get in the trash since she came home, and he looks totally disgusted when she gets bossy. "Look, Mom & Dad, my little sister is up to no good again!"

I posted about this in Cute & Funny the other day, and it is cute and funny -- but it also has the potential to be REALLY irritating, and potentially dangerous if Joe gets PO'd enough at Brees. The gist of the situation is that Brees has decided that if she wants what we're eating, she should get real close to it, stomp her feet and bark at it. It happened a couple nights ago, and then again tonight. We didn't give her any either time, of course! We've only had her a month, and she doesn't seem "ready" for obedience training yet (too focused on the food to understand she needs to do something to get it, I think). We want to make sure we're not encouraging the "tantrums" in any way, but we don't want to do anything to freak her out (no squirt bottles, etc.). She's just getting really comfortable being home, so watching her personality come out is very cool. Our other hound, Joe, got really peeved tonight when Brees was barking at my ice cream, and barked/snarled at her in a rather scary way. (They've just graduated to not wearing muzzles in the house; I'm not at all sure he won't bite her if she's too bratty!) I'm not convinced that Brees knows her name, and really not sure she understands "No!". If she does understand "No!", she's not overly motivated to listen to it. She's 2 1/2, last raced in August, came home mid-December after being in the adoption kennel since September. Her favorite thing in the world is sitting in her Daddy's lap. Any ideas for non-scary ways to discourage this girl from being such a brat? We're just using arms and legs to block her from our food right now. Meals mostly get eaten on the couch here.

So you didn't transition? You just started feeding it cold turkey? With her dogs terrible poops she wants to just switch over right away. I had some Blue left, and mixed the two for Joe for a couple days. Brees got all Iams right away; she seems to be able to eat anything with no trouble. Joe's poo was noticeably easier to pick up the next day; he's often a "soft serve" kinda guy. There does seem to be more coming out of him than on the Blue, but it could just be that he's holding it so he doesn't have to go out in the cold! My boy is a princess!

We just switched from Blue Buffalo Basics Turkey to Iams green bag (Large Breed). We both had the flu, and PetSmart seemed waaaay scary to drive to with a fever. Both dogs have nice "output" on the Iams, they eat it fairly happily (Joe doesn't like breakfast, and would prefer cheese on all his meals!), and it's cheap! As long as their coats stay good and they seem healthly, we'll stick with this. It's really nice not to have to make a special trip for kibble.

Yes, about 30 min later they go back to normal. There are no poo problems either...all nicely formed. Yes, she will do these things after hard chewing treats like dentabones. Does the human food equal the amount of kibble food? She gets about a cup and a half of kibble. I don't honestly know; I've never had to do it! Joe's meals always look huge (3-ish cups once a day -- he won't eat in the morning), Brees eats about that split into two meals, but she's really active. Depending on how big your dog is, I'd start with a decent "people sized" meal and see how she does. And, it might not be allergies, but she'll surely enjoy the special meals while you try to figure it out!

I think it sounds like an allergy -- but I'm no expert! I'd try her on an entirely different protein/carb combo (homecooked). If she's on lamb and rice you can try hamburger or chicken with noodles or potato. I'd also leave out the add-ins for a while. Wondering if she has the same reaction with treats/table scraps?

Joe LOVES peaches! He'll start running through all his tricks the second he sees one. Strawberries get carefully nosed out of his food bowl. Silly boy! No idea if Brees likes fruit yet. We're still working on keeping her nose away from our plates!

She totally ignores a mild growl. She's dense. Big growl, snarl. lunge, air snap had her sailing onto the bed and into DH's arms the other night. Joe's never (that we've seen) made contact with her, but I'd hate to take the muzzles off too soon and have one or both of them get hurt! Her toe injury is a webbing tear that she came with, and that the kennel hadn't noticed. She'd licked it pretty raw, but it was improving, then tore more when she got the kitty. Post-catfight antibiotics are probably helping a good bit. She also had some stitches in one ankle, which I removed last week. That ankle is pretty "lumpy", so I'm thinking it's the career-ending injury. Dunno for sure. She's a bit gimpy after the cat incident, Deramaxx fixes it. I'm glad that this all sounds ok to you! She's a really neat dog.

I need advice on helping our 5 year old, spoiled rotten boy adjust to having a pushy 2 1/2 year old "sister" around. He's overall pretty tolerant, i.e. she pushes him away from the water bowl, noses her way in when he's getting petting, and sometimes steps on him, and he generally rolls with it. There's some growling when walks over when he's on the sofa with us, and sometimes when he's in his bed. I know that's all normal -- but I'd really like to be able to get the muzzles off them, especially since they both like to rub the darned things on my rear end when they're trying to get rid of them! She's a puppy, she's a pain in the neck, and he's not real pleased at the little pest. But my big guy isn't happy, and growled at ME last night when I got on the floor to pet him. (Not in pain, was awake, has never had space issues with people.) On the other hand, he was bored and whiny, and paced around at night before she came home, and that behavior has totally stopped! They do want to play outside together, and I think a long run would help. His knees are much better, and once her toe injury heals up and she's all better from the run-in with the cat this past week I'll take them somewhere they can get the crazies out! Other than being a puppy, Brees/Sweetheart (I hate the name my DH picked!) is a really neat dog! No potty training accidents, learned the stairs pretty quickly, very sweet and friendly, fun to play with, cute as heck, and BARKS at the doorbell. She crates nicely, isn't overly destructive, and hasn't yet learned to counter-surf. She'll be a great dog for our lifestyle, and is nice and intimidating for our sketchy neighborhood! So far, the dogs are being walked together when we can, but separately as needed. DH has the flu, so they won't be walked together for a bit. I'm not comfortable taking them out at the same time by myself yet; she pulls and tangles the leashes! (We're going to practice one person walking two dogs when he's better, but we'll both go in case they're unmanageable). First thing every morning, after she potties and before I have coffee, she gets a good long stuffy toss session. She's exhausted when we're done. Puppy breakfast. (Joe won't eat kibble in the morning) Back outside, then in the crate while I shower. She gets some more time out of the crate while DH gets ready for work; he leaves at 9, then it's back in the box till noon when I come home for lunch and more stuffy toss! I get home at 5ish; potty time and walkies. (Her walks are pretty short. Her pads are still soft.) Dinner for people and dogs (Thank you Trader Joe's!). She paces around, wants to go upstairs, pesters Joe, etc. while we watch TV. More stuffy toss about 1 1/2 hours after dinner; by now DH and Joe are in DH's office having guy time. Another potty run. (Have to add, she LOVES to be outside. If the neighborhood wasn't skeevy, I'd be able to leave her out there for hours. She'll be great to garden with this summer -- Joe thinks he's too good to lay in the grass!) Then DH and I swap dogs, Joe and I go to bed, and little girl gets a pig ear and hangs out with Daddy, who usually puts her to bed around midnight. We'll pretend he takes her out to potty first! So, what can I do to make Joe happier with the new one, or happier in general? And, probably more important, how do I tire out a puppy who really houldn't run much? Or are we just stuck till she grows up a bit more and both dogs are more physically sound?

Joe had an impossible to figure out, tests showed nothing UTI last winter. 2+ weeks of two different antibiotics fixed him -- and I learned that if he wakes me up, he's gotta go. Like, RIGHT NOW! I'd try antibiotics just in case (even if the vet can't find a problem). Or the dog could just be trying to get attention; they're smart critters!

Parents spend one on one "quality time" with children, why not with dogs? IMHO -- it's fine to take one without the other. But to appease the BF, maybe bring back a burger for the Sheltie sometimes.

Sleeping with Daddy is the best medicine!

Just be a bit more careful than you normally would; maybe muzzle him while you ice in case you move him in a way that hurts. When you go to the vet, get painkillers/anti-inflammitories -- enough that you have some on hand for next time, because next time will happen. Good that you're planning a vet trip; it's always around the holidays that these things happen!

If he doesn't usually pant in the crate and he isn't hot, then, yes, the panting likely means distress. Look for redness, etc., and check him for thorns again You can ice the swollen parts like you would on a person, just make sure to wrap the bag/ice pack very well.

The siggie is great! You can upload pics to photobucket, then copy the image code into your posts. It's so easy, even I can do it! More pictures!

That's the one! Joe was really easy to teach "down" with the methods in that blog (10 minutes). "Sit" was almost as easy. The "hug and fold" method made him stiffen up; he didn't like it at all! The new girlie does a natural sit, and doesn't resist when I fold her up/lay her down/pick her up, so I may use "hug and fold" with her when it's time to train. (Or she might learn from watching Joe.) She needs basic manners and some words (outside, house, upstairs, downstairs, and especially -- no!) before I'll bother much with tricks, though.

We brought home a "sister" for Joe on Monday (still no name, sorry!). We're doing muzzles all the time when they're together, not letting her on the sofa, crating her at night, not feeding together, etc. Joe's getting plenty of "alone time" with Mom and Dad, and we're trying to keep his routine pretty much the same (except that I'm off this week, so it's more the weekend routine than the weekday routine). I think they're both being pretty good -- but there's been some fussiness and I'm wondering how to handle it. Here's some examples: Joe was on the sofa, she stuffed her face in his face, he growled. Makes sense to me! I wouldn't want her face in my face while I was trying to take a nap in my favorite spot. We made "Ah, Ah" noises, and moved her away. She walked past him while he was on his his bed -- little rumble from Joe. I scolded more harshly. She wasn't doing anything wrong that time, and I think she should be allowed to walk past nicely. I didn't see this one. He stepped on her, she barked and snapped. DH used VOG, both dogs settled down quickly. DH guided Joe past her to where he wanted to be. (I think that was a good lesson for Joe.) I was in the kitchen, dogs were in the living room (house is straight-through, so you can mostly see the living room from the kitchen). I heard big noises, and yelled "Cut it out!" They did. Dunno who did what that time, just wanted it to stop. Now, it's only been a few days, and mostly they just sleep. Joe looks happy to see her when we get up; wagging tail and perky ears. They do fine on leash together; can sniff the same thing, walk under each other, push each other out of the way, etc. In fact, If they're both standing up everything seems fine. Joe bounced around in the yard and wanted to play with her yesterday evening. I think she would've gone for it if I'd let them. (She has a foot problem, and his knees are wonky. No zoomies for either one right now!) Probably a good run together would help sort things out, and at the very least they'd be tired! So, when should I correct the growling? They need to be able to "talk" to each other, right? How do I draw the line between an acceptable warning and just being a butthead? How firm/loud do I need to be? I don't think either dog is being unreasonable. Joe's used to being an "only", and she's a curious young'un who has no concept of his space (except that she has never tried to lay in his bed). Thanks!

I can try leaving off the goop and will get the betadine. It looks like she's had this for a while, so I'm not rushing to the vet. I think the webbing is pretty much gone, and I need to get the sides of the toes to heal where she'd been licking them. She's good about a sock, and I should probably get some of those plastic booties. So I get to have two frustrated dogs with pent-up energy. Joy.

We got Joe in August a year ago and I tried training him soon after, but it was just too much. After Thanksgiving that year I tried again, and he was pretty quick to understand. "Down" was much easier than "sit", and someone will surely point you to an awesome blog that shows just how to do it. Once they learn one thing, the rest comes much more quickly -- their brains just need to turn on!

Ooooh, he's handsome! Welcome!

This thread: http://forum.greytalk.com/index.php/topic/280804-we-need-a-name-for-joes-new-sister/page__p__5114713__hl__%2Bsister+%2Bneeds__fromsearch__1#entry5114713 These are cell phone pics; my camera and computer aren't playing nicely right now. She has the prettiest eyes and just wants to be petted all the time. The first two days she was a stuffy maniac, but she's settling in and being a proper greyhound now! She has a tiny bit of SA, which I'm using to my advantage. She's been really afraid of walking upstairs, but when I stayed up there for awhile earlier she decided that going upstairs was better than being alone. No problems when she was crated (Joe in the room and music on) and I left for a few hours. She's a very chilled-out dog.

Easy-peasey, all done! The worst part was having my nose aimed toward the gassy end of the dog! She's so calm; I almost think she enjoyed the attention. Btw, the muzzle was already on because she and Joe are still cranking at each other once in a while. And now she's dreaming. God, she's cute!