Brandiandwe

I just wanted to ask about the above post. Why is an adoption trial unfair? My group has a mandatory two week trial for all hounds to make sure it all works out. It seems to me to be fairer to have something temporary to make sure that all is well rather than a permanent situation which might not be right for anyone. Are trials uncommon in the States/ Canada/ elsewhere?

Yep. In future she should be able to go in unsedated. But this is a big step. When we first got her, a visit to the vet was a time for the GSOD when he approached her, even with me being there. She's getting better, but slowly. Thanks for the feedback. Now I can go back to hunting up which paralysis tick medication to use for the coming months - tick season is apparently coming early this year. Yuck.

Yes! Humanities and social sciences scholar here! And more of a visual learner. Thank you! And I shall relax. A bit. She's eating well, won't stop playing, sleeps happily, loves her walks and looks great, so fingers crossed, it will all go well. But thanks for those links. I shall start reading to be prepared for the worst.

Ours get two tablespoons, or dollops, a day mixed in with their dry food. They also get it in their kongs mixed with more dried food (taking calories out of their other meals to balance things obviously). They love it, and I've also used it to coat worming tablets and antibiotics. I think it does help.

Thanks for the responses. This is Brandi's first UTI, but I guess if she has a stone then it's something that has been building for some time. She's on antibiotics and she's not pee'd indoors again but she's still not 'right' (several smaller wees not a big lake which is more normal for her.) By Monday we'll hopefully see some improvement. She might need sedation because she's not great at being away from me. Given that they both need a dental and will be sedated for that, they can just whip her in for the X-ray or ultrasound on the way through to the dental. Loving a well-equipped vet office. We'll also culture the urine as well. The crystals were described to me as 'strontium' which are caused possible by a diet too high in magnesium and phosphate for this particular dog. But I can't see anywhere that TOTW is described as being too high in either of those things, nor causing these particular problems, either stones or UTIs. Bewildering.

Hi there, I'm not sure whether to post this here or in food, but Brandi was taken to the vet yesterday. On Tuesday she went downstairs at around 5 am and pee'd in front of the back door. Not much, but definitely peeing. We've struggled a little with housebreaking here, and I thought that maybe she was a little bit unsettled after being boarded the week before, and being fed a little later than usual. No problem. Cleaned up, moved on. Then on Friday she went down again. No pee this time (that I've found), but she didn't pee on her walk either. Right. Off to the vet with urine sample on the logic that if it was behavioural then a vet visit would put me out of pocket. If it was medical, a vet visit was needed and behavioural 'fixes' wouldn't work (Greytalk has taught me well!). Sure enough, red cells in the urine and a high level of crystals. Good news: vet visit justified and its not behavioural. Bad news: there's something wrong. After much discussion we've decided to start with a round of antibiotics given that the presence of crystals doesn't mean that she definitely has stones. He couldn't feel any by palpating the bladder (she was very good), and she looks in the pink of health otherwise - temp normal, playing, eating fine, eyes, ears, gums good, coat glossy, fit etc etc. If there's no improvement in three to four days, back we go for either an x-ray or ultrasound. We didn't leap to these first because there was a chance she'd need to be sedated. She has her dental coming p soon, so if necessary, she can be knocked out for both procedures at once. My question, though, is diet related. She's currently fed TOTW Pacific Stream (about 3 cuts per day) with natural yoghurt and some cheese, with fish oil, glucosamine (for some cramping issues she's had, greyhoudn vet recommended) and kangaroo and venison treats. Pretty restricted diet because she's a garbage guts and Paige has a sensitive stomach. The vet reckons that with stones one of the problems might be a diet which is too high in phosporus or magnesium. I don't 'think' I'm feeding too much of either of these minerals, but the breakdown of the TOTW isn't really available. Has anyone else had these problems or heard anything about this?

We have one hound who's never met a stranger. And then we have Paige. Who isn't a spook but who completely shuts down with strangers and in strange situations unless I'm there. Over the past nine months, she has blossomed into a happy and affectionate dog in the home and a discerning one out of it. If your little one is good with kitties, go for it! She looks lovely!

I walk both f mine muzzled. I's the law here. One ox medium prey drive, the other has learned leash reactivity. I'm having some success with lots and lots of treats when we see other dogs. What seems to be happening is that the prey drive is being redirected towards the treats and the act of chewing seems to calm PK down. Mine also walk for at least an hour in the morning and nearly the same in the evening as I believe that its important to get them out seeing different things.

The behaviourist I recommended above works with greyhounds regularly and is highly recommended.

So you've not contacted a behaviorist yet? And I've not seen you out and about. Happy to meet up if it helps.

It's the law here that all dogs must be restrained when in the car or a vehicle. My girls have leashes which 'plug' into the seatbelt, with a harness.

That's the other thing I do. Like SusanP my girls each have their own leash which is a different colour. Makes coping with problems much quicker and easier!

Thank you all very much! No sign of it yet, but she's in fine form and the two are having fun jumping on and off my bed this morning.

I'll start to relax and be on extra vigilant poop watch then. Thank you!

I've done a search but I'm a search engine Quamby so I'm asking. This morning, Brandi swallowed about a third of the paper top of a mini yoghurt container. It was gone literally before I could get to her. Should I be concerned? I wouldn't be,except that I need to go to work. My first reaction is to leave it and see if it passes. It is a smallish bit of paper and past experience with her eating several kilos of fresh beef jerky and various other food stuffs indicates that her gut is in excellent working order, with strange foods moving through rapidly. She's currently lying on my bed with a happy expression, waiting for me to go to work and stop disturbing her. Worry? Or not?

Both poodles in one hand. 2 shorter leashes usually in my left. They have different styles - Brandi is more of a sniffer, Paige trots along like a Sgt having been told to 'secure the perimeter'. She's quite focused. Now they both know the commands 'wait' and 'leave it' 'Come on'. So we can juggle it all. I prefer two leashes to one with a coupler, although DH prefers the coupler, because it gives them a bit more pace to do their thing. PK can be a bit shy about toileting sometimes, Brandi likes to bounce around and do zoomies, sometimes one reacts to another dog and being able to split my dogs helps. TBH it never occurred to me to not walk them together.

Yeah. I wish Paige had the same level of 'high prey drive' as yours does. Loose dogs are a nightmare for me because both of mine are reactive. Paige is also high prey drive and dominant - she will attempt to intimidate and boss every other dog around her. My strategy is to walk the other way. Alternatively, I shorten both leashes and shout at the other dog, although this sometimes escalates my dogs' behaviour.

Paige does this, but usually then begins tossing whatever it is around. Never anything on the floor - always the things in the middle of the dining room table. I'm yet to figure out how she reaches them. Or underwear. Dirty, clean, fabulous or not so fabulous. Usually when we have company.

I now have two reactive hounds and I've been working with treats. As soon as we see another dog, treats. If they give me any attention, treat. This only works as long as they stay under threshold, but having treats seems to work to keep them in a calmer place. It's slowly improving. Good luck.

Paige never raced and she can't put on weight. She's now 2.5 years old, eats as much as our 30kg girl, but never seems to go above 25-26 kg. All of her ribs show. I checked and hermum never put on weight either. She's just small. Any weight Paige puts on tends to be muscle. It's just the way some of them are. Sadly, Brandi gets fatter if I up her food or she just eats the food Paige leaves so I have one skinny dog and one fat one. So now, they both have their weight left alone.

I've now got two leash reactive dogs and one high prey drive. Who has taught the other. My best way of managing it is a quick change of direction./ I used to turn and walk the other way, now I just reverse very quickly. The dogs either pay attention and follow or they learn quickly that they need to. Now, they're both quicker at bringing their attention back to me (albeit for short periods of time), and I've introduced treats when they look at me. This also seems to be working. I'm also rewarding a lack of reaction or a calm reaction. Basically I'm trying to get my dogs to ignore others as, with Paige, it' never going to be safe anyhow.

I've posted this before but I've ended up in tears from Brandi statuing. Once I was stuck with Brandi behind and Paige pulling forward. I sat down on the kerb and cried for ten minutes. I now use the knee to the shoulder or bum to nudge her along or a brisk 'Come on! Let's go!' while keeping on walking. Sometimes we change direction. It does get better.

One of ours was a funny combination of desperate for affection and terrified. So it was hard to remember that she was scared. We had problems with submissive urination, particularly if my husband raised his voice (which he does, both happy and otherwise). It's taken a while but now she's happy and cheerful and much more confident. Time.

The other good news is that this gives you more time to engage in the all-important pre-greyhound adoption occupation of reading as much as possible and shopping. For everything. As many different varieties as possible. Collars, leashes, jackets, beds, more beds, another bed just in case, cushions, more beds.....

If you want to move to just kibble, I've had success with kibble mixed with hot water. I boil the kettle, put a little bit of water in to wet the food and make like a gravy, let it cool a bit then give it to Paige. It releases the smell and seems to be more palatable. I combine this with yoghurt but have also used the biodynamic powder stuff (brain not working but the stuff with all the things yoghurt has bt without the dairy element). Switched off the powder because it didn't do anything different to yoghurt and was 7 times more expensive.