Brandiandwe

It's not submissive urination is it? We had a problem with that Brandi and it took us a little while to cotton on that that is what was happening. Now we kow the signs and are, fingers crossed, all good now.

You have my sympathies. One thing that might be worth trying is to see if you can contact the breeder/ trainer and find out what they were feeding. We were able to do this with our little fuss-pot and, even though we didn't make all the changes, we were able to narrow things down to what we 'could' feed safely, in theory anyhow.

Another Australian!!! Agree with the others. We have one hound with a very high prey drive. We have accepted that she will never be ok with cats, possums, chickens or rabbits. After some intensive obedience training, consisting mainly of socialization she might be ok with small fluffies on leash. Off leash, never. Pm me if you like - where are you?

I'm a newbie, so this may be off base. We eliminated Brandi's S.A. by getting Paige (aka PK), to the extent that Brandi is left alone each week while I take PK to obedience classes. All Brandi does is sleep. But we also have issues with things getting chewed, pulled off counters and so on. I'm putting that down, not to SA but to the fact we have 2 2 year olds and that's what they do. We now try not to leave anything out that can be chewed, work to train them not to do it and keep kitchen counters clear. Are you sure this is SA and not something else? As for the windows, ours are much less stressed when they can see out. You say you've started to leave the blinds down and he's started jumping at the windows - is it because he can't see out?

We had this problem with Brandi. Lots of walking and staying out till she went (I think the longest was 1.5 hours, but that was only the once). I took my phone and a book and went to a nice park where we walked, and waited, and walked, and waited, and walked, and waited. Now we have no problems - it only took us about a week. Hang in there!

Don't expect it to be perfect all at once or all the time. You'll feel like things are regressing, or deteriorating, you'll think you've made as mistake and will think you're the worst dog owner of all time. You aren't. Be vigilant. Where one dog won't get in trouble, two will. Different things get chewed and different issues will emerge. Remember both dogs are individuals and that their relationship evolves. Ours is changing constantly, and we need to watch it all the time to make sure that all is still well. Exercise is your friend.

It's times like this that I know that I don't own my greyhounds but am instead a part of some vast psychological experiment run by the hounds seeing how many different ways they can mess with my mind.......

Others have more experience than me. However, if she pees after 15 minutes, and then again later, is the first pee what she has stored up and the second one the pee from the drink? In other words, how long does it take for water to pass through? Second, one of mine poos once only, unless we are on a long walk. This is obviously a good thing as it makes life very easy. The other has one poo as a warm-up, and then poos again in about 15 - 30 minutes. If I brought her in early (as I have done in the past), I would find presents in the house. This is replicated with pee. One looooooong pee for one, one medium sized pee for the other, with plenty left in the tank for marking. Or peeing in the house. The only exception is last turn-out which is one pee from both of them. Third, one of ours (the one having accidents) pees when she is especially excited or frightened. So now we know that if they've been left alone for about 6 hours, we need to get them outside immediately, or failing that, staying on tiled floors and not on the carpet until we do get them out (within 5 minutes, but sometimes icecream does need to be put away). If they have been left for less time (say two hours), we come home and then they're left again, for another two hours, they need to go out immediately because of the same issue. Factors that change things: the weather. It's been really odd weather here, but it is summer and they have water whenever they want it. I would never leave an animal without access to water and really, it's too hot not to. This means that they may drink more or less depending on temperature, but on very hot days, they've needed to pee more. These are the days they really shouldn't be outside, however, we make the best of it. Changes in diet: we struggled for a long time with this, but have finally found a food which works and we now have a routine. This means that I can predict, within reason, what will happen and when. Before this, things were always being adjusted and so were the toileting habits. If you'be only had your guy for a few days, is this one of the issues with his body adjusting? As I said, there are people much more experienced than me, but these are some of the things that I've noticed with our two. Getting to know them and setting them, and us, up for success has been critical. Now I'm ready to get our carpets steam-cleaned and some new rugs down.

I walk ours twice a day and while some elements of each walk are the same, we don't repeat the same route each time, so every walk is slightly different. I've also started keeping mine amused using some 'free-shaping' (thanks to whoever for that link, it's been great), although it really only works for one of ours - Paige tries a couple of times, gets bored and wanders off to kill a squeaky toy. Hide and seek is also fun with both pups. But I agree that stimulation is critically important especially if we've been out all day.

We seem to have accidentally trained Brandi out of counter surfing. After one memorable week where she got away with a kiwi fruit, a nectarine (caught early, thankfully), our chicken defrosting for dinner and 5 kilos of beef jerky lovingly prepared by my husband, she made the tactical error of trying to pull down something tasty which was on a chopping board with an empty stainless steel bowl on it, which was also near the stovetop. As she pulled both the metal stovetop and the bowl came down. We came home to them both on the floor and two 'butter wouldn't melt' hound faces. She hasn't tried it since, because I think she was so frightened by the noise of two metal objects hitting the floor near her.

What kind of cheese did you find that works the best? My observations indicate any type, especially for our garbage guts. However, we keep her away from soft cheese and blues. We give them both small amounts of cheddar which is pre-sliced (not the plastic stuff, but in similar packaging). Cottage cheese has also worked on kibble. Edited to add: make sure you don't give too much at first until you establish that yours is not lactose intolerant and can handle dairy. Otherwise the results will be unpleasant all round.

Paige pees twice, maybe three times a day. Brandi does it whenever she's outside. We've noticed that since sorting Paige's food out, she's peeing less (usually twice a day) and she's drinking less water.

We have a high prey drive grey and another who is learning the behaviour (and we're working to correct this). However, we are also resigned to the fact that our dogs will never be unmuzzled in public and we only attend dog parks with other greys. It's too hard otherwise. Even as it is, we got a sck when one of our greys (high prey drive) jumped vertically over 6 foot to attempt to get over the dog park fence and play with a sheltie on the other side.

I was told when we got our first that no healthy dog ever starved to death when food was available. That said....we found that smelly foods work best. Kibble mixed with natural yoghurt or fish (anchovies I think), broth or stew which are warmed, raw meat, cheese.

Taste of the Wild Pacific Stream seems to have sorted out most of our tummy issues, and the girls look great. Not too bad a price (here in Australia).

Paige does this too! Then ges back to bed, and I'm up and awake. Drives me insane!!!

The above, but my two have driven me to tears as well, although they unfortunately froze looking in opposite directions, leaving me strung out in the middle. I sat down and howled! We still freeze (but from prey drive not fear so much), and a happy voice, 'Let's go! Come on! Good girl! This way!' seems to work for me. All of these are commands I use anyway - they are used at different and in different situations (let's go - stop sniffing and move on, usually accompanied by leave it, come on - you're walking too slowly, let's get going, before it starts to rain, this way - change of direction, come to the other side of the tree, pole, car, off the road.), and using them for freezing seems to trigger a different part of the brain. I've found moving them sideways is exactly like moving a horse as well. It works and you don't need as much strength to do it. With a horse (or a really determined hound) you probably don't win a contest which is straight forwards or backwards, but they find it more difficult to brace sideways.

Live and learn. We've found the Ziwi Peak treats work quite well and don't trigger anything untoward in either pup. If it makes you feel better, your mess cannot compare to the mess we experienced when Brandi ate all of my husband's newly prepared beef jerky. About 3 kg of meat and preservatives went straight down her gullet from where he'd left it on the kitchen bench. The results were spectacular (in an awful way). And it was inside. Thankfully, I wasn't home and he had to clean it up. But he did send me photos.

Others more experienced than I will chime in.... but we gave liver treats once to both of our girls and had disastrous results within two to three hours. It wasn't pretty. So.... I think sometimes it's like when you eat McDonald's, MSG, whatever, sometimes the body moves things through PDQ. But then,maybe it is the food....

When was last fecal exam? Romeo, it all seems to be sorting itself out with a change of diet.

So what is the cycle? I read it and could not determine it. Is it intermittent diarrhea weekly, monthly, ?? If you mean for Giardia, I'm not sure. For Paige it was every ten days. Things having continued to improve here. Her coat looks amazing, and she's gotten better and better as she's been eating less and less chicken. Weird. :-)

On my phone so a quick response. Thanks for all the feedback so far. On the food motivation, she really isn't even at home and calm. She'll look at treats or her dinner and go 'Meh. Whatever. I'll eat it but won't be enthused'. I'll try some different treats though. As for the adoption group, I don't think it's particularly helpful to compare them to groups in the USA or UK. There are very few groups in Sydney (2 I think). Between them, they deal with perhaps 30 dogs max. So, yes, all dogs need and deserve homes. But with such limited resources it makes sense to be selective at this stage and focus on dogs who are easier to place. We're hoping that as the muzzling laws change, more people step forward to adopt. They do the best they can with very limited resources.

Bear with me... I'm hoping things settle down with my posting soon. We've had Paige and Brandi for nearly two months. They came from an adoption group who did an initial small fluffy test and only accept dogs who pass that test. In NSW, Australia, greyhounds must be muzzled in public unless they have passed a behavioural assessment. We've stayed in close contact with our group. When we first got Paige we noticed immediately that she was fixated on small dogs. We've been working on redirecting her away from them, and her behaviour has improved, to the extent that she no longer froths at the mouth every time. Brandi tends to leap and bounce when she sees all other dogs. Paige is different. We reported this to our group and were told that she would probably settle down. Yesterday one of our group's staff came by to say hello and see the girls and come for a walk. She was given Paige, and experienced Paige's prey drive for herself - fixated on small running dogs at a distance, with a high pitched whine and then high barks, leaping and lunging. She confirmed to us that Paige, had she displayed even a modicum of these behaviours, would not have been accepted into the programme (too many dogs, high prey drive difficult to integrate successfully and most people don't want the hassle). The behaviours don't occur consistently, we can sometimes redirect, but basically, its not OK, she is unlikely to ever be allowed to be unmuzzled. Brandi feeds off Paige so, even though she would pass her assessment, will probably also always be muzzled because we won't take the risk. I want to be clear that returning Paige is not an option. It took me a while to warm up to her, but she's family now, and a total sweetheart in every other way. Add to that the fact that were she to be returned, she may end up somewhere with people who weren't going to cope. If that means both dogs stay muzzled, I'm happy with that. But here are the questions. Both dogs are going to obedience classes starting in the next couple of weeks. I'm hoping that working with other dogs will help our girls realise that small dogs aren't dinner, help them deal with lunging and barking other dogs, and possibly transition us into flyball or agility (things that Paige would excel at - she loves to play fetch but its difficult with a muzzle on). In addition to this socialisation (fine with larger dogs, working with smaller dogs), what else can I do? I've tried turning circles, redirecting, walking in the other direction and treating. Sometimes they work, but Paige is not food motivated at all. Walking along quickly helps, as has slowing down and making her pay attention. But when she's off, she's off. I was wondering if a whistle would help - a sharp noise to break through her state? And do any of you have any recommendations for muzzles? She's in a wire one now, but I'd like something which is a little less Hannibal Lecter and more comfortable for me and her. Favourites anyone? Do any of them look nice?

So, horror, you're one of the owners we're talking about????? I bet you've also used the phrase 'Don't worry - she's friendly!' as well, haven't you? I think my girls are also friendly. Certainly with dogs who respond appropriately we have no problems. Unfortunately, most dogs don't fit into this category. Some owners are great, and they do leash up, control their dogs and everyone is happy. Most are not, either because of ignorance or a lack of attention. I mean, seriously, my two girls are muzzled (stupid law). But if you see a muzzled dog, do you assume that it's safe to allow your dog to approach or do you assume that that dog is bad news. Frankly, I wish more people assumed that the love bugs were dangerous. We might have safer and happier walks.

Permission to print this out, hand it out, whatever. I had a better day today - we only met one small white fluffy thing (dogs met nose to nose around a corner, and both backed off immediately) and a wild rabbit, which sent Paige into a spin. Brandi didn't even notice it.... It's the notion that just because your dog is friendly, my dog might not be. So why should my dog be branded aggressive when your dog is inappropriate? The disease thing is a whole other issue. I need some short, snappy phrases to use. Or to carry this letter around, maybe folded into a paper aaeroplane so it can be tossed to other owners from a safe distance?