Brandiandwe

Thinking of you today.

I was just thinking about the peeing issue that at least he was heading for the back door...... Odd question: do you have children? If so, you probably have 'parent hearing' where a parent can hear an unusual sound from their child's room and move from dead sleep to fully awake and functional while moving out the door to sort things out. If you don't have children, you can develop this knack. I'd suggest blocking him in your room, but either leashing him to you, or being aware when he starts moving around. When he gets up, you get up too, take him outside, then back inside and to bed. Otherwise, time and calm, time and calm.

Benny is slowing down now. He's 10. He still manages longer walks, but I now alternate them. So day 1, it's a long walk, day 2 shorter one, day 3 long etc. the others are adapting to it as I manage their food intake appropriately. We also vary our route to keep things interesting. I firmly believe that the more active, the better. And FWIW, 8 isn't old for a greyhound to me, though it depends how much racing they did and what care they got. Many dogs are living to 12+ so 8 is really just middle age.

Then I'd say corn. I've not found anything that works 100%. Keep the pad soft with moisturizer, duct tape, I've used Epsom salts..... Hopefully it will come through relatively quickly. None greyhounds with corns Facebook page is a wealth of information and experience too.

Have you wet the pad and had a look? If it is a corn, you will see it as a kind of circle. Also, is Jack lame on hard surfaces but ok on soft?

When we first got Brandi she would walk most confidently between DH and I. When she still feel nervous, she dives for my side or in between two of the other dogs. Or (preferably) between me and another dog. If your OH can head out with you, especially for the afternoon/ evening walks, it will probably help as well. Lots of ridiculous baby/ happy talk is good too.

But it is definitely manageable. We're just back from a lovely walk where Paige got excited one dog barking at her. She strutted along, barked a few times, turned around and grinned at me and continued on her way. They are all having an attack of the autumn sillies though and feeling good so carrying on. Sigh.

Paige isn't at all food motivated. But the treat thing can work. They just need to be excellent treats. I'm walking four greys at once which can be harder, but hang in there!

You may never get Charlie to 100% calm. And, indeed, why would you? My two girls are very leash reactive, Paige particularly. And once a roused she is a complete PITA for the rest of that walk and sometimes the next as well. What helps me and therefore he rascal few things. First, I now know that Paige and Brandi give back exactly what the other dog (whoever it is) gives out. So if the other dog is calm, friendly and appropriate, so are my girls. If aggressive, that's what they get back. If rude and inappropriate, they get dominant bitch back. This means that things can and do escalate if they aren't controlled, but at least I can recognize why my dogs are reacting and, frankly, why should they be calm when they recognize the other dog as threatening or rude? Second, arousal of any type has a physiological response. So now I get that Paige, once she has had prey drive, aggression or any other type of arousal on a walk, is experiencing a flood of adrenaline, cortisol, whatever. This is necessary for her survival in the wild and it means that she can't calm down until it leaves her system. All we can do is ride it out. If she only has one event on a walk, it passes quickly, but if there are multiple events, it peaks again, leaving her more aroused. It therefore takes longer to leave her system, and also leaves her more sensitive to stimuli. I'm not sure if physiologically that's right, but that seems to be what happens. I've described the treat system I use to manage Paige (every time I see her begin to get wound up a treat gets wedged into her mouth. She used to spit them out, but gradually starting chewing them and now looks at me for a treat before losing her teeny tiny mind at that bird, bag, cat, dog, shadow....) which works but it takes reptile. Dog training is one step forward and two sideways sometimes. But you are making progress and the stronger your relationship with Charlie becomes, the better. Finally, a mixed breed obedience class might also help assuming all dogs are appropriately leashed. Paige and I found it very helpful even if everyone else was sitting and downing and I was the one treating for not attempting to kill the closest 'lunch on a leas' snackable fluffy.

It might be that he has an iron bladder. Hermon and Paige of my crew can, and do, hold it for up to 18 hours. Hermon, in particular, prefers to not go outside. It isn't ideal, but there have been times when he's gone out at about 3 pm and then not again till 7 am. He's been given the opportunity, but prefers not to. I don't push it unless I really have to. He's never had an accident while healthy.

If you've got a friend with a calm confident dog, this can help. If it were me, though, I'd slow down a little bit. If he' happy in the morning, take him out for a nice looooong walk then. In the evening, a quick toilet break may be all he needs for now. I wouldn't bother walking him if it freaks him out. Just out into the garden, pee, then inside for snuggles and attention. Is he worse generally at night? If so, I'd be considering getting his eyesight checked.

Late to the party but I'm wondering if this is a combination of things. First, things are changing. You probably smell a bit different, look a bit different, act a bit different with the pregnancy. You might also be moving around more in bed (just guessing, but I'd imagine that with possible sickness, something wiggling round inside you and then a bowling ball up your shirt with the pregnancy), it's more difficult to get comfortable. So your boy is already on edge which just makes him more reactive. Second, given he has the propensity already for sleep startle or growling, this has just exacerbated it. So now you have this cycle set up. I'd suggest giving him a bed in another room or in the hallway but away from where Minilulafortune (a second Doubleshotskimmilkextrahotmocha?) will be sleeping, and maybe think about getting a nightlight to plug in and have on, just so that you can move to the child's room but not go near him.

My guy was a little bit off for about 24 hours after going under, but so was my youngest when she was knocked out. But give him a couple of days and you'll have a completely different dog!

This isn't a straight line..... Right. Well I might start taking Paige out running a bit more then. Thanks for the feedback! It's not till the end of May so still some time for training.

An opportunity has come up for me to give this a go at a training day. I'd like to take one of the two girls but am unsure if which one. Paige has a really high prey drive, would love it, but is a little less agile and is somewhat more delicate than Brandi physically. Emotionally, much tougher in some senses but does get overwhelmed by crowds sometimes. Brandi is used to doing stuff with me, is the most athletic and agile of all of my dogs, is emotionally highly dependent on me, and has better recall. Views???

I use a rubber curry comb thing sent to me by SS last year. Brilliant. All of mine she'd, but Benny has that bunny, woolly fur which is delightfully soft....and which sheds more than the others combined. No idea why. Hermon's is certainly the mist noticeable, but the colour of the dust bunnies is a dull grey. Brushing weekly seems to help.

We had to put Benny in for a dental at 9 and 3/4. He needed two extractions. We held off for as long as possible to try to build up some strength and fitness, and to bond with him. It had been years since he'd been done, and I was also incredibly worried. But I'd also promised him when we took him on that we would do whatever was necessary to make him comfortable and it was obvious that he wasn't. So we bit the bullet. Either way, he was unhappy and unhealthy. Since then, he's put on weight, his coat shines, he's full of energy and it was the best thing we could do. He came through the operation really well. The vet is happy. We're happy. Benny is happy.

That said, soon after we got him, Hermon did roll a cattle dog who rushed us barking its '$@( fool head off and growling. I got the girls behind me, but Hermon took charge and flipped that dog. It wasn't an alpha roll but seemed to involve Hermon grabbing it by the throat and doing some sort of judo. He then stood over it snarling, while he sniffed it. The dog just froze. Thankfully when I said his name, he looked up at me and stepped back and that dog took off back to its house. No problems with that dog since. Hermon also hasn't done it since, but it's nice that he has it in his repertoire if everything else doesn't work.

Neither would I. And I wouldn't encourage people to test it with mine either! I think you can get to the point where you don't have fixation, frothing at the mouth, the thousand yard stare and that eerie whistle in the back of the throat, because we've managed that with Paige. Mine are retrievable if nothing moves. But once they move, it's all over red rover, and that's after 3 years of continuous training.

Not all diets work for all dogs. It sounds like Ruby had an intolerance (to the chicken perhaps?) but if she's doing well on kibble, and everyone is happy, why mess with success?

You need to look at the first ingredients of the food and then work out what might be causing the flakiness. Personally, I'd rather be feeding my dogs something else, and making donations in other ways.

Late to this, but Brandi has also recently started smiling with her mouth closed. The back of her mouth turns up, and it happens when she's asking for pats or really enjoying herself being cuddled.

If you can't do a snack before bed (we don't because we feed raw and have allergies. Just too complicated....), we've found that feeding cooked sweet potato at night seems to work well. A bit of fibre which is filling and seems to digest slower has meant a huge reduction in stomach upsets.

The light coloured pee would make me want to check out the kidneys.....

I've also found that Brandi pees if I muck up her diet. She isn't intolerant as such, but something in the kibble I fed her seemed to build up and inflame her system, making her pee. That combined with am slightly abnormal bladder placement ( further into the pelvis which decreases capacity) and some SA results in accidents. What worked for me was changing her diet and increasing the amount of B1 she was getting in the form of supplements. They do this for racing dogs here who 'run their race in the crate' by getting so worked up that they are exhausted by race time. Race dogs are given injections, we just use half a human B1 every couple of days. Be careful if you do this though because excess vitamin B can cause excessive urination.