brianamac

I second clicker training! Our food obsessed hound has transferred his 'food obsession' to 'clicker obsession'. He learns everything much faster with the clicker and is more interested in us (+clicker) than the treats. It has really helped in training.

It sounds like you have a good handle on dogs and have received great responses. You may never know--you could simply foster Sam and let him go to another family, and your next foster, or the one after, will be cuddly and affectionate. Or you could foster dog after dog and none of them will ever become the dog you are hoping for in the amount of time that fostering usually lasts for. I think "your dog, your one and only" doesn't exist and/or can't be determined in a short period of time. A dog that you have the pure love and affection you desire will probably also have other issues that may be bigger--all dogs do, as you know. What if you get the cuddly, immediate bond dog who has severe SA, or is aggressive with other dogs, or terrified of strangers? IMO, a lack of affection if the easiest 'issue' to deal with, as that will grow. I know it's hard to believe after 3 weeks of feeding, training, and trying to love on Sam. But it WILL come, though it may be subtle. You mentioned a disability that makes you want for a dog to have a special bond with. I understand where you are coming from, I needed that too. My first Grey will always be a 'people hater' as you say... however, he has healed and helped me much more than my cuddly guy. Cuddles and attention from the people hater, when they happen, mean so much. At the end of the day, if you look at the dog laying next to you on the couch and you don't feel a connection, you've answered your own question. He should go to another family. I just need to say that I was ready to let Boo go to a family that was more 'suited' for him... we didn't... and 2 years later I think keeping him was the best decision we've ever made (and Boo had a LOT of issues that Sam doesn't seem to have). Good luck and keep us posted.

Oh I'm simply in love with that photo of them in their PJs... that's a framer!

Thanks for all the kind words guys! He's such a lovable little peanut. Yes!! Boo is like a completely different dog now. I was expecting a change, but not this drastic. All of our neighbours comment on it. It's so wonderful to see him relaxed and happy--going for walks, greeting people and other dogs, etc. Wish we would have met Clarice when we were there... I all the 'Bones' dogs! She is gorgeous.

We knew our shy and fear aggressive Grey needed a confident Greyhound pal to flourish. We fostered but never found the right one. In September, my husband and I went to visit the adoption kennel at Dubuque to learn more about the dog's lives pre-adoption. We spent 4 days helping out and learning in the kennel with Corey, who runs it, and fell in love with many dogs. One dog we did NOT fall in love with was Bubba. He was hand-shy and skittish. He would cautiously try to play with us when our backs were turned, but we never were able to even touch him. He was SO shy. As such, we hardly got to know him. A month and a half later, our group was sharing a haul with another group. Corey was willing to send Bubba to us. My husband and I volunteered to foster him, as we have experience with fearful dogs... we thought we could help him get to the point of being adopted. Within 2 days, he was flashing big toothy smiles at us anytime we paid attention to him. He chattered just for pets. He was COMPLETELY unlike the dog we met in Dubuque. I guess he was just intimidated being around too many humans and/or dogs. After 4 days of fostering, on Halloween, we decided we couldn't live without him. Gone was the fearful dog; Bubba loves human interaction like nothing else. And he has helped his Grey brother immensely. Our little 50 lb. (inappropriately named) bundle of joy:

I think that since Keiva can be near the cats when they aren't running, she's still trainable. I think you just need more time. We had a foster that did this and the only thing that solved it was time, time, time. And supervision, always.

LOVE this insight, thanks. Very helpful! To the OP: As kkaiser mentioned, we typically try and get a toy in his mouth when he gets like this. The excitement has helped us in other training as well: when he gets the toy (always a rubber toy, Bubba eats stuffies whole), we call him back to us. When he seems ready to release the toy, we say 'drop it'. Then we take the toy and throw it again, call him back, and repeat 'drop it'. He now releases the toy when we ask him to drop it. The results have been twofold: 1) His recall has improved, as he knows coming back to us = more fun! 2) His 'drop it' command improved, now he knows that if he drops an item (toys and sometimes even food), he will get it back and have more fun with the humans as a reward. But on top of that, it gives him an outlet for that crazy, nippy, over-excited energy that allows us to be involved in a way that is actually fun for us, too... not feeling like we are a 'target' for his energy. The behaviour we still do the back-turny and ignore is when he jumps on us. He's definitely getting better at not jumping, as he knows that we aren't going to throw toys or give attention until he stops jumping. That is the part of this process that has been slow and requires patience :-)

Have a good sleep Aston... hopefully his regular vet has some insights. Good wishes are being sent!

Bubba does this too, and I've had some success using the same method kkaiser uses... yes, at first sometimes it meant getting punched in the back by him, but he is slowly starting to learn. It may be a slow process but stick with it!

After a traumatic dog event, I dealt with one of mine having a totally debilitating fear of other dogs as well, so I understand. Wiley's dog park interaction may not have been 'traumatic' from the outside, but his fear is real. I would recommend no more dog park for a while. Take him for leashed walks around the neighbourhood where he can have controlled interactions with other dogs. If there aren't any dogs in your hood, drive to another where there are a few. When he meets another dog, let them have a brief (2 second ONLY) sniff, then move along and give treats and/or praise. If you live in a community like mine, some people find it insulting if you don't stop and let your dog interact with theirs--I always say "my dog is training", and everyone seems to understand that. If it ever seems overwhelming for Wiley and he tail tucks to a hard degree when another dog is approaching, just turn and walk the other way. If he goes over his fear 'threshold', he probably won't be learning much and it may reinforce the fear. Don't comfort him, just carry on. So avoid the dogs he finds immediately scary, and let him have a brief and positive interactions with the ones he isn't opposed to. Reward reward reward after those brief interactions, or better, teach him 'look at me' as you approach other dogs. You can then work up to him meeting all kinds of dogs once he is comfortable again with dogs he perceives as 'non-threatening'. Some people recommend pushing a dogs boundaries a bit, and I believe it works for some. Personally, I found it helpful to take to the slooooow approach, and always end interactions on a positive note. It took us months of taking the slow approach, but it was worth it. Sometimes it was 1 step forward and 2 back, but every positive interaction was like a building block in taking his confidence with other dogs back up to where it was. If you want to chat, I believe it is local to call between Calgary and Med Hat. I would be more than happy to chat with you a little further about this. Just email the SAGA board email if you're interested and we can share phone numbers. I would love to chat with you more about this. All the best to you guys and Wiley! ETA: Don't feel 'terrible' about putting a leash on him at the park. You did what was best for him at the time.

Sounds like the dog may workable (as she didn't fixate), but to me 'workability' has a multitude of factors involved: layout of your house, personality of your cats, but most of all how much time you are willing to commit to being diligent all the time. If you don't have the layout/willingness to separate the cats and the dog to allow you to do normal house things (laundry, showers, etc), be prepared to spend a LOT of time supervising and training--even when she is muzzled. This can take days for some, but weeks or months for others. One of our fosters chased the cats heavily but learned after a couple of weeks with consistent supervision and training. Another foster (who we've since adopted) has indeed lunged and attempted to grab one of the cats twice. It's been three months since he's been here and we still work on training every time they're in a room together. "No cat!", treat and praise. "Look at me", praise and pets. He doesn't mess with them anymore and has learned that we are more interesting than the cats, however, he is NEVER left unsupervised without a muzzle and he needs to be crated when we leave the house, as I'm sure no muzzle will save the cat if someone isn't around to intervene. He isn't safe with cats outdoors and I wouldn't trust him with an unfamiliar cat even in our house. There are lots of tips I've read in other threads that helped me figure out the best way to train. Perhaps a search will turn something up? Most importantly though, be brutally honest with yourself about whether you are willing to potentially spend most of your free time when you are home supervising. It really can wear on you after a bit if it's constant.

Corey said they look like hot spots to her. We've got a vet visit scheduled to figure it out, I will let you know when we find out.

Thanks Mary, I knew you would have some advice. I will update with the vet results. I'm inclined to think you and Batmom are right. They are definitely not on pressure areas... they seem to occur spontaneously, mostly along his spine and he doesn't roach. Thanks again for your advice. I knew after your years of Greyhounding you would have an idea. Sorry to make you venture out of 'off topic' and peafowl discussions.

I trust you on this. Appointment made!

My husband and I were in Iowa in September and Stacy was nice enough to let us come visit her farm for a few hours. She seemed to have a lot of love for the dogs in her care. She talked to us about naming them, playing with them, training them... she took some out and let us hold them and play with them in their pens. Stacy also mentioned that she LOVED getting letters and pictures about dogs that were previously at her farm. If Houston was there, I can assure you he got human love and attention, from what I saw when I visited. She really seemed to have genuine care for the Greyhounds.

The pus amounts are very minimal. If we mess with the scab while in the raised crusty stage, there is some sticky seepage into the fur and on our hands that seems like pus to me. It doesn't weep on it's own if we don't touch it. What did you do with James' infections? How did the vet diagnose, and was there an underlying reason for why they would reoccur? Thanks in advance.

Very cool that you are doing this with Wiley! We want to start agility with Bubba too, once we work on his basic manners a little more. Perhaps in the spring. Look forward to chatting about agility classes with you in the future!

That is interesting and something I hadn't considered. We fed him his 'foster food' when he was our foster, and he did well on it. We then switched him to the same food as our other dog and the stools got more 'voluminous', so we've switched him back to his foster food. They are both chicken based foods though, so perhaps we will try him on a different protein and see if that resolves the issue. Thanks for the recommendation! Good thoughts.

After doing some research, I wonder if it may be a staph infection? It certainly doesn't look like many of the photos I've seen online, but who knows. Either way, I guess Bubba should head to the vet, but I wanted to get some opinions here first. When Bubba first came to us in late October, he had a couple of raised, crusty (non circular) scabs on his back. I assumed he just got nicked during his transport with other dogs. Indeed they healed, the scabs fell off with some fur, the fur grew back and he was scab free for a fewweeks. Since then, he seems to develop them randomly on different spots on his back and sides. Usually he only has one or two at a time, always in different random areas. They start as raised, crusty areas (usually irregular shapes, but occasionally circles). Sometimes there are small amounts of pus that seep into the surrounding fur. They then fall off, leaving a bare scale-y pink area. The fur always grows back and the scaliness goes away and everything looks back to normal. He doesn't mind us touching them at any stage. Mostly he doesn't mess with them, but occasionally they must be itchy as he will bite at them and remove the scab (as you will see in the photo). I wash it thoroughly afterwards and am going to pick up some manuka honey to apply. Bubba shows no other symptoms... he is happy, full of energy, eats well, normal stools, etc. Any thoughts? Advice? Here are two photos- I don't have a photo of the 'thick crusty scab stage', but here is one of the wound after he chewed a scab off today, and a photo of an area that is healing and has just flat, flakiness. The wounds are usually about dime-nickel sized. [/url] [/url] Sorry for the poor picture quality. I will try and get better shots.

I understand how you're worried about how your dog will react to the baby crying, I have the same concern for when my time comes, as one of my greys has a strong prey drive response when he hears babies crying on TV. I read that it's a good idea to play sound clips of crying throughout your pregnancy to get the dog accustomed to the sound. I'm sure it would help if you throw some treats or extra pets his way while you play the clips, so he learns to make positive associations with the noise. You might as well eat some chocolate, so you get positive associations with baby crying too Good luck!

Ahhh, the Greyhound dreams. The first time we ever heard Boo bark (a month after being home), he was dreaming. He startled us and himself! We all woke up, turned on the lamp, and Boo was sitting up looking very confused. Sounds like Payton is dreaming. Enjoy it.

We have a grey who is nicked and scarred up quite a bit... he has acquired many more since we've had him. He is also anxious. I am positive he was not abused. We recently visited a Greyhound farm and got to see the puppies at various stages from birth to 1 year old, and I can tell you from watching their play: a lot of the scars come from puppyhood rough play. The scars are totally normal and NOT indicative of abuse. If you're unsure about this type of thing, you can try and contact the owner/trainer to confirm. Most of the scars are likely the result of regular play between dogs and their thin skin. Just want to add this as well: your picture suggests that June is Fawn. IMO, fawn's tend to show scarring MUCH more than some other colours.

THIS! When we visited a racing kennel in Dubuque, they showed us their 'hanging scale' for weighing the dogs... a full body sling supports the dog while it's in the air, getting weighed. They mentioned that that is the best way to do nails on a touchy dog. The dog goose-necks and no fussing. We've tried this with our guys at home, by lifting them up and holding them, and it works. You may only be able to get one paw done at a time, but it's no fussing or squirming, and therefore less possibility of quicking or them thinking you're "the bad guy". Lots of treats afterwards (they probably won't take treats while being suspended in the air)! We still do take our sensitive nail guy to the groomers to get them done. Well worth the money as he frets less with them than he does with us.

Um, teeth still come through a basket muzzle. Properly fitted. Obviously, if you've ever cat tested a dog, you know this. Basket muzzles are great for every day wear, like I said. Fabric muzzles are good for hairy situations with dogs that are known biters. Nothing to argue about here. A dog that bites can inflict damage through a basket muzzle. Keep a fabric one on hand for treating injuries. End of story. Christ.

I recommended the fabric muzzle ONLY for injuries, nail trims, etc. Obviously the fabric muzzle isn't for every day wear. The basket muzzle is great but doesn't provide protection in a hairy scenario. For someone who has been bitten, a fabric muzzle (for 15 minute type of things) is a godsend. Basket muzzle for normal wear, but it is HUGELY beneficial to have a fabric muzzle onhand for "situations".