Banjoman

Tin, i expect you feel as shocked by this sudden turn of events as I did with Banjo but you both know in your hearts that it was the kindest thing for Master, so in that way it makes the decision easier, I think. Run free Master. Miss. "England" Carol and Chancey.

Chancey still does this after eighteen months but will walk perfectly quietly when I take her out with other greyhounds / sighthounds on our monthly walk. During yesterday's walk she even ignored a little Yorkshire Terrier that ran off ahead of us, I was really pleased with her! She wants to meet the dog next door through the hedge but when they met outside the house she's a leaping screaming maniac again. She has never been growling or aggressive with other dogs but her jaws have snapped within the muzzle until the other dog has told her off, an older greyhound bitch as it happened, and then stood perfectly nicely until the other owner and I finished our conversation. I have not yet found any treat that is more interesting than another dog but I am gradually getting her to 'stand, stay' when we meet other dogs out walking in the forest. I believe she just wants to go and play with them but until she calms down around other breeds of dog she won't be allowed to greet them. (She has to wear a muzzle due to Pet Insurance Company conditions & I wouldn't trust her with small fluffies anyway!).

I would give her a really good day then ask the vet to come to the house and let her run with the wind. Why wait until she tells you she's had enough and cannot do this any more? Better to let her go with a happy day.

Chancey wasn't very happy about going out into the garden in the dark when I first had her. Even now at night she will more often than not just run out the back door, stand and look up the garden then run straight back in again. I imagined that was because when in kennels the dogs were shut up for the night & she wasn't used to being out loose in the dark. The second evening she was with me I took her out there a couple of times after she had whined & I thought she might need to go to the toilet but she didn't do anything, then within a couple of minutes I found her doing a wee in the hall. I took her straight out again and that was the only time since that I've found her doing anything indoors, she got the message that you did a wee outside even if I was on the end of the lead! As she came to me last January, when the weather was wet and windy & had blown down one of the fences, I had to take her out on the lead every time until the fence was replaced. Thankfully my neighbour repaired it after a couple of days - he didn't want to risk having a whippet & greyhound trying to catch their cat!

My whippet will eat cat poop, horse poop, other dogs' poop, rabbit poop, deer poop, in fact anything he can grab quick before I've realised what he is doing. So far the only stuff he leaves alone is his own and whatever dog he is living with, unlike a previous whippet who would eat his "brother's" poop only if I had fed him a meal of a certain grain based dried food. Brushing teeth & fresh breath biscuits help with personal issues!

I found that as Aida (Japanese Chin) aged & her senses deteriorated, especially her hearing, she would come and sit beside me on the settee, it seemed that as she couldn't hear me anywhere around, she needed to feel me beside her.

I think she is slowly improving, today we met a few other dogs & she was fairly quiet for a couple of them but if one is running around (whatever size) that just winds her up for the rest of the walk. Most of my walking is done in Forestry Commission land so the odds on seeing other dogs is quite high but I usually have space to take her to one side of the path. I have thought about a behaviourist but need a veterinary referral here and I'm still hoping we can work through it! If she was being aggressive to other dogs it would be more important but at the moment she just needs to calm down.

I have had Chancey just a year & she is still dog reactive on our walks except when we do a monthly greyhound walk when she just does the equivalent of "Oh we're walking with greyhounds, OK!" & walks as good as gold until we meet non greyhounds and then I 'm back to hanging on to her while she leaps in the air screaming with excitement, although if there are enough greyhounds around she doesn't always see the other dogs so easily and i can get her past them OK. I have tried "Look at me" but have yet to find a treat that is more interesting than another dog and as she wears a muzzle whenever we are out walking it isn't easy to get food to her quickly. On the few occasions she has stood still enough for another dog to greet her her jaws have started snapping in the muzzle and the other dog has shied away or growled at her. I am sure she is just excited at seeing other dogs and is not aggressive but she still has the chase instinct and play bitey urge. She is permanently alert when we are out walking and spots cyclists, pedestrians, cats, birds, anything that moves. We regularly walk with another whippet and an Italian Greyhound but she'll get all silly with another greyhound that we meet out in the forest. I think she is getting better but I never know when she'll over react. I've tried playing with a ball in the garden but she just runs after it then leaves it, it doesn't seem to occur to her to pick it up and play with it! I've been told it will take anything up to 2 years for her to calm down - at least I'm half way there!

Steve, no doubt you said "Goodbye" & made a fuss of her when you left home so although you could not be with her at the end you did at least have that chance to say a farewell, many owners don't have that opportunity. Sorry that it had to happen this way, thinking of you. Carol.

I have had Chancey for 8 months now and even after finding a food that mostly produces solid poop, the last ones are still a bit sloppy by the end of the day. I believe several others have said the same.

If you have an infestation of fleas you will find the flea 'dirts' in the fur, you cannot miss them! The odd flea is removable with a pair of tweezers, make sure they 'crack' & die. I hate using chemicals on my animals & this is the method I use. Also use a household flea spray on bedding and floor just before you take the dog out for a walk then air the room out when you return. Many years ago we had a kitten and found she had fleas but being so small we couldn't use much flea spray on her. A couple of weeks after she arrived we were due to go on holiday. The day we went away I gave her a spray & brushed her out before taking her to spend the week with our next door neighbours. When we returned home we found the living room carpet full of fleas that jumped on to the children's socks & immediately returned to the kitten when we brought her back home. My in-laws were coming to visit the next day & I was horrified what my M-i-law was going to think! Thankfully the same thing had happened to her once and she spent her time with us going through the kitten's thick fur picking out the fleas, rolling them & 'cracking' them in her fingers or drowning them in a cup of water. I think our top total was 33 fleas in a single evening session of flea hunting! We beat them in the end!

When one of my whippets started to get frightened at thunder & fireworks I started playing music CDs to "disguise" the sounds, the only trouble then was that when I played music at any other time he started showing the stress signs - he had learnt that music = bangs!

She snaffled up kibble & fish this morning so that she had something in her tum before I gave her the tablets (they smell disgusting, even I can smell them!), which got stuffed down her throat with a handful of fish after each piece. I don't think I need to contact my vet at the moment but I'll see what she is like at lunch time. Now I need to go shopping for another packet of frozen fish, I like to keep one in stock!

After refusing any lunch & spending most of the day curled up on the settee looking subdued, at the end of the afternoon Chancey came out into the garden where i was working and spent most of her time trying to catch the field mouse that lives in the plants around the pond. I took the dogs out for a walk but she didn't do a wee and seemed to have wanted nothing to eat or drink all day. This evening she took no interest whiie i was getting their supper ready until I put Banjo's dish down & then she came trotting out to the kitchen. I put down half the amount of kibble i usually give her & that was eaten pretty rapidly so i put some fish in her bowl, that disappeared so she got some more which also disappeared. Then she went out into the garden wit h Banjo & did a wee , came back indoors and polished off some more soaked kibble. It seems her appetite might be returning, I'll see what she is like in the morning. I tried to hide this evening's tablets in some apple but she was having none of that so i had to stuff them down her throat so she is not too pleased with me, although I gave her a quarter of an apple afterwards. At least she is pooping & weeing now, which was worrying me a little, I didn't want her to get dehydrated or have the worry that her kidneys might not be working properly. Thankfully no d & v yet.

Just phoned the e-vet to ask whether or not to give her this morning's antibiotic dose. They say to continue with the antibiotic as hers is not a normal reaction to it, normally it is v & d. I asked if there was anything I could give her to settle her stomach but they said there is a bug going round which the antibiotic may be keeping under control! Until they knew exactly what they were dealing with they wouldn't do anything else. If she does get v & d then I'm to take her in - just what I am trying to avoid! I asked what to give the tablets in, to help her stomach if they were affecting her & they suggested just her fish & brown rice kibble or just plain fish. Luckily I keep a packet of fish in the freezer to feed after tummy troubles so that has been cooked & is just cooling down now. I'll give her a small meal & hope to hide the tablets in there! "If Chancey isn't eating at all at the moment, the vet should have it (or something similar) in paste form in a syringe that you can squirt in the mouth." I fed her a smallish meal last night & she seemed to gradually show more interest while I was hand feeding her, so she is eating about half her normal meals & has pooped out in the garden this morning. I'll see how we get on now the fish has cooled down. Thanks all of you for your replies, it is always consoling to know that others have the same or similar problems!

Hi Batmom, thank you for your rapid reply! I live in UK and apparently Pepcid is not available over here (just looked on-line for info on it). As it is now 1.30. Sunday morning here & she is due her next dose at 9.00.a.m.when the shops are still closed. i might phone the e-vet before i give them to her to see what they suggest. So much more is only available on prescription over here that you in the States can just go & buy in the shops. I daren't mention buying a human medication for an animal as they refuse to sell it to you at the chemist, even the simplest of things like Cod Liver Oil! At least I know she has done a wee 'cos i took her out into the garden on a lead so i could be sure that she did something. She tried to turn around & go straight back indoors, swearing that she didn't need a wee but I made sure she sniffed where Banjo had recently been & that stiulated her to go! Thanks again, Carol.

On Thursday i took Chancey to the vet to check out what looked like 5 small pus filled blisters that appeared on her groin area. He prescribed Cefalexin tablets twice daily (starting Thursday evening), under the brand name "Therios" because he thinks it could be a skin infection. Yesterday evening (Friday) her tummy was gurgling like anything after having supper around 9.00.p.m. as usual. This morning I gave her the tablets in a couple of pieces of tinned tripe to help them down, later she had a treat when I left home to go shopping. I returned home at lunch time but when i started to get the dogs' lunch ready she made no attempt to come out into the kitchen to wait & watch on progress as she usually does & when I put her lunch down (Kibble & added tripe) she didn't really want it. I had to encourage her to eat some & she left about half of it. She's spent most of the afternoon & evening asleep (or dozing) on a settee, although she did get up happily to go for a short walk this evening during which she did a couple of good sized poops. This evening I gave her a small supper of kibble & cooked packet food, mixing the tablets in with the food but the only way I could get her to eat it was to hand feed her. When she didn't eat her lunch I began to wonder if the Cefalexin was making her feel queasy as the adverse reactions listed can be vomiting & diarrhoea & I didn't give her much food with her tablets this morning, just a couple of small pieces of meat. This evening she had a gurgly tum again before I offered her supper and she has spent the rest of the evening curled up on a settee again. Has anyone else's greyhound had a similar response to this antibiotic? The spots on her groin appear to have disappeared already but I know you should always complete the course of tablets prescribed but being the weekend the vet who prescribed the tablets is not working so I cannot check with him whether or not to continue with them. It seems a minor thing to refer to an emergency vet - she seems fine apart from dozing and being off her food. I don't think she has wee'd much today though. Suggestions would be appreciated. TIA, Carol.

After several months I'm still waiting to see if the tyre /wheel from a Lego truck is ever going to make its way through Chancey. I've never found it yet.

I have had whippets for 25 years and though they accepted our cat while she just walked through the room, one whippet would chase her if she turned & ran. Every whippet would scream and want to chase a cat when we saw one out on a walk and several cats have been chased up the back garden & when cornered fought back at a dog until I broke up the hassle & gave it chance to escape. Banjo (whippet) will scream and bark through the closed window at any cat that walks past the front of my house, despite all my attempts to calm him down. Now Chancey joins in, jumping up onto the settee to look out of the window and yelp at it. Both dogs have chased a remarkably stupid cat that keeps returning, down the back garden & it has only just made it over the 6ft high fence. Now at night I put on the light & make a big show of unlocking the back door to allow it chance to get out of the way before i open the door. Chancey left the track at the end of December & i have had her since the end of January. I take her out wearing a muzzle all the time because I would not trust her with any small furry creature yet. She is still highly reactive about any dog except a sighthound (we walked with 61 a few weeks ago & she behaved beautifully) & i have a screaming, bucking bronco on the end of the lead, nothing I offer her will distract her. Seeing a cat when out walking is just as exciting, then I have both whippet & greyhound trying to get at it. I have always accepted that as sighthounds my dogs have the chase instinct inbuilt and whilst I can do my best to train "Leave it" and get them to walk calmly i would never trust them off lead around small animals / birds that move.

Chancey started shedding really heavily a couple of months after I got her, it came out in handfuls & I was worried that it might be because I was changing her food. I was told she was probably losing her kennel coat & in a short while I could see the beautiful new coat coming through underneath. I gave her Cod Liver Oil but it just seemed to add to her poop problems so I stopped giving it. Now she has a much darker coat which I expect will fade over time & the next time she sheds she'll go darker again.

Tea Tree Oil is supposed to be good, I believe, usually used in dog shampoos and I think garlic was an anti flea food additive in the form of tablets..

I have no experience of greyhound puppies but over twenty years I have had four whippets as puppies & if your daughter is aged 12years I would think that a whippet is a good sized dog for her to learn to handle, it is very much like a greyhound in looks and temperament i.e. fast & a bundle of mischief when awake but happy to spend much of the day asleep once it has grown out of puppyhood. In six months or a year's time it will still be a comfortable size for her to cope with. I have just adopted my first adult retired racing greyhound and trying to keep 60lbs of excitable greyhound under control is quite a handful in comparison to a whippet, although they too can be surprisingly strong! If you think you have the time and space for a greyhound I personally don't see why you would not get one but I think you need somewhere safe for it to run off lead and that can be difficult to find unless you have easy access to a safely fenced field. Can you easily refer back to the breeder of your puppy about any problems you experience or get tips from them to help out? A good breeder will always be happy to support their new puppy owners. Whatever your decision I am sure you will end up as the proud owner of a lovely dog!

i wish I had enough room for something like that. My lawn has large brown / bare patches on it where Chancey does a wee & several plants have died or have burnt leaves where Banjo cocks his leg.