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rsieg

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About rsieg

  • Birthday 04/10/1969

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  • Real Name
    Rob

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    Male
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    Northeast Ohio

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Jr Grey lover (5/9)

  1. There was a thread a few months back on blind hound assistance, there may (or may not) be something useful there, so FWIW I'm adding the link below. https://forum.greytalk.com/topic/329173-blind-greyhound-doesn’t-have-slow-gear…-how-to-keep-him-safe/#comment-6212572
  2. That calendar isn't complete if it does not include at least one bush poop.
  3. Well, I suppose being Arizona there aren't any trees to sniff around, right? He's got dirt, and ... and ...
  4. 1Moregrey & Houndtime, thanks for these ideas! I've never used a harness, I see how that chest connection and the double lead would give more control, and similarly with the gentle leader. Only challenge might be getting either of those on Ninja as he doesn't tend to stay still even having his collar put on :-)
  5. This is about Ninja, my recently adopted mixed kelpie/shepherd, but as this seems to be a generic dog question I thought I could slip it in on this forum. My question: Does anyone have a good way to limit the extent of a dog pulling on the leash during walks? Ninja loves walks, which is great, I’m getting back in shape walking him. But, he frequently pulls on the leash. He has short “good” intervals, but as soon as he senses anything of interest (strange smell, squirrel!, dog!, wind-blown leaf!, …) he lunges toward it. Not aggressive, he just wants to chase or play. It does give me a full-body workout on walks, but I'd love to be able to take a nice, sedate walk with him. First suggestion I got was to carry treats and give him one to draw his attention to me when he goes for something. It kind of worked, until he gets bored with the treats, and it does not work at all if the stimulus is too strong (squirrel!, dog!, blowing leaf!). At the dog obedience class we were told to immediately stop walking and wait till he stops pulling. Nice idea, but (a) we would never get anywhere, and (b) he doesn’t necessarily stop pulling if I stop. Other suggestions at the class there were to use a spray bottle with vinegar (not hit him in the face but close enough to smell), or use a pinch collar. I'm not going to use a pinch collar no matter what. I have tried a spray bottle with water (not vinegar, I think that could be damaging to the eyes). It works, but its not really practical to carry a spray bottle on a walk and pull it out just as he is lunging at something. (BTW, when he sees a dog he can pull full-strength on the leash and still loudly bark - I have no idea how he does that without blocking his windpipe.) On my own, I’ve tried pulling back on the leash when he gets to the end and starts pulling. It does nothing: he doesn’t seem to get it, or just doesn’t care. I sometimes pick him up to walk past if he is getting overly excited about another dog (one benefit of having a sub-30 pound dog), but that's obviously not a workable long term solution. I'm hopeful he will grow out of this (at least to do it less, I’m still not sure how old he is but positive the rescue’s estimate of 2 ½ is high), but does anyone have any other practical approaches that might actually work? Thanks in advance for any suggestions!
  6. Congrats Mark! Um, is ice cream and fries enough to get him to wake up and move?
  7. I've heard of that breed, looks very cool! I just "downsized" as well, and so far I'm finding that if they are energetic enough a 20-ish pound dog can be as much of a handful as a greyhound. BTW Wikipedia classifies the pharoah hound as a sighthound, so close to a greyhound.
  8. From what you describe, doesn't seem like either you or Rook did anything wrong. Why should Rook not react? If he is being suddenly attacked by a pack of aggressive chihuahuas he should defend himself. They are on the ground, he is outnumbered, you are above (not in a position to defend him), and he is the one in the direct line of attack. And he is at risk - a chihuahua chomping down on a greyhound leg can do serious damage. The fault is on whoever owns those chihuahuas for not having them under control, or at least moving them away as soon as the situation arose. They are not off the hook just because their chihuahuas are smaller than your greyhound, if the chihuahuas are instigating an attack. As far as what you can do, the only real option I can see is to try to move Rook away and/or place yourself between Rook and the chihuahuas, though that can be difficult if he is lunging toward them. I would do that before trying to tell the other dogs to back off - the dogs don't understand, and if the owner can't figure that out without being told...
  9. My condolences on the passing of LaVida. It is good you were able to have her pass at home.
  10. I promised to provide a remembrance for Logan, so here it is. There is no way to capture 10 years with my best buddy in an Internet post, so I will just do my best with a stream of consciousness, and some pictures of course. I adopted Logan in May 2013 from Greyhound Adoption of Ohio (GAO). He was so friendly at the kennel, did the leaning thing. When Logan first came home, I had a ratty vintage 1970's avocado couch I was keeping only because I had heard that greyhounds like couches. Well, Logan did not use the couch. After a couple weeks, I was planning to put it out with the trash. The evening before trash day, Logan got up and looked at the couch, walked over to it. Put his front feet on it and kneaded it. Soft, comfy. He jumped up and lay down on the couch and looked over at me as if to say "Ok boss?" From then on it was his couch. So, here is is in 2014 on his avocado couch: A couple weeks later, my brother and niece were staying overnight. I woke up to desperate howling from Logan. Came out, they were on his couch. From then on, the couch was the one item he would always be defensive of, I was the only person that could sit with him there. The first two years I had him, GAO had a summer greyhound get-together with a 200 yard run. His best time was average 38 mph for the 200 yards. He got so, so excited when he saw the course, and for months afterward whenever we walked by a golf course he would get excited seeing the golf carts (they used a golf cart on the course). Here is a shot from his run in 2014: After a little over a year and a half after getting Logan, I adopted Max, who was then 10 years old to Logan's 4 1/2. Logan was such a good brother to Max. They walked together perfectly, Logan on the left (I'm left-handed so that is what he learned initially) and Max on the right. Almost never crossed leashes. Logan was definitely the dominant one given the age difference (Max tried though :-) but Logan did not push Max around. Here he is asking why he has to put up with the new guy: and on a walk together: Over the 10 years I had him, I think we walked at least 10,000 miles together. From walking apps I know he did 5,000 miles after Max passed in January 2018, and we were in the 4,000 miles range with Max and Logan together. I did not track the year and a half before Max came. Logan would stop and crash on the grass during walks occasionally, but always loved going. And he liked variety - if we went around the neighborhood two or three days in a row then he would insist on a park trip, and even in the neighborhood he would never take the same route twice in a row. Logan never, ever, ran away. When I first had him we were doing yard work and messed up and left the gate open, he just ran out front to me. We were fortunate that Logan was never really sick or injured. His worst episode was winter before last when he sprained his rear leg slipping on ice. He was going mostly on three legs for several weeks after that, but still wanted to go for his walks. The last year or so Logan was definitely slowing down, though he would go an average of 1-2 miles per day. He still liked park trips, and I would take him down in the car, he'd go for a quarter mile or whatever, still enjoyed it even if shorter. He was not a social butterfly, with either people or dogs. When I first adopted him I tried to do the greyhound event circuit with him but he made it clear early on he did not enjoy it. Logan, Max, and I went to a couple greyhound summer meetups, but Logan did not enjoy those either. Max would play with all the other greyhounds, Logan would be ready to leave 10 minutes after we got there. But, Logan did enjoy meeting people on walks, it's just he wanted to say "Hi" and then get back to me and the walk. And, the last year or so we started going to a local coffee shop where he would get a pup cup. By that time he had mellowed and really enjoyed going in and meeting people. I'll finish up with a few more photos. More couch time: This was Christmas day 2014, at the Nature Center which was closed. I forgot, Logan did like to go in there as they gave dogs treats - so they're not happy it's closed. Unfortunately when the Nature Center reopened after Covid they stopped the treats, and Logan remembered that for quite a while (Max passed in Jan 2018 so he missed that). January 2019. He would take my boot or shoe into the living room, kept that up right up through this year too. May 2019. He's seeing something here on his walk, not sure what it was. BTW, he had that same collar the entire time I had him, it went perfectly with his brindle coat. Sept 2020. He would lay beside the brown couch, which was mine, to get petted. He was in almost exactly this position last Sunday, the day he died. Did not seem like he was having a problem at that point, then got up and started heaving bile. July 2021. Logan never liked toys much, but this is a nice shot of him using one. A couple shots I really like from Feb. 2022: June 2022. Another boot theft. Also June 2022. At that coffee shop I mentioned, getting his pup cup. March 2023, tongue out: April 2023: May 2023: If you made it this far, thank you so much for reading and helping me to remember my buddy Logan.
  11. Thank you again to everyone posting thoughts and condolences. I really appreciate it...
  12. Thank you everyone for your kind words. It helps a lot.
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