rsieg

Dogs are pattern creatures. Once they get something "on the schedule", they get upset if it does not occur, especially if it is something fun like a walk. Not sure your schedule, but if feasible maybe try to get into a schedule of walking him first thing in the morning, before starting work. That way you have a fixed time that is less likely to have a conflict, and once he has gone for his walk he may be more settled down afterward. Of course, there are always rainy days when you just have to deal with the dog sulking...

Happy tenth, Sweep! I notice she is in the same position in the photo as in the signature picture, except using different headrests :-)

I agree completely that cellphone cameras are good enough for shots of dogs, people, etc. I have two greatly enlarged photos printed on something like 19x12" paper in my office, one each of Logan and Max. They were taken with my Galaxy S7 cellphone, and are so good you can see the individual hairs on both dogs, colors are perfect, etc. What kind of interests me is playing around with the less standard photography you can do with a DSLR. For example, you can do long exposures to allow for low light or night photography, set fast shutter speeds for freezing action, telephoto lenses for distance shots, get better close-ups of small stuff, things like that. Not sure whether I will really get into it, but since I have the camera already figure I might as well be using it.

I've had a DSLR for a few years, never got around to learning to use it beyond the auto modes. So last weekend had had it out down in the park learning to use it in manual mode. This weekend was cloudy/threatening rain, so Logan was the unfortunate victim of my practicing. Rather than posting a bunch of pics, here is the smugmug album link. As you'll see, after a hard afternoon laying on the grass in the backyard, he had to crash on the couch for a while :-) https://m13.smugmug.com/Weekend-2019-Sept-28-29 Also, while browsing the memory card, ran across a few pictures from October 2016 (I guess the last time I used the camera), including this one of Max. He would have been just over 12 when this was taken. It perfectly shows his raised ears and attentive face. The paper plate in front of him would have had a smear of peanut butter, his favorite treat by far... Thanks for looking, Rob

That is about the schedule (more like 10 am to 7 pm) that Logan has been on for six years now, got a dog sitter that just lets him out around noonish. He sometimes urinates at noon, but virtually never does a BM. We do walk about a mile in the morning before work, and an hour or two in the evening, and that is when he usually does his business. AFAIK he just sleeps all day.

Congrats to you, Kate, & Petunia! Good news is you shouldn't have any trouble telling them apart :-)

I had Logan and Max riding together in the back seat of a Chrysler 300 (the new, bigger sedan version) over about 3 years. What I initially did was fold the back seat down, but that leaves an opening into the trunk, which they would slide back into, so I filled that with some blankets. Still not the best, but then I just removed the back seat entirely (there are bolts that can be undone to do this), dropped a small bed mattress into the rather large space now left by removing the back seat entirely, and padded it up with blankets. Its about as good as a small minivan that way, but of course you no longer have a back seat (or rather, the back seat is in the attic rather than in the car :-) With only Logan now, he rides fine in the back seat of my current Ford Fusion (2016 model), without folding the seat down or removing it. I took a piece of carpet extra and tied it to the baby seat clasps at the top of the seat backs, and the carpet then droops down over the back and seat bottom of the backseat and has stayed nicely. But Logan is pretty easy, he gets in the back seat and immediately lays down most of the time. Basically, if you have only one dog you can almost surely make it work with a sedan. Two dogs, depends on how they ride and how well the get along.

Reminds me of those nature documentaries, where they show feeder fish in the ocean. The big fish line up at the cleaner station, and the smaller cleaner fish do their thing.

Are the "downing ears" where one ear tends to go horizontal and the other vertical? If so, Logan has that trait as well. Both ears go straight up if he is really excited or concentrating, but if he is attentive but more relaxed only the left ear goes up, the right ear is horizontal (so it would be opposite of Piper in your photo). Here is a shot showing it:

Gable Logan is a great-grandson(dog?) of Gable Dodge, born April 7, 2010 and still going at 9 yo now. Didn't win as many races as great-grandpa, but still can do amazing stuff, like this headstand: (ok, maybe the shot was from above :-)

Shouldn't you move the fan a bit? He isn't directly in the line of airflow :-)

Thanks for the quick replies. I will go over the links this weekend. I tend to avoid x-rays (for myself or dogs) when possible, but if the vet recommends it will probably get that. My vet is not a greyhound specialist, but has been seeing Logan (and Max before that) for the whole time I have had them, and they seem to know the greyhound quirks. As far as I recall, this is the first time the vet has sent out a client base-wide email, so they do seem to be taking it seriously.

I am late to the canine dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM)-grain free food discussion, but my vet sent out an email yesterday advising all clients to switch off grain-free food, which led to me going over the threads on this here on GT and on the Internet. Logan was on Taste of the Wild, which is listed as number 3 on the number of DCM cases, so got a bag of IAMS green last night and switched him to it. He seems to like it better, and it is cheaper, so ok in that regard. Logan has his annual physical next week. Obviously my vet is on top of the DCM matter, but my question is this. Will the vet be able to determine if Logan has DCM at the physical? Is it detectable just using a stethescope, or is there a blood test, or whatnot? Is there any test I should ask for? Thanks in advance for any info, -- Rob

FWIW: I thought the greyhound story in this article was amusing... https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/samuel-rodriguez-what-greyhounds-taught-me-about-finding-happiness-in-life

I'm wondering how much of the behavior change is really tied to the events with Duchess. Toffy was one year old when you moved out of your parents' house. That is a big change for a dog, and you say he caused a lot of trouble at that point, which is why you adopted Duchess. So there may have been some personality change going on at that point. While the very negative experience with Duchess during the transition may not have been helpful, the change in housing situation, going from being a member of a pack to a single dog, along with Toffy simply getting larger/older probably also changed his temperament. As a larger, older dog who is now an only dog, he may have just become more assertive and more strongly bonded to/protective of you, especially with a Cane Corso about his size encroaching on "his" yard (cowering before the giant Mastiffs is just being sensible :-) It sounds to me like Toffy is acting quite normally. Dogs have different reactions to different dogs, some better than others. Toffy is fine with the two Spanish Mastiffs and with the young dog, but has an issue with the Cane Corso and maybe some other dogs. He may just not like the Cane Corso, for some reason us humans can never understand, or maybe running along the fence barking is his way of trying to get the Cane Corso to play. My Logan tends to be reactive with larger dogs, is fine with (or annoyed by) small dogs, cowers before very large mastiffs. But, there is one brown eskimo-type dog in the neighborhood that makes him go nuts - I have no idea why. Dogs have different personalities which can change over time, just like people, and if Toffy has a more high strung personality as an older single dog than he did as a one-year old living with a pack of other dogs, I would not jump to the conclusion he has PSTD.