Acadianarose

When one of our dogs dig along the fence, I put a concrete brink or something like that in the hole before covering it back up. I heard that burying a section of chain link fence along your fence will help too. Last year, a bunch of moles moved into our yard under our swimming pool pump. Our lab when crazy digging for the moles. One day I came home and found that he had dug a massive hole under the pump. It was about 1 1/2 foot deep. I had to buy dirt to fill it up. I put several landscape bricks in the hole and filled it up. He tried a few times to dig around there again but he couldn't get very far so he gave up.

I have never purchased pet insurance but I am seriously considering it now. Toby is too old to insure but I can start Payton for a reasonable premium. I think I will go with Embrace. The premiums are about the same and you can add a wellness benefit. Payton has a bad mouth so it would really help. I have never had to yet, but I don't want to have to skimp on medical treatment because of cost.

He has several chew toys and the ropes. I will pick up some busy bones. Thanks! Coconut oil is the only thing he will let me brush his teeth with so far. He loves it! His teeth are yellow and he has brown tartar in the crevices of his molars. Tartar is starting to build up on the outside of his back teeth. Considering it has only been 3 months since his cleaning, it seems like too much tartar already. Of course, I have absolutely no experience with a bad greyhound mouth. I do brush his teeth everyday but it took a while to work up to the toothbrush. Now that he is getting better, I am going to brush twice a day to see if it will help. And I will definitely try the healthy mouth. Thanks! He is only 3 years old so I would really like to get his mouth in better condition. Thanks again everyone!

Payton has had the worst breath ever since we got him. He had a dental cleaning in July when he was neutered. I thought maybe he just had bad breath but I am brushing his teeth and there is a lot of tarter on them. I can't imagine that they were cleaned very well. It wasn't my vet-it was a the adoption group's vet. I can't see putting him under anesthesia again so soon. He has a check up in January so I will discuss it with his vet then. In the meantime, I just ordered CET toothpaste to try. He refuses any water additive. Is there anything else I can do?

What a great story! Your story reminds me so much of my daughter and her fiancé, who moved to Houston so my daughter could attend graduate school. Being away from all of their family, my daughter was so lonely and really wanted a dog. They ended up adopting a black greyhound. She is the reason I have a greyhound! She wants another one. Her boy's brother came up for adoption recently and she really wanted to adopt him, but they weren't able to. You have a great looking family! Please keep us updated on how things are going with the boys.

We have Payton for 2 months. He has changed quite a bit in that short time and he changes more and more each day. He is still very reserved and never wags his tail. But he seemed almost miserable at first. He would not tolerate anyone touching him at all in his bed. He was scared of most things. If I leaned over him while he was standing in front of me or made eye contact, he would jerk away. Now he is so happy to see us. He runs up for hugs and stretches his face up until I lean over so he can lick my chin. He likes to be petted while lying down (only by me) and puts his head in my lap. This morning, he ran around the yard zooming all over. At first, I was really worried that he might not be the right dog for us. But he gets better and better all the time. We are working hard on training and he is doing great.

The mental image made me laugh!

I meant to say alpha and leave it at that. "Dog" automatically follows "alpha" my mind.

So funny that you say that...ever since his first trip to Petsmart last weekend, he tries to run out into the garage everytime we go to leave. He will just stand next to the car waiting. I have to tell him to stay while we are going out the door, which he has a really hard time doing.

Whew! I am so happy to hear that! Several years ago when my dogs were puppies, you were supposed to “establish yourself as the alpha dog” or your dog would dominate you. I trained them, but never really followed much of the alpha dog teachings, mainly because it was so inconvenient and my dogs never showed the slightest bit of dominance. And much of it seemed stupid, mean and/or dangerous. Toby (the lab) does wait to be invited through the door, but through the years there have been times when he was not allowed in (like if we were eating) so he just learned to wait until I said come in. I have tried to go in before Payton, but I have squeeze by him, let him in and then go back out to close the door. Too time consuming. I feed them before we eat, or it would be total chaos. I am teaching him patience and not to knock me over running through the door. He knows “wait” and will listen. I also make him wait to eat. He is doing a great job learning self control. We are still learning to walk on the leash without pulling (I think that has been the hardest thing so far). But I am so happy that I do not have to waste any more time on all of that crap that is not doing any of us any good. Payton is my first new dog in many years (obviously) and first greyhound. I really appreciate all of the help. Thanks everyone!

Now that I know that the alpha human theory is not true, I am wondering if all of these little things that supposedly teach the dog who is the boss is are necessary. Do I have to go through the door first, walk first, eat first, etc.? Does it matter at all?

Beautiful!

We crated Payton at night for the first couple of nights, but he has stayed out at night since then. We crated him during the day while we were gone for about a month but he started having accidents in his crate. I started leaving him out and he has not had an accident since. His crate is in the living room and he still sleeps in it often with the door open. I guess he likes having the option. As far as sleeping in our room, he is totally welcome to sleep in our room (our lab does) he Payton prefers to sleep in the living room. You will gets tons of different opinions, but I think you will have to play it by ear once your dog is home with you.

I was really proud of him. It was really funny watching him watch the guinea pigs. It cracked me up.

Payton had his first trip to Petsmart today. He did great. He was so excited (other than the car ride, which he hates). He really loves squeaky toys so he went crazy on the toy isle. He seemed really "interested" in the guinea pigs, although he may have just thought they were squeaky toys that moved around on their own.

That is awesome! Yay, Rocket! Payton has the same space issues, but now allows me (only) to pet him when lying down. It is so encouraging to see progress.

Great replies! In this particular instance, it is not necessary to teach him to share. I can put the toys away for a couple of days. Since Toby doesn't play with toys, it doesn't cause a conflict on a day to day basis in our house. And he gives them up to humans so that is not an issue either. I never realized how much Payton hoards his toys. My GSD had a favorite toy that I never made her share and it never was a problem, but don't know how much of an issue it is for him to want to keep them all to himself.

I have read all of the recommended books and I can't find an answer to my question. How does those of you with multiple dogs teach sharing? Toby doesn't play with toys so Payton hogging them all is not too much of an issue. But my daughter, who lives out of state, is visiting with her really sweet, timid greyhound. Payton took all of her dog's toys, as well as his own, and put them all in his bed. He did not want to give any of them up either. I did a telephone consultation with a trainer. She is busy until next month. Any suggestions in the meantime? Thanks once again for your help.

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I love these pictures! So funny! I am keeping my fingers crossed. I will pull out the squirt bottle and keep it handy. The poor dog is just trying to sleep!

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I am interested in this issue too. Payton is 67 pounds and he jumps up when is really excited – especially when I grab the leashes. Night before last, he jumped up and hit me square in the chest. Talk about take your breath away. I am trying to just stand there until he calms down and see that works. He also jumps up when meeting new people. He does it fairly consistently so I am trying to anticipate it and hold him so he can’t jump. I don’t know if he will eventually learn not to jump on people or not. Since it happens while you have him on his leash, can you hold him tightly so that you can stop his jumping as he starts? My GSD did that and since she was on a leash, I could hold her leash tight so she couldn’t jump up and tell her no. She caught on pretty quickly. I am not sure if that would work on a greyhound. Hopefully, someone will let us know what works.

I had the same problem with Payton. Some days he would pee in his crate, some days not. Not consistent at all. First thing I did is an extra potty break in the morning. I bring him out at around 5:00 am, again around 6:30-7:00 and finally at 7:45 – 8:00 a.m. This last break, he acted like he didn’t need to pee, but eventually he went. Now he seems to realize that I am not going to let him back in the house until he pees, so he generally does it fairly quickly now. He did not pee in his crate after that. Second, my husband ended up staying home one morning and said that Payton whined and cried in his crate for an hour after I left. Payton has been out of his crate at night since day 2 or 3. I had been leaving him out for shorter periods (up to 4 hours) after the first week or two. So I started leaving him out during the day while I was at work. We have not had an accident in house for about 4 weeks now (knock on wood). If the UTI is negative (and I would think it would be if she is only having accidents in her crate), maybe try an extra potty break and a day or two out of the crate. She may be ready to come out now. Good luck!