Acadianarose

Charlies_Dad, thanks for the great advice and the encouragement. Rmarie, thank you as well. Rocket, yes, it scary and I don’t won’t to chance it either. a_daerr, thank you! I don’t think he dislikes her. He is very excited to see her and loves to play with her. Your story cracked me up! I appreciate your advice. She is feeding him and kind of hanging around while he eats (not messing with him at all) and giving him treats, etc. Hopefully he will come around. It is very hard to reconcile the very affectionate dog that loves attention and petting, etc. to the dog that almost attacked her for touching his toys. Alexis is very familiar with large dogs (she has been raised with a GSD and Lab since she was a baby), and she is not scared of them at all. The difference, I guess, is that the dogs were raised with her too. I am constantly second guessing myself and imagining the worst. But other than this one incident, he has been a perfect angel (except for the sleep aggression, which I don’t hold against him. It is understandable). Bottom line – complete honesty- am I asking for trouble or it is entirely likely that he will adjust?

Thanks for the advice everyone. One thing I failed to mention is that it is only our daughter that he seems to have issues with. I can walk up to him anytime he is laying down or take any toy and he will not have a problem. The adoption group said that he never growled at all with them. He was in foster care for a month or so also with no problems. Is that common?

Hi everyone. We just adopted our first retired greyhound, Payton, two weeks ago. I read as much as I could find on greyhounds before we got him. I felt completely prepared. However, I was completely unprepared when he growled at one of us for petting him while he was laying down. Ok, so I learned about space aggression and I have instructed our 9 year old daughter never to touch him while he is laying down. Seemed ok. A week later, I hear him growling and looked to see the cat messing with his ears. Understandability annoying. Then, a couple of days ago, our 9 year old daughter tried to pick up one of his toys and he went crazy. He just up and started barking at her. She dropped on the ground and covered her face. He stood on her head but didn't actually bite her. So I completely see what she did wrong and she does too. I read pretty much every post on this forum, every article I could find and talked to group we adopted him from. I felt pretty confident that Payton just needed his space and that he needed to learn that My daughter is not a litter mate. Most everything I read said that sleep/space aggression were normal. Doesn't mean an aggressive dog. Then I read a post on here about a dog that showed mild space aggression and after two months, bit her owner in the head. Everyone seemed to blame the owner and said that she should have seen the signs. I couldn't see that she did anything wrong. It seemed that the dog showed aggression at first, but after a couple the dog was fine. Now I am really concerned again. I know that any dog can bite under certain circumstances but it really seemed like that bite was unprovoked. Are space aggressive dogs always space aggressive? A bite like that could seriously injure a child. Any advice, suggestions, whatever would be great. PS- we love Payton. He is such an awesome dog.