Padfootx13

You have a beautiful story, thank you for sharing it with us. I'm very sorry that you had to say goodbye to Argos, my condolences.

A great update, thanks for sharing!

They both have their own beds on either side of our bed (a queen) and they sleep there at night but then in the morning they are both invited to snuggle.

I think you're totally right! And regardless you'll love them and that's what's important I think the idea of taking the GRE now would freak me out too...I got it in right before they changed the format. You'll do great! The best thing to do is just go through those free practice tests so you can get the format down. Once you know HOW to take the test, the actual content is much easier.

I would agree with what's mentioned above, and I'll just add my own experience. I didn't really think about doing therapy dog work all that extensively until our trainer mentioned it. I would absolutely agree that the dog has to have the personality in him/her--Padfoot is the perfect therapy dog in my opinion--he would gladly leave me or my husband for anyone of any size who will pet him but is not overly boisterous about it. The only time he "jumps" is when we first get up in the morning or first let him out of his kennel when we get home from work, and even then it's more of a rearing horse than a jump at you. We didn't pick Padfoot, our adoption group has a link with a local (very well respected) shelter so we adopted him through there-we kind of did everything backwards. Adopted him, then got the support system. He was the only greyhound there but we decided that if his personality wasn't what we were looking for when we met him we would use one of the greyhound specific adoption groups in our area. He was very friendly, gentle, and OK being handled in any way. That is also a huge part...they MUST be OK with being touched anywhere. Especially in nursing home environments, you can never really expect how the person will touch them. They may or may not have complete nervous control and sometimes they end up patting the dog very hard, or they can only reach a certain area of the dog because of limitations of equipment like the very end of their muzzle. I know that it wasn't necessarily the smartest thing to do meeting a dog for the first time, but in order to see how he would be with those types of situations, we touched and gently tugged his tail a bit, looked in his mouth, at his paws, and in his ears. Of course all of this was done very slowly, cautiously, and gently, but he couldn't care less. Padfoot is the type of dog that is happy as long as you are touching him. He has been easy to train thus far but we have only worked on the basics, nothing fancy, and he is food motivated. If you want to see how motivated they are when you visit them you could ask a volunteer or employee of the group to give you a handful of kibble and see how he/she reacts to it. As far as Lupin goes, when we talked with Scooby about adopting a dog one of our goals was to also get them into therapy dog work. That covers a wide gamut of personality traits: they should be fairly confident, good with children, good with people, and pretty laid back. Luckily the woman who takes care of the dogs at the Residencia knew she had the right dog for that. It is easy to tell that in time he will make a great therapy dog. He is definitely more timid than Padfoot, but in time I'm sure he will become completely confident and not timid at all. That being said, on walks, he still wants to approach any person we see, but after they pet him for a couple of seconds he comes right back to me and leaves the rest of the pets for Padfoot, who has moved to leaning on the person usually. Basically, I think it's more important to look for a dog that is calm, comfortable being handled, and likes people of any size and can be OK dealing with unexpected situations, like people running around, dropping things, lots of loud noises. I try to expect the worst possible scenario to make sure that the dogs would be okay even there was an emergency when you were visiting the nursing home or hospital. There is a dog out there for you with these traits for sure, just be honest with your group in the expectations you have for the dog! To break it down completely--for the test as far as Padfoot's temperament and not training is considered he had to be OK with: --people making loud strange noises (dropping pans, hula-hoops, plastic duct work) --running AT him to pet him and being very loud and erratic in their movements --being touched on the tail, ears, back, feet This is the link for our test form: http://www.petsandpeoplefoundation.org/volunteers/ Scroll down a bit and you'll see the test form for dogs on the page. As for test anxiety: I was SO nervous, we had just moved 10 days prior, adopted Lupin 2 days prior, and I hadn't been able to work with Padfoot consistently and intensely for at least a month. Here and there I was able to do a little bit, but very little training happened up to the move and after because I was doing it all myself. I would say what made it so much easier was remembering that if we didn't pass, we could always retake it and there would be no penalty. Also, find yourself a trainer that you really like if you don't already have one, and ask them to help you with teaching the dog the specific things you need for therapy dog work. I have a great relationship with my trainer...she is so so nice and does nothing but encourage you...even if she is telling you that you're doing something wrong, she is so positive about it! That's what I needed. Sorry to post so long, I hope this is a little helpful and not too verbose!

Lots of thoughts and prayers for you and Huston today

Hi Sarah! Welcome to Greytalk You need to share pictures of Gansett, it is part of the rules plus he's such a handsome boy!! As for getting Gansett to be more comfortable around the other dogs, what we did to help Padfoot be more comfortable around my sister's two high energy dogs was was feed him smoked salmon (locks). Seriously. Our first introduction didn't go the way I wanted to (forgotten leashes for the two little ones) so we ended up having Padfoot with a basket muzzle and feeding him the salmon through the muzzle, which worked great. Try to make being around the other dogs as much of a positive experience as possible. Same with the other dogs, if you can manage to feed them all tasty treats when they are around each other and then stop when one walks away. They will learn to associate being around the other dogs to getting something really tasty. Also, the more treats, the better, essentially become a treat dispenser constantly praising him for just being around the dogs and not growling. Hopefully that makes sense. There are lots of great topics about space aggression on here if you do a quick search. Good luck and good to see you on this forum, give Gansett pets for me!

As far as the muzzle goes, I would say it is a great tool to use and one that really only minimally inconveniences them. My boy will spend a few minutes rubbing his face on stuff if I put it on him for whatever reason, but then settles right down. In fact, a few weeks ago he had to wear it during a play date with a bunch of other hounds and I forgot to take it off before he got in the car and by the time I got around to the front, he was laying down and almost asleep with it on. When it comes down to leaving her crated v. muzzled, if it will speed up the process of making her more comfortable I think the muzzle is a benefit to a little more freedom and comfort sooner.

Yes, like everyone else above, I would split it into two meals.

I want to second the comment about the amount of food. When Padfoot came home with us we were instructed to feed him 4 cups a day and he had really runny poops, bad gas, and gained weight fast, even with lots of walks. Some of the GI issues were change and stress but it wasn't until we cut back to 2 cups a day that he really leveled out on his weight and his GI issues are gone now. He was too skinny when we got him (61 lbs)--they had him on W/D because of hookworm, then four months later he was up to 68 lbs, now he is a good 64 lbs. He gets 1 cup in the morning, 1 cup when I get home from work, and training treats. If your boy is pretty large I could see feeding him more, but 4 cups is quite a bit of food unless he's doing a lot of exercise. Also, he's very handsome!

We don't have a private outdoor space currently so I lay down a towel, make him lay on it and eat it there. Then the towel goes right into the washer.

So glad to hear that he is home and eating some! Sending good thoughts to you both.

That's great! They both look very comfortable

So, so sorry for your loss, our thoughts are with you and Tori

Poor boy...that must make him (and you guys!) feel awful. FWIW, I don't think you have any reason at all to be embarrassed. You guys just have to figure out how to help him the best you can, and there's nothing wrong with that, it's admirable! And once you do figure it out he'll be an even better boy because of it.

This sounds like sensory defensiveness in people. Is there an occupational therapy equivalent for dogs?

Yay! Congratulations Clarice and Kristin!

Sending lots of good thoughts your way

Any updates on Leo? Hopefully his tummy has cleared up some by now Our boy had hookworm when he entered GF, but by the time we adopted him it had cleared up. Also, loose poops for a while are normal. We are FINALLY consistently happy with Padfoot's poops and it's been 7 months since we adopted him. We feed him 1 heaping cup of NutroMax Beef and Rice kibble, 1 tablespoon of canned pumpkin, and 1/4 cup of green beans twice a day. He also gets half a Primal freeze dried beef nugget crumbled on his food 3x a week. We tried a grain-free food, but kibble over 25% crude protein gave him loose poops and bad gas and he doesn't tolerate chicken well so the green bag is out.

Good thoughts for you and Jovie!

Congratulations and welcome!!

I would apply the frontline ASAP as well. For what it's worth, we are just north of the city in Revere and went for a walk on a completely paved path and I found the first tick of the season...they are out and active! I also know people who have found them by the Fens.

Yay! Congratulations!! Now you just have to come to one of the Greyhound Adventures walks I was following the dogs that Louise had brought in from Ireland, and Leo is so striking. Hopefully in the fall we will be back at GF to get our boy a brother or sister.

Welcome! Jake is a very handsome boy!

I know, I've personally never brought him IN the office just in the apartment building where the office is located. We run into the leasing agents there. I've seen them feed other dogs treats in there though. ETA: That being said, it is up to them what rules they enforce and if they want to enforce the on-leash rule and not the one where they say dogs are allowed in the office, that's their prerogative. If I were to bring Padfoot into the office, I would be leaving myself open to dealing with the consequences of breaking that rule. My reporting the pom or other dogs off leash has more to do with letting management know that it's happening. If I walked into the office with a dog, they would clearly know that I am breaking a rule.