Padfootx13
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I love that this has stimulated other questions and advice!
We have been working with Padfoot on the "watch" command for the past 1-2 months and he is making great strides. He does it about 99% of the time in our home, and has been improving greatly on redirecting his focus on us when there are other distractions (ex. on-leash dogs) outside. The only time that he wont do it consistently is if the dog is about 5-10 meters away and moving TOWARDS us, at the same distance if the dog is moving away or towards us to the side, he responds well. I imagine it's just a matter of time and consistency before we get him to trust that he can look at us while the dog is approaching face-on.
As far as our situation goes, I told one of the leasing agents about the situation and haven't seen the Pom off leash-or at all-since. I will report them again if I see it off leash again. I didn't make any remarks about our dog being trained to go after fuzzy small things or having a prey drive to either the owners or the agents because really, the people with the Pom are simply breaking a rule of our apartment complex, and everyone should be held accountable for following the rules if they want to live there. It shouldn't matter how my dog would react to it, they are still breaking the rules.
I think muzzling would be fine, I'm not too worried about Padfoot getting hurt with me right there being able to take care of the Pom, but I find it very hard to give him treats through the muzzle. We are still working a lot of loose-leash walking, "watch" like I mentioned earlier, "halt", and "wait" at doors so we always have treats with us to reward him. Anyone have tips for treating through the muzzle?
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We see Dr. Dunn at North Shore Animal Hospital in Lynn. He's not in as often as the other vets but all of the other vets at their office are really competent with greyhounds...they used to see a lot of the dogs from the Wonderland track in Revere. That being said, we just wanted a more grey-savvy vet because it made us feel more comfortable being first time grey owners.
For what it's worth, when we adopted from the MSPCA Angell Adoption Center they told us that Angell Medical Center is the best place to go for specialists, but relatively over-priced for regular vet visits.
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Thank you everyone for your helpful and understanding responses! It's so nice to have a group of people to be able to come to and ask questions when you are feeling at your wits end.
There are definitely times when I just want to say "to heck with it" and try not to get in between them, but I would much rather I get bit by either one if it came to that than Padfoot get hurt or be labeled aggressive, just for standing up for himself.Based on everyone's responses my first action will be to have a talk with the owners one-on-one to explain the situation and why is it destructive to their dog and Padfoot. The scary thing is I know of at least 2 other dogs on our floor that are dog and/or leash aggressive so they really aren't looking out for their pom at all. Also, from the situations I have seen where the owners try to call the dog back, it's recall is NOT strong to the point of obsolete. That being said, we are working on Padfoot's but that is why we never let him off of his leash, even in our building. If we are out the door of our apartment, his leash is on. So frustrating that other people don't think that the rules apply to them.
That being said, I will only give them one more time of the dog not being on leash before I actually report them to management. I emailed them today asking for the protocol regarding if we do see a loose dog, and it was taken quite seriously to my surprise. We are managed by a large company so there are penalty fees associated with having your dog not on leash when you are outside of your apartment and the woman I emailed said we should let them know "right away" and, like some of you above, she also mentioned taking photos for evidence if possible.
I will definitely take pictures if I see the dog not on leash again and I plan to talk to them tomorrow so we don't have another run-in.
And to those of you who suggested foot stomping and low bellows to scare the Pom away specifically, thanks. It's something that should have been common sense for me, I think, but in the moment I never even think of it. Hopefully with your reminders I will. We definitely have a gamut of just aggressive to excited/friendly off-leash dogs here, but the Pom is an excited/happy one (I think, it's hard to see much behind all that fur) so stomping would be probably work great to scare it back home.
Thank you everyone again!!
I'm sorry you're dealing with this. Off leash, aggressive dogs make our work with Leo so much harder, although he's still doing remarkably well.
I feel the same way about Padfoot! When we adopted him in October he would be very intent (pulling then just staring) on other dogs we saw whether they were high energy or not, on a leash or not. Now he can walk by calm dogs or dogs running around, on leash and continue walking in heel position without more than a couple glances over. It's taken lots of treats and work but to see how far he's come in such a short amount of time is amazingly rewarding.
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Hello All! I know that there are lots of people on here with experience in situations with small off-leash dogs and their leashed greys from the posts in Off-Topic, but I was wanting some advice on how to handle those situations. To give you alittle background about Padfoot and the specific situation (not the only one we've had, but the one that triggered writing this post)...
Padfoot has a low to medium prey drive. When we first adopted him the MSPCA said he was not small dog or cat safe. What we have found is that is partially true. We haven't put him in a situation with a cat, mainly because we wont ever have a cat due to my allergies and when we visit my in-laws we can keep him and the cat separated by an entire floor. As far as small dogs go, it ranges immensely-mainly to do with the introduction and the energy level of the other dog. In all situations I would prefer to have the dogs meet on neutral ground, take them for a walk, then enter the house together. That is not always possible, especially when you are living in an apartment complex that has LOTS of dogs. If the dog is calm and he has had a proper introduction he will let it share his bed (my parents 9 year old, 6 lb maltese--as white and fluffy as you can get), if the dog is excitable/barky but he has had an introduction he mainly leaves it alone--unless it "yells" at him to play then he runs away (my sister's 13 lb black maltese mix). The worst situations are like the ones we encounter on a weekly basis at our apartment complex. A small dog (in this case a 7 month old pomeranian) lives on our floor. The owners do not leash the dog at all times and there have been at least 4 instances since I met it a month ago that the dog was off leash on our floor with it's owners well out of arms reach. Only twice have I had Padfoot with me, thank goodness.
This morning I was walking back to our apartment with Padfoot and when I was walking past their door, it opened and the pomeranian shot out, towards us with absolutely no self-preservation. I am a fairly petite woman and while I am strong enough to hold Padfoot back from the dog, when I cannot control the Pomeranian, I cannot take up enough physical space to block the Pomeranian from scootching around my legs and jumping in Padfoot's face. Because of that what I tend to do is get down at eye level to them both and use one hand to keep the Pomeranian away, and another hand on Padfoot's leash. He is definitely over-stimulated when this has happened (staring with absolutely no concern for what I say). Once the owner collected the Pomeranian I walked Padfoot away, towards our apartment and he shook it off very quickly and fell back into heel position (2-3 seconds once his back was turned). When I opened the apartment door, Padfoot was staring down the hall in that direction and I see the
Pomeranian charging toward us again-no owner in sight! He must have let the dog go thinking he would go straight back into the apartment. Again I got down between them-I didn't have enough time to get us into the apartment without the Pomeranian coming in too. The owner eventually approached (felt like forever!) and my husband came out of the apartment to help. During this second episode, it was the first time Padfoot actually snapped at the Pomeranian-no contact was made but I'm sure given the opportunity he would have, and I held my hand around his muzzle (his favorite way of being pet is actually all over his face/muzzle so he trusts my hands being there). Once we got inside he was jazzed up more than normal but still settled into his crate right away like usual.We have contacted the apartment managers and told the man that he needs to keep the dog on a leash, but there are lots of dogs to monitor and I'm sure nothing will be done at that level. Does anyone have advice on how to deal with this? My primary concerns are 1) Keeping Padfoot safe, 2) Finding a way to handle the situation where he trusts me as a handler to keep him safe, and 3) Making sure that I am safe too so that I can continue to control the situation. As far as the pomeranian is concerned, I don't want Padfoot to bite it, but only because it would label Padfoot as "aggressive".
I'm sorry for the long post, but I wanted to make sure the situation was very clear to try to get the best advice as possible. Thank you for taking the time to read it!
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question-- we've had a couple of turkey necks in our freezer for a few years. i've wanted to give them to our girls, but i've always lost my nerve (fear of the big diarrea blow-out!).
is it ok to give them 3-4 year frozen necks? our freezer has never had a long period of being out of electricity or anything so it's not that they'd be rancid, they're just kinda old. but that's the point of a freezer, right?
this post has me inspired to take the plunge and feed them today!
I have this question too! Ours isn't quite so old...just from the Thanksgiving turkey this past November, but still it's been "ageing" a bit in the freezer.
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I give her a kong filled with yummies after our walk before I leave for work for the day. She normally goes in no problem when that's placed in the crate, but I was really surprised today when she refused it and did the bed thing.
If you still feel like she isn't ready to be left out (it will be a while before we let Padfoot roam free, mostly because he likes his crate and there isn't a whole lot of blocking off that could be done in our 750 sq ft apartment) you could try, as other (way more experienced) people above have said, having her go in the crate when you're home. If you do that, just make sure it isn't at a time where she is being punished. When Padfoot started to "balk" we started putting him in there when we were doing stuff around the apartment like cleaning or working in the living room and he would whine a bit but then settle right down.
I still think, give her a few days of showing her that you really mean she has to go in the crate and she'll come around. If it helps, Cynthia Branigan talks about the exact same scenario with one of her greyhounds in Adopting the Racing Greyhound.
Love love LOVE your screen name. LOVE.
end hijack.
(Don't know if that's /hijack or //hijack. And do you have any idea how hard that is to google? I fully expect the NSA is no watching me!)
Really ending now.
Hahaha! Reminds me of a parody I heard during a comedy show over Christmas vacation "You better watch out/you better not cry/you better not pout I'm telling you why...The NSA is tapping your phone"
And thanks so much! We love Harry Potter, and seeing as he (our Padfoot and Sirius) is a big black dog, we thought it appropriate
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We had this issue too when we first got Padfoot. For about a week he was great. He would go right in, he would get a kong with peanut butter and settle right down. Then I think he was trying to test if we would really make him go in and he started darting around and would hop onto the couch instead and lay there just like how you describe your girl does. Then after a few times of forcing him in he gave in and realized we were serious. One thing that has really helped is that we give him a kong with about 1/2 TBSP of peanut butter in it each morning when we leave for work but that is the only time he gets the kong or peanut butter. Now after 4 months he comes in from his morning walk and runs right in the crate, whether his kong is ready or not.
Maybe try something like that with your girl, a special treat that she loves and only gets when she is in the crate. Also, it's possible she is just testing the waters a little bit to see how much you really mean business.
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He's so handsome! Welcome from Eastern Mass!
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Haha, who knows whats really going on in their heads...it's definitely amusing though!
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I don't know about with Greyhounds, but between my parents and sister/brother in law there are sometimes 3 small dogs in the house- a maltese, minature poodle, and terrier/maltese mix and when one of them nests the others all get up, run over to, and bark at the one nesting. It's almost as if the other dogs think they might be missing out on something good, even if they are happily asleep before it all starts.
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I'm 24 and we adopted our first greyhound in October, I definitely don't think he'll be our last though
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Welcome! We are new too, but GT has already been a wonderful resource for advice and fun stories! He's beautiful and it seems like you will have a fun time together!
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Thanks everyone, he just keeps being cuter every day
He's doing a great job learning "wait", "stay", and "lay" too--smart boy!
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Like Kudzu, the fact that it happens after exercise/excitement would make me nervous. Dudley has gagged after running around before, but I have never heard even the kennel hounds doing what other people have experienced. When was the last time he was tested for heartworm?
Chances are it's nothing, but I am one of those worry-warts, especially with a new behavior
His heartworm test was negative when the adoption group took him in August and we have been giving him his heartworm medicine since we got him in October. I agree about the worry-wart mindset--I tend to worry about anything that might be different in his behavior, especially since he's our first dog.
And reverse sneezing--ha! I had never heard of that before but looking at the YT videos it looks and sounds pretty similar to what he's doing. I think we will keep an eye on it for now and if it continues or anything changes will take a trip to the vet (thanks for all the great advice!). It is something that started up more when the weather turned cold so it could be related to that...or the dryness since it seems to be a bit better when the humidifier is on...
Padfoot is a great name by the way!
Thanks!
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If you don't mind a used one, I have two extras. I have a large pink and a small blue. I'd pop 'em through the dishwasher and mail one to you if you'd like. I would say unless Padfoot is a big boy either would fit. Give a shout if you are interested, if not I'm not offended!
Thank you! I wish I had waited a little while because we would have definitely taken them, but I ended up contacting GEM earlier that day. Could you donate them to one of the rescues in town?
Contact GEMS. Call or email Merrie or Laz.
mwest89698@aol.com
merrie@gemgreyhounds.net
GreytHounds of Eastern Michigan - GEM
PO Box 194
Wayne, MI 48184
Phone: 1-877-GEM-DOGS (toll free)
Website: http://www.GEMgreyhounds.org
EMail: gemboard@gemgreyhounds.org
Thank you for the info--I contacted Merrie and she was great to work with! She even sent one of each size so we could figure out which will fit our male the best!
Got mine from the GEM online store.
Beware that they can still injure and kill with a muzzle on so strict management is still necessary.
Yes, we will watch him like a hawk while we are there--which is why the leash will stay on at all times. It's a short visit so it shouldn't distress him to be attached to me while we are in the house, especially because he doesn't let us out of his sight even when we are at home.
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Another time to ask the wonderful GT members for advice!
For the past week or so, Padfoot has been occasionally making noises that to me sound like when a person is hacking phlem. It seems to happen most often when he gets excited (after he's had a zoom around our apartment when we get home from work or when I go into the cupboard that has his food/treats in it) and is usually followed by a couple seconds of hacking/gagging where nothing comes up. He acts like nothing is wrong afterwards but it gives us a scare when it happens. Do you think it calls for a vet visit?Thank you in advance for any advice!
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Hello all. I was wondering if anyone had any good resources for getting basket muzzles for hounds. We are going to be visiting our parents in 2 weeks who have a small dog and we want to have a basket muzzle for our GH to wear since he was adopted to us as being too "intent" on small dogs to be completely safe. He is very interested in small dogs around our apartment complex but when two off leash TINY dogs (teacup yorkie and chihuahua-with a very irresponsible owner) approached him while we had him on lead he sniffed them politely until they started running around and he stared at them (not politely). We were able to break his gaze and walk away but I would much rather have a muzzle for him to have an extra layer of security (though I know that even muzzled dogs can do harm).
If things become too overwhelming for him being in the same house as a small dog, we will have his crate (which he is well accustomed to) and his bed and his array of toys so that we could separate them in different rooms comfortably if need be. We will also likely keep him on the leash indoors so we can monitor him at all times but we want to have a muzzle on him as well. I ordered one from a rescue about 2 weeks ago but it hasn't arrived and I haven't been able to get in contact with the rescue through email or phone so I want to try to order another one before it is too late. Does anyone have any good ideas of where to order/get them? We are in the Boston, MA area and the only places I have been able to look so far in store are Petco and Petsmart and the Baskerville ones they carry look like they are too short for the muzzle of the dog...am I wrong, are these just as effective as the longer ones?
Thanks for your help!
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We usually walk our boy 4 times throughout the day/evening in 15-30 minute increments. We live in an apartment complex so those double as his potty breaks also. One day on the weekend we try to do a longer, 45 minute walk around a pond and marsh that is across the street.
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Welcome to Greytalk. Padfoot looks wonderful.
Not sure if you are aware that there are two greyhound walking groups in the greater Boston area. One meets Saturday and the other Sunday.
http://greyhoundadventures.org/
http://www.trailboundhounds.org/
Great way to meet other greyhound people and they are a great resource for other greyhound owners.
Thank you, Mary-Jane! We knew about Greyhound Adventures, but not Trail Bound Hounds. We are planning to take him on some hikes once the weather breaks in the Springtime so TBH sounds perfect for that.
We look forward to meeting you and Padfoot on a Sunday Greyhound Adventures walk.
Riversbosun, we are planning to come to the one next Sunday at the Arnold Arboretum! Looking forward to meeting the other Mass. Greyhounds and their parents.
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Thank you everyone for your warm welcomes!! I'm very excited to be a part of a community with such knowledgeable and friendly people, not to mention fellow hound lovers! I'm looking forward to sharing our journey and what we learn with all of you and hearing about everyone else's
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Our dog had issues with loose stools right from the get go 2 months ago and then we put him on a high-protein (grain free) chicken based food with some slow transitioning from the adoption center's instructions. They had him on WD because he had hookworm when he came off the track in March. We tried 1 medium-sized bag of the high-quality diet and while at first his stool didn't change, it eventually turned to full-on D. We fed him rice and boiled ground beef and pumpkin for a few days and that firmed everything up but it wasn't until we switched from the grain free to a lower-protein beef and barley diet that his stool REALLY improved. Now we feed him a little less than 2 cups of kibble and 1 "dollop" of pumpkin each morning and night to sustain his weight at ~65lbs and everything is great! I think it just takes some patience and gradual experimentation. Good luck!
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Hello All!
We are new to the forum and new to being Greyhound parents. We adopted a 4 year old retired racer from the MSPCA 2 months ago and he's been (mostly) a delight!
Meet Padfoot (formerly Tex/ Coach Venom):
There are definitely times when I just want to say "to heck with it" and try not to get in between them, but I would much rather I get bit by either one if it came to that than Padfoot get hurt or be labeled aggressive, just for standing up for himself.
Pomeranian charging toward us again-no owner in sight! He must have let the dog go thinking he would go straight back into the apartment. Again I got down between them-I didn't have enough time to get us into the apartment without the Pomeranian coming in too. The owner eventually approached (felt like forever!) and my husband came out of the apartment to help. During this second episode, it was the first time Padfoot actually snapped at the Pomeranian-no contact was made but I'm sure given the opportunity he would have, and I held my hand around his muzzle (his favorite way of being pet is actually all over his face/muzzle so he trusts my hands being there). Once we got inside he was jazzed up more than normal but still settled into his crate right away like usual.
He's doing a great job learning "wait", "stay", and "lay" too--smart boy!
How To Handle Situations With Off-Leash Dogs
in Training and Behavior discussion
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Our leasing agent also requested that we take photos in order for them to issue a fine-they have talked to them, but cannot issue a fine without proof. We weren't able to take photos the first time, but now we always make sure we are prepared to in the area that we most frequently encounter them. It is a shame that most people don't seem to think their dogs can do any harm if off leash for whatever reason.
They do like to see the dogs over there-they have treats there too! (Despite the no pets sign on the door) One of the agents actually said that when they were little her parents surprised her with a greyhound after their first dog passed away but they couldn't keep him because he had space aggression issues and they were young at the time. She loves seeing Padfoot in the office or around the buildings.