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We live in a very cold area, so we do 3x 20 to 30 minutes walks a day. But we are in a hilly area as well so it adds up a little. We have a 3 years old male 80 pounds. We also try to go to the doggie park once or twice a week.

For the zoomies post-walk, my hound turn into a happy playful puppy whenever we are back from a walk - even a good brisk paced 45 minutes walk going up and downhill. It is like he goes into a happy state coming back home and he picks up his toys, throw them, run after us and eventually settles down and sleeps. For a barking hound and boy do we have a barking hound! What I found really effective was teaching him that barking made us go away and being quiet (whining was acceptable at a certain level) made us come back. We started out by putting him in his crate - with toys, but no kong so he would be very aware of us leaving and coming back - then we would open the door, close it, and if he was quiet we gave him a cookie. Then once we felt confortable we stepped out and came back in RIGHT AWAY. Still quiet? cookie. If he barked during the time when I removed my boots and walked over for his cookie, he did not receive anything and we would step back out, wait 5 sec. and repeat. Or we would go back to the level below, opening and closing door. Our first session lasted maybe an hour and we reached 1 minute of alone quiet time. The important thing is that he doesn't reach his threshold. The next day we were up to 2 mins, then 5, then 10. It takes a few days but in 2 weeks we were able to leave for a few hours with minor barking. Stay constant and he will learn. A DAP collar helped us a lot as well. We were concerned at first as well because well we need to work right? And the first week with a grey was pretty much us crying and telling ourselves we would never make it. But we worked with him and it is MUCH MUCH better. At the moment I am watching Jack via webcam and he is snoozing away on his bed, nothing to worry about

They all have their little things in the begining, I swear be patient, it gets better We only have Jack for a little over 2 months and it is going much better. There is still the occasional growling because we are learning to live with each other but overall he is a very good dog. He doesn't know yet what is expected of him

We feed 5h30ish in the morning (yes it is early yikes!) and 5h15 in the evening. He poops on each of our walks which are 6h15am, 4h30pm and around 8pm. Sometimes he even poops twice on his walk (especially in the morning). We never have any surprise poop

Susan, we don't leave anything laying about, he found it when he broke out of his crate, it was in a closet, in a bag and the bag was suspended to a coat hanger. We are all wondering how he got it!!! About the Kong, I started handing it a bit beforehand as he started associating it with me leaving and was just running away. It is fixed now though so maybe I should be back to : as soon as I leave. Mercsmom : wow! Mine is internal to my laptop and I connect via Teamviewer so super easy! And it can also record, so added bonus! If the webcam stop working though..uh oh, I am in a bad position hahaha I am not that tech savy

Our Jack came to us at 75 lbs and now weight close to 80. We are feeding a little over 4 cups (we are filling the measuring cup not to the 2cup line but to the top of the cup) per day + a large milkbone, a kong filled with pb and training treats. He still needs to gain some weight, but we didn't want him to take too much weight. The adoption agency told us about 5 cups per day so I guess we would be close to that. 6 seems a bit much.. He poops once, sometimes twice (I suspect marking) during his morning walk, once during his afternoon walk and once before bedtime. Poot king here also! He would literaly come over to us to toot and head off, LIKE WE WANT TO SMELL IT!!!

Yes he does sleep in the same room as us One room plus bedroom would be all the living room (where his bed and crate is), the hallway and bedroom (plus another bed of course!). That mean blocking off the kitchen. We could try that tomorrow. We initially crated because he was ramming the front door. Thankfully we are over that! Thank you

The no crating was really what we thought, but seeing him howl an bark today while loose when he has been fine crated is somewhat of a surprise. To answer Batmom, he had a big plushy blanket an a polar blanket, but he was destructive sometimes so we held off on the bed. He did chose his crate over his dog bed sometimes when we were home though... Thanks Muddgirl We might just try limiting his space until he gets the routine change. Today he got a 30 minutes walk before me leaving, and we are living in a hilly area so that ads up as well. He usually get 3 20 to 40 minutes walks a day, depening on the weather + some training around 5-10 minutes twice a day. I watched the videos of today and most of the time he is standing on our couch (any ideas while we are at it to protect leather couch? hahaha - it is not a worry however, they are over 25 years old) or in our bedroom (I can't see on the camera). When I came home however, he had a big scratch inside his hind leg. I thought initially it was just blood from a scab but when I tried to clean it, he snapped at me. I have no idea for the life of me, how he got it...I had removed everything that could potentially hurt him. Could it be his muzzle? Also should we do some alone training while we are transitioning to a loose grey?

Hello all, it's me again! Our Jack has suffered separation anxiety since we got him, a little over 2 months ago. We tried the DAP collar and it has worked to some extent and we are quite happy with the results. However, he is acting so confusing to us. Here is our morning routine. DH leaves well before me, so I do the walking, then we come back home, I give him his Kong in his crate while I pick up my things (he gets in on his own), get dressed and leave (takes me between 5 to 10 mins). Sometimes he barks upon finishing his Kong then goes right back to sleep for up to 6 hours. After that all hell breaks loose and he barks and barks and barks, paws at the door of the crate, sometimes bites the bars, shreds blankets. He can lay down for 10 to 20 minutes then it all starts over again. He is crated for as long as 9 hours and twice per week it is less than that. He doesn't need a pee break as when we get home, he gets a walk and we sometimes walk for about a mile before he pees/poos. However, yesterday he managed to 1. Get his teeth stuck in the metal bars (for about a minute, EEEEK) and 2. Escape from his crate. Out of his crate he walked around, took his Kong and finished it, found a pig ear and ate it, then walked around some more. He did not settled. But he did not get into trouble either. We said fine, the crate is obviously getting dangerous, let’s try him out of it. Well since I left this morning it has been nothing but walking around and maybe settling for 10 minutes, walking around some more, barking and so on. So to crate or not to crate? I don’t want him to be miserable crated, but at the same time, he is obviously lost in our house. I would like to add that right now he is muzzled, left loose in the house with access to the living room and kitchen and our bedroom, but all other rooms are closed off. Thanks for the advice!

Thank you, we will do that

Is it something that must be looked at now or can it wait? I've read that hemangioma can sometimes be cancerous (aka hemangiosarcoma)?

Hello folks, A few weeks ago, we discovered a round scab on Jack (3 years old)'s rear leg. We left it at that, but after one week, as we were brushing, we accidentally picked at the scab and it fell and bled. No big deal, it can happen. The scab reformed. Then the following week it had grown. We removed it as it seemed quite healed (wanting to peel off). A little corner bled at first but then all of it started bleeding. Eventually the scab reformed. But then it doesn't stop growing as if blood keeps "feeding it". If we even just push on it, then blood starts coming out from it. When we remove it, it is flat on the skin as if the growth is only from the scab. What is this? Should we be worried? We don't want to go to the vet just for them to tell us to "let it be" but at the same time we don't want to overlook something potentially worrysome! On this picture it is quite big because it appeared to bled last night while asleep, there was a little bit of blood on his leg this morning. I did knot washed it as I didn't want to disturb it anymore. Apaarently Jack hasn't been licking either, since it still looks the same as this morning. He does not scratch or otherwise seem bothered by it.

My uncle had a great pyrenees that used to do that when we were lying on the floor or the grass. It seemed to be a protective behaviour since we were "vulnerable". He would get up to stand over us. Not ideal for tanning I must say!

Canadian houndie here! For QUICK (and I mean, we rush out and run) morning and post-feeding pee break, we just go without clothes or paws. We circle the yard and he pees near the tree line so Jack is safe from the winds. When we are out for longer, he wear paws (the balloon thingy) or boots, a fleece polar covering only his front legs, belly and with a snood attached and he wears on top of that a doubled coat (I swear it is as thick as mine). He never don't want to go on walks. He will in the extreme cold raise up a feet for me to take in my hand to warm up and then off we go. On a 20 minutes walk, we can stop maybe 2-3 times max for frozen paws and it only happens if we put on the Paws but it is too cold out.

Our Jack will stand while going where we need to, but he curls and sleeps on the way back. Sometimes he sits (!?) and usually he is just poking his nose in between the seats. We have a familial car so Jack just stands on the backseat. Sometimes on the back seat and on the floor to look better out the front window

Since we got our boy back in December, he has slept in our room, uncrated, with our bedroom door close. We don't leave any toys around and usually it is a very boring room for him to be in. We also make sure to walk him before sleeping so he is in a resting mood. The first night he got up to nose me to check if I was still there a few times (5) but I turned around without petting/talking to him. Each time he went back to his bed (remember the room is very boring!). The second night, he tried my husband, same results. He has been sleeping all night on his bed ever since. Now if Jack would have been pacing or showing signs he needed to go I would have taken him out. But really they should be fine all night. Could you try crating in your room for the night?

Hello all, First of all, this is more of a "please give me good ending stories" than a "please give me tips" thread. We have had Jack for almost a month and a half now. We have done a lot of work on alone training and have worked him up to an hour of him being quiet in his crate before going back to work. Then I returned to work progressively and he seemed fine with the occasional "I miss you guys" bark and whine. However this week, it is all out of the window! He would shred his blankets and bark all afternoon (the morning is time for a nap, mind you!), So back to alone training we were! We tried outside of the crate as he might have been tired of it. But he still would act up outside of it, jumping on the couch (he never does it) jumping in the windows and barking. He did settle twice on his bed and twice in his crate (about 10 seconds each). I forgot to mention, we went running to the doggie park beforehand so he should have been tired! So more alone training! He got a brand new DAP collar. He seemed to be sniffing a lot when we opened it, so hopefully it will have some effect on him. I am curious for those of you that are working full-time, how do you fit alone training in your schedule? We are nervous seeing our houndie so nervous, oh how I wish he could talk! Also, I am opened to all good SA stories, let them flow!

I know others will chime in, but here is what we did the first few days : 50/50 chicken (or turkey) with white rice. Whenever I was low on chicken, I added more rice. For my 75 lbs boy we fed 2 cup AM and 2 cup PM along with treats. It took a couple days for us to be able to wean him off since loose stool kept coming back, but we found out it was the kibble that didn't agree. We switched and now all is good I don't think the ratio matters much since it is not a prolonged diet, just a few days Also I added an extra cup of water to the rice while cooking so it would become mushy!

Congrats! Look at those tootsies he is handsome!!!

Hello, I am a new adopter as well (alsmost a month now!) but we have gone through the same problem as you. He would bark constantly at first when left alone. The important part was that he did not chew or mess in his crate. He would occasionally destroy a blanket but that was because a kibble bit must have been under it or it was destroy during the nesting process. At first, he did not want to get into his crate because of the sound it makes when he put his foot on the plate underneat. Also if you only put him in his crate when you leave (apart from sleeping) he might be seeing this as a sign of you leaving and he does not want that. So what we did is get him to see his crate as his safe spot. We are feeding him every meal in it, he gets special treats in it and it has gotten to the point that when we are eating, he will go in his crate by himself just to have a little bit of what we have! (better than begging ) At first we also locked the door while he was eating and then we would sit down to eat also. At first he barked to be let out. But we did not look at him or acknowledge him in any way and eventually he settled and waited for us to finish. Secondly on the alone training, because he wasn't housetrained at first, we had to crate him. (We tried once and he pooed, so crate it was!) what we did is we got dressed up, opened the door, closed the door and if he was quiet - cookie/treat - It was important that he was quiet during that time. But mostly if he could see us, he was fine. Then we started opening the door, stepping outside and right back in. If he was quiet - cookie -. If he barked at us, we would step back out. He quickly learned (in overall about an hour) that barking would make us leave and being settled would make us come back. Fast forward 3 weeks later, I am not saying he does not bark anymore, he is a very vocal dog! But he will just -as I call it- periodically check that we are not there. He might be quiet for the first hour or so (we build him up to this lengh of time with the cookie exercise) then bark for 30 secs. He would see that no one is coming, turn around and nap. Upon waking up (can take up to 2 hours, I checked!), same routine, bark for maybe 30 secs, turn around, nap. At this point it is more wanting to get out than SA so we might be transitioning to free reign of the house soon. I think also that using a kong (are you using one?) can make a huge difference. With a kong, we can pretty much do anything - leave, come back, jingle the leash, clash the plates - and he will not look up. Also he associates going into his crate with having a delicious treat - not us leaving which is good. But really it is a trial and error and see what works for you and your hound. Crate or not? (You could always muzzle) With which of his toy? Is the bedding sufficient? (I know for a thing that mine will not tolerate anything remotely hard - little prince hahaha) What kind of treat is he going for? I have learned that pushing a greyhound will only result in him pushing back! Keep up the work, I know it might not be easy with a vocal dog, but there are ways. Talk to your neighbors and tell them you are working on it

Jack won't lick but he raises his tail in the "poker straight" style. And it raises and raises and raises! I should get a picture it is hilarious!

Pupdate! We stopped everything, and I mean everything! He occasionally needs the bum pushing to get out the doorway in the morning (because it is so cold nowadays!) but once outside, it is all business! We have come to a gentlemen agreement that if you produce something, we go back in and it has worked fairly well. First thing in the morning, we go out for a pee, then it is breakfast and I get ready (around 1/2-1 hour). During that time he often starts whining so we go out where he potties (I can't get him to pee again before leaving, but he seems ok and wasn't in any rush to go out after 6 hrs alone). We walk just enough for business to get done. Then it is back in the house and into the crate and I go to work. In the evening, we go out before dinner, then usually 1/2 an hour after dinner. The evening walk usually goes smoothly because both DH and I walk him, so all the "pack" goes and he just trots along. There is barely any statueing, except if he spots someone shoveling their driveway. We continue to treat when he walks nicely. We haven't been successful in walking Jack alone (either DH or me) but I guess that will come as he gets more settled in. We are always walking the same path and little bothers him now. His tail has raised and he has started to look periodically to us (for treats maybe? haha). Thank you

Welcome from Canada! Brrrr hopefully you have better weather than here to walk your houndie

2 weeks in and he is still following me around like a little duckling!