Silverfox

Great advice, thank you. He'll be staying at our neighbour's on moving day. (She also has a greyhound). I think we'll have him stay there overnight to give us a chance to properly unpack.

Thanks everyone. That's really reassuring to hear and one less thing to worry about in the run up to the move. I'll definitely take your advice on introducing him to the new place before we actually move in.

Hi all, does anyone have any experience of moving house with their grey? We've just had an offer accepted on a place and are likely to be moving in a few months. We've been in the same house since we adopted Harry almost 4 years ago. He's a nervous dog (although much improved over time) and our house is the only place he feels truly secure. I want to do everything possible for him to settle into the new place. One big advantage is that the street we're moving to is much quieter than the one we're on now so, over time, I think he'll love it. But does anyone have any advice, either about the move itself or when you're in the new home to ease things along? For info, he doesn't have a crate. He has a bed in the living room and one in our bedroom.

Hi everyone, we're in the midst of summer and enjoying some high temperatures and sunny days in the UK. Unfortunately, my boy is finding it difficult to stay cool. We're using a fan, hosing him down in the garden, cool baths and giving him the occasional ice cube. I also bought him a cool mat but he won't lie on it! Even when we were in the car and he had nowhere else to go, he just perched on the end rather than settle on it. I was just wondering if you had any tips to encourage him to drink more. He's fed raw which is quite moist anyway but I think he'd benefit from a bit more water intake. Any thoughts or ideas?

Thanks for the advice everyone. It's been really helpful to hear everyone else's approach and take parts from each of them! I've been mixing it up with Harry's diet. I get Nature's Menu variety packs and keep them in the freezer for convenience but I also make my own recipes, which he loves. One of the best bits of advice I've heard is that not EVERY meal has to be balanced. At first, I was worried that I had to throw everything into a meal to keep it healthy but now I know that variety over time is the best approach. I have one question though. How often should I feed raw meaty bones? If these aren't part of his meal (for instance, if I serve ground beef and veg) then I tend to give him a bone to chew on at another point in the day. These can be lamb ribs, beef bones or turkey necks. They don't have a great deal of meat on so is it ok to feed them once a day in addition to two meals, or is that too much?

We've had our grey for a year and are now moving him over to a raw diet. Up until now he's had a good quality kibble alongside either raw ground beef, tinned mackerel, cooked chicken or scrambled egg. He gets raw bones or turkey necks a couple of times a week as a treat. I've done a lot of reading and decided that raw is the way to go. I started him out tonight on chicken wings, and mixture of veg with an egg thrown in. He wolfed it down and hung around for a while, wanting seconds, which he never does. A good start but we'll see how it goes. I was just wondering if anyone could recommend any good recipes please? I've searched for books but most of them are about the concept and benefits of feeding raw rather than what to actually feed your dog. I'd like to mix it up a bit for him and also make sure he's getting all he needs. Any help or advice on supplements would also be appreciated.

Thank you!!

Does anyone know if these are available in the UK?

It's perfectly normal for him to be shy and reticent at first, so please don't worry. Me and my partner got Harry just over a year ago and he was exactly the same. I came to this site for A LOT of advice. But he's changed so much in that time. He used to be so wary of any attention from us and now he can't get enough of it. He's still shy around strangers but that's just his personality. Enjoy these first few months with him. Every little breakthrough is special! The first time I took Harry up the stairs he whimpered because he didn't know what was going on (I felt terrible) and now our bedroom is his favourite in the house - he takes himself up there for peace and quiet! Greyhounds are a special breed. It's easy to compare them to other dogs and expect them to be boisterous and affectionate right away but their start in life can be very different, so it takes a while for them to adjust... but as they do, you develop such a special bond. Good luck to you both! Keep us posted.

Great ideas! Will definitely look into getting a lure pole.

Our grey, Harry is fearful of the outdoors so we can only take him out on very short walks to relieve himself. He's also scared when he's in our back garden, which limits our opportunities for play. We're now working with a behaviourist on building his trust in us before we begin desensitising him to the outside world. We play a game with him daily, calling him for treats and hiding them around the house for him to sniff out, which he loves. He also has a couple of stuffed toys (Diane the duck and Olive the owl) which he picks up and plays with when he's excited or when he greets us when we get home. He doesn't often play with these for more than a few minutes though. We've had Harry almost 5 months and as time goes on, he is gradually getting more lively and playful. As he can't get that stimulation outside right now, I'm looking for any suggestions of toys or games that we can keep him occupied with. He has a Kong, which he loves. I also bought him a Kong Wobbler but he hasn't shown much interest in that yet! He already gets lots of treats so I'd like to find something that isn't food-related or at least takes some time to get through if it is. Would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks, Matt

Thanks all. Grateful for the advice. We've decided that we won't make him sleep elsewhere. It's still early days - he's only been with us for three months - and he may choose to sleep elsewhere in future but I agree that, at this stage, it will probably just make him more anxious. The medication he has been given is Amitriptyline. We've moved his downstairs bed to the other side of the room, nearer to the back door. We'll see if that helps. We did consider putting another bed there but I think if we gave him the choice, he would just ignore it and go to his usual bed. At the moment, he's ignoring it anyway and is lying on the rug in front of us! I'll try and tempt him over to it later with some treats. Redhead, it's a good suggestion. We have some friends with a dog (Collie/Labrador cross) who are coming over on Thursday for a play in the garden. If it helps, we'll make it a regular thing. We're also going to try moving his food bowl gradually out into the garden, starting with leaving the back door open while he eats. Although we didn't do that this morning because the neighbours were clanging around outside. I'm also going to contact the behaviourist because I think it would be useful for someone to come to the house and observe our routine.

I've written on here a few times about Harry's general anxiety about the outside world. We struggle to get him to even go into the garden, even though he's never had any bad experiences out there. He just gets freaked out by unfamiliar noises. We decided it was time to consult the vet and get a behaviourist involved. We know it takes a long time to make progress but wanted a second opinion on how we were doing things and maybe to get some instruction on how to handle the situation. We took Harry to the vet today and he has prescribed him with some low dose anxiety medication - to 'take the edge off' and give him a chance to learn that the outside world isn't so bad. We don't walk Harry at the moment as we're focusing on building his confidence in the garden first. The vet also recommended gradually moving his dinner bowl so that he starts to eat his food outside. His bowl is by the back door anyway so we'll ease him in by feeding him with the back door open, then on the step, then in the garden etc. The vet also recommended that we stop letting Harry sleep in the bedroom with us and move his bed near to the back door. He has a bed downstairs that he uses during the day and a bed in our room. He said we should move his downstairs bed by the door so he gets used to being around there and we should let him sleep there too. I'm a bit unsure about this and wanted to get a second opinion. I feel like cutting him off from us is only going to make him feel more anxious. The vet thinks it will help him be more independent. When we're downstairs, he'll still be in the same room as us but we'll have our backs to him. I can cope with that - it's the sleeping situation I'm unsure of. Can I get people's thoughts? I'm willing to try anything if it will improve Harry's quality of life but I love having him sleep upstairs with us and I must admit I'm reluctant to change that. My other half is insistent that we try what the vet recommends and I agree we should try. I'm just not fully convinced it's the best course of action. I was wondering if anyone else had had any similar experiences?

Ok, thanks. We'll try hand feeding him all the time. When I've done it before, I've fed him on his bed - although this isn't where he usually eats - as he won't take it from me anywhere else. Is this ok?

3greytjoys - thanks for your post. Everyone has some interesting insights and it's useful to take them on board. Harry's trips out have improved slightly. He knows exactly why he's out there now and he's usually quite quick to do his business. However, he still shakes sometimes and actually getting him out the door is more difficult than ever. It's definitely the new environment and unfamiliar noises that he's scared of. He's very sensitive to noise when he's outside, although when he's in the house there aren't many noises that phase him, just the usual stuff like the Hoover or particularly loud bangs. And even then he doesn't get scared. This is definitely an improvement since we got him. We try to take him out when he's already on his feet but this isn't always possible. If we do it straight after his dinner, the next time we put his dinner out he won't get up to eat it while we're there. When we've put him out after he's followed us to bed, the next night he stays downstairs until he's sure it's safe to come up! He isn't scared of us - he's very affectionate and he's starting to get quite playful - but a lot of his behaviour comes back to this fear of the outdoors. It seems to infiltrate everything else and he's wary of us. I've started to occasionally feed him my hand and hopefully this will help us to bond. I think it's got to the point where we'd like to get a behaviourist involved. It would be really useful to get a third party to witness the things we're all doing and perhaps suggest some solutions.