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.

Thanks again everyone. Your advice is invaluable. Batmom, that's a nice way of looking at things - as an opportunity to cram in lots of praise. We'll be sure to have a little celebration every time he gets up. He loves soft cheese, so that's his reward at the moment. We'll also take some cheese outside with us. He doesn't usually accept treats when we're out as he's too stressed out but we can at least make them available. We live in London and we do know someone nearby with another grey. We walked them together once, which helped but we got a bit carried away and kept them out in the park for too long and Harry got quite stressed by the end of the walk. I think we'll invite them round again for a play in the garden and see how that goes! Those calming signals are very useful! We're now licking our lips and yawning all over the place. We've also stopped approaching him when he's on his bed now so he can feel more safe and secure there. We used to go over for cuddles and he would sometimes turn his head away. We didn't realise that he probably found this a bit full-on! Can I ask a question? At the moment, I'm upstairs with him on our bed. He sleeps up here at night (on his own bed) and when we're not home we have the door closed as we're scared he'll have an accident in here. He loves it up here and so I sometimes come up with him to relax, particularly at the weekend. At the moment, he's laying forward but whenever I stroke him he lays flat out on his side. Then when I stop, he gets up again. He seems a bit restless. I'm just wondering if he's wanting me to stroke him or he's being submissive or what? Perhaps it's because he has his back to me. I think we're both still trying to work each other out! I'll check out the fearful dogs site. That looks really useful! We have been thinking about getting a behaviourist involved just in case there was something simple we could do to make him less anxious.

Thanks. I thought feeding him by hand might be worth a try. He took a handful then went back to bed! So I just put his bowl down in the usual way, called him and he came to get it. Pretty much every suggestion I've heard or read just doesn't work with Harry! We've stopped walking him as of today because he's been really fearful this week and it's been almost impossible to get him out the door. He hates the garden too but I think it's a bit less intimidating so we're just going to take him out there instead. We're also going to stop lifting him off his bed and take other opportunities to put him out. For instance, when he greets us when we get home.

Thanks Chad. I think you're right about us not earning his trust yet. We still have lots of work to do. The fact is, he's so fearful of the outside world that every time we take him out we 'betray' his trust because he just doesn't understand why he has to do it and we really do have to force him out. It's impossible to lure him. When we get back inside, either from the garden or from his walk, he always comes to us for lots of stroking and petting, so he doesn't seem to hold it against us for too long. Until the next time he has to go out... We don't like lifting him off his bed but we're trying to get him into a routine and it's the only way to get him outside. I don't want to pounce on him and put him out whenever he gets up off his bed. I want him to know the times when he is expected to go and the rest of the time I don't want him to be fearful that we're going to put him out (although I think he is anyway). Incidentally, he's a lot more cooperative in the morning. He sleeps in our bedroom and although he obviously doesn't want to go downstairs and go for his walk (he shakes when his lead goes on), he goes along with it. He does eat when we are in the room. That spell was just a couple of days when we got back from a weekend away. Our friends who looked after him had been putting him out after he'd eaten so I think he was wary of eating when we were around in case we did the same thing! We're giving him Zylkene, prescribed by the vet, to help him with his anxiety. He's been having it for 3 weeks but it apparently takes 1-2 months to work. Any ideas on how to build his trust would be appreciated. I realise it will take time. I should also point out that he's very affectionate and loving with us. I don't want to paint a picture of a completely timid dog. It's just his fear of the outdoors that affects so much of our time together!

We got the plug-in just before we got Harry to help him feel at home straight away. We've had him a couple of months and never not used it so it's difficult to know what effect it's had! He didn't take long to settle in though and he does obviously feel safe and secure at home. However, he is also fearful of the outdoors and is very reluctant to go on walks - he's still adapting to this noisy neighbourhood. I tried a collar to help with that and saw no difference whatsoever! I'll keep using the plug-in for the time being though.

Feisty49 - we get him up 3/4 times a day to go out. Once at 7am, once about 7pm and once at 11pm. If we're at home in the day, we put him out in the afternoon but if we have a neighbour or the dog walker coming to check on him, they have never put him out because we didn't think he'd react well to someone else lifting him. They do try and coax him out but it's never worked. If we don't let him out, he will have accidents in the house. We'll try and coax him with different treats. Trial and error! I tried cheese tonight, which he likes, but he wouldn't get up to take a piece. I put his lead on but he lies back and lets his whole body go floppy. I spent about 10 minutes trying to coax him, tugging lightly on his lead and then a bit more forcefully but he wouldn't budge. In the end we had to muzzle him and then lift him in the usual way. I really don't know how else we'll get him to do it. The last couple of days he wouldn't eat his dinner if we were in the room. I think he thought we'd put him out straight after (as that's what our visitors did) but tonight he seems to be over that and 'trusts' us again as he ate it earlier when I was with him. I think holding back some of his dinner and the high value treats might be the way to go. We can only try.

Thanks. I contacted the adoption group today who said that because he 'got away with it' when he snapped at my friend, he's now trying it on with us. They said not to let him win and to be firm with him but to try and teach him to come to us without having to lift him. Will try the high value treats but he doesn't usually respond that well to them. Any tips? We will persevere without lifting him. However, we've tried putting his lead on in the past and using that but he just doesn't budge. I suppose it will need to be a battle of wills and we'll have to tug on the lead until he eventually gets up. I think allowing more time in our routine to be patient is a good idea! Obviously this doesn't address why he's so afraid to go outside. We have had him checked over medically and he got a clean bill of health so it must just be his fear of relatively new, noisy surroundings. One other thing that makes it difficult is that he has a few safe places - his bed downstairs, a bed in our room and the rug in the spare room which he often goes to when we're out.

I've written previously about Harry's anxiety about the outdoors. He doesn't enjoy going out in the garden or for walks so we try to keep them short and sweet. Unfortunately he won't just follow us out of the house and since almost day one (8 weeks ago) we usually have to go to his bed or wherever he's lying and pick his bum up to get him up. We always give him plenty of warning, beckoning him first (with no effect), putting his lead on and then lifting him up and nudging him out the door. We went away last weekend for a few days and our friends stayed at our house to look after him. They've met him on a few occasions and walked him but he doesn't know them too well. Unfortunately, when my friend tried to get him up and out for a walk, he growled at her and snapped/barked in her face. We couldn't believe it when she told us but understood that he must have been scared as he's not used to anyone else handling him in that way. She was ok about it and admitted that she should have quit when he first growled. Anyway, we got home on Monday and he seemed fine. However, last night I tried to get him up last thing to take him out and he did the same thing with me. I was pretty shocked and I quite firmly shouted no! Then along with the other half, we both had to lift him. Tonight the same thing happened again but this time the other half was on the receiving end and was a little shaken up. We knew we couldn't just leave him to it because he needs to go out before bed, so we had to muzzle him and then lift him, which broke my heart a bit as we haven't muzzled him since the first few days on his walks. On both occasions, he didn't growl beforehand, he just snapped. I'm just wondering if anyone has experienced anything similar? He obviously doesn't like us lifting him but has always let us do it up until now. We'd rather not have to do it but if we didn't, we'd have to sit and wait until he gets up which isn't very often! He's been taking Zylkene, prescribed by the vet, for a week now but I think it's yet to kick in. I think our weekend away probably set him back a little bit and also, it's really hot here in the UK at the moment so it's possible he's a little irritable anyway. Any advice?

Thanks so much for the advice. I had no idea that the food we had him on was such low quality. That website is great. I've had a good look over the options and I like the look of Lukullus (the reviews are great) so have ordered that one and will try him on it. Fingers crossed he likes it. Thanks again!

Ron, I know Harry goes crazy for cooked chicken. It's the only thing we've ever been able to lure him into the garden with! Thanks to everyone for your advice. It's much appreciated and it's really helped to decide which course of action to take. We don't want to cut out his walks completely but I think sticking to a very specific route and coming home after he has done his business will help us to progress. He was anxious before but after the incidents in the park over the past couple of weeks, I'd say he has now become quite fearful. He literally shakes at the door and will freeze at the front gate, which he never did before. Thankfully he doesn't freeze once we're on the go but when he gets freaked out, he pulls quite erratically. We'll take baby steps and see how we go! We took him to the vet today for a check-up, which was all fine, and she recommended Zylkene. We're going to try that for a little while to see if it helps too. We did try a DAP collar with him but it had no effect. Neylasmom I'll also try the counter conditioning work. See if he can adapt to those noises! Will keep you posted!

I appreciate all of your advice. It's good to hear different stories. GeorgeofNE how long did it take yours to settle into a routine with walking? Macoduck, I did think about cutting the walks out for a while but he doesn't much like the garden either and the walks are the quickest way for him to do his business! I would consider medication if I thought it would help. He's fine in the house though - he just gets nervous when he knows it's time for a walk. Did your girl gave SA or was she just generally anxious?