Jessa

Brandy recently had a vet visit for a pretty bad UTI- she was given Amoxicillin for 14 days which cured the UTI and stopped her accidents inside the house. She still seems (to me) to take a long time to empty her bladder, she will have a strong stream but she will just dribble for a good 10-15 seconds after she gets the bulk of her urine out. Is this normal? The vet was concerned about bladder stones, and wanted to do an x-ray- I held off on it because of the cost and wanting to see whether the antibiotics solved the problem first. Would it be worth it to have the x-ray done anyway? Ultrasound? She doesn't have any problem holding it for the 7 hours I am gone during the day at work, and will happily go do her business outside now. But the prolonged (?) squat has me wondering. And I don't want the UTI to become a recurring issue, as I'm sure it feels awful to her and is expensive for me. Has anyone else dealt with anything similar that could chip in advice, or am I just being a worry wart? She acts perfectly happy and normal, I would imagine bladder stones would affect her behavior too?

JS Big Brandy? From what I've seen, she didn't seem to be very good Curious as to your thoughts about her!

Welcome from Michigan as well! Are greyhounds more common downstate? Everyone that meets my girl has never even seen a greyhound!

At your home visit, make sure to watch the dog's reaction carefully when they are introduced to your cats, especially to your more timid one. My first grey was cat-safe, and came from a foster home that had (confident) cats without issue, but my cats had never seen a dog much less had to live with one- they were terrified and would run, which led the dog to chase and view them as prey. I ended up sending him back because neither parties were happy and he wasn't showing signs of being easily trained out of it- and with a human toddler I didn't have the time to fairly dedicate to him. A month later we had a second home visit, and I knew that Brandy was the one since she refused to even look at the cats, and would flee the room as soon as she was allowed. Three months later, and the cats will walk right by and Brandy enjoys play-bowing at them. They aren't best friends and don't like being within a few feet of each other, but they co-exist happily. As long as there is no serious prey drive when you bring your grey home, give them a good month to adjust to each other. Your cats will be stressed and unsettled, but they will get over it eventually and go back to claiming their space as their own. As soon as Brandy got a poke to the nose from sniffing too close, she instantly learned that the cats were boss (which is hilarious since they are tiny). Don't feel pressured to absolutely choose between the dogs at your home visit either! If you don't feel 100% sure, there is no shame in taking some time to chew on it or meet other hounds.

Brandy is super picky about where she goes, and we don't have a fenced yard so she has to be on leash. We worked out a compromise that you could maybe try- I only ever take her to a certain corner of the yard to do her business, and she'll trot around me in a circle so she can keep moving without the tug of the leash attached to the slow human. Any resistance on the leash will make her instantly stop and look at me, completely breaking her concentration. She's slowly working on having to do less laps each time, I'm hoping we get to a point where she'll just GO! She'll only trot counter-clockwise, too. Clockwise is just offensive. Old racing habits? Maybe she needs the illusion that she isn't necessarily on leash in order to go? Trotting her in a small circle takes away the awkward stop and go that being on leash gives, and her concentration to potty hopefully won't be broken!

Welcome! My Brandy came from Florida So awesome that you want to volunteer! Do your research, but also don't stress out too bad. You'll find the perfect hound for you!

I always heard that animals eat grass when their stomach is upset.. not sure if that is just a myth though. You could call his vet to try and get some insight into why he's eating it in the first place! Maybe muzzle him with a stool cup in it so he can't eat grass outside?

Could you place something big in front of the door to block her from trying to dig at it? Or maybe train with her through the day when you are home, locking her in the crate and letting her out after a couple minutes (with lots of yummy treats before and after) to try and desensitize the whole door closed = humans gone? I've never had to deal with this as my girl is loose all the time, just throwing out ideas!

For your future child, I would start regularly exposing Warbie to children as soon as you can so you can see how he reacts. Especially to adults holding small children, and to crying children of all ages. Always keep him leashed and at an untouchable distance. Let him just observe a newborn fussing, a toddler running around and yelling in excitement, a toddler throwing a tantrum, older kids playing. You don't want his first experience to be when you bring home your newborn. In my home, my two year old and Brandy never, ever, ever get to intermingle freely. My son has his safe/play room as the living room, which is sectioned off with a 36" tall babygate. High enough that Brandy gets no ideas about jumping it. Ideally Brandy would also have her own dog-only, no children allowed room permanently set up, but the way my house is laid out it's not possible for me. She has never shown any sign of aggression, but still, I will never trust them together until my son is capable of reading her body language- he will probably be well into school age. I allow Brandy to sniff him through the gate, and he will occasionally pat her shoulder through the gate but I am always right there, ready to separate at the slightest hint of anything going south. My son has no interest in dogs and will literally run away if one comes up to him. If he was the typical child that is obsessed with hugging/petting/bothering dogs in general I would have never dreamed of adopting a hound during this stage of his life. With his quirks, I wouldn't ever allow either of these situations to happen. They should be kept separate at all times by a solid barrier. If you have to take the child out of the safe zone, crate or babygate Warbie into a separate room until the child goes back into the safe zone. Until your child reaches the age where they will reliably respect and control themself around dogs, I wouldn't trust them being together. It's a lot of work, especially keeping the experiences positive for both the dog and child as far as not being allowed to roam freely in your home. It can be done, but you will have to make sure your husband, regular visitors to your home, babysitters, etc. all follow the rules you decide on without exception. Highly recommend the book "Living with Kids and Dog Without Losing Your Mind" by Colleen Pelar. Best wishes for whatever route you decide on!

Just to share the flip side of the situation, our first greyhound was a huge 80lb boy that was absolutely crazy over our cats. Nonstop he would hunt for them in the house, and if they were within view he would stand stock still and quiver, and I wouldn't be able to break his gaze unless I forcefully moved him- and even then he would go back to it. One morning much the same that happened to Mac happened to my cat, the dog got his mouth over my cat's back and tore out quite a few chunks of fur. Cat and dog were both fine but after that, I was in contact with my group and we decided to have him rehomed. With a toddler running around, I didn't have the time or energy to focus on constantly training him out of his drive to chase/hunt my cats. He found an awesome home with older kids, and we adopted Brandy, who has ignored/been scared of my cats from day one. Which ever decision you make will work out just fine so don't sweat it too bad. I felt absolutely awful for having to send our first boy back, but it worked out for the best in the long run! Good luck!

Brandy does the same thing when she does a big no-no and gets yelled at. She'll smile at me as big as she can and occasionally play bow as well. I agree that they do it to show that they're friendly and mean no harm! Still melts my heart though. It's hard to yell at such cuteness. Congrats on Emma, she sounds lovely!

Definitely recommend getting a metal babygate if you go that route. Brandy has routinely chewed on the wood and wire one I have (just replaced it with a metal one last weekend), and our previous dog Stu that we had for a week actually rammed his head hard enough into the bottom of the gate to pop the wire out while he was trying to go after a cat. Your grey won't be able to chew or easily destroy metal, even though he doesn't sound like a big trouble maker! If you do invest in a gate, get one that will last. The biggest thing though, just relax! We've had Brandy for a little less than two months and there are times she's still learning how our house 'works'. He will eventually settle in and learn, give him lots of love in the meantime

When we first got Brandy both of my cats were terrified, and I wasn't sure how Brandy would react to them either. I set up a safe room for them as well, and periodically through the day I would muzzle and leash Brandy and walk her into the room. We would just stand by the door, let the cats and dog get an eyeful of each other, and exit. I made sure to keep the times random that we would appear. At first, the cats would fluff themselves up, hiss, make crazy eyes, and dart. Slowly, they started to just freeze and fluff up, until it got to the point that while they would go very, very still and not let their eyes leave Brandy, they lost their super intense fight-or-flight reaction. Throughout it all I would ask for Brandy's attention, and praise when she looked away from the cats. She never really had an interest in them though. Within a week I was confident that she wouldn't try to catch a cat, and let them have free reign of the house. The cats rarely left the room, but when they did venture out I would keep a close eye on Brandy, and praise her when she lost interest and would put her head back down. Any time she tried to get up to investigate I told her no. Pretty quickly she learned that the cats were off limits. Perhaps you could try something similar as far as letting Cyrus 'intrude' occasionally so to speak, into Mac's space? Neither of them are going to particularly like it, but eventually they have to get used to each other. Your cat will be stressed, but it will click that bad things don't happen when the dog is around. My cats went from being ultra stressed, hiding, and shedding like crazy, and now they will walk up and sniff Brandy's paws (as long as she doesn't move a muscle) and will swat at her back playfully when she walks by where either of them are perched. If Cyrus is calm, then I would allow Mac to warm up at his own pace. Maybe you could also try letting Cyrus sleep in your room, muzzled?

I put her in the guest room mainly so she doesn't get into trouble when we aren't here. She's a counter surfer and my kitchen in open to the house. There's no way to barricade it off, and there are times that I leave baked goods and things in containers on the counter. She also has tried to chew on things that aren't even food- I've caught her with a few plastic items she's stolen off of tables like water bottle caps, and once a plastic outlet protector- I don't want to think what could happen if I wasn't there to immediately fish them out of her mouth. I can't pick up the house to 100% cleanliness every time I have to make a run to the store, and the guest room is plenty big enough with only a desk and dresser that never get used.

Awesome advice here already, just wanted to say good luck! I've been in a similar situation. Time and patience will be your friend.