inaandmax
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Posts posted by inaandmax
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1 hour ago, Time4ANap said:
One more thing you might want to consider to give Max a safe space is to setup a large crate with a comfy bed in it as his safe space. Leave the door open so he is free to come and go as he wants, but it needs to be his space and only his, so the child can not play in or around it. I'm not suggesting that Max be crated at all, just that he has the crate as his safe space. Rocket had a crate in our other house for years and we would often find him in it because the sun beams came in through that window. The pic in my signature is from one of his sunbathing sessions.
This is a great idea. I heard from his adoption agency that he didn’t like being crated in the past, but in this situation it might make him feel safer.
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16 hours ago, macoduck said:
Put a muzzle on Max. One with a stool guard added would be better.
I disagree regarding hiring a behaviorist. Max is doing what he has to do to get your child to back off. If you keep correcting him when he growls, his only way to warn you, he'll stop growling and will bite instead.
This is not an easy situation to deal with. And it's about training you and the child, not the reverse.
I think this might be best for safety. I agree with you that he’s not “misbehaving” through growling, it’s just scary to me because I don’t want him to reach his limit and he just seems to be getting grumpier and grumpier. Sometimes he’ll growl as soon as the toddler walks in the room, even if she’s nowhere near his space.
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9 hours ago, HeyRunDog said:
I agree, a behaviourist will only confirm what you already know. Max needs a safe toddler free space but where he can see what's going on. Without knowing the layout of your house I don't know if that's possible.
I know - that would be ideal and we had it when the little one was not so active. We split the big living space in two with the gate, but kiddo needed more room to play and run, so the gate is typically open now and Max has our bedroom to go to which is safe and comfy, but isolated.
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Hi all,
This is so tough to write about, and I’m a bit at my wit’s end! Needing some fresh perspectives. My hound Max is 7, we’ve had him for 4 years. My kiddo is one and a half. We’ve tried to teach good lessons about petting nicely and we always supervise their interactions. I feel like our house has become too small for them both (1500 sq feet, but 500 of it isn’t dog or toddler safe) and they are constantly vying for the same 1000 sq feet. The toddler LOVES Max, but this feels like a tough age where comprehension of how to be nice hasn’t really caught up.
We had some issues with space aggression at the very beginning with Max, years ago, but worked through them. He’s been good about sharing space with us for a long time now. He’s not so good at being kind to the kiddo. And he’s stopped listening to me when I ask him to get up and go to another room for his or kiddo’s safety. He’ll guard the couch or his bed, and just double down on growling. I don’t want to give him up since he’s been part of our family for 4 years, and he’s an older dog now and has a history of behavioral issues since before we had him. Also, I feel that things will even out once kiddo is 3 or 4 and able to understand the rules a bit more.
Does anyone have advice about how to get through the next couple of years? Thanks so much.
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Yikes. Thank you for your take on this, at least I’m not the only one going through this issue. We are putting up some temporary fencing ASAP.
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We’ve recently moved from an apartment in the city to a house in a more rural area. I’m used to limited space and leash laws, so is my greyhound Max. Our neighbors have three dogs and lately they’ve taken to letting them wander in the front yard, and whenever they see my dog they come running for us, until I yell and stomp and throw things to get them off my property. Not ideal. My boy is not good with non-greyhounds and would fight or bite a dog who ran up to him while he’s on leash. I’ve told the neighbor that he is not friendly to other dogs, but he doesn’t seem to care about his dogs possibly getting hurt.
We are saving money to get our property lines drawn up and completely fence the place, but any suggestions as to what we can do in the meantime would be so appreciated!
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When Walter met Ernie it was pretty similar to what you described with your boy meeting another boy. I actually viewed this as a good thing because they are pretty great buddies now. They can share a water bowl and occasionally snuggle with each other. It worked out just fine for us.
That's encouraging! After those two meetings I am definitely leaning more towards another boy,
but we still have a ways to go before formally adopting our 2nd and we hope to look at quite a few more greyhounds.
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Hi all! We have been discussing possibly adding another greyhound to our home and are in the process of vetting a few candidates. Today, we met a little black and white spotted girl, who Max seemed to like, but she would relentlessly snark at him whenever they were close enough to sniff. (She whipped her head around to snap at him twice during mutual butt sniffs). I'm assuming this reaction is NOT a great sign of compatibility. We also met a brindle boy that sniffed Max politely, but didn't seem terribly interested one way or the other. Is it too much to hope for more of a visible reaction than this? I really want a companion for Max - someone who will want to engage with him.
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she is gorgeous!
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what a sweet boy! -
Any updates?
Not at the moment. We've been out of town, then dealing with some health issues of the human variety, so I haven't been too much in touch with my friend who has Miles. I will definitely update if I hear any news about him pertaining to this, though!
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I think it would be worth a call to GPI to ask for vet recommendations in her area if Lien is too far.
I have a gut feeling that this isn't entirely behavioral. Just like with my Fenny. Lots of people shrugged it off as behavioral but I pushed for answers. I'm glad I did.
I'm sorry to hear what happened to the poor guy. QA to Westlake is quite the haul!
Thanks for the advice - sorry to hear that you lost Fenway at a relatively young age, but I'm sure he gave you a lifetime's worth of good memories.
I'm going to continue encouraging my friend to pursue the medical problem route and I hope she listens to all of the great feedback I've gotten from everyone.
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New vet. ASAP. Who is the adoption group? If it's not GPI, call GPI for a vet recommendation immediately.
We used Lien Animal Clinic when we lived in Seattle. They are located in West Seattle and are fantastic. http://www.lienanimal.com
Fenway was peeing inside. We ran all the tests and even put him on ABs just in case. The only thing off was his USG (urine specific gravity). I pushed for more tests and my vet recommended an ultrasound. Turns out Fenway was diagnosed with "minor kidney damage of an unspecified origin" when he was about 5 or 6.
At that point we made sure he always always always had access to both a dog door and extra water at all times. We bought extra water bowls because he could never be without fresh water. We monitored his blood and urine every six months for a while, then every three months after he turned 8. We lost him to the kidney disease one week before his 10th birthday.
Please get blood work and an ultrasound for this pup.
Also, how did he get hit by a car? Had he gotten loose?
My friend adopted through Royal Hounds - my boyfriend and I adopted through GPI, so I'm familiar with the organization, but my friend isn't. She told Royal Hounds about the problems she was having with Miles and they told her to get the bloodwork done. All that vet was willing to do was another urine culture.
My friend lives in North Seattle, almost as far as Shoreline. I'll recommend Lien Animal Clinic to her for sure, thank you. I really think she needs a better vet.
The car accident happened about a month after his adoption - my friend dropped his leash to break up a dog fight (she's a dog walker, it was two client dogs, she was walking all three dogs at the same time), Miles got spooked by a man coming to help break up the fight and he ran from Queen Anne to Westlake where he got hit by a car.
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My friend's tripod grey has worked up to hikes with us over 2 miles long
she may be just fine! Best wishes to your girl. -
Ugh. Frustrating news. The vet refused to do the full blood panel, stating that she doesn't think it's necessary, as Miles seems to be overall healthy and not "dribbling" urine. She thinks it is a behavioral issue.
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New update: Miles' owner is taking him back to the vet this week to get a full blood panel/check for cancer. Hopefully we should have an answer soon.
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Did he do this before his accident and amp? If not, I wonder if there is a connection. Poor guy - sounds like he has had a rough go of things.
It's hard to say because he was hit by a car only a month after my friend adopted him. He was really still just getting acclimated to life as a pet. He definitely has had a hard start to home life, but now he is happy as a clam and loves to run and play with all other dogs.
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I'm not positive if she went out with him or not, but I know Miles isn't a marker from experience (we have been on many walks together with our two hounds). He just has one big pee and is done until the next one, whereas Max has a bladder of steel but marks (outdoors, not indoors, thank goodness!) like crazy. So Miles' indoor accidents are full pees as well. It happens often when she is home with him. I don't think he suffers from separation anxiety or that that is a trigger for his urination - he's peed right in front of me, my boyfriend, our greyhound, and our friend, and I hear about more instances of him peeing while she's home than of her coming home to a mess.
I don't think she's considering rehoming him. She is still paying off vet bills from his accident earlier this year when he got hit by a car (resulting in many surgeries and eventually having to amputate his leg). I think that's why she doesn't want to accrue more vet bills, which I understand, but it's obvious to me that there is a real problem with Miles. I hope to have better news on this subject soon.
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Just a little update - Miles' owner is still having trouble with him peeing indoors, so I gave her the tip you all suggested of keeping him on a leash when she is home with him to help him learn a routine and so she can learn his warning signs better. Hopefully this will help.
Unfortunately, she says he is home alone for much of the day and she doesn't want to crate him because 1. she thinks it's cruel to leave him in his crate all the time, and 2. he's peed in his crate many times.
The good thing is that she contacted her adoption agency after he peed indoors again yesterday while she was home, but in another room. She says he had gone out maybe an hour before this happened and had not had access to water since (she heavily restricts his water, which I am not really on board with, but Miles isn't my dog, so I don't really have much of a say) before he peed inside. I'm hoping they will recommend either a vet better-versed in greyhounds, or a behavioral specialist, so they can get to the root of this issue.
Thanks again to everyone for your suggestions. I will update when we get more news, in case it does turn out to be a rare medical issue or a behavioral one that might help somebody else down the road.
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Here is one, sort of humorous, story about my marker girl. It did take, I think, visiting 2 houses for me to 'know' my girl. Well, I took my 2 girls, at the time, to another friend's house. It was my/our first time to visit her house, so first, I had failed to have panties on hand for my girl, so she was going to have to stay on leash. She was showing me around the house, and indeed, it was a bit cumbersome to have my one girl on leash with 3 or 4 other dogs loose, trying to go through doorways. She kept telling me to let her off the leash. I kept refusing. Eventually, I gave in .. which I KNEW better! I bet it was within moments of me releasing her, she went right over to her nice 'oriental' rug promptly marked it. I looked at my friend said that is why I didn't want to let her loose! I listened to myself better from then on!
OMG! Haha that is too funny. I hope she was not too upset about the rug!
Thank you so much for the advice. I feel like I have a bit of a plan now if a Miles visit is unavoidable in the future.
PS - Lee and my boy Max would have been half-brothers! He is an Oswald Cobblepot pup as well.
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I'm "late to the party" as usual but ... there was a question earlier regarding having difficulty potty training 9 months after adoption ...
One of my experiences: I had off and on issues with one of my girls for about her first 2 years. First, she didn't give any obvious (to me initially) signal when she needed to go out - so it was up to ME to watch her very closely 100% of the time so I could learn her signal and get her outside and get her to associate me saying 'outside' with what she needed to do .... She was one who would get up an pace/move around, so, if you weren't 'in tune' with her, you could easily miss/overlook this signal. So, Miles owner needs to be super observant, even at home, to be sure she's not just missing something... since you said he is having accidents at home. If necessary, she needs to keep him leashed at home so she can catch him before the accident happens.
This same girl, for me, also took a while to understand that she needed to 'hold it' until I got her signal - though there comes a time that no one can hold it any longer if the dog is being ignored. She would get up and pace/move around, I would miss this signal, then she would just 'go'. So, it took me first being more observant and never, NEVER letting her out of my sight when I was home so I could see this signal and get her out before an accident happened, then it took her understanding that she needed to hold it and let me know 'again' that she needed something.
Eventually, she would still initially just get up and move around, if I didn't happen to notice that, she would come over and intently stare at me. Then, when I would ask if she needed to go out, she would bounce, get excited and wag her tail. But this took close to 2 years for us to fully understand each other.
Ruling out medical issues is very important, because if it is a medical issue, it needs to be resolved. But being super observant and going back to house training 101 might be helpful since she's not wanting to go further medically at this time.
This is the type of response I've been hoping for this whole time, thank you! Your girl sounds very similar to Miles - subtle signs and not understanding needing to "hold it".
This is kind of a silly request, but when you say "house training 101", could you outline that step by step? I just want to make sure we aren't missing anything that could help Miles and his owner out. (The pressure is kind of on as our friend keeps asking if she can bring Miles over and doesn't want to visit us without him, aaahhhh!)
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I'm not sure if this was already suggested or not, but make sure the grey sees a vet who is very familiar with greyhounds. We have one that I know of in our area and it is worth every cent to drive to see him. I like answers and they can rule out a medical cause vs. behavioral. My 2-year-old peed a few times when we first got him upon visiting a new house that had dogs. I think he was just marking. Hasn't happened again though. This seems like an extensively long time to be doing that. Good luck to your friend!
I will suggest this to her - thank you! Does anyone know of a good Greyhound vet in the North Seattle area?
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Yes, Miles has been to the vet and gotten checked out for at least basic tests (UTI, diabetes). Not sure if they did tests for a kidney infection or not, but his owner doesn't want to pursue further testing at this point for something like Cushings because her dog is so young. Since this is the case, I'm hoping it's behavioral and that there is something we can do to help besides restricting water, as that doesn't seem to be helping the underlying issue.
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Just a little update on the peeing - we haven't had Miles over to our house since I first made this thread, but apparently he has been peeing indoors at home according to our friend if she doesn't restrict his water. I can't help but be concerned about this being a medical issue even though he's had urine tests done already. Should a healthy dog need to have water restricted? Or has anyone had difficulty with potty training up to 9 months after adoption?
what a sweet boy! 
Kiddo is growing and dog isn’t happy
in Training and Behavior discussion
Posted
Thank you so much for your response! It’s given me some direction on how to proceed and made me feel that it’s not a hopeless endeavor. I know I’ll refer back to it as well.
Max is getting some nice pets right now during nap time rather than me trying to get 5000 chores done, which I can tell he appreciates. 😌