inaandmax

Max has gone out in our canoe with us and seems to enjoy it, though there isn't room for him to lie down, so the trips are short (very funny pictures if I can ever figure out how to post them, lol). He has also been on commuter ferries many times and does well. I second (third? fourth?) the life jacket suggestion - our boy swims very well with a life jacket on, not so much without it.

Yes I think she has one for him that he wore for only a few days after she got him & I wish I'd remembered it sooner!! It will be a must for future visits, along with the leash and no water. Hopefully that will cover everything. I did send my friend a link on Cushing's and she doesn't seem too interested in pursuing it since Miles is only 2 years old. :\

The stress thing makes a lot of sense to me. Our friend told us that her vet described Miles as "a nervous wreck" in general. I really doubt she will spring for an expensive test, so I hope it is just nerves and not Cushing's, but I will definitely pass on the info, thank you.

If/when he is invited back to our home, I'll make sure his owner has him on a leash the whole time. That is good advice, thank you. (Though, at this point, I'm leaning towards not having him come over at any point in the foreseeable future for the sake of our carpets and our rental deposit.)

She does have Miles go potty before he comes in, then he'll go out once or twice for a visit that's only 2-3 hours. He had already gone out to potty twice this last time and still unleashed a bucket of pee on our carpet. Like you mention, he just seems to not want to hold it at all. He does seem to drink a lot of water, but he's not on any medication (As far as I know, and I'm pretty sure about that). This last visit, we put the water bowl out of reach, but that's not really fair to my boy, because then he can't drink if he is thirsty.

My friend has had her greyhound for 8-9 months now - he is a 2 year old male tripod and has been adjusting to life on 3 legs quite well for the most part. Sometimes she brings him over to our place to visit our greyhound Max, but lately he has gotten himself un-invited because he cannot hold his pee in for even an hour or two! Our friend thought that he was housebroken, but she says that he used to soil his crate and still pees on her mat by the door. She has taken him to the vet and the vet has ruled out a UTI, Diabetes, and other medical issues so it seems to be behavioral. Obviously we don't want him coming over until he is better housebroken, but I just don't get why, close to a year after adoption, he still doesn't understand that he needs to go potty outside only. We had the back sliding door OPEN and he still chose to pee in our hallway. He does not respond AT ALL to a sharp "No!" or any sort of verbal reprimand. I have no idea how to offer help to our friend on this subject as our boy was a dream to train and we've never had any problems on this front. Now our friend wants Miles (the pesky piddler) to be invited back, saying that she doesn't think there will be any more problems, but our carpet begs to differ. Please help! Is this a behavioral issue? Could he just not be potty trained after all this time? How do you potty train a dog that doesn't respond to verbal reprimands OR positive reinforcement (she still "Good Potty"s him for every outdoor pee and poo after all this time, so it's definitely not that he hasn't had positive reinforcement).

OMG so happy that this story has a good ending. Fingers & paws crossed for Mercer, too. Wayne is such a handsome guy! Are you keeping the name?

I guess he is another "better on the couch" greyhound! Thank you so much for the interpretation, this thread is such a fascinating read.

I've looked at the track info for our boy KB's Atlas, but I'd love a more in-depth reading. When he runs with other greyhounds for fun at the dog park, he seems to have good stamina, but doesn't corner too well and tends to wait until everyone else is running, then puts on the speed to catch up to the pack. Is this indicative of his racing style at all? Thanks so much!

The Ft. Steilacoom dog park has a greyhound only hour every Sunday morning from 9-10, which I HIGHLY recommend. I realize this is a bit of a drive from downtown Seattle, but IMO it is SO worth it (I commute every week from West Seattle because Max loves it so much). This way Laila will be able to socialize with other greyhounds as well as people, while getting a chance to run. Max doesn't do too well with non-greyhounds and we don't have a yard, so this has been invaluable for us. I think it will help Laila's personality shine as well.

Our greyhound Max was rated by our adoption agency as moderately active & he LOVES long walks and hiking with us. Our longest hike has been just over 7 miles. We worked up to it by several 2-5 mile hikes, which I recommend doing so you learn to gauge your individual greyhound's stamina. Most is on trail hiking, but we've done some more difficult off-trail stuff with logs to jump over, etc. I think a greyhound that's moderately active would be great for your family. (BTW if you want more specifics about my experiences hiking with greyhounds, I've blogged about our hikes together & try to recommend types of hikes that will suit greyhounds of different energy levels.) I hope your daughter will bond with your greyhound, too! It sounds like a perfect fit. I was a quiet girl as well, pretty scared of jumpy, barking dogs, but always wanted a grey. It has been a real dream come true for me to finally have one!

Thanks for the advice! That was my inclination as well. Hopefully with time he won't be so reactive to other dogs.

I am having a similar problem with my boy, though not the redirected aggression/displacement bite aspect. We live in an apartment building and the downstairs neighbors have a pitbull that Max absolutely HATES. He will try to lunge at it on his leash, growls and gets his hackles up and won't calm down until the dog is out of sight. I'm not sure if the dog is male or female. (We never get that close!) Thankfully, they leash their dog - if not, I think we'd be in trouble as I don't think this dog is friendly to people or dogs (apt maintenance routinely won't go in their unit if the dog is there without an owner to control it, and we always hear the owners shouting aggressively at the dog). I'm worried that our neighbors might complain that Max is reactive towards their dog, but I never let him get anywhere near the pitbull. He reacts even if the dog is across the street, and seeing as we are neighbors SOME contact is unavoidable. The other issue here is that the pitbull is some kind of service animal/emotional support animal, so I don't think we would have any grounds to complain about it, and I'm not inclined to do so, since Max is the reactive one in this case. He's getting a lot better at ignoring non-greyhounds since we started positive reinforcement training and I can almost always distract him with treats, petting him, and talking to him in a calm voice if I see him starting to get too worked up or focused on another dog, but pitbulls and big fluffies are still triggers for him. Any specific advice for instances where pitbull contact just can't be avoided? I really don't want to have to muzzle him on walks, because I can control him on his leash and I can almost always completely avoid encounters that I think will be especially triggering for him, but if you all thing muzzling is the way to go, I'll definitely consider it.

So cute!

Seattle here! Nice to see some PNW representation. I've been lurking since my SO and I got our boy almost 4 months ago.

Hey there! I have only had my greyhound Max for three months, but I've had great success using positive reinforcement with his non-greyhound dog encounters. I don't do this every walk, but every couple of days at least, we'll go on a walk in an area where I know we'll encounter a lot of other dogs and I'll have my pocket full of treats. Every time we see a dog, he gets a treat. We don't greet other dogs except on very rare occasions with very mellow dogs, because he has pretty bad anxiety towards non-greys, and he has tried to bite a dog who was in his space (the reason I started this training). It takes time, but at the very least, the treat provides a distraction while you maneuver yourself and Connor away from the other dog. Max has already grown to expect his treat when we see another dog and already he seems calmer (hackles rarely go up) when we do, unless the dog has aggressive body language or is barking. My friend Rozie who has a greyhound of her own and is a professional dog walker gave me this advice and it has been such a relief to us both on walks - I highly recommend that you try it if you haven't already, especially if Connor is food-motivated like my boy.