katiedid1281

They are that Trex (I think?) material. Closed at the back. I ordered some carpet treads from Amazon but they haven't helped much. The greyhound rescue did offer to let us borrow a harness so we can try that.

We have a 9 year old male greyhound who refuses to go down the five stairs to the yard at our new house. We've had him since he was about 2, but have never had a house with more than two stairs, which he kind of hopped down on the way down. He'll go up the stairs, fairly ungracefully, but down is a different story. I'm afraid that he's going to try to jump them, and since he's 80 pounds and very tall, he could take me with him. He just seems to have no idea what to do with his back legs. Any suggestions?

Hello! We have an 8.5 year old male greyhound who suddenly seems to have forgotten he's housebroken, but only at night. Vet has done a urine culture, bloodwork, and ultrasound and found no medical reason why he can't hold his urine. He goes out around 10 and is often waking us up around 3 to go out. We've been putting a belly band on him at night, and he'll pee in it about once a week. And it's a lot of pee, not just a dribble. He's always thought he needs to eat way too early in the morning, so we also got an automatic feeder to give him a snack around 3 because we wondered if he was just mad at that no one was feeding him. It seems to have helped somewhat, but not entirely. Anyone have any experience/advice? We're all exhausted! Except him. Because he then sleeps all day.

The dogs are definitely supposed to be leashed, but it's a rural area and no one seems to think anything of having dogs loose in unfenced yards. I guess I need to find some sort of stick that's easy to carry while juggling a dog leash! The one dog jumped out of the back of a car as their owner was loading things, the second was on a new way that I will not walk again and the third came running from a house on the route we always walk, but I haven't ever seen that dog or those cars before so I hope it was just a visitor. I won't count the tiny fourth dog who ran up to us and stopped about 10 feet away like "Whoa, you're huge." They've all happened in a short span of time and I feel quite nervous now!

My grey keeps getting approached by aggressive off-leash dogs on walks. It hasn't devolved into a fight yet, but I'm worried he's going to get hurt because even though he's usually larger than these dogs, he's very passive and wouldn't defend himself. I try not to go the ways there are loose dogs, but one surprised me yesterday at a house where I've never seen a dog before (I'm hoping it was just visiting). I carry dog spray, but it's been so windy lately that I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to use it without spraying myself and my grey as well. I have been considering also carrying enough treats to throw at an approaching dog and carrying a pop-open umbrella. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Our grey was in the crate for about two weeks. We put it away more than a year ago and have never gotten it back out! He hated it, and just wanted to sleep somewhere comfy. We started with shorter times out of the crate, but now he's out 8-3 while everyone is at work/school. He's had one or two accidents but those were at the beginning.

Thanks, everyone! I'll continue what I'm doing. He's really very good about sharing the couch when not being touched while asleep. He pretty much lives for the couch.

Our greyhound is pretty huge. 80ish pounds. He could probably be walked by my 7 year old. We've come across squirrels, deer, other dogs, cats, etc. The ears go up but he doesn't even attempt to chase.

Hi everyone! I haven't been on here in a while but you've all had good advice in the past. We have a 4.5 year old male named Rufus who we adopted the summer of 2016. He's a big, lazy lump 99 percent of the time (good news... if our couch is trying to escape, it isn't going to succeed! It is being held down by 75 pounds of greyhound). He's started, over the last few months, to want to cuddle with me when I sit on the couch with him. Yay! Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to quite know how to do this. I'll sit down and he'll settle himself in beside me with his head on my lap enjoying the pats. If he falls asleep, however, he'll forget where he is totally and wake up with a growl like "WHY IS SOMEONE TOUCHING ME?" (Um, you started it!) Should I continue to allow him to cuddle? I usually let him do it for a bit and then get up or get him off somehow to end the cuddling on good terms. On a totally unrelated note, are greyhounds known to be incredibly obsessed with smells? I thought I got a sight hound but he doesn't care so much about what he sees... more about what he smells! He would sniff us all from head to toe when we get home for 10 minutes if we let him. He's almost as obsessed as the beagle I had as a kid, and he walked into a parked car once when his nose was glued to the ground!

A nail file is a great idea. I'll try that! I cut his toenails last night and he did not act at all in pain. The vet seems to think he needs an X ray, which seems unnecessary to me.

I have never been able to figure out how to post a photo here. A dremel is a good idea, I hadn't thought of that. Do you know of a good one?

Rufus, our 4 year old greyhound, has now licked his left rear foot so much that he's given himself an infection twice. The vet's theory is that his toes don't splay correctly and one outside toenail is rubbing against his other toe. He's finished his course of antibiotics and I don't think he has an active infection anymore but it's still red and raw and the fur is rubbed off. We muzzle him whenever he's unsupervised so he can't lick it. Although he still manages to sneak some in if we have to quickly go into another room. I'm wondering if anyone knows of a cream or ointment that we could put on it at night when he's not moving around to help it heal. I'd like to stop going to the vet!

We adopted Rufus about 9 months ago. A few months back, I posted that Rufus had snapped at my 6.5 year old when he patted him, under my supervision, while Rufus was laying on the couch. We've had no more snapping incidents but Rufus just seems to have no fondness for my son. He never walks up to him for affection, while he walks up to us with the wiggly loose body clearly wanting attention. He won't ever allow my son to pat him and just walks away if he tries. While I realize Rufus is making a good choice walking away when he doesn't want attention, it makes me sad that he doesn't like my son and especially now that my son is starting to notice. This morning, my son said to me, "When will Rufus like me? Why does he let you pat him and not me?" When we first adopted Rufus, he seemed to like my son just fine, and even went up to him for affection. My son has never done anything that I can think of that would have triggered this. He doesn't pull on him. He never has hugged him or put his face in his face. He's just a 6.5 year old boy and occasionally loud and rambunctious. Any recommendations for how to improve their relationship? Do I just leave it alone and hope it gets better as my son gets older? I do have my son give him treats and sometimes feed him dinner. While Rufus tolerates him under these circumstances, it doesn't seem to improve things when my son doesn't have food.

I don't think a crate would work as a safe space because he hates it. He even managed to escape from it twice when one of the latches on the door wasn't quite closed all the way (still not sure how an 80 pound greyhound fit through the six inch gap he created!) He's also not helping himself. He wants to be in the middle of everything! Even if my son is being rambunctious and making him nervous. He really is Mr. Social. Having my son feed him and give him treats seems to have helped. I can tell he's now more interested when my son walks in the room. He perks his ears up and looks at him very hopefully. I think he's gained a little weight though.

I'm trying to post a picture but who knows if this will work! Oh, I give up...

Thank you all for the tips! Rue is extremely food motivated so I think having my son be the source of yummy things will go a long way with him. I had him toss Rue a few treats and he caught the very first one so both my son and Rue thought that was pretty awesome. Rue was looking at him very hopefully for the remainder of the morning. Giving Rue a safe quiet space sounds great except that he pretty much follows us wherever we go! We had a bed back in our bedroom, where it is quiet, and he never laid on it, so we moved it out to the kitchen and he lays on it all the time watching us. I could maybe put his living room bed back further in the corner.

We are for sure going to do that. I told my husband he has to stop patting him when he's laying down too! It's just harder because... well, he's pretty much always laying down.

Hello! I'm new to this board and a relatively new owner of a greyhound. We've always had a dog but never a greyhound. We rescued Rue about five months ago. He is 3.5 years old and retired from racing after breaking his leg. He's a pretty large but very sweet greyhound. He loves everyone he meets, canine or human. We actually had been thinking of trying to get him certified as a therapy dog and he is in obedience class working toward this. Our 6-year-old son was initially fearful of Rue due to his size, but that probably lasted a day and now he loves Rue. Rue seemed to like him at first too, but their relationship has been slowly going downhill. My son is very gentle with him. He doesn't hug him or try to kiss him or stick his face in Rue's face. He knows not to disturb him if he's asleep or laying on his bed. He mostly just wants to gently pat him. But he is 6 so of course he's loud and bouncy and moves unpredictably. After a few weeks of having Rue, we noticed that he would walk away if my son tried to approach him to pat him, so we instructed our son not to follow him if he walked away. It was doggie language for wanting to be left alone. A month or two after we got him, Rue discovered the couch. He sleeps there most of the time. One day, my son was playing fairly quietly on the floor with toys (quietly for a 6 year old anyway) and Rue was on the couch. My son must have gotten too close because he barked at him. Of course he has a very deep bark so it startled us and I made Rue get off the couch. From that point on, we did not allow Rue on the couch when my son was in the room. Rue also once gave him a little bark when he had his Kong on his bed and my son was all the way across the room standing in the doorway talking to me. Yesterday, my son asked if he could pat Rue, who was laying on the couch awake. I said yes, since he's never had issues being approached while laying down as long as he is awake. He doesn't even care if you lean over him to pat him (we never allowed my son to do this but we did it occasionally). More pats the better usually. So we patted him together for a few seconds and next thing I know Rue kind of barked/snarled and snapped at my son. He made contact with his arm and left a small abrasion but didn't break the skin. Once I made sure he was OK, I made Rue get off the couch and he will definitely not be allowed on it in the future during the day when we are home. I am on the fence about allowing him up at night or when we are at work/school all day. I'm sad about this because our last dog didn't totally love my son either (but he was very old already when my son was born so I expected that) and I really wanted a dog who at least liked him a little. I'm also worried because I don't feel he gave much warning before snapping. His ears were back as they always are unless there's food or a squirrel around. He didn't growl or even yawn or lick his lips. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!