ambpersand

Looking for some alternative options to crating/kenneling during the day.... We brought home our grey, Pearl, just over 8 months ago and she's been really great so far. She was fostered before coming to us, and immediately took to our routine and her kennel. Typically we would kennel during the day while at work (8AM-3PM, roughly) and at night, from 10/11PM until 6 AM. She had a few accidents in the kennel during the day - never at night - since we brought her home but we've chalked it up to drinking too much water in the morning or not being able to hold it until we got home. It was never consistent, only once every couple of weeks or so. Then, about 5-6 weeks ago, she began showing a bit of a stubborn streak and now doesn't want to be crated during the daytime. She'll happily go in by herself and on her own terms at night to sleep, but she resists during the day to the point where my husband has had to carry her up the stairs and to the kennel because she just wont move. Now, she's getting destructive. A few weeks ago she pulled a blanket inside the kennel that was on top of it and shredded the thing to bits. Then this morning I noticed that the bars on the front of the kennel are now bent out of place with obvious teeth marks. I don't want her to hurt herself, and I definitely don't want our stuff destroyed! Now that she's reached this point, I think her accidents in the crate are part of the same issue. We've already started talking about our alternatives but I wanted to get some more advice from more experienced owners about what other solutions might be out there. I've had dogs my entire life and have almost always kenneled, so this is some new territory for me. Right now I am considering moving one of her beds into the kitchen and putting up a baby gate across the doorway so she's still out, but not able to get to our cats. I should also add a few things: 1. As mentioned above, we have four cats, so leaving her completely unattended and loose in the house is not an option. They all get along just fine and even sleep next to each other, but I'm not willing to risk anything and would rather be overly cautious when we aren't around. 2. A few weeks ago we started doing short "trial runs" with leaving her muzzle on while we ran errands close to home instead of forcing her into the crate. These have only been in 1-2 hour sessions so far. She's done well and will either lay in the kitchen or on the couch to await our return, but I am not completely convinced about leaving her for longer spans of time since I have seen her Houdini out of her muzzle in the past. Maybe a collar clip would help prevent her from getting it off? All options/advice/opinions are welcome!

We got our grey on a Sunday afternoon and went to work the next day. Luckily for us she had been in a foster home so we knew she was fine with the crate. However, for the first week one of us went home at lunch time to let her out/check on her to make sure she was okay as she got used to our routine. If they don't like the crate, they can seriously hurt themselves trying to get out- so you will definitely want to try it out before leaving for long periods of time. If you are in the US, we ordered ours from Chewy.com and got a 42 inch kennel. They've usually got the best prices and will have items delivered in about 2 days.

Some hounds talk a lot, and he's still getting used to his new home. He could be whining because he's bored or because he's nervous in the new place, not used to being an only dog, etc. My grey isn't much of a talker but will whine at us if she wants to play or go outside to run. In my opinion, if it's not that bad and he's not doing it loud enough to bother the neighbors, I wouldn't see it as something to correct. That could just deter him from learning to tell you when he wants something or needs to go out to the bathroom. It could also go away on it's own- as others have said, just give him time. He'll continue to settle in over the next few months and his true personality will come out in due time. As for the crates, some dogs will like them and some wont. It's also personal preference to use one, but it does come in handy during emergencies when the dog needs to be contained. We crate during the work day/night, and gave our grey an option of using a crate in the living room or our bedroom- she chose the bedroom crate every single time. If you want to try to introduce him to a crate, it's not too early. From what I've experienced it's probably better to try it now while things are still new and he's still learning the ropes of the house, rather than once he's got an established routine and knows that he could be roaming free instead. He may like it, he may not. I'd say if your boy isn't being destructive during the day while you're gone, you probably don't have much to worry about in terms of SA right now.

Sounds like she likes her personal space! Our grey will growl for similar things when she's tired and out of patience and wants to be left alone. I know a non-grey dog who has similar issues... She doesn't like people or other dogs near her unless it's on her terms. Another dog climbs into the bed next to her bed? Growls. Someone walks by her a little too close? Barks at you. Move a little to fast in her direction? More growls. Its all about that "personal bubble" for her (but then again, she's a bit of a drama queen). For Cameron though- if it's directed at your husband most often, it could be something she grows out of as they both learn the right cues and get more comfortable with each other.

She's gorgeous! Congratulations on the new addition and good luck with all that cleverness- she's sure to keep you on your toes!

Our grey ripped out a nail and dislocated a different toe within about two weeks of each injury. For the nail injury- it completely fell out and still hasn't grown back in entirely, even now and it's almost 4 months later. Her dislocation wasn't with the nail like yours (was the two smaller bones right behind the nail), but our vet used a mild sedative and set the toe back in place before bandaging and sending her home with some anti inflammatory pills and recommending no zoomies for a couple of weeks. I'm not a vet so I can't say for sure if the nail is something that can be re-set, but hope your boy gets to feeling better soon!

I've found that our grey likes it when it's frozen will only do it when we feed certain flavors of food- chicken or duck most often. As soon as we switched her to a venison flavor of the same brand, she stopped. She's also less prone if we go outside with her and follow closely as she wanders through the yard. Watch them closely from a few steps away, give a stern "no" when they get close to eating one, and redirect their attention back to doing their business before hurrying them inside so they don't have more of a chance.

FWIW, it took our grey about 2-3 months to get comfortable enough to start playing with toys... Her foster parents told us she had no interest and we tried a few to confirm her indifference until one day when she just went crazy in the yard for a tennis ball my husband was holding. Even now it's sporadic, and doesn't usually last very long. Sometimes she likes to walk around the house with a stuffie in her mouth squeaking it as fast as she can, or tossing her tennis ball into the air and watching it bounce across the living room... My advice would be to get different types of toys to let him try out, and give him plenty of time to explore it on his own! That aside, congratulations on your new addition and welcome from the Midwest!

That does look a lot like ringworm to me, and I've been the unfortunate recipient of several outbreaks (both myself and my dogs) over the last few years. We always treated ringworm and hotspots with Vetericyn spray (http://vetericyn.com/products/vetericyn-dog-care/) and it works wonders.

Lots of great advice here. We adopted our first grey in July and she's home alone and crated from about 7:30 AM to 4:30 PM. She's an older gal with less energy, and really doesn't seem to mind it. She actually really loves her crate/kennel and will often go lay down in the nearest one (we have two, one in the bedroom and one in the living room) when she's ready for some quiet time. Ours spent a few months in a foster before she came to us, so she was already adjusted to a working schedule and took to ours easily. I would suggest reaching out to your local adoption group and talking with them about how they foster their dogs, how long they're fostered before being eligible for adoption, etc. A dog straight from the track will need more time and attention than one who's been through the ropes with a foster family. As for being cat safe- you can specifically request a greyhound that had been in a foster home living with cats, rather than one who had just done the quick track test. In our instance, we have four rescue cats in our house, and we made it very clear to the rescue we worked with that we needed a cat friendly dog and were willing to wait until the right one came around. The first dog they matched us with "lied" during their initial cat testing, and I requested a second test before meeting which ended up being a lifesaver. That dog was then reclassified as not cat safe and went to a house without them. But as Rachel said, indoor and outdoor cats are two different things. A greyhound can be totally fine with your cat inside but then go into predator mode when it sees an outdoor stray. The best thing you can do is be open with your rescue group about all those little details about your life so they can help you find the best dog for your home.

Some easy things to try might be to switch up your walking route a little bit so she can see some new things or find some new smells, or you could take her on a quick car trip once or twice a week while running errands if she does well in the car?

We noticed our grey will give us signs when she's getting in the mood to do zoomies which is helpful to get it stopped if we don't want her running- first she gets a little more ornery than usual like getting in our way and totally stopping, shoving her snout into what we're doing or our faces, then if that doesn't work, she begins jumping up/hopping in the air towards us and spinning in circles. At this point, her tail starts to go into full windmill mode. She's good about telling us what she wants, and if we can, we'll take her outside to get the zoomies out of her system. If not, we stop acknowledging her actions and guide her to something else like a toy or a snack in the kitchen. Usually she's getting ramped up because shes got some excess energy or she's bored, so recently (since she dislocated her toe a few weeks ago) we've herded her out to the car for a quick ride around the block or to the store. That seems to be enough stimulation to satisfy her for a little while, but we did have to pay attention to her behavioral queues before we learned what she was telling us. But that type of stuff is only helpful if you manage to catch it before he starts... if he's already in full zoomie mode its best just to stand back and let him get it out of his system! As for the kitchen laminate- Pearl took one slide across ours through our kitchen and living room and slammed into a doorway before she learned on her own that downstairs was not the greatest location for running. As long as there's nothing sharp or dangerous that could fall on him if he does end up crashing, you should be fine.

Oh yeah, ours is 6 years old and sleeps about 20-ish hours a day. Sometimes she'll hang out with my husband in the office while he's working or maybe spend 5-10 minutes playing with a toy, but even that will bore her fairly quickly and she'll make her way back to her bed or the couch. She'll stay awake on the weekends if we take her on trips with us, but if it's more than a few hours she starts to get very grumpy and will promptly pass out in the backseat like an overworked toddler. Our usual routine is to go outside/take a nap/eat breakfast/take a nap/go back outside/take another nap/eat again/more naps, etc, etc... We have four cats and often joke that she sleeps as much as the lot of them combined.

Yeah, our vet recommended keeping her from getting to rambunctious for the next several weeks and she's also got the dislocated toe in a "splint" type bandage that the vet wrapped up so it stays secure over the next few weeks while the tendon heals. She's great in the house but the moment she goes into the yard she thinks it's time to do zoomies, but doesn't like to do her business on a leash- it's only been a few days and it's definitely a fight. We've kept her nails trimmed since we got her over the summer and the one she ripped out wasn't a dew claw, but rather the outer toe on the back right leg (the dislocated toe was the outer one on the back left leg- jeesh!). I can try to make sure the nails are shorter, but the vet wrap may be the way to go for her back feet if we know she's going to be out playing.

About two weeks ago, our Pearl managed to rip one of her toenails out in it's entirety after a romp in the yard. It wouldn't stop bleeding and she wouldn't let us touch it to get it cleaned up or put any styptic powder on it, so off to the e-vet we went. She wore a large bandage/foot wrap for several days, took antibiotics, and seems to be doing just fine with it now. Then a few days ago, as we were getting ready for bed we noticed she was favoring her other back leg, and realized that she'd dislocated the outer toe while playing in the yard again. We tried wiggling it to see if it would re-set, but it was stiff and very painful. The next morning, back to the vet she went! They took some x-rays to make sure nothing was broken, reset the toe, bandaged it up, and send us home with some pain medicine in case she needed it. Needless to say, we've spent a pretty penny in the last few weeks and aside from trying to keep her from running in the back yard (like that will ever happen), I'm not sure what options we have. She had a pretty bad break in one of her back legs during her racing career, and now I'm beginning to think she's a bit of a clumsy, accident prone dog but I hate to see her in pain! Any advice? I've seen Thera-Paw boots, and I'm considering testing them out. I'd take anything at this point!

I can't speak for the destructive tendencies or stomach upset problems, but I am a strong believer in crating for dogs (IF they tolerate it, that is). We have two crates for our grey, Pearl (who sounds much like your Achilles), one in our living room for when we go to work, and one in our bedroom for night time (we have a two story house and it makes it easier to have multiple crates to use). We made sure the crates had nice thick orthopedic beds and blankets that smelled like us, and introduced her by leading her in with treats she liked. She gets a treat every day before work and each night before bed when she goes inside it. She will even put herself in her crate when she's ready for bed and done waiting for us to finish our nightly TV watching! All of that aside, I've found that it can help with a multitude of things: 1. Keeping your grey from being able to get into things when you aren't around or can't keep a close eye (such as food from the counter tops/trash cans, any choking hazards, your shoes as chew toys, etc). Also helpful during emergencies when you need them to be contained (we've had to use ours during a tornado so the dog couldn't run off or hide somewhere in the house). 2. They should be used to crates and kennels from living at the track, and will typically not go to the bathroom inside of the crate since they consider it their "den." It isn't foolproof though- accidents can always happen, especially with stomach upset issues. If you are trying to work on potty/house training, it can help get him through the work day or night when you need him to hold it for several hours and not go find a spot somewhere in the house. 3. Helps the dog to have "their own" space, which can help them feel safer and more relaxed. I've crated almost every dog I've ever had with little to no issue after introducing them to it (mostly small breeds until Pearl), but my husband had a dog when we first got together that REFUSED to be crated and would become extremely stressed and destructive when we tried to crate train him. Even after a year of consistent training with it, he would still bark, howl, and scratch at the crate door all night long. He absolutely did not tolerate it. After that, we had to find a solution to keep him contained and safe during the night, but wouldn't let him get into the trash or cat boxes. We finally ended up putting a baby gate up in our bedroom to let him sleep on his pet bed but contained to our room. Pretzel could go either way, especially given his high energy. Good luck and don't hesitate to post progress updates!

I might have to invest in one for my cats now that you mention it! I bought a similar one that's Kong brand and Pearl really has to work around the small crevices to get to all the kibble pieces. It's definitely been helping with the excess gas too!

Welcome Ted, Janine, and Polly! Polly is absolutely beautiful- and how lucky to be able to reunite her with her mom!

Congratulations to you and Lola! She sounds like an absolute gem. I believe my Pearl is from the same trainer (Thomas Ferris)- her name was AMF Repo Girl when she came to the rescue. Perhaps they're distant relatives!

I'm a new owner too! Our grey is 6 years old and isn't much a fan for taking walks, our schedule on weekdays usually looks like this: 6:00 AM- Wake up, first trip outside (we have a fenced in yard) 6:15 AM- feed some dry kibble or a handful of science diet T/D (they're large chunks and she goes crazy for them) 6:45/7:00 AM- Last trip outside for the morning, goes into kennel 4:30 PM- Husband gets home from work, goes back outside 5:30 - 6:00 PM - First dinner 6:30 PM - Back outside 7-7:30 PM - Second dinner (we have to cut Pearl's meals into smaller sizes or else she tries to inhale her kibble without chewing) 8:30-9:30 - Last trip outside 10:30 PM - Bed, back in kennel Pearl isn't much a fan of walks, although she does love car rides, and we try to take her out at least every hour or two. She won't always go when we take her out, but at least it gets her off the couch and gives her the chance if she needs it! She's been with us for a month and is telling us when she wants to go outside, so we just have to keep an eye on where she's at and make sure we're aware. We do usually have to be more patient at night- when she's really sleepy (before bed) she's resistant to going outside. It takes about 10 minutes of coaxing before she'll do her business, then she heads straight upstairs to go back to sleep! Usually when my husband comes home from work she runs in the yard for a few minutes to burn off some energy and show off for the neighbors, but that seems to be the extent of her desire to exercise Her walk limit is about 5-10 minutes at a time, depending on how much activity she's already had during the day and if she's been awake a lot. Weekends are much more relaxed, and Pearl is great about letting us sleep in for the most part. We try to keep her feeding schedule consistent so her bathroom schedule stays the same. So far its been working great!

Pearl is determined... We started adding water to her kibble when she first came home because she was a bit picky and seemed to really love it, but softening the food just made it easier for her to swallow whole! She'll take a bit more time to chew if it's dry, even though that's not how she prefers.... Coincidentally, we have a cat who does the same thing so now we have two fast eaters to watch!

Any recommendations for a good slow eater bowl for greys? My new adoptee has recently started eating her food too quickly and threw up her entire dinner on Sunday night. I'm already splitting up her meals between morning and evening to avoid bloat, but she's a little too "enthusiastic" about dinnertime and wants to swallow her kibble whole. I've had similar experiences with small dogs and we've used "slow eater" bowls or the "portion pacer" ceramic balls, but the bowls for larger dogs still seem like she could easily fit her snout into the spaces and inhale her food quickly. I'm currently using an elevated feeder with a smaller steel bowl placed upside down in the larger bowl so she has to work around it, but it doesn't seem to slow her down too much.

Thanks everyone! I have to say, I'm very partial to black animals in general, so I was thrilled when we were matched with Pearl. Her ornery side is beginning to show, and she's gaining more and more confidence every day. Here she is after she slipped out to the patio the other day when we weren't watching (and then got blocked in by a cat!) She's also a roach-pro... Every time she falls asleep, her legs are in the air within minutes!

Agreed with everything Krissy said! I spent the last ten years or so raising and rescuing chihuahuas before getting my grey, and we had a range of puppies to seniors. Talk about stubborn trainees! One important thing is to remain consistent and establish a "go outside" schedule while you're home, until the puppy gets used to it and begins to learn when it's time to go out or how to tell you they need to go out. We would do every 30 minutes-1 hour, depending on the dog and their bladder ability. Lots of praise and word/command training were important for them to learn to the differences in what you wanted them to do (go potty and good potty! + praise once done). As for introductions with Ruby, I would give her as long as she needs. I've had dogs hold out for months before warming up to a new addition, but eventually they come around.

Hello from Indiana! My Pearl has the same white-dipped toes as Niya- they are just the cutest! Congratulations on your beautiful additions!