cgs

I got Percy upstairs today. We might never go back down. :/ I'm trying to get some work done at my computer, but I'll have to try getting him back down at some point.

We've had our boy for 2 days now and also got the 42 inch crate from chewy.com. I'm home during the day, so can't help with the rest, but wanted to second the crate recommendation.

Oh I think I saw something about marshmallows. I may try that. Last night the poor guy was so tired and so content lying on his comforter in the family room that we couldn't get him up to go out and go potty before bed. My daughter was trying to shove his 70lb body over to get him to get up, but he wouldn't. I finally enticed him up with a piece of leftover parmesan chicken.

I don't have a great picture yet, but this is Percy! He's settling in nicely.

Progress today. He's able to go up and down the deck steps easily...most of the time. Sometimes he just doesn't want to go. I enticed him with a treat, he went down, and then didn't want the treat! He's not very food motivated so far. His racing name is Jax Cisco. My daughter didn't like the name Cisco, so we decided to call him Percy.

First night went well! He's a sweet mellow boy. I slept on the couch and he was in his create. At one point, I coughed and he stood up, but I just said go night-night and he settled immediately. I got up around 7 and took a few minutes getting ready to take him out and he waited patiently. He wasn't even really waiting. Just still lying down. Today I put him in his crate and left the room, then went back in, left again, etc. After a bit, I opened the crate door and left the room and he stayed there for a while before coming out. He came out and settled on the floor (on a comforter we put there for him) in the family room. (Crate is in the living room). Stairs might be a little tough. He can go up and down the 2 by the front door and is now pretty good at the 3 to the garage. He can go up the 4 to the deck in our backyard (which is where we'd like to let him in and out) but he kind of leaps up them and he won't go down them. So I have to take him out the front door and in the back door. I'm afraid to try the stairs in our house because he might go up and then get stuck. There's not really a way to take it slow. He can't go halfway up and then turn around. I'll work on the deck steps first but I think those are scarier because it's been raining so they look shiny. But so far so good! He's super sweet. He and our little dog are ignoring each other so far. She seems like she wants him to leave and he's seems to know she's boss and is not bothering her at all. Hopefully they'll become friends.

I got a big crate, since my friend's crate was too small. I'm thinking I can use the small crate just to block off part of our bedroom and keep him contained in a smaller area at night, so he won't think it's ok to pee. The crate would fit between the bed and dresser. He wouldn't be in the crate, but I could put a dog bed in the "fenced off" area. He could of course jump up o the bed and down the other side to get "out" to the rest of the bedroom, but if he has a comfy bed, maybe he wouldn't bother. And if he did, I'm sure I'd wake up.

Any recommendations in Maryland in upper Montgomery County? The one listed in Germantown on page 1 here is no longer there. The website redirects to a different place further away and that vet is no longer there.

We're getting our guy tomorrow, so I'm reading this with interest! Hope it all continues to go well.

Our small dog did meet him. We went to the rescue place and checked out several dogs. The one we're getting is the first one we met. The dogs sniffed at each other a little and my dog at one point gave a little "back off" yip and the grey was fine with that. The rescue lady said it all looked good. He was also the calmest on the leash. The other one we considered also seemed good with our little dog, but was harder on the leash. He was red, which is what I wanted, but we're getting the black one, which is not what I wanted. Oh well. I thought calmer/easier (the rescue lady thinks he'd be the easiest of the group) was more important than color. Our little dog is black, so if they cuddle up together, they'll be one indistinguishable lump. I looked at a few others too, but they either seemed too interested in our dog or too hyper. There was a female I liked, but another couple was checking her out and decided to take her. The one we're getting was also pretty disinterested in the other couple's tiny little dog. My neighbor over our back fence has three chihuahuas, so I want a dog that isn't tempted to jump the fence and chase. We're getting him Saturday! Yikes! I've ordered a crate (the one I borrowed from a friend is too small) and got a coat for him and a collar and tag. He'll come with a martingale collar and leash.

Ooh, those are pretty cheap and that might work. How high do you think it would need to be?

I don't know what that is, so I looked it up and really hope I don't need that!

Just reading that the crate should be at least 42" and maybe 48". Hmmm. Might have to get one now after all. I thought I had read 36" was ok and thought what's 6 inches less, it'll be fine. But 12 inches less--that's a lot.

These stories are a little scary, but really helpful. I just borrowed a crate from a friend who has a labradoodle, and I'm pretty sure it's too small, but we might have to make due for a day or two. I don't want to buy one until we see. I really don't think her labradoodle is any smaller than a greyhound, but the crate is smaller than recommended--only 30 inches on the long side. But even with a smaller crate, I don't see lugging the crate up and down the stairs, so if we do get him upstairs for bedtime, I think he'll be uncrated. I'm a little worried about him peeing in the bedroom, because it's a pretty large space, but tethering him with a harness at night seems like he'd get tangled. We'll just have to play it all by ear. This big dog stuff....

Will do!

Haha, great stories!

I've read that they're used to starting their day at 4am. My husband actually gets up at 4am, so I could get up and take the dog out when he gets up (he gets up and out pretty quickly, so I'm not going to ask him to work in time taking care of the dog.) But then I'll want to go back to bed, not be up for the day! I don't want the dog to be expecting breakfast and a walk. So I'll have to figure that out. I'm worried that my husband getting up, along with the dog's internal clock, will make him think it's time to start the day.

Yeah, I think I might have to sleep on the couch. I don't want to be up in the middle of the night or early in the morning for a bathroom break and not be able to coax the dog down the stairs. It's going to have to at least learn to deal with 2 or 3 steps right away just to get in and out of the house. Our front door has 2 steps and our back deck has 3. So that's going to have to happen right away. But a flight of 10 stairs looks very different, so I'll give him some time for that. If he's running up and down the steps the first day, then we'll crate him in our bedroom, but I'm not expecting that.

Thanks! I'm in Maryland.

Hello, I'm so glad I found this place. We're adopting a greyhound next weekend--I met him today. He's straight off the track--no foster home. It'll be interesting. I posted a question about the first night in the behavior forum. I'm excited, but also a little nervous. We have a small dog, but have never had a big one. I'm at home during the day, so I'll be able to focus on him. Hoping it goes well. He seems to be a pretty calm dog.

Hi, we're getting a new rescue greyhound next weekend--our first. I'm a little confused about what to do the first night. The Dummies book says we can have him sleep in our bedroom, tethered on a harness. I'm assuming we could also crate him in our bedroom. Putting him on a harness seems uncomfortable and I might not have one at first. But we're ok with him being in the bedroom. Our little dog sleeps in our room. But this dog hasn't been fostered and won't know how to go upstairs. It seems like too much to try to teach it to navigate stairs the very first day, and even if we work on it, we'd have to get him downstairs in a hurry in the morning to go out. But leaving him alone in a crate at night seems like asking for a long night of whining and crying and I feel like the dog would be pretty scared and insecure. So what did you all do the first night?