Rakete

I would not let the Youngster constantly harass your dog and be a pain in the ass. I do not know how familiar your dog is with staying at your parents place (This might also play a role. Right now there is much change and instability in his life. Another home, his "pack" away. Your dog knows nothing about moving and that this won't last forever and he will be with you again. He might ne quite stressed right now. ) but think about it: Your sisters dog is just a visitor. An impolite one. Some dogs would have reacted far earlier and far more aggressive. If the younger one is going to be there more often, there should be stricter rules for the younger dog. And maybe no playing in front of yours. Right now the older dog, the "permanent" dog, that with "more rights get's less action and affection if your sister is dealing with her dog only or mostly and nobody keeps the little annoyance away from your dog. Might be quite unfair in a dogs eye. As long as they are not used to each other, I would recommend First Dog First. No resources, no bones, no toys without supervision. And no younger dog that is officially allowed (by not stopping him) to get on your boys nerves.

Good article http://www.dovepress.com/canine-separation-anxiety-strategies-for-treatment-and-management-peer-reviewed-fulltext-article-VMRR

Clomicalm does not help without alone training. If it works it only works the way to make the dogs system more relaxed. A stressed dog is not able to learn properly. I see a large differene in American and European sight on SA. It is really hard for me to understand, why people leave their hounds fully on their own without proper training. It seems to be sort of common sense in german speaking countries to never leave the dog alone for a larger period of time than it (or is it she, the dog? Never figured that out) is capable of right now. Which means: doggy daycare when off to work and lots of training when back home. Well, there might be a certain amount of SA you are okay with. But as long as a dog shows signs the dog itself is not okay with it. As you plan to only short time foster I would say there is not that much you can do. Maybe there is a chance to have a family member or neighbour around while you are off to work, so that SA has no chance to kick in and worsen itself. If not...well. Then the dog has to go trough this I guess and hopefully there is a forever home where there is enough time and patience to work on that topic.

I strongly disagree in "pooping is no sign of seperation anxiety". It is. Pooping occurs in highly stressed dogs. Leaving a dog alone, that has not settled in and learned how to be alone on its own, for 4 hours is nothing but pure stress. No yoghurt will cure that. Only training, time and patience. (Oh, and I am going through that myself. With a dog I believed to be trained enough. His pal died and since that, this dog suffers pure horrors when left alone. Peeing. Pooping. And even started destroying. What to do? Not leave him alone till he can be on his own. Training reset. Back to the beginning and a dog daycare whenever I have to leave longer than for our training intervalls - we are down from 5 hours to...1min. Hopefully we will reach the 5 hours again)

Heat plus lack of exercise. The spanish galgos adopted right out of a shelter need to be built up slowely. A greyhound adopted directly off track is at least a little trained. The galgo might have spent a year or more without running or even walking more than inside a small fenced area. When properly trained in my experience galgos (or greyhounds raised in a hot climate) can stand the heat a little better than the average greyhound - but are less tolerant to cold weather.

I was just asking because to me it seems like comparing an ex-racer to a sighthound with a different origin and upbringing does not fit in every respect. Because of my english you might figure out I am not from an english speaking country. We do not even have greyhounds here originally, only some imported ex-racers or imported galgos. But definitely a completely different way to handle them as like in the US. So especially regarding excercise my hounds (Galgo crosses, one with greyhound one with who knows what else) would go nuts if they where treated as recommended for ex-racers. What you describe reminds me of my senior. Galgo Lurcher. Maybe Galgo-Greyhound Lurcher. He was...bouncing. Jumping. Sitting on other dogs faces. Had absolutely no self control when food was involved. Don't know if this is the same with yours. Lack of self control dealing with food might have had its origin in how he was raised. Nearly starved. Puppyhood on the streets. A year or so in a shelter where the dogs had to fight for food. He was older, when I got him. Approx. 2- 3 years. He was and is the most friendly hound one can imagine but he was clumsy, bumped into things, jumped on tables, onto people and really lost his mind when food was involved. It got way better over the years. But for at least the first year it was not possible for me to train him with treats. He could not concentrate and learn in his high state of arrousal. What you describe sounds like a very young high energy hound to me. On top of puberty. Not able to concentrate long. It does not really matter if purebred greyhound or small boerwindhond. It just might explain some things. But even a pure bred grey from any south african hunter may be more energetic, more of an endurance runner than any American or Irish racing dog. Simply because the are not that strictly line bred for speed as the racers are. Selection more towards highspeed hunting offtrack, all terrain. Highly likely makes them less injury prone, which is a good thing. On the other hand: these hounds may need more exercise, may be more independent. I guess it is like with the spanish galgos: every hunter does his own thing. So in spanish rescue shelters you find up to 99% crosses. The "real" Galgo Espanol is barely found. What is often found: badly raised dogs and poor genetics. My lurcher boy (guess is 25% non sighthound) may have had a bad puppyhood, poor genetics or both that makes him "a little different". He shows no typical signs of deprivation but still he is a "strange" hound. Some people think he is mentally handicapped. Especially when he steps onto other dogs or sits right on their face as if they where not there. Still he is a fantastic dog but he was and is different (Now he is at least 13). Oh, and he needed exercise. Aged 12 he still ran 10k with me. At age 4 10-20k free running and jogging and trotting at least 3 times a week was necessary to keep him satisfied. Otherwise he started hunting motor cycles, skateboarders etc. I did running up to half marathon distance with him or he ran with my pit bull next to the dogscooter. His clumsiness became better as he aged but still he bumps into the door when we leave. But he does not bump into trees anymore. And he stopped jumping like crazy. Did not really train that. Just tried to stay cool and calm and laugh a lot about that strange dog jumping like a ball up and down.

Ah, Boerwindhond I guess.

Just wondering as some call them Greyhounds - Galgo simply means sighthound - and as I owened 3 of them: younger ones can be quite energetic and...crazy.

Are you talking about a spanish greyhound?

Hm, this means at least 3-5 months, better calculate more, till the puppy is physiologically able to controll its bladder over a full work day. If you hear of younger dogs being housebroken this just means that they go potty outside on a regular basis but with much shorter intervalls. To train a very large puppy to release itself inside. Well, this is quite a lot if pee in your apartement every day. Even with pads or whatever is used. Oh and might turn out very complicated or impossible to retrain your hound to only go outside when older. From my personsal experience with fosters that where kept inside only, they had big issues with getting reliably housebroken even as adults with fully developed nerval bladder function. So no, I would not recommend that. One week off work to introduce a young puppy to its new home is, well, optimistic. It may be due to working conditions in the US and Canada that the people here in this forum seem to leave newly adopted adult hounds alone very early (which leads me to thinking this might be why seperation anxiety is such a big topic here. But its just a guess). Different continent, different thinking. I raised 2 puppys (small and medium breed) and kept up to 3 dogs together in a small apartement, so yes, it works. And yes, I work. Part time mostly. But every puppy entered this home when I had lots of time off. Looking for a new job or during pregnancy and staying at home because of not being allowed to work in my field as a pregnant woman. So every puppy had at least 4 months of almost fulltime human around. I am pretty sure they needed it. Being left alone for a full work day at such a young age could lead to destructive behaviour or worst case: some sort of deprivation. Nonetheless many people have kept (and will keep) puppies like this. Some have turned out good others did not. I would not do it. I find it somehow cruel to leave a social babyanimal on its own for such a long time (What means fulltime in your job and how long are you away in total ech day? 9hours? 10? More?) When I was a kid we had this 9 week old puppy that grew up nearly on its own outside in the garden. Seemed to work. Became a great dog. But at least it had an inspiring environment, the cats, chicken. It was usual to keep a dog like this these days. I do not know for sure how much this dog suffered when it was a tiny pup away from mother and siblings, thrown into a completely new world all alone, but I guess it did. On the other hand: it had a job and was able to move around freely,do doggy things all day long and go potty whenever it needed to, so I think it was far better off than a puppy in an environment like an apartement that is meant for humans. Another thing: 5th floor. Hm...elevators I guess? If not: lots and lots of stairs for growing hound and its growing joints. Carrying a dog that large and heavy, eveb as a puppy, is challenging. Leting it climb the stairs is prone to future problems in a breed that suffers from many other health problems even if it is raised properly. So all in all: No. I would not give it a try. Not with a puppy. With an adult dog I do not see that much of a problem. If I read it right, you allready had an adopted greyhound, so you managed it with an adult before.

Ok. Just wanted to make things clear if you are used to greys and expect them to act like greys - no, they are borzois (not barzois....grrrr...my English sucks...or my Russian) Territorial is not be the right term here. They may show this tendency a little more than one is used to, who owned greys or galgos. It is more the being protective. May differ from line to line and within individuals, but I would call borzois a lot more serious and forward going than greys. Not every borzoi in every situation but the guarding and protecting (and going for larger prey) what they consider to be theirs is in the breed. They where not bred for being fast only. If one loves this traits, perfect. If one struggles with a very large and fast dog that might, as example, try to get rid of strangers especially after dawn it could lead to trouble. Again - not every individual and a lot is up to the owner but still a adult barzoi could turn out to be more reactive towards other dogs or humans than the average greyhound. As with every breed: you can be a borzoi person and get along great or you are not. Ad small dogs: it is not only the dog itself that matters. It is the "trigger situstion". A hound can be inter dog agressive but do not hunt smaller dogs. A hound can be dog friendly and hunt small dogs. Etc. Getting to know different and small breeds at an early age is a good thing. But it does not always cover "reacting to fast movement on the horizon" or "hunting games in a group of hounds". Example: my galgos are dogfriendly and live together with a very small dog. Still one of them reacts to smaller dogs when outside. The white fluffy ones or the fearful. He does not hurt them but he tries to chase them and what might look funny from the outside could turn to trouble the very moment. So far he does not react to his housemate and realizes that small dogs are dogs but his prey drive might overrun his knowing the little thing is a dog under some circumstances. I would give him a dog friendly: 99%, small dog safe: 80% wich is okay but still nothing to not bother about. Another question: At what age does the breeder give away the puppies?

Just want to mention that a Barzoi is a sighthound but not to compare with a Greyhound in many respects. Maybe you allready have that in mind, but the Barzoi/Greyhound irritates me Barzois usually bring way more territorial behaviour with them than greys. Tend to not like strangers (both human and dog) and a full grown especially male Barzoi, well, can be "problematic" for somebody who expects a grey with more hair and a noble nose. The full Barzoi personality will emerge around 3 and it may differ a lot from a racing grey. Small dog safety is not only socialization, but it helps. Still prey drive is something you better have a look at, if sighthound and very small dog deal with each other. But...a sighthound puppy getting along with small dogs is...not that unusual and may mislead to tinking everything will be okay forever. Full prey drive kicks in when the are a little older.

Even my "smarter" dog would not unterstand what I want if I'd done it that way. You teach your hound "If my ower lifts my paw,I'll get something." So why should she try it on her own? It is easier to enhance something a dog allready shows. Struggling to teach mine "sit", as he only does it by himself on special occiasions where I've been to slow to reward it. Clicker training and "free shaping" might be away to go for you (and my non-sitting hound)

Interesting. Depo-Medrol seems to be a Glucocorticoid plus something, just as "Rheumesser". Here in Austria it was like: "Hm...severe back pain in the lumbosacral area...let's try this". 3 shots in a row, worked for about 4 or 5 months till they symptoms slowly came back. Seemed to be somewhat of a standard therapy, as both attended vets (not familiar with sighthounds) used it without hesitation.

"Rheumesser" https://www.sdrugs.com/?c=drug&s=rheumesser did wonders to seniors back. 3 injections within a week and many of his symptoms vanished for a while. We did a second course as the symptons slowly came back (standing with a rear like a german shepherd in the show ring, knuckling, signs of severe back pain, climbing up stairs impossible, etc). It does not stop aging, but it helped to keep him going - which helped keeping muscles that keep him going. He was diagnosed LS more or less by sight, did not run full diagnostics as there are many other issues. Did not know where to start and where to stop, but for him the injections made a differnence.