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.

Quartz

I slightly disagree to what greysmom said. If sleep startle and space agression on the larger dogs side is ruled out there shoulf always be a look on the first dogs behaviour like: has the little one shown any sign of jealousy so far? Bedroom and or sleeping near the owner is a big ressource for some dogs. So the "older" may be granted more rights at the beginning and might be superviced for a while. Not every small dog might react like my own tiny brat - sleeping with the humans is her absolute top reward and she reacts recourceguarding towards the big boys. I let them sleep unsuperviced together for like a month now (befor Little One was crated during the night or I slept between the dogs on the floor, gave her her favourite reward but also corrected if she did not tolerate the new large guy next to me. Only Little One is alowed to sleep in our bed on special occassions, if I ever would change my mind and share the bed with all of the dogs I'd better be carefull as some sort of fight might break out. Little One would start it.) If the get along great so far during the day, sleep together, tolerate each other next to you on the couch etc. I would give it a try. A superviced try. Did they ever roam through your bedroom together? Do you spend time there during the day? I would try that first. Be there together with them while you are awake and see how the interact. Try this for a while, different times, different settings, play with them on the ground or whatever, take a (fake)nap while they are with you, read a book in the bedroom, let them do their thing but be there.

I'm sorry if I come around a little harsh - and especially my written English is far from perfect, as I really have to make my mind do hard work to rembering school english. It was just an impression or my interpretation of a short text written by a person I do not know describibg a hound I do not know and the person barely knows that made me think "Eeeeasy!". You did your homework, seems you read a lot, you know the terms. There is a foster family, a trainer, you know this forum, you seem prepared up to a high level. Which is great but can lead to stress yourself and your hound out to a maximum. I am shure you give your best. To me it just sounded as if you try a little to hard. Not knowing you or your hound, just based on my interpretation all I want to advice you is to relax. What you describe sounds not like a severe case but like a completely normal hound trying to figure out how pet life together with you works. No special training tips from my side as I am more of the "It's an attitude not so much training"school. If something does not work out with a new dog I try it again from the start as the dog might not have been ready yet but main thing always was: the more I relaxed the less "troubles" there where with any new dog. Oh and baby gates. Baby gates work wonders!

That he did not show "seperation anxiety" at the start, well... how should a dog be afraid of losing contact to its pack if there is no pack. No bond between you and the hound. You where total strangers to each other. There are dogs that choose to stay calm in that situation. Not necessarilly the relaxed way of calm. No he may have started to get used to you a little more (still I would not call it a strong bond after such a short while) and may be secure enough to show what stresses him.

Lots of terms that adress "problem behaviour". Maybe get this out of your head first. A dog that is new to pet life is not automatically a spook and not being able to stay alone at home not necessarilly seperation anxiety. His whole world has turned upside down. No established routines so far, no experience being single pet dog etc. (Adopted another hound 9 weeks ago. A hound that I would call outgoing, unspookish and alone trainable. Still he was insecure and shy at the start. Could not release himself outside, barked, whined and jumped at windows when left alone...oh and peed inside several times. I would call that normal. Some dogs adjust better and faster thsn others and some seem "uncomplicated" at the beginning which simply could be because the are afraid and desorientated and then they show "problematic" changes after a while when they settle in. I truly believe in the "relax yourself" method when introducing a new dog to a household. You have a fully grown hound now that is like a baby in many respects. Has to learn everything from the beginning. Time, patience and humour on your side is what he might need the most.

As european dog owner I would say "Crating? Why crating? Can be done completely without." (Well, honestly, sometimes I use crates with fosters but... crates are still quite uncommon here allthough they became more popular some years ago. But never thought about crating dogs before I read about it in US forums.)

Oh, and as I consider the combination of very small dogs and very large dogs not to be ideal (allthoughI always kept large dogs and small ones together) I want to write a little more. I would never expect a (new) sighthound to have a low prey drive. There only has not been any trigger situation yet. Has your Grey been fostered? Has she allready lived together with smaller dogs? 1week post adoption is a very short time. It is highly likely that you do not see "the real dog" by now. Same with prey drive. I learned in this forum that some call it "honeymoon phase". I see it more like a zombie or autopilot state of being. Everything goes well because the dog is overwhelmed with impressions and has no idea what will happen next, so it simply functions and tries not to get in trouble. For the sake of both of your dogs - one is highly at risk of injury or even worse and the other one is risking loosing a home,(because who would keep the dog that did damage to the other?) I would be careful and alert at least the first weeks or months. Not afraid but prepared to monitor and manage things if needed. Large hound vs small dog can cause double trouble. On the first hand there is inter dog agression or simple comunication. They are so different, that even a wrong step on the smaller dog could do harm. Quarreling over a bone might end with a bruise for large dogs, but with severe injury for a small dog. On the other hand: the small dog could get jealous if the large and new one gets to much attention. It might even attack the large one. This could also lead to trouble for the small guy. And there is prey drive. As long as you have not been in a situation you do not know how a dog really reacts. Small dog safe in the house does not mea small dog safe outside. Safe with the one small dog does not automatically mean safe with every small dog. Right now you have a greyhound that does not turn into killing mode if there is a small dog around. That is great. Something you can work with if needed. But you do not know which are the triggers of your hounds prey drive. My old boy never reacted to squeeking sounds of small dogs, a foster did. Not during the first "autopilot" weeks, but as she had settled in. Both sighthounds hat quite a handful of prey drive but not the same triggers. I would follow the common advices considering socialising dogs that have to live together like not too much attention for the newcomer, seperated feeding, no toys or food around when unattended etc plus some extra "prey drive monitoring": no running together, not letting the large dog try to animatethe smaller one to play (as this is situation that can go wrong. At the beginning. Example: some hounds try to animate their future bait to run so that they can go after it), letting the leashed or muzzled dog see lots and lots of small dog moves, let it hear lots and lots of small dog sounds and you might experience that the hound reacts not so safe anymore. Hopefully not but I would keep this in mind. Small dog gets hurt or scared im the dog park and screams like the large dog never has heard before - for some it is a trigger, for others not. You never know till you know. This is how I introduce small dogs or cats with hounds I do not know well. Your hound does not know you by know, you do not know her andso do the dogs vice versa. Better safe than sorry. One week into a new home is nota time span that allows to be shure that everything is okay. It is not even if it where to large dogs that do no not know eacho other. It is especially not in a case like yours. Be careful. Don't be scared. But be prepared that there could be problems ahead. Give yourself and your dogs time. They have to bond, you have to bond with the new dog and them as a double pack. Time and not to much confidence in "low prey drive" or that dogs get along well right from the start. (In week to after the introduction my ratter planned to kill the big boy,I am shure. And he did not like her to be that bossy. So we had some potentially critical moments in like week 2 and 3. Two months after adoption they seem to get along quite well and are allowed to run together if there are no other large dogs around, but I still have an eye on potential triggers) Good luck! Have fun with your dogs. I have(despite my horrorstorytelling. It works out great in most cases)

I would not let them play, I would not even let them be in the same room alone after such a short while. (5 pound toy sized Prague Ratter living together with 63pound Galgos, one newly adopted, is what I have here) It is not only the preey drive that can cause trouble but also simple inter dog agression as the dogs have not bonded yet. Right now they seem to accept each other most of the time but they are no pack just strangers learning to get along with each other.

This could have happened with my toysized Prague Ratter too. My "sensitive" Galgo-Grey-cross would not have felt anything or if he would not have cared. So this happens with non-greys as well and some "sensitive" sighthounds are ignorant enough to not give a damn or would love nothing more than food thrown at them.

I never gave any dog free access to any toy. Toys are mine and sometimes I share them. Never experienced any possessive behaviour towards me, even in dogs that showed possessive aggression towards other dogs. As I am not of the kind that thinks a hound needs personal toys 24/7 around I would remove all of them and just hand them over for special occasions and would do some trade training. My Lurcher was resource guarding when he came to me. Nearly bit my hand off as he found a bone and I wanted to take it away from him (my other dog would let me take away everything from her mouth. I was so used to it that I did not think about it. New dog was not used to it.) He held the bone and I held the bone, he growled like a devilish hellhound ready to bite off my fingers an moving my hand towards him would not have been a good idea. But if I would let him have the bone he would have won our "fight". So we stood there. 1o minutes without moving. A bone in mouth and hand. Finally his grip losend and I could take the bone. After that I did some hand feeding and trading games for a while. He never ever again showed any agression towards any human being. Not exactly the same situation as yours but I am shure: something one can work on with almost every dog.