sewgreyt

@macoduck oh goodness... Prickly nose! I can't imagine the utter devastation that would ensue if a hound came into contact with a cactus!! Lil had lulled us into a false sense of security, having given up surfing for a few weeks! After this week, our kitchen has never been so tidy!

And a further update - you were all absolutely right that sleeping upstairs wouldn't mean she couldn't be on her own at all any more. Lily survived all alone with her treats for 2 sets of 2 hours and an hour with her sitter on Wednesday with no signs of anxiety when we got home. So, sleeping upstairs seems to be doing her a world of good! I think we're moving into a different stage of settledness now! Fingers crossed we keep moving forward... Thanks again for the encouragement to sleep as a pack! It's made the world of difference to us all. Lily's new confidence has also translated into a renewed love of counter surfing. So far this week, she's successfully surfed for a bowl of salad (ate the whole thing before I heard a munching sound!!), a tube of Pringles (she ate as many as she could while I swept them up as fast as I could!) and a flower from an arrangement in a vase (I had to take it from her jaws in case it didn't agree with her...! Vase now definitely out of reach!!). And I wouldn't change her for the world!!

Thanks everyone. This is all great advice. We were advised by our rescue centre on the nighttime thing. We've since had a rethink and she's slept with us the last couple of nights and we're all so much happier! She's spending a couple of hours alone this afternoon while we both have to be out, so we'll see how well she does on the anxiety front. Fingers crossed! Re. long days alone - please don't think we're never with her. We're home most of the time. It's only when my husband and I are both working at the same time (fairly rare) that alone days happen, and she has 2 sitters that she absolutely loves coming in every 2-3 hours to give her company, walk her, play etc. And we make sure, however early in the morning we're leaving, that we get up an hour early so we spend time with her, maybe for walking or playing or grooming, general bonding. She's very loved, and very much "with" her humans most of the time.

Thanks guys... We've been advised not to let her sleep in our room just yet - she has to be okay with doing occasional long days on her own with a sitter/walker every 3 hours for an hour or so. So we need her to know she's okay when she's on her own, and it's a big worry if she's having a huge wobble on that front. I'm concerned that more constant companionship at night will make her more anxious when we absolutely have to leave her.

Hello! Sleep-deprived new greyhound owner here. We've had our gorgeous girl Lily for 12 weeks now, and though we love her, and are incredibly proud of all the adjustments she's made, we're desperate for a good night's sleep! We've got a good bedtime routine going, and she'll settle in her bed quite happily and go to sleep. She's gated in the kitchen, her safe space with her bed, water etc, and we go upstairs to our room where she can hear us. She'll usually settle for about 2 hours and then need to go to the toilet. This seems to happen even if we take her for a late night walk just before bed and 'empty' her! One of us goes down and takes her into the garden with no fuss or chat, and then she goes straight back to bed. Now it gets a bit complicated - sometimes she'll sleep through till about 5.45ish and then need to go out again. She's always a bit whiney after that and I think it must be that her kennel used to get going around 6am. We started out leaving her to whine, but as we got desperate for sleep after several weeks, we let her come upstairs to our room at about 6am for a lie in for a little while. That's when it all went really wrong, as she clearly can't understand why she can't just come upstairs straight away! She started whining and howling earlier and earlier... We didn't give in, but we all got less and less sleep as she didn't give in either! We've had the added complication that we both went away for work last week for 8 days and left her at home with my husband's son to sit for her. She really likes him, so it seemed like a good plan, but she was really anxious all week and wee'd and poo'd all over the house, and howled for a lot of the nights... And now that we're home she's still doing the odd stray wee and howling all night again. Last night she woke up at midnight for a wee and a poo, then at 2am for a wee, and then howled fairly continuously from 2.30am till 6.45am when I got up. I've gone "back to basics" and am not letting her upstairs at all while we're in bed. We're doing isolation training again and keeping everything very chilled to try and help her through the anxiety, but my concern is that even if we do all that okay, we weren't getting nights right for her in the first place. Is it a case of just sticking with a routine and waiting her out? Do I need a better plan so that anxiety doesn't really get out of control? And when might I sleep again?!! What with jetlag from the work trip and Lily's howling, I'm feeling decidedly strange!! Thanks in advance for any advice, but please be kind - first time dog-human in a vulnerable, sleep-deprived state!!