bagof4grapes

We've had Xena for 2 1/2 weeks now so this is all very new, both for her and us. My husband and I had dogs growing up but never indoor dogs. We're still getting used to the concept of having to let our dog out to go to the bathroom and we thought it would be pretty straight-forward but it's proving to be anything but. Xena is straight from the track so we're technically fostering her right now, soon to adopt. Perhaps a lot of this is because she's still learning too. Most of the time when we let her out to go, she pees first and then sometimes poops too. I've found that if she doesn't pee at every potty break we give her, she'll go on the floor in the house. This is especially so at night when we give her her last potty break before bed. She'll be indoors for 8-9 hours while we sleep so this one is the most important. But here I am sitting by the door waiting for her to pee. It's now 11:30pm and she's been out there for over an hour, still no pee. I need to sleep! Is there some magic button everyone else knows how to press which I have yet to discover? Is it something she'll pick up on if I just keep waiting until she goes and then praising her like mad and showering her with treats every time? How long will it take? I'd like to know when I get to stop being a sleep-deprived zombie during the day. Getting a dog door is seeming like it won't be an option as we have strictly-indoor cats and I can't find a single microchip-activated door that's sized for greyhounds. Are there other options out there that I don't know about? Please help me, I'm at my wit's end!

Thank you so much for the replies and suggestions! I found a 6 gallon lidded bucket at Home Depot and I bought biodegradable garbage bags on Amazon. I think that'll be a great solution for us, so thank you for the tips! They do but it doesn't have its own fence, just the yard fence. Our dog has already been pool trained and she knows how to get out if she falls in... which is unlikely because she's now very wary of the pool ever since I tossed her in there LOL. It's super easy to pool train a dog and that's the way we've been doing it since I was a kid. Always had dogs around pools and once they know where the steps are there's no problem. One of our dogs used to go for a morning swim on his own every day, just down the steps, paddle around, then back out again. Still thinking about the dog door and weighing our options. I had already considered hiring someone to come over for noontime potty breaks, so that's definitely still on the table. Though I'd like to have a dog door picked out and saved in my bookmarks just in case we ever decide that it's necessary. If anyone has a product to recommend I'd still love to take a look at it. Thanks, everyone!

Hey, folks! First-time greyhound foster and soon-to-be-adopter here. We just got our girl Xena on Saturday and we're quickly learning our way around owning a dog in adulthood. My husband and I both grew up with dogs but we've never had to figure this stuff out for ourselves so it's new, but not new at the same time. First thing, waste disposal: We have a rather small backyard, much of which is taken up by a pool, and dog waste really needs to be cleaned up every day. As of now we don't have a proper disposal can and the smell and flies are starting to become a bother. I've done some looking around and I can't seem to find any one waste disposal system that might work for us. They either look like they're for much smaller dogs (super small capacity), they use plastic bags like crazy (I'd like to avoid that, it's expensive and it's terrible for the environment), or they get really bad reviews for not getting rid of the smell properly. We already have a poop scooper that works well, we just need something to put it in. I've been kind of eyeing those doggie dooleys, the underground septic tank thingys that break down the waste (like this one) but I'm wondering if you guys have any suggestions for dog waste disposal. What system do you use? Do you have experience with dooleys and do they work? Are they usable in a smaller back yard or do you need more space? Second topic, microchip dog door: Usually we're able to let Xena out on a regular schedule but we don't know for sure that we'll be able to keep that up all the time. I'd feel much better if we gave her a dog door to the back yard so that she doesn't need us there. We have a sliding glass door so it'll be easy to fit one of those panel doors. However, we also have two cats who are strictly indoors, and our neighborhood has raccoons, so we'd like to keep the kitties in and the wild critters out. We live in SoCal and the coldest it ever gets during the day is 55-60 degrees, so I'm not concerned about her getting locked outside for a couple hours if the door fails, and I think a microchip-activated door would be perfect for us. The problem is that I haven't been able to find any that will fit a 27" tall greyhound. This is the closest I can find, but the rise plus the height of the door only brings it to 23.75". Does anyone know where I can find a microchip panel dog door that's greyhound-sized? Thanks in advance!

Thank you for the warm welcomes! Xena is continuing to settle in and things are still going really well. Today she got to explore upstairs and got to meet Westley the kitten face-to-face. She didn't want to get too close and she refused to look at him, which is good, and I convinced him to sit quietly in my lap. By the end of the meeting he was playing with his toys while she stood nearby. Then later in the day while I was letting her roam around with her muzzle on, she wandered by him without noticing he was there which was too close for his liking and he hissed and swatted her. She yelped and went running, the poor thing, but I think I like her being scared of the cats. It's much better than the other way around. Westley is still concerned but he's not as scared as he was the first day or two. He doesn't run from her anymore which is *really* good. If we can just avoid that urge to chase I think we'll be just fine. We're developing a regular potty schedule and she's gotten very good about going immediately when we let her out. So far she's only had one accident and it was entirely our fault so I feel like her housetraining is pretty solid already!

Hello! My name is Genevieve and my husband Michael and I have just fostered our first greyhound fresh off the track from Tijuana. Her race name is Boltz but since we're planning on adopting her we've given her the name Xena, after our favorite warrior princess. Michael and I had been wanting a dog for a very long time but until recently we'd been living in apartments with no-dog rules. Then in October we were finally able to buy our first house, a 2k sq ft 2-story with a yard and a pool, which for LA is no small feat! It's super exciting and we are loving this new life. We already had one kitty, an older male named Mr. Tumnus who is my baby. Seriously, I've had him longer than I've known my husband, haha! And more recently we rescued a stray 4 mo old kitten named Westley. We started the process with Fast Friends, a local greyhound adoption agency, back in December but it turned out that adoption rates were high and they ran out of dogs! Last week I got a call from the adoption coordinator that we could come help out with a retirement day and start out fostering with the goal of adoption if we were up for the challenge. My husband and I have had dogs all our lives and I'm an amateur animal trainer so even though we have no greyhound experience, we were definitely up for it. On Saturday we went out to retirement day and got to help freshly retired dogs through the process. They got bathed, nail trimmed, vetted, had their pictures taken, and then went through a small animal test. I saw Boltz/Xena and I immediately fell in love with her. She was so calm and gentle but so eager for affection and loved everyone who came to greet her. I also have such a soft spot for brindles! She also passed her small animal test with flying colors, which was very important for us with our two kitties. At the end of the day we got to take her home and it was magical! It's been very interesting helping a dog learn to be a pet rather than a racing machine but so rewarding and everything is going very well! Tumnus is being a very chill old man cat and Xena is much more scared of him than he is of her (she got swatted by one of the cats during her test, haha) and frankly she's pretty happy just staying out of his way. He rules the house and she seems to have figured that out very quickly! As for Westley, he's still a skittish kitten and he's stayed upstairs which I'm totally fine with. We put a dog gate on the stairs so it's a doggy off-limits area and Westley has had no reason to come down. Eventually we'll get them acquainted and we need to work with him to make sure he won't try to run, but otherwise everything is going great!