Hello!
My boyfriend and I adopted a lovely 4 and a half year old male ex racing greyhound just over 4 and a half weeks ago. We think it's going alright but there are some things I would love to know if others have experienced and how it turned out!
His routine is currently:
Walk at 7.20 (40 min)
Food at 8.30
Left 8.45 with Kong
Visit 12.30
Walk 12.45 (20 min)
Some basic training 13.10 (10 mins)
Left 13.30-16.45
Walk 17.15 (40 min)
Dinner 19.00
Usually another 10 mins training at some point
Sleep 22.00
The kong with kibble and peanut butter (frozen) in the morning lasts him about 20 mins or so maybe and in the afternoon he has other chews like pizzle sticks or tripe sticks that last a short period but seem to stop him whining when we first leave. Without these he whines and barks for a while. Whilst we are out, once he's finished his treats and had a nap, he will start to pace and bark for 20 mins or so then settle for a while and then sometimes bark again etc.
When we get back home he barks for about 3 minutes until he settles and throughout the evening he will whine a lot and bark randomly even if he's fed and been to the bathroom. He has toys but only sometimes seems to play with them. When we are out he will roach on the sofa but haven't seen him roach or join us on the sofa when we are home yet!
Currently he likes some fuss and will come over for strokes but only for a short time. He follows us about and gets upset if we go out of the room and doesn't like to be outside by himself, we've been throwing grated cheese about outside so he spends time foraging for cheese by himself, which he seems to enjoy! He likes to come up to the side of the bed for strokes and wags his tail a lot when we wake up in the morning. He's learnt down, stay, look at me and come in a very controlled, non distracted setting.
He will be lying calm getting stroked sometimes and then will suddenly jump up (sending your arm flying if it was over him) and start barking and bow as if he wants to play- is this likely excitement/ fear/ caused by not wanting fuss/ happy or..? On 2 occasions he has let out a growl with no teeth shown but we're not sure what was unique about the stroking or fuss.
Recently, we took him to a pub and he stood the whole time except for maybe 10 mins eating a chew (his bed was there but he ignored it after eating the chew) and he barked a fair bit which was a bit awkward in the pub as he is quite loud!
Are these normal things to expect? Will things calm down? Any suggestions for helping him settle? Most people seem to say that greyhounds rarely bark so we're a bit surprised by a lot of barking for reasons we don't understand yet! He does bark at other dogs too if they are chasing a ball or smaller and bouncy.
The rescue called him a laid back cuddle monster that didn't need more than an hour's exercise a day and said he was great with other dogs- we havent seen this side of him yet! We're having a bit of a panic that he won't be very affectionate and we're going to struggle to leave the house with or without him for long foreseeable future!
I'm so desperate to love him and trying to be upbeat and positive around him but getting pretty anxious, I think that I'm finding it harder to bond as I'm nervous.
Any words of encouragement or advice would be much appreciated!