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MerseyGrey

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    Meet Dixie

    in Introductions & Biography

    Posted

    Some photos from yesterday, although not as many as I would have liked as I was often busy distracting her! And then the main event from this morning. She had so much fun in the field that she was too tired to do much woodland exploring but I think this is somewhere we will try to go every other week or so

    https://www.instagram.com/p/C7_TiIboOWI/?igsh=MXkweGhob3MxbWM5MQ==
     

    https://www.instagram.com/p/C7_VV2MofIg/?igsh=a3p3MHQ1eHpodWIz

     

    i added this yesterday but must have forgot to press submit :rolleyes:. It’s my age

    • Haha 1

    Meet Dixie

    in Introductions & Biography

    Posted

    4 hours ago, EllenEveBaz said:

    Very sure-footed dog.  She doesn't look nervous at all.  What did she think of being in with all those balls?  :lol 

    I don’t think she knew what to make of it all! The area was a unit on an industrial estate with a big shutter door and gauze to block the view but there was lots going on outside so she was a bit distracted, although she did want to play with the toys I took along. We will go again to see if she can enjoy it a bit more.

    We didn’t make it to Chatsworth today. We didn’t have enough time to do the full walk so we did a shorter walk along the Monday trail - a former railway line converted for recreation. It was teeming with dogs and she got fed her body weight in treats but she was generally very good. 

    When we got home she was really whiny and she started gnawing the tip of her tail, which is something she did in kennels.  We took her out for another six mile walk with a pub break in the middle. We left when she started shouting at another dog that came in and settled a few tables away :rolleyes:. Maybe it’s all too much too soon. 

    This evening she has chosen my thigh to rest her tiny head on. She is finally exhausted, and so are we!

    • Like 2

    Meet Dixie

    in Introductions & Biography

    Posted

    She is doing well, thanks. She’s a bit whiny, she barks at things a lot that we can’t see so we assume it’s shadows and birds, and grumbles at noises she can’t comprehend. She’s stubborn about when she walks. Some days we’ve just given up and turned around, especially if it’s raining (maybe she’s made of sugar - she’s sweet enough:wub:).

    She is getting better at sitting and looking to me for treats when a dog passes. Then we can avoid her shouting at the other dog, although today a labrador escaped its garden and despite me shouting that ‘MY DOG IS REACTIVE!!!’ the owner wasn’t too bothered about them meeting, until she nearly took its face off. She did, however, recover really quickly, unlike me who spent the rest of walk muttering under my breath.

    Prior to that we tried out an agility centre. She wasn’t completely comfortable but was relaxed enough to play a bit, and it will be more familiar when we go again. She also got a new t-shirt (which she wasn’t wearing for her afternoon walk but since labradors can’t read it wouldn’t have made much difference). 
     

    https://www.instagram.com/reel/C76fVPVoG5b/?igsh=MW9qa3ZocXAwOWY1dg==
     

    https://www.instagram.com/p/C76cYNUoq2Z/?igsh=MXF5bmI1ZHN5eXZuMw==
     

    I am considering getting a matching sweatshirt that says ‘people reactive’. The dog field is Sunday morning. We are also heading into the Peak District tomorrow to do a walk from Bakewell to Chatsworth and back. I do love a trip to Bakewell - if nothing else, it’s a good excuse to look for puddings and tarts. I’ll be sure to take some photos from each trip!

    • Like 1

    Meet Dixie

    in Introductions & Biography

    Posted

    26 minutes ago, EllenEveBaz said:

    What a cutie!  She's a fawn tuxedo.  :) Those eyebrows slay me.   Her tug-of-war reminds me of my first grey, Eve, who loved to play it but at first was obviously uncomfortable about growling at a human.  She quickly overcame that and spent years happily venting her frustrations by telling me how she was going to tear me to pieces.  :) 

    Do you know much about her history besides the house destroyer rap sheet?  

    For GreyTalk company, there's Nutmeg the whippet lurcher.  And Milo is 1/6 whippet.  

    :lol Dixie has no such compunctions about growling at a human…or barking at pretty much everything that she doesn’t understand. It sounds like once they find their voice there is no shutting them up! After a ninja-quiet older gentlemen, it’s quite a change. 

    I hadn’t really noticed that she has a tuxedo! And she does have good company on here although I don’t think she will make any friends by shouting at them all the time. 

    We don’t know too much about her history. I think that she was adopted from the same rescue about two years and has had a happy, active life with her mum. Mum’s job changed after our lockdowns meaning that she was working longer hours and not from home, resulting in Dixie re-training as an interior designer which triggered the return to kennels. But her mum did spend a lot of time with a trainer trying to iron out the reactivity issues and made great progress. It seems that the dog we currently have is more manageable than the one she started with. I can’t help thinking that there might be something else going on because I can’t imagine wanting to give a dog up that I’d had for such a long time over curtains.

    We have a training session booked in for the end of June and we are taking her to a secure field with woodland next weekend. Hopefully we will be able to build her confidence a little more as I really think this is a major reason for her behaviour. 

    • Like 2

    Meet Dixie

    in Introductions & Biography

    Posted

    3 hours ago, ramonaghan said:

    I love her! And I'm so happy for all of you in this "foster" situation. 

    Dixie reminds me of Lauren's @gracegirl lurcher puppy Poppy—too bad there's an ocean between you! That could be an entertaining play date. :banana :riphair :offwall

    It would be carnage. Poppy and Dixie have the same eyebrows but somehow Poppy looks like butter wouldn’t melt and Dixie is deciding where to bury my body (but only after I’ve fed her).

    • Haha 3

    Meet Dixie

    in Introductions & Biography

    Posted

    Dixie

    Dixie

    Dixie

    I hope I’m still allowed to post on here since Dixie is not a greyhound but a lurcher :D. I’m not certain of her mix but know that she is a bit bully breed and I suspect that she is a little bit whippet. She’s 8 years old and was in a home for two years, but unfortunately her owner’s circumstances changed and she was returned to the rescue. She came to stay with us for a long weekend at the beginning of May because she wasn’t doing well in kennels and was A Very Good Girl.

    When we returned her that first weekend, Dan was a little bit in love. We said about how good she had been and that if she wasn’t a confirmed home wrecker (the reason she was returned. She was being left for long spells and had become destructive in her boredom), we would have agreed to foster her long term. Naomi’s ears pricked up and the wheels were set in motion for us to bring her home with a view to keep her until she finds a forever sofa. The rescue wanted her in a home because of her dog reactivity and the knowledge that they are unlikely to find her an adopter. They have arranged for a walker to come in at lunch time to tire her out - the walker costs less than having her in a kennel, which is now available for another dog - and she is better off being away from all the other dogs. 

    So here we are. She came to us on Monday and she hasn’t destroyed anything yet apart from a few toys. She is a boisterous playmate. Her favourite games are tug o’ war and jump on the bed (a new game we invented where we run up the stairs and launch ourselves onto the bed together). Tug o’ war is accompanied by growling but if you let go of the toy she runs back to you and pushes the toy at you to continue playing. When she gets onto the bed in the morning she wriggles under the duvet at the bottom end and stays completely hidden until she can no longer avoid being called for walkies. She’s not too cuddly but likes to know where you are, and does like to snuggle between us on the sofa.

    At the minute she is still a foster dog and we are going to try and showcase her good points (she has many) to get her adopted but she does fit in quite well here. It wouldn’t be the worst thing if she ended up staying, but I still feel that any dog would be better in home with someone around more - although in Dixie’s case being at home on her own is better than being in kennels  She’s a clever girl and although three walks a day will tire her out at first, she needs some mental stimulation during the day too. I’m going to contact a trainer in the village to see if we can work on her reactivity a bit more and maybe she can teach me how to get Dixie to learn some tricks for treats to keep her brain active.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/C6hGNMYIjUG/?igsh=MXRva3p5YnIxZWYyMA==

    • Like 6

    Rita, the podenco maneto 1/3/12~4/26/24

    in Remembrance

    Posted

    I’m sorry for your loss Ducky. Those dogs are so badly treated in Spain that it must be hard for them to love humans too; that you both managed it eventually speaks so much of your spirits and determination. I too am sure she’s chasing a ball around over the bridge

    Exercise for your Hound

    in Everything else Greyhound

    Posted

    :eek I can imagine plenty of broken speed sticks with that contraption. It reminds that there used to be a breed of dog that was specifically bred to turn a spit in days of yore…I’m not sure that anything would cook very well on the end of this particular wheel

    Taking greyhound to the park

    in Training and Behavior discussion

    Posted

    On 4/19/2024 at 3:10 PM, EllenEveBaz said:

     

    PS:  "Hypothetical" would be a good name for a greyhound.  You could call him or her Hype for short.  Just sayin'.  :)  

    :lol I wouldn’t trust a new greyhound off leash in a place with so many distractions but I think that once they get to know that you’re their human, taking them for long lazy afternoons watching the world go by sounds like bliss. They are intelligent enough to know you’re their source of food (so will probably come back to you eventually) but really have no common sense so won’t think twice about chasing a cat/squirrel/crisp packet into traffic. Like someone else said, it becomes second nature -like watching a toddler - and you’ll find plenty of other things which will displace the ‘are they going to escape’ worry.

    When we’d had Buddy for a few weeks, I let him into the back garden to do his business. A few minutes later, I couldn’t see or hear him, so wondered outside to find that someone had left our garden gate open. I ran out to the front to look for him to find him standing patiently at the front door, waiting to be let back in. It was tea time, after all (clever enough to wait at the front door, not clever enough to find his way back through the gate :rolleyes:)

    Foster update

    in Everything else Greyhound

    Posted

    39 minutes ago, FiveRoooooers said:

    It's been almost two months without an update from the House of FosterFail Consideration :lol 

    :rollin

    :lol Well, that’s because when we last volunteered ourselves we got a wonderful response…they didn’t have any dogs that they could give us for the weekend - they were all out to foster with a view to adoption! Merlin and Sammy both look like their adoptions will go ahead, which is great news. 
    You might remember that we had Ami with us for a weekend, who was perfect except for about 30 seconds where we feared for our lives. We got some more information about him and how he was treated, which wasn’t particularly nice, and the news about him is mixed. He is currently in long-term foster through the rescue’s vet, and they are going to spend time trying to work out what his triggers are for his ‘unfavourable’ behaviour, and they are going to try and see if they can iron out his issues. Him being with someone who has experience with dog behaviour is going to be essential, and they are going to assess him in a few months before possibly putting him back in the rotation for adoption. That is the good news. If they can’t work these things out, his future is a bit less certain. They can’t put him out for adoption if his behaviour can’t be changed - the rescue is quite small and they can’t risk him biting someone again. There was some talk of him becoming a sponsor dog, so they would keep him in kennels and raise funds for him. But it’s not much of a life for him - for any dog really. We will keep an ear out for him.

    We have a long weekend here due to Easter and we have a guest. I was advised to keep this quiet specifically from you Jan - I have it on good authority that the minute you know, you’ll be booking a flight to see our handsome brindle boy Brolly. This will be his first time in a home of any kind. I took him for a walk last week, and will probably do so again before he comes here on Friday. Here’s a link to his picture on Instagram. I’ll get the spare room ready ;)

    https://www.instagram.com/p/C4x1IG3I5_E/?igsh=ZGJvajQ2a3dkbW1q

    • Like 2
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