MerseyGrey

If you live in a high rise you probably need to be more proactive. I wouldn’t wait until he starts peeing before I took him outside. Assuming that you are currently at home most of the day, start to get your boy into a routine that you are going to be able to maintain when life goes back to normal. Take him outside and wait with him until he has a wee. Give him treats. Eventually he will work out that the faster he pees, the quicker he gets his treat. Then he will get used to going at certain times. We have tried to maintain our pre-lockdown routine of early morning walk, followed by a wee before my husband leaves for work. Then Buddy holds on until I get home, and very often he doesn’t go straight away because he is too interested in cuddles and belly rubs. It might be another 20 minutes after I get home before he decides he needs a wee, so boys can hold it. You just need to get him into a routine, and that is the case, regardless of where you live. Good luck!

I’m sorry for your loss

He’s a handsome dude! You’ve got some fun times ahead 😍

We’re in the UK so travel here is a bit different as we don’t have to worry about crossing state boundaries. The longest journey we’ve done with ours is about five hours and he handled that no problem. I’m confident he could go for longer. Sometimes the only way to find out is to give it a try. It sounds like you’re planning on building up to that really big journey which will give you an idea of how well she handles it. Ours travels in the boot of our car, and as long as we keep the temperature at a good level for him, he’s perfectly comfortable, although we might have to wear an extra layer to stay warm! The boot is lined with veterinary bedding and with a thin memory foam bed on top of that and that seems to fine for him. We’ve never had to stop overnight but I would treat the hotel the same way as any new place that I would take him too with regards to security/escapology.

Welcome Sully and Graham! That face would get lots of kisses in my house

She is adorable and looks like testing both your cat and your other dog! Thanks for the pictures!

I think you’ve done the right thing. I hope I’m brave enough to do the same if I’m ever faced with this kind of tough decision

The ears were the only thing I could see when page loaded up on my iPad, and they are epic! She is beautiful, but I am very partial to a black dog with a frosty face 😍

Sorry for your loss 😢

There was a recent post about kefir being good for pup’s tummies so I suppose it’s a similar thing. From my point of view the milk smells too much like goat’s cheese, which I love but just can’t stomach the smell when it’s milk 🤷‍♀️

Gas. Yes. And how they become the centre of your world, so you rush home from work to see them, and avoid going out because you don’t want to leave them alone. How they become the topic of almost every conversation you have with your spouse as you discuss how much sleep they’ve had, how far you walked, how many poops on the walk (and the consistency of said poops), and how my heart swells when I see him do something cute ie. everything he does. Which I can then talk about. Most of all, I was unprepared for how happy he makes my husband. The look on his face when he sees Buddy’s reaction to me coming home from work is just about as good as Buddy’s reaction itself.

I’m sorry if I made you feel bad. It wasn’t my intention and is the reason why I put the disclaimer at the end of my post. My advice was based on my experience and certainly I believe that in your situation, in the short term I would not continue to ostracise my dog, and in the long term I would seek to modify my own behaviour. If I was concerned about a repeat incident, I would consider finding a behaviourist. You came here for advice. That’s what I would do. Someone else might do it differently. If you give it few more days you might get more responses.

I’m not sure that ‘social shunning’ will mean anything to him in relation to this particular incident. As for looking ‘guilty’, that is a human emotion projected onto an animal by humans. You’ve already said that you recognise that the way you behaved was a trigger for his reaction so maybe you need to remain mindful of your behaviour. If your boy has an excellent behavioural record before this incident I don’t see that you need to do anything further. Withholding treats and affection probably won’t help and greyhounds respond much better to positive reinforcement anyway. There are some much more experienced people than me on this forum who might be able to recommend training books to help you with your boy’s reaction to being leaned over in general, but until then...don’t lean over him! (I’ve just read this back and it sounds like a cyber bum-smack, which is not my intention! I hope you come to trust him again. And totally agree with ramonaghan!)

That looks like the perfect place to spend an evening reading, listening to your favourite album and supping on a glass of your favourite cold drink. I love the cushions too, particularly the crane cushion

I have no experience of this behaviour myself, but I think others might recommend that you stop him from going on the sofa. He could be guarding his space, so give him a space that is out of the way and truly his own and that he doesn’t have to share with anyone else.

As everyone says - do it! We adopted ours aged 7 1/2 (like you, first time dog owners as a couple, and first time greyhound owners) and while we won’t be walking any long distance paths with him, he manages a three mile daily walk - as long as it’s not too warm. He’s approaching his tenth birthday now but still wants to play with his toys in the garden and is happy to go for a run in the field at the end of his walk. Six years old sounds perfect - old enough to be a calming influence in your family, and young enough for a lot of life and love to give. What an excellent choice you’ve made!

Congratulations! She is gorgeous! Did you find a squeak free toy to stop her from driving you all bonkers?

I need to work on my ‘voice of God’. We are definitely more ‘sing-song ‘scuse me!’ In our house, but when Buds turns and looks at me as if to say ‘yes?’, we apologise profusely and shuffle around him. At which point he normally moves into the space I’m trying to get into and the scenario plays over again 🙄. Spoilt dog? I don’t know what you mean...

I don’t know about what caused the other dogs’ scabs but we ours had similar sounding, blistering scabs after a trip on a canal barge here in the U.K., and the vet said it was probably a bacterial infection from dirty water. He hadn’t been in the water and we don’t think we splashed him but we may have touched him with wet hands and this must have been enough. However, Buddy’s scabs looked most like the first picture posted and nowhere near as extensive as the photo you have posted. Presumably you’ve taken yours to the vet; what have they said? The good news was they cleared up after a week on antibiotics and we got some medicated shampoo to use frequently. I hope you solve your mystery as it looks very sore ☹️

I can’t believe that you guys talk to your dogs like this no wonder they get upset 🙄

I agree that shouting at him won’t help, he’ll sneak off and do it quietly where you won’t be able to shout at him. The trick really is to catch him just before he does it and then shoo him outside but it will mean keeping a very close eye on him for a while. The night-time pooping - is he warm enough? Could something like a boiler coming on be disturbing him? If he wakes up during the night for one reason, he might just decide that he’s up anyway so he’ll have a poo. When you say he won’t walk at night, what time are you taking him out? We walk ours first thing (5.30am 😵) and then at around 4pm. Usually this is enough for him and he can go through the night without pooping until the morning. We let him out for a last wee before bed too. We do have occasional accidents which we can’t always explain but mostly we don’t wake up to be greeted by ‘kitchen apples’. Final thought - is his worming up to date? We seem to have more accidents towards the end of the month when he is due to be wormed. And absolutely finally, check your cleaning fluid (and at your parents) and make sure it’s ammonia free as this could be encouraging this behaviour.

Hello Odie’s mum (or dad - I always assume everyone on here is woman at first, don’t know why!). I’m sorry you’re having such a hard time at the start of your relationship with your hound. I think Greysmom’s suggestion of a couple of nights on the sofa with your hound sounds like a good idea so that she knows you’re around and not going anywhere might help Odie feel a bit more settled. Whichever room she sleeps in, consider the position of her bed. My boy’s favourite bed is in a corner, enclosed on three sides (and we have recently added an old mattress topper to his pile of bedding which he loves to snuggle into). Do you know anything about her history? Presumably at 7 years old yours is not the first home that she has been in so maybe your adoption group can shed a little light on her previous behaviour. Buddy was 7 1/2 when we adopted him and from the first night with us he has slept downstairs and never disturbed us, which made us assume that he’d been in a home before ours. The only time we considered having him in the bedroom with us was when we went on holiday, but he scratched and fidgeted so much that we turfed him out after about an hour and he spent the rest of the holiday in the living room at night. I think that it is very much personal choice about where you chose to train her to sleep and that having her in your bedroom overnight is probably a lot more common than it used to be in the U.K. I think that greyhounds seem to be a lot more clingy than other dog breeds and certainly mine will follow me from room to room, practically asleep on his feet at times but determined not to miss out on anything! He wants to be near us, preferably touching, and failing that he must be able to see us. this changed a little with his new bed and he is now (two years into his life with us) willing to sleep there rather than at our feet. The Buddy alarm is also very reliable and goes off at 5.27 each morning so early mornings are in your future while you have a greyhound! You already know how rewarding it is to have your new companion. Things do get easier with time, but the more people with greyhounds that you can talk to, the better. Maybe your adoption group can put you in touch with other owners in your area who you can meet with. Is there a great global greyhound walk organised for near you where you can meet people? Even if they can’t help you directly with this problem, they might just share war stories and make you feel a bit better! Good luck!

I used this book after recommendations on here and it has certainly helped my dog become more tolerant. I got it on kindle and it was a very quick and simple read. Your pup is a big fluffy cutie! I love the fuzzy ones!

Happy birthday Petunia! Hope you’re having a great day full of treats and naps

I’m sorry for your loss. I hope hugs from Larry help to heal your hearts