MerseyGrey

What a lovely way to remember her!

Hello and welcome to the wonderful world/cult of owning a greyhound! If you haven’t already got one, you could buy your boy a coat for night times. It sounds ridiculous at this time of year but we have a coat on ours currently overnight as the temperature drops quite a bit. This could be causing him to be disturbed during the night. I’m a bit further south than you and it chilly here - typical British summer. Greyhounds need their sleep. Think of them as essentially being cats which look like pointy dogs. Buddy will wake up from a seven hour sleep overnight, have a half hour walk and after breakfast he will settle down and sleep until our lunch time if allowed. It’s amazing how quickly he changes from a lively, playful and puppy-like dog to looking like he hasn’t slept for several days. There are ways to train your pup over the next few weeks while you’re on school holidays to minimise the chance of separation anxiety - I haven’t needed to do it so can’t help you with this but I’m sure others will chime in. The following you everywhere - get used to it! You have a new shadow, and for me, it’s only really been during this lockdown spell that Buddy has decided that trailing me from room to room and sticking his nose into everything is not as interesting and rewarding as it used to be. We’ve had him for two happy years. (I’ve heard a rumour that girls are a bit less clingy). We found the first few weeks very stressful as we worried about everything and anything that a normal person could worry about, and invented things on days that were going well. It gets easier, and you learn to relax a bit more. I hope you both get a good night’s sleep, and things will look better for both of you afterwards. Good luck!

Mine halts when he wants to go a particular way too, or if there is something interesting going on because he is very nosey. We have four ways of dealing with it: a quick loud ‘come on’ with a tug of the lead as HeyRunDog with Grace, wait it out for a bit, walk him in a big circle plus/minus using our bodies to guide him round to my direction, and when all else fails, bribery! We show him a treat and encourage him to walk in the direction we want him to go in, and that usually starts him off again. Oh - there is an option five too, which is just go the way he wants to go (my boy is spoilt and gets his way an awful lot). I’m a lot firmer with him if he’s making a nuisance of himself to other people by being stubborn(e.g. trying to climb in their car), and I found that using a harness helps a lot with controlling him. Your guy is gorgeous and he looks like a big cuddle monster!

Such a beautiful tribute for a special girl who gave you lots of happy memories. I’m sorry for your loss 😢

Oh happy birthday Bea! You’re certainly being spoiled, just like you deserve! And hugs and special thoughts to mum and the rest of the campers from Buddy and family xx

We can’t be the only people who have had a wee in the garden to encourage our hound to do the same...can we? He’s a boy though and likes to have the last word so I don’t know if it will work with a girl. If you’ve had two hounds previously you’ll already know that each can be very different but it must be hard to accept some quirks and traits if your others have been easy to deal with. I’m sure she’ll come out of her shell with time.

I would start by finding out what he is being fed currently as you will need to continue that for a short while at least and then you can think about transitioning him onto whatever diet you would like to try. Lots of people like a raw diet for their pooch but you don’t have to feed meat. Mine is on kibble and is healthy with a lovely coat. We fed him royal Canin for most of his two years with us but have recently switched him to a food sold through the Greyhound Trust here in the UK after a recommendation from someone on GreyTalk, which he enjoys just as much. I think the diet that you give will be influenced by your dog’s response to that food (including the effect it has on his digestive system) and what is convenient for you. I’m not sure about mixing raw and kibble in the diet - I think I read that you wouldn’t mix them in the same meal, but to be honest I’ve not been very adventurous with Buddy’s diet so I would be interested in the responses you get too. I also love that you’ve casually chucked in about feeding your dog ‘roo’, which is an exotic meat for us in Blighty!

Not exactly a pond, but we took Buddy on a canal trip with us last year and he must have been splashed with canal water as he developed a skin infection which resulted in quite large blisters - about ten on his body - which scabbed over. He needed antibiotics and shampoo to treat it. The first thing the vet asked was if he’d been near standing water so I assume it was from the canal

If your pup is running around a lot you will find it harder to fatten him up. We met a couple with a whippet/Italian greyhound puppy last year who were worried because they could not get her to gain any weight because she was on the move all the time. As long as you’re feeding a good quality complete food and he’s not going hungry he should be fine. Also, depending on how used you are to sighthounds, you have to recalibrate yourself as to what is a good weight for them (from experience - I was convinced he needed a bit more weight on him, then I had to put him on a diet 😬). He’s a beauty, by the way. And my dog thrives on cuddles and love

Are you sure Tulip is on the wrong side of the pole? Maybe it’s you...

They are a lovely looking bunch. Is he a Harry Potter fan, or is it is folks? I also like his martingale!

Good news!

Hahaha! Buddy did this today too. Although I was on my out of the back door with his bowls when he was on his way inside. There was almost - almost - a collision which prompted the scream of death and perpetual sad face. Such a drama queen. He is currently sleeping in a shady spot in the garden. It’s hotter than Hades in North Cheshire today!

The Unsinkable Cletus! 😍

This sounds like my dog the first summer we got him - he was 7 1/2! For him, it was the signal that a zoomie was about to follow. He would shuffle himself across the lawn like this regularly and it never crossed my mind to be worried about him. If yours is anything like mine, if she gets herself into a situation she can’t get herself out of, she will whine like she is being tortured. He hasn’t done it so much since that first summer and we put it down to him being filled with joy because he was outside rather than in a kennel. He does however still snatch and grab for toys (he’s 9 1/2 now) and is very single minded when he wants whatever toy you have in your hand. He is lightning quick and have caught a few bruises on my hands from not letting go of his toys quickly enough so if you have a little ones around it might be better not to let them play together until you can control that behaviour. Other than that, just enjoy watching her crazy behaviour! She must be very happy in her new home

Lovely photos!

Hahaha I will have to see if I can find a company who does customised bumper stickers, I’m sure there’ll be one on Etsy

I think the cuddle picture in his elf coat might be my favourite! He approached me slowly and just keeping inching into me and eventually he was nuzzling into the crook of my neck. He’s a big cuddleslut anyway but this was the first, and so far only, time he has done this. I might have to start smearing my neck in peanut butter...

Certainly! Carrot and apple pupcakes with cream cheese frosting: Cakes: 200g/7oz buckwheat or brown rice flour 130g/4 3/4 oz grated carrot 75g/ 2 3/4 oz rolled oats (optional: 1tbsp ground flaxseeds, 1tsp ground cinnamon) _______________________________ 200g/7oz plain live yogurt 150g/5 1/2 oz unsweetened apple sauce (I used stewed Bramley apples from Granny Janny and Grandpapa John’s apple tree) 3 eggs, lightly beaten (I used large as the recipe doesn’t specify) ____________________________ for the frosting: 150g/ 5 1/2oz cream cheese 90g/ 3 1/4oz unsweetened apple sauce decorate with flaxseeds, slices of dehydrated apple or carrots or finely chopped fresh rosemary oven should be 180C/160C fan oven/ gas mark 4. Recipe suggests to use a 24 hole mini muffin tin but there was too much mixture, so I used a 12 hole mini muffin tin and a tin with fairy cake cases. These are sized somewhere between a mini muffin and a cupcake. in one bowl, mix the dry ingredients including the cinnamon and flaxseeds if using. in a jug, mix the wet ingredients gently and thoroughly mix the wet into the dry ingredients. Spoon into prepared tins (lightly oiled) and bake for 15minutes. (Toothpick or skewer should come out clean). Cool completely. beat/blend the frosting ingredients together depending how smooth you want it and smooth over the cool cakes. Decorate if you like, and these can be frozen for up to four months. The recipe is from a book called ‘Dogs’ Dinners’ by Debora Robertson and since this was so easy, I am going to be making some more (beef and potato muffins, a birthday cake, doggy breath bones) and I’ll let you know how they go and share those recipes if you would like them. Happy baking!

Whoa! I think I may have given the wrong impression! Buddy is definitely an ‘in your face fuss junkie’, and although there are a few days when I wish I could go to the loo in private, I wouldn’t have him any other way either 😍. As Zimsmom says, if he eating and pooping he’s probably very happy with his lifestyle. Maybe when he first came home he thought you were a clingy human, and now he’s more comfortable, he doesn’t feel the need to pretend!

Sorry for your loss

Thank you all for your kind thoughts and wishes! After the excitement of yesterday (plus another pupcake and bonus frosting) Buddy is exhausted and trying to ignore the thunderstorm going on around us. Bloody weather!

Did the change in his behaviour correspond with the arrival of the baby/house move? How old is Pablo? Im not an experienced owner - we are on our first boy and have also had him for two years - but our boy seems to be an anomaly in that he has never got on the sofa, and hasn’t tried to follow us upstairs. He doesn’t get excited about walks, they seem to be a bit of a chore for him that he does to keep us happy. I think these dogs are the most cat-like dogs I’ve ever encountered, and maybe your boy just takes it to the extreme. Ours continues to surprise us even now as little bits of his personality emerge. Maybe you have a very chilled boy, and just maybe he will surprise you too

Buddy has been with us for two years today! I can’t believe how quickly that time has passed. In the two years that we have had the honour of sharing our lives, he has much improved with other dogs and we have met lots of nice people in our area because they want to stop and stroke his lovely soft head. We didn’t celebrate properly last year as I didn’t realise there was such a thing as a Gotcha Day but now we do know, we are celebrating in style! Buddy enjoyed his carrot and apple pupcake this morning (and this evening) and we are going to spend the evening doing Big spoon, Little spoon with belly rubs. Some pictures below from the last two years (apologies for the Instagram heading but I can’t always work out how to just post the picture! I’m a complete Luddite, and I only joined Instagram so I could post pictures on this forum - but look - I got another follower in between posting these pictures!)

Happy birthday Val!