MerseyGrey

I’ve managed to get some pics of The Budster in his Christmas coats and would love to see some of other people’s pups if you have any. The more ridiculous the better!

Totally agree. Plus, a smaller house just means that the love is more concentrated 😍

His brindle pattern is like a Rorschach. I swear I see another greyhound! Beautiful boy!

Funny boy!

😂 bloody autocorrect!

Any excuse to share a photo! These are all of Buddy, he’s our first greyhound but we’re both pretty certain he won’t be our last!

Buddy was a stress head when we first got him around 18 months ago. He has bonded very strongly with me. In our first few weeks he used to follow each of us to the front door and try and block us from leaving, he would stand in front of the stairs when I tried to go upstairs for something and we would get the mournful wail if we were not in the room.i felt truly awful about bringing this loving boy to a home where his humans were gone for most of the day. But I never considered him to have separation anxiety as he wasn’t exhibiting any of the destructive behaviour or trying to escape the house so he could get to us that I had read about. I could be wrong. Within a few weeks he had settled into a routine that during the week we both leave for a few hours and he can catch up on his beauty sleep. The weekend is a slightly different matter still as they are less structured and he expects us to be around so if we have to leave the house for some reason we bribe him with some food and we slip out. I refused to get a camera as I think I would either a) go mad watching him if he took a while to settle or b) just spend all day watching him and never get any work done. He still gives me a mournful wail when I go upstairs after work to get changed into my walking gear, but my advice would be to give your boy a few weeks to settle in. He’s still getting used to a new environment, and in a month you will have a different dog, and in six months he will be different again. It’s a learning curve for you all! 😊

I’m sure they did...we’re beside ourselves with worry while they are oblivious and will just sleep through our absence

Good luck! We ask my very dependable in laws to stay with us if we need an extended sit but we also have a lady who comes in for our very (very) occasional nights out without the dog who stays for toilets breaks a bit of a cuddle. But mostly we have just stopped going out to places where he can’t come, so now it’s holidays with the boy and we visit dog friendly pubs (many are, including the one across the road from us fortunately!). I’m sure we don’t need to be like this but most of the time I just don’t want to leave him anyway. Sometimes you just can’t help it. I hope it goes well today

Bloody hell! Who needs a vacuum cleaner, right?

Happy birthday Jenny! Since it’s already ‘Spoil your hound day’ does she get a double helping of being spoilt?

So far today Buddy has had the finished cream tub and the gravy from our lunch plates...if this seems a little mean on ‘Spoil your hound day’ it’s because he’s still on a diet from being spoilt too much in the last 18 months. Later I will be adding a little bit of salmon risotto to his tea, possibly delivered in an ice cream cone. We will probably end the day with a little light spooning with ear and tummy scritches on the living room floor. Is this adequate?

🤞

Is it the one mentioned in this thread (link to the commercial in the replies)?

What a beauty! She looks like a keeper ❤️💕

I was the same, just a big bag of worry for about the first year. Our adoption centre absolutely put the fear of god (or dog) into us and I’m absolutely certain that we wouldn’t have had so much worry bringing home a newborn child for the first time. It’s been 18 months now and I am much more laid back with him. Re: posting - I just wanted to see a photo. No one will cyber shout at you for sharing photos of your pup!

Hello. I don’t think that keeping her muzzle on will help to manage her prey drive (someone will correct me if i’m wrong), but obviously it stop her biting whatever she comes near to and it will keep your child safe if she gets in the way. The previous post is right - you’re not going to train that behaviour out in a few weeks. Mine has a fairly strong prey drive and I haven’t bothered to correct it, rightly or wrongly, so I can’t offer any advice for the long term. But in the short term I would suggest keeping her on a shorter lead when walking near roads so she is under better control in these areas and persevere with the command training. ‘No’ said sternly often works wonders in these situations too. Out on walks, I do what you suggested, which is keep walking towards the prey in question, but I have no idea how a fox would react. Most potential victims disappear before we get too close. Buddy is my first greyhound and this aspect of his nature is probably the only thing I would say is ‘negative’ about owning a greyhound. But it’s not a deal breaker for me - I can certainly live with it and the positives that come from having him far outweigh this. Hopefully your experience will be the same. There are plenty of people that post on here have had greyhounds for many years so hopefully they can give you some more specific advice about training-yourself and your dog! Good luck!

It is hard when they don’t eat. I couldn’t imagine skipping one meal, let alone two or three and it’s worse because they’ve seemingly got no weight to spare. But if you’re feeding her the same food that she was happily eating in foster then it’s probably just the strangeness of her new situation. I think your plan to put food down for a limited time at her next meal, then take it away and try it later (dry if kibble) is a good plan. Presumably she’s taking treats when you offer them so she’s not starving. I think you’ve said in other posts that you’ve had greyhounds before - is this your first one that has refused food? I had to google tootsie roll as they are not available here in the uk. Very good description. Here it’s a cadbury’s mini roll if you’re lucky, a Mr Whippy if it’s a bit softer. It’s always compared to food though! Good luck - will you be posting any pictures of her in the introduction forum?

Buddy takes his out one at a time too. He starts with his favourite (the standard issue grunting hog) and as he walks past he glances sideways at you to see if he can tempt you out to play. If you dare to bring them in he will take them out again. And when playtime is finished, he comes inside and leaves all his toys outside and his sucker humans go around the garden picking them all up. It’s what we were put on this earth to do, we have decided 😊

I know you shouldn’t laugh, but the surprised look on their faces is priceless. I hope it’s only her ego that’s bruised

Happy birthday! I hope you did lots of snoozing and had plenty cuddles 😘

When we were houndless and care free we scrubbed our decking with biological washing powder granules which stopped them from becoming slippery but I’m not sure how much it would work in a very cold winter - ours are pretty mild. There is anti slip decking paint and strips which you can search for on amazon and see if either of those would suit your needs. Our current decking is horrendously slippy and rotting in places. My husband was ignoring it until Buddy put his foot through a rotten plank - now we are having the entire garden remodelled to suit the dog 😊

Poor girl! I agree with Palmettobug...they cry at the smallest thing but never give any indication when they are really in pain. She’s being treated now so you’ve done the best for her and can give her lots of cuddles when she comes round

Just a little update...I worked out what had caused Buddy’s upset tummy shortly after these posts but took him to the vet as I wanted to ask about worming and his teeth, which aren’t the best. I’m pretty certain his bout of diarrhoea was down to him ‘helping’ me in the garden on Sunday by chewing on the fig tree branches I had trimmed as well as shredding the giant leaves (he loves to shred things but normally sticks to paper and cardboard). I googled whether or not fig tree wood could be burnt in a log burner (it can) but the sap is an irritant so I’m guessing that while Buddy didn’t eat any of the leaves, he would have ingested enough of the sap while assisting me to upset his tummy, resulting inTuesday morning’s poop party in my kitchen. Most people on Greytalk would probably already know this but if there are any other green newbies like me they might not. Now you do! Re: worming - the health plan is moving over to a monthly joint worming and flea treatment which covers most worms including lungworm - which he wasn’t covered for before - except tapeworm. But his vet thinks that the description of the seed-like objects in his poo are most likely tapeworm segments so she has given him some tablets for that, and we can treat him again in six months if we still see evidence of infection. I’m looking forward to finding some in the next few days. The other good news is that he has lost some weight (2.5kg) so we are going in the right direction with diet and exercise.