MerseyGrey

Sid, the amazing canine bookrest!

We never crated ours. He has free run of the downstairs of the house excluding one room which he really likes the smell of and tends to pee in there. But I wouldn’t call that separation anxiety and like Toffeesdad once we established a routine our boy settled. One week is not a very long time so one accident is really good. Giving him a room with a view is an excellent idea as they are such curious dogs (surely a sign of high intelligence!) that it gives them something to do during their five minutes of wakefulness between naps. Good luck!

Hello and welcome! Hopefully your boy will settle in soon and will be less spooked by things as he becomes more familiar with them. Maybe he would benefit from a short walk before bedtime so he can void his bowels before he settles down. If it’s not a fully formed stool it may help to look at when he was last wormed. What are you cleaning it up with? It might be worthwhile checking if it’s free from ammonia as that might encourage him to keep going in the house. Also, are you transitioning him to new food as this might be unsettling his tummy a bit. Ours recently had a spell of leaving presents for us because he was shredding fig leaves which made him ill (don’t ask) but it just shows that there are so many variables to consider! if you’re on Instagram you should be able to copy photos (press and hold if you’re using an iPad) and paste them into your thread, I assume the same will work for Facebook.

Glad to see he’s so happy about getting into the Christmas spirit! . I love that snood!

Thank you! Christmassy is definitely a word! It’s being used lots in my house at the minute

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 😊