MerseyGrey

I try daily but we occasionally forget before he’s fallen asleep so then I leave it. I use a soft bristle brush with a larger and smaller head (the smaller head is meant to be for the back teeth but I’ve never used it). Toothpaste: beaphar, which is easy to get on amazon and which Buddy really likes the taste of - I give him a bit extra between the sides of his mouth as a treat. I also use the beaphar tooth gel in the mornings, which you spread on his teeth at the junction with his gums, and which he licks around his teeth. Buddy’s teeth were pretty bad when we got them but they seem to be improving. And finally...dental sticks with eucalyptus which he loves but which are gone in about five seconds!

Our groomer mostly does it too, but when I have done it, I’ve caught the quick a couple of times too. I think that the nail feels a bit more ‘spongy’ where the quick is but you will only know this when you put a bit of pressure on it. Dudu is a good indicator too, as he is generally very good at having his nails clipped, but he pulls away if it’s uncomfortable. I think that most greyhounds who have been racing dogs are probably used to having their nails clipped as their trainers will want to keep them trimmed. You can gat styptic pencils to stem any blood flow but flour works just as well at stopping it.

Dan the Man has just reminded me about Barkshop.com which has a selection of toys. There is a Donald Trump stuffie on there for your dog to cherish/destroy* *delete as appropriate

He’s such a handsome boy. It’s so hard to let let them go even when you know it’s the kindest thing to do. Hopefully your other pups will help ease the sorrow

It’s certainly more pleasant than the other end 💨

My favourite is doing ‘big spoon, little spoon’ with Buddy. I get to breathe in his lovely doggy smell and stroke his ears too. He’s not a sofa dog - he’s never even tried to get on the furniture (except once, when I put his bed on the sofa to hoover the floor. So he tried to climb on his bed on the sofa. I wish I had a camera for that)

Hi Hawthorn! i have a friend in Hitchin and might have to pay a visit if I’m down that way with Buddy. I can’t resist the temptation to stroke other people’s dogs. I am a crazy greyhound lady. i went to Oregon years and years ago and visited a place on the coats called Astoria. It’s been in lots of films but it was special for me as Goonies was filmed there and I love that film! We also visited a beautiful lighthouse...Yaquina Head or Yaquina Bay. I’m not sure which one but it was spooky! That’s my only contribution I’m afraid. I think you might be too late in the year for whale watching but maybe someone more local can put you straight. Have a fab holiday!

Hi Lulah62, I can’t recommend a life jacket, although have you asked the company that you are boating with? It’s a long shot but they might supply one. I’m assuming you’re in the UK? We recently took Buddy on a day barge trip on the Llangollen canal and we learnt two things: our dog is a landlubber. He hated every second of it (although this was not helped by our navigators frequently steering into the banks. It’s easy for me to criticise as I opted out of the steering in order to quaff prosecco). We ended up walking him half way back to the wharf over this landmark https://www.pontcysyllte-aqueduct.co.uk/ thank heavens for all that prosecco. Second lesson: our canals are a breeding ground for nasties! I swear that he didn’t go near the water or even get splashed but he picked up a skin infection - within three days he had a dozen blister-like things which quickly turned scabby. I never found out exactly what the infection was but I was £120 lighter leaving the vet with a week’s worth of antibiotics and some medicated shampoo. That’s more than his adoption fee! Hopefully Ghillie has better sea-legs than Buddy, and a stronger constitution (to put things in perspective, Buddy won’t climb on his raised bed because it’s not stable enough), so don’t let my comments put you off, just beware that your trip might end up a bit more expensive than you planned. Sorry that I can’t actually help you with the question you asked!

Gorgeous girls! Welcome to GT!

Buddy wants to join the party!

Hello and welcome! Looking forward to seeing more photos of your handsome beast!

I think you’ll find it depends on the individual dog. Greys that are raised in racing kennels are generally thought to get on better with other greys as this is what they are used to but it doesn’t mean that they won’t get along with other breeds. Some dog personalities are stronger and they rule the roost while others are much more laid back, a bit like some people! You’d be encouraged to take your current canine buddy along for a meet and greet, which I’m sure you’re already planning to do. It might take a few meetings to work out if they are going to get along and suss out the dynamics of the relationship but there is no reason why you should be able to find your perfect match in a greyhound. Good luck! In my (limited) experience, I have found that my grey gets along better with other greys and will even engage in a little mutual bum sniffing with them. He ‘tolerates’ most other dogs but there are some that he will just not accept, and it doesn’t seem to be breed dependent, and more to do with their personalities (Buddy is a bit of a grumpy old man. What I will say is: beware! If this is your first greyhound, you might find yourself hooked and may never want another breed. They’re addictive!

Hi BlissfulSandy, welcome to the wonderful and unpredictable world of owning a greyhound! No two days are ever the same - except for the snoozing, dozing, napping and sleeping. If you google dog food transition you’ll find plenty of info on how to transition your food. Most people will recommend that you take at least a week to completely change foods, but if your dog has a sensitive tummy you might want to take it a bit more slowly. When we switched food, we took a bit longer and just mixed the new food into the old in the bag, gradually topping up the old bag with the new food. When that bad was empty we switched to the new food lock stock. Give it a try for a while if you’re not sure if it suits your dog - you don’t want to change the food too regularly otherwise your pooch’s digestive tract will never settle. Ours is on Royal Canin which he seems to enjoy, although we are mixing it with a wet food gravy with added bran which he absolutely loves. Our vet also recommended Hills but he is less keen on this, so RC it is! good luck with your new grey!

Statue: this sounds like Buddy and the cafe. He definitely wants to see what’s going on in there, but it’s easier for me to avoid that than for you to avoid your statue situations. So sorry, I’ve got no other advice. Harness: we use it for two reasons. The reason we bought it was because I hate it when he changes direction suddenly if we’re running together, or he pulls away from me quickly and it pulls on his neck. The second reason was something I read quite recently. Buddy is a bit defensive around other dogs, and one book that was recommended on here was called ‘Fiesty Fido’. It suggests that a lead-reactive dog will associate seeing another dog with being choked by their collar (when he sees another dog, he often wants to approach them, but then he’s strangled, which is a negative feeling, so then he reacts badly and it’s a vicious circle). So I’ve upgraded his harness which rubbed his delicate skin under his arms and he’s much better from a dog-reactive point of view. And I feel like less of a monster for pulling on his neck. I think you said in your original post that Otto is dog friendly so you won’t need it for training him. But since using it I have found it quite useful for extracting him from certain situations - namely pulling him away from foods I don’t want him to eat (horse poo, dog poo, cat poo, discarded chocolate bars, slow moving hedgehogs...). You might find it using for lifting Otto off the ground when he decides he’s not walking 😊

Buddy consistently statues in one place of one walk we go on so I try to avoid that area. I think it’s because he’s distracted by the goings-on in a cafe that we walk past. Is Otto consistent in his statuing location or does he do it in random places? The rear end nudge works for us unless he’s being really stubborn, as well as walking back to him and doing a 360 degree turn, keeping his lead short and him at my thigh. The rear end nudge doesn’t feel very nice at first but we noticed that an experienced greyhound man from an adoption centre used it to ‘encourage’ Buddy into our car when we first got him. I think it’s an established method of greyhound persuasion and I much prefer it to pulling him along from the front, even though we use a harness. it does sound like Otto is adjusting very well, and that you’re doing well with him. But three weeks is not very long and in six months, you will have a different dog, and probably six months on from that he will be different again so don’t worry too much. Your hard work will pay off!

Thanks ADogDad, we had a little victory this morning - a poo I could pick up in one go! Good luck with building your boy’s weight back up

I’m a bit late to this but...do you think it could be anything to do with the heat? Buddy’s been a bit off his food for just over a month and we’ve tried a few different things but his appetite seems to be back with a vengeance now the Beautiful British Summer appears to have come to an end. Except now we’re in the habit of adding a smidge of gravy made from a wet food to his kibble. firming up poos - if you are successful with this please let me know your secret! The wet food might be working, but we’ve also tried adding wheat bran, and a clay additive (which you are advised to only use for three days) with mixed results.

As promised 😍

I’m not very good with this technology and will add a photo in a follow up post. Grace is a beauty - Buds would be jealous of her badonka butt Buddy and Doc also share Phantom Flash in their ancestry - I could quite happily get lost in these trees although it’s obviously not the amazing coincidence I thought when I first started stalking - sorry, investigating. Although it would definitely make an episode of ‘Who do you think you are’ that I would watch. Thanks for your input everyone!

Buddy’s got I’m Slippy in his line too. I did go back through his lines when we first got onto Greyhound Data and loved looking at the pictures of his ancestors. I was just surprised to find so many common ancestors in his fairly recent past. His family tree is more interesting than mine! It’s nice to connect with some of his distant cousins. my little champ is currently curled up at my feet after his morning walk (thorn in his pad, zoomie in the field and discovery of a long dead rabbit whose bones he chomped through and the result is noxious gas wafting up to me)

I realise that I might look a bit like a cyber-stalker here but I had a bit of free time on my hands and thought I would have a peek into the ancestry of some of the other British hounds whose humans visit this site. I chose British hounds as Buddy’s ancestry is mostly UK and Irish, with a bit of Aussie thrown in and it helped to narrow the search. I looked at just three hounds and found that Buddy was related to them all! Two of them were pretty distant (Goosetree Chance/ Chancey - hello Banjoman! And Boomtown Ken / Ken - hi Doc’s Doc), but he is quite closely related to the third (Ardera Coleen / Grace - hey HeyRunDog!), with whom he shares a paternal granddad and a few others further back. There are photos on Greyhound-data of Boomtown Ken who looks quite a lot like my Buddy Molly - down to the white toes on his back left foot! What do others think: is greyhound ancestry a bit like being able to trace every human back to Charlemagne or some other historical figure? I wasn’t expecting to find common ancestors quite so easily. So this is what I’ve found in less than an hour of investigation - just think what I could do with a whole day! Sherlock Holmes - watch out! Again, sorry for stalking you fellow Brits

Yes - just now: ‘Hey Buds, are you ok?’ No answer. ‘Do you really want to eat that?’ About the thing he has just puked up in the garden. No answer (unless you include eating the thing he puked as an answer).

Awwww, he’s a beautiful boy! And he’s got a snoozy friend waiting for him too

Are you showing them Canadian hospitality and taking them for beaver tails and double-doubles? Eh!

Another black beauty! He looks ready to push you off the sofa. You must be sitting in his favourite seat