jowright95

Hi everyone! We have a grey who we adopted 10 months ago and we are really struggling to “read” her emotions - she’s just a very unpredictable hound! But we love her lots. When meeting other dogs, she will pull me over to them, tail wagging wanting to say hello. They will sniff politely for around 5-10seconds but then out of nowhere she will growl. They don’t even have to be sniffing her face, just “in her zone”. But whilst growling at them, she will continue to sniff them - and we just can’t work out if she wants to say hello or for them to leave her alone! And this is all breeds, even other greys. And it’s definitely not a playful growl, she doesn’t bow or look like she wants to play, she goes all stiff and gives them the side-eye. She is even worse inside, she will tolerate other dogs outside as above if they don’t hang around sniffing her for longer than she wants them too, but as soon as you bring them both into the house she will growl at any sort of movement from the other dog, even if they’re really far away! We don’t live with another dog but it would be nice to be able to bring her over to friends of family with other dogs and know she won’t be stressed out by them, but we don’t want to upset her so we have stopped putting her in those situations where she’d have to be inside with another dog. She does also growl at us on occasion, again very sporadically. Sometimes we put it down to sleep startle, other times we’ll be stroking her and she paws us for more, then growls! So now we just leave her to it unless she comes to us for a fuss and can leave when she wants to. Any help greatly appreciated!

We did try this but she just jumps over baby gates! Even the tall ones! And we found that she just paced. Ideally we would like to lose the crate one day but I'm not sure if she's ready just yet... Another dog did cross my mind but she doesn't seem to like dogs when inside, she will growl and raise her heckles. So may make things worse!

Hi All, We have a gorgeous girl, Sable, who has been with us for three months now. My partner and I work full time and have a dog walker come in to walk her for an hour at lunch time, then he pops by in the afternoon to let her out. We had a few issues early on, we initially had her roaming downstairs with an open crate, but we found she just paced and howled the whole day, as well as chewed things and pooped on the floor. So we then decided to crate her and she was much better in a confined space, but would still bark. A month ago she was a lot better and we got it down to literally barking for a minute once we left then would be quiet all day. However, she seems to have gone backwards a bit. She barks and howls for about an hour to an hour and a half after we leave her, and our neighbours sleep a room adjacent to where she is and the walls are very thin. We did have a complaint from her a few days ago. She will be quiet for the rest of the day though. We have tried so many things. We always feed her in her crate so it's a positive space, we've tried adaptil plug ins (which made a bit of difference to be fair), pet remedy plug ins, calming drops for her food, adaptil collar, adaptil spray for her bed, thunder shirt, we leave a kong filled with frozen peanut butter and she now wears a jumper in case she's cold but so far nothing seems to really help her. Getting a dog sitter every day just isn't an option for us, as she doesn't like other dogs when inside and there is no one around us who looks after single dogs. And we can't work from home. I know we can crack this, I just need some advice.

Just my dog, the other dogs we visited (two were my dad's dogs on one occasion and he doesn't own muzzles for them) and the other occasion was a lady with another greyhound and she recommended trying my dog without her muzzle on, so both dogs were un-muzzled. But she is a professional and knows what she is doing which is why I trusted my grey without the muzzle, plus I was close by in case the other dog did get too close and something happened. I wouldn't let my dog go un-muzzled with anyone else though.

Yes the other dogs have all been respectful, when inside they have all left her alone but she still growls at them, and yes with 'stink-eye'. She is always muzzled if we visit another house with another dog, but we've never had any problems with the other dog not leaving her alone as they have all tended to move away from her and ignore her after the first growl. Thanks for your input!

Hi All, We have had our girl for two months now and are a little stumped as to this new issue that seems to have arisen. She is absolutely fine with other dogs when outside, a little indifferent and happy to ignore them but if they approach her she will sniff them and greet politely. However, as soon as we get inside a house, even with a dog she's met outside already, she will start to growl, snarl and has lunged once or twice. I think this is her feeling insecure and a little trapped? She will growl whenever the other dog moves, not even in her direction, and I don't know how to help her. We thought she may be better with another greyhound but alas she was the same, growling and snarling at him. When we adopted her we picked her up from a house with two other greyhounds and she seemed fine, the lady who we adopted her from didn't say she'd been growling, she muzzled her initially then removed it when she realised she was fine with the other two. (She was only in the house for that day, it was just more convenient for us to collect at the lady's house rather than the kennels). So she's clearly capable of being alright inside! I'm hoping that it's just that she's still adjusting to being a 'home dog' and is just finding her feet. But if anyone has experienced similar or has any advice on how to help her that would be very much appreciated!! We would love to adopt another greyhound one day but not if she's going to feel insecure! Also just to note, we have never tried her inside our own home with another dog, only at stranger's homes. Thank you so much in advance!

Thank you everyone. I've stopped using the food and gone back to her old one for the time being until I can find a more suitable alternative! So the plan to try to help the issue is my OH is giving her treats and affection every now and then and I've reduced the affection I'm giving her, and she's already started to follow him around the house more instead of me. We've also stopped her getting on the sofa, I'm thinking a 1 week ban and see how we get on with her, then slowly start allowing her back up but only when we say she can. Does this sound like a good plan? Can't thank you enough for your help!

Thank you so much! One thing we did think as well, we've recently started her on a new food and have started integrating it to her old. But it has a much higher protein level (30%) which could be giving her more energy - we noticed especially last night that she seems uptight and wound up all evening. I've since read that this may be too high a protein content for Grey's, so could it be this which is contributing?? It's so hard not to take it personally but she's so sweet natured, I don't think she would ever actually hurt him (but we want to nip it in the bud before it get's close to that). We will try your advice, he does already walk her in the mornings and feed her in the morning, but I get home first so I generally feed her in the evening. Maybe we could see if he feeds her in the evenings as well and just deal with a whiny dog for an hour or so?? :')

Hi Everyone! We adopted Sable (our first greyhound) four weeks tomorrow and she's been really good (we've had some separation anxiety issues but they are 80% resolved now!) but this week it's like something's changed in her. She's now growled at my boyfriend 4 times in the past week or so, the first time was when all three of us were on the sofa and he went and sat next to her (she was awake) and normally she is fine with this but she let out a growl. At first we weren't sure if we heard it right so he went to sit next to her again and she let out another growl. I totally get that she could have seen this as an invasion of space, but we've been doing it since we got her and had no issues. Second time him and I were sat at the dinner table and she was on the floor and my BF let out a sort of high pitched noise (we were both just messing about) and she looked up and first howled, then barked, then growled. Third time was last night - my boyfriend was lying on the floor (stretching his back out) and she came over to him sniffing his head and wagging her tail. Then out of nowhere she growled again then when he moved away she went into play mode and got her toy and zoomed around. So we weren't sure if this was a playful growl, but she chose to come over to him so not sure why that would warrant a growl? Then the last time was this morning, I get up earlier than my BF so I took her downstairs for a wee and came back up to get ready for work. Then 15 mins later my BF woke up and just sat up in bed and Sable got all stiff and barked at him. We really don't want this to escalate further, and we can't understand why she is only doing this to my BF and not me? She will let me do anything to her. Thanks so much in advance!