NeuroticGrey

Thanks for your advice and reassurance! I have been overthinking this, for certain. I sure wish I had a fenced in yard for her, maybe we can figure that into our next place. Until then, it's dog parks at early hours and the somewhat sketchy fenced in ball field nearby.

I just wanted to close the loop on this for anyone else struggling. We got through it! It took at least a month, and it felt like a very LONG month, but we got there. My hound goes outside now and loves her morning walk. She still kinda hates going out at night, because there are some dicks that race their souped up cars and motorcycles through our neighborhood. When my lease is up, I may look into renting a townhouse in a quieter part of town, but she may be completely bombproof by then. I hope so, I like this location and moving is the worst.

Here's the deal - I've had my first greyhound, my sweet weirdo, Twyla, for nearly 3 months. She's settled in while she often has a long face (haha - that's a joke), she seems pretty satisfied. I'm perplexed about her exercise needs. I take her for a long walk in the morning, usually about 45 minutes. We do a potty break and lunch and again after dinner. I'm prepared to take her for another long walk in the evening, but she's scared of the dark and the various dicks who race their motorcycles around our neighborhood. She'll reluctantly go out and pee and wants to get straight back inside. Several times a week we hit a park and/or a dog park at early hours when nobody else is there. Once in a while we meet up with other greys. Occasionally, she throws her Kong balls around and plays indoors. Is this... really enough exercise for my elite athlete? I find myself oddly stressed about it. I stew about it. How much exercise do your dogs need? Should I be giving her more? Or is this ok? The question I'm always hung up on is... IS SHE HAPPY????

Here's another tip from my pet behaviorist that showed some improvement. If you also have a fearful grey like mine, try stringing two leashes together or getting a long lead. Standing outside in the green space across from my apartment, where she is generally very fearful, with her on a 12 foot lead was a big improvement. With this much space, she was more interested in moving towards me instead of straining back toward the building. This was also the first time that she would pick up treats (hotdog slices) from the grass in this area. She became so interested that she took me on a little tour of the space before we went indoors. Also helpful, getting to know the dogs in the building. She didn't even sniff them the first 200,000 times we went outside, but now she "knows" some of the dogs from frequent contact. They're buddies, or at least acquaintances. Amazingly, she will now walk up to them, do a sniff, and occasionally even pop an ear up.

An update on this situation - I connected with a pet behaviorist for support. She suggested leashing up your grey well in advance of the walk and even letting her drag the leash around until it's time to go. She also suggests, since my dog likes car rides, to get her in the car and take her someplace else to walk. I had been doing some of this, but am now committed to taking her someplace each evening. She suggests going a different way when exiting my building, although is tough... there's really only one direction to go that is away from traffic and towards peaceful parks and trails. Most of all, she emphasized that as my greyhound become more attached to me, she'll look to me to what is scary and what isn't and begin to let go of her fear. This is the third week since I adopted her and the progress I've noticed is that she rarely stops in the hallway on the way to the door. She'll take treats going down the hallway and sometimes right in the entry before going outside. She still trembles from anxiety, but it is less severe. In the morning when it's cooler, we go for a short walk, and while she freezes and wants to turn back frequently, it is easier to get her moving again. Once we get down to the riverfront, she seems to enjoy herself, it's just getting there that's challenging. In the evening, at parks, she rarely freezes. She perks her ears up at parks sometimes, but generally not. Any outdoor trip between morning and evening is strictly a potty break, outside to pee, and straight back in.

She's great getting in doors, it's like a switch flips and she's relaxed and will take treats. I am concerned about her running down people exiting the building in her anxiety to get back indoors, but hey, we're working on it. I wanted to report out on my new tactic. After trying all of the above suggestions, I purchased as many episodes of Cesar Millan training a fearful dog that I could find and had myself a binge. Worked on projecting a calm, assertive energy. Deep breathing, pictured myself as a powerful warrior empress. Put on her harness and leash and led her down the hallway. She balked in the same places, I didn't look at her or talk to her, just kept going. At several points, I had to put my hand on her harness to keep her moving. We get outside, she'll be trembling, but to my eyes, not as badly. We pee (well, she does) and if it's our first/last venture of the day in cool weather, I take her for a short, 15 minute walk. On the walk, she begins to relax. When she's not relaxed and stalling, I don't look at her or talk to her, but look straight into the distance and continue at a slow, steady pace. A couple of times I've had to put my hand on her harness and move her along. If she points back the other direction, we do a little circle. Several times her ears popped up and she sniffed, which is a good sign. She's very chill on our way back and only starts pulling a bit when we get closer to the building. Unfortunately, her sweet little anxious mind doesn't recall that we had this chill experience the next time we go out, and she's fearful again. But you know what? I think we're making progress. And given all of this new construction during the day on my street, when she does adjust, she'll be able to walk through a war zone without flinching.

I'm going to document this process for future grey adoptees with the same problem. Her foster parents came over with a confident grey and we had them walk out together. No problem! It was like magic. Evening walk, slightly less jittery. This morning, back to trembling like before. But, new tactic...dried beef lung and using my body like lifevest. We cross to the park and she's shaking like a leaf, so I wrap my arms around her and we just hang out. My neighbors find this hilarious. We hang out until the trembling subsides, which is quite some time. Beef lung is like crack, but she won't take any until we're heading back in. Tried coaxing up and down the hallway with hotdogs and hugs, no go. She'll only go out if I have my hand on her harness and march her out. Tried desensitization by playing traffic noises when inside, she sleeps through it. I learned that 8 hours of NYC traffic playback makes ME anxious. Our grey friend is coming back tomorrow and we're going to do it again. If you have any other tactics that were successful for you, send them my way. I will try it all!

I bought and chopped up hotdogs that I only use when we put the harness and leash on. I did try walking her around the apartment, that went okay. I will try expanding that to the hallway and elevator, that's a good suggestion. Usually, she isn't interested in treats by the time we get to the door. Tonight, I drove her to a quiet, empty park to explore. She found the public restrooms and tried to get inside to hide. I dropped hot dog pieces in the grass to encourage her to explore, but no-go. I read a training article that suggested just letting her potty inside until she gets over it, but this doesn't seem practical. I'm already dreading getting her outside tomorrow morning. I'll keep working.

Can you think of any way for me to get her outside without damaging her trust? I have a harness for her and I've tried for confident/no nonsense when exiting. But, as we near the front door I'm basically marching her along and she's very unhappy. She's become more withdrawn and I think it is due to these trips outside to pee. It's like I'm marching her to the guillotine!

I need help, greyhound friends. I adopted a 5 year old retired racer and I've had her for a week. She's lovely and we're going to be great friends, if I can just overcome the daily struggle to get her out of my building to pee. It begins when I put on her collar and she senses trouble ahead. She puts on the brakes when I open the door and getting down the hallway takes ages. Once we get to the elevator, she seems resigned to her fate. There's a final resistance when we get to the front door, then we're outside. We cross the street and she pees to much celebration! Then, we race back inside. During these ordeals I have tried the best treats I can think of to encourage her, but once she gets nervous she won't take any of them. I guess what really gets me is that she seems to resent me after each potty break. I feel like I've betrayed her trust every time we go out to pee. I initially tried short walks, but now we've taken a step back to just peeing and going back inside. Any suggestions? I want to build trust, but she has to go outside to pee. I'd try anything.