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GreyKnight

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Posts posted by GreyKnight

  1. Hi folks, we've had our 4 year old adopted grey Sully for 7 months now and on the whole he is growing every day in himself and we are all starting to understand each other and have a good routine down.  Perhaps unusually for a grey he loves his walks and thrives on really long ones, I walk roughly 20-25 miles a week with him and my wife does another 15 or so on average, so he's doing 35-40 miles a week (on a long leash) and I've lost 20lbs in the process which is great!

    We have been working on his reactivity towards certain types of dog and he's definitely much better.  He will walk past most dogs now and we reward this with a biscuit, however there are a few specific types of situation that Sully really hates and we feel a powerless to control them because they mainly come about as a result of other dogs' behaviour.  Sully doesn't seem to like energetic spaniel type dogs, or puppies that are over friendly.  I've had two instances where he has grabbed dogs aggressively and I have not been in a position to do much about it.  The first was last year when I was in a park (not a dog park, but just a normal park with kids play equipment etc) and a woman came in to the area with a small puppy and immediately let it off the lead.  The first thing is did was race up to Sully and start getting in his face.  This triggered Sully's rigid body, stiff tail and pricked ears stance and then Sully grabbed the puppy and started growling and shaking it.  It squealed a lot and I had to intervene to get Sully to let it go.  The puppy owner was apologetic and said "It's his first time out of the house".  I had to bite my tongue not to tell her how stupid she was to let a new puppy off leash in a public place when she had no control over it.

    Then not long ago a not dissimilar situation, I was walking home along the lane our house is on and a neighbour had his springer spaniel puppy with him out the front of his house.  As I walked past the puppy ran across the road to get to Sully, the owner was calling their dog but it took no notice at all.  Exactly the same thing happened as above, same reaction from Sully.  This time the spaniel owner was apologetic and said that it would teach his pup a lesson, but I still felt bad.  It really annoys me that so many people have their dogs off the leash in public, especially puppies and especially when they can't actually control them!  I don't want to make Sully wear his muzzle because he doesn't like it.  I do if we're going in a very public place where there may be a lot of dogs, but not out on country walks.

    When lockdown is relaxed I really do want to take Sully to some socialisation classes, but that's not an option at the moment.  Is there much else I can do?

    thanks

    Graham

  2. My new grey (had him 2 months) doesn't like peeing or pooping in our garden unless it's dark (in which case he understands that it's his pre-bedtime garden routine).  The rest of the day he won't do anything in the garden, he will only pee and poop on a proper walk away from the house.  As a result we walk him twice a day, sometimes with a short one at lunchtime if possible.

  3. It's very much personal preference, but I draw the line at letting dogs sleep on the bed, especially if a breed is prone to potentially aggressive behaviours that they can't control.  Our grey doesn't even really go upstairs (he just doesn't like it), but he's allowed everywhere else including on the sofa if he wanted, but he never has got on the sofa, he doesn't like jumping up on things.  At night I send him out to do his business and then he comes in, lies on his bed, I give him two treat biscuits which are the signal that it's bed time, then I turn off the light, close both kitchen doors and leave him.  He knows we're upstairs and haven't gone away.  We don't hear a peep until we go down in the morning (except the occasional yelping in his dreams) :wub:  I would definitely say you should train your dog to sleep in her own bed.  It's no good if you're anxious at night.

  4. Sully ran out through the back gate when I wasn't thinking yesterday, it was only the fact that he always takes a very careful and dainty route across the gravel on the drive that allowed me to outpace him and get in front of him before he just ran on to the road.  Without his house collar on it would have been much harder to grab the opportunistic little tyke!

  5. I've lived with many dogs over the years, but until we got Sully I've never actually seen a dog bury something in the garden.  Sully buries everything and he's a master at it!  Chews, soft toys, chicken wings, balls, socks.  You name it, if he's not ready to eat something, or if he's done playing with a toy then you have to watch him - he trots off to the softest bit of soil he can find and digs a pretty deep hole with his front paws, places the object in the hole and then uses his nose to expertly push the dirt back into the hole (ending up with a muddy nose of course).  It's really very sweet, but you do have to watch him with things otherwise stuff just goes missing and it's probably buried in the garden somewhere! :lol:

  6. I'm confused.  The local pet store owner told me yesterday that I shouldn't feed raw meat AND kibble together.  I looked it up and indeed many websites say that because of the starch in kibble it changes the acid content of the stomach and can mean that harmful bacteria in raw meat isn't neutralised.  However, I then look at the website for the RSPCA which is the UK's main animal welfare charity and on its greyhound adoption page it specifically says:-

     

    Quote

     

    What should I feed my adopted greyhound?

    To avoid gastric upsets, it is best to continue feeding the diet offered in the adoption centre and gradually transition to a new diet over 7-10 days, if this is the intention. A good combination is high quality kibble (approx. 2 cups) and fresh human-grade meat (approx. 500g) halved to provide 2 meals per day. Alternatively, 250g of chicken necks, wings and frames could be given for breakfast with 11/2 – 2 cups of kibble and 250g of meat for dinner. This provides variety with vegetables or rice added to further maintain interest.

     

     

    So what is correct?  Am I okay to put meat in my greyhound's kibble or not???  He doesn't really like the kibble without some real meat taste.

  7. 1 hour ago, Time4ANap said:

    If you are contacted by animal control, be sure to insist that the other party gets a citation for each off lead dog if there is a leash law in place.  Your dog was under your wife's control at the time and the other dogs were not under the owner's control as required in most places.  Sully was simply being a dog. 

    Being in the UK our laws don't work the same I don't think, but I don't see how we could be contacted by anyone as they didn't take our details and they don't know us.  I think in the UK it would be a Police matter.

  8. Thanks all.

    Yes I understand that it's a tough one when it was the other dogs that were off the lead.  My wife has explained the situation a bit more now.  Apparently the other dogs were spaniel types, so not tiny dogs, but one ran up near to Sully but then lay down on the ground a few metres away.  My wife continued walking along the path (a dirt track in a field to be precise) and she says that Sully was wagging his tail and didn't seem concerned.  She allowed Sully to "meet" the other dog as it lay on the ground, Sully still wagging, but suddenly Sully went for it and had to be pulled off.  My wife says that it didn't appear there were any puncture marks, but the other owner, a man with his wife, was very angry and was shouting at my wife, so things were a bit of a blur obviously and it really shook her up.

    I completely realise that the situation was NOT Sully's fault.  It was one of those "situations" where a number of factors come together, but one that we could probably have avoided if we hadn't stopped using the muzzle so soon.  I think maybe we need to speak to a professional about how to reduce Sully's prey drive a bit too as I think this was more of a factor.  He really won;t pay attention to you if he's looking for prey or is very interested in another dog.  At the same time, most of the dogs he meets he just sniffs and then will stand next to completely ignoring them.  I think maybe it was this other dog being on the ground that triggered something.

    Sully has met a lot of dogs now and has been okay with most.  We've passed one or two that have snarled or barked at him and aside from a bit of whining Sully will walk on by really well.  There was obviously just some "thing" that happened this time that triggered Sully's reaction.

  9. I'm kicking myself at the moment as I feel this is my fault.  Bear in mind we've had Sully for only 4 weeks.  I wasn't even walking Sully at the time, my wife had taken him for a walk with our 7 year old son.  They came back with my wife in tears because on their way home they'd met a pair of small dogs that were off lead and had run up to Sully and although initially things had gone okay one of the dogs rolled over in front of Sully or something and that caused Sully to react and grab the other dog.  We were initially walking him with a muzzle on, but after a couple of weeks of encounters with quite a lot of dogs that had been peaceful and if anything the other dogs were more reactive, we let our guard down and started walking without the muzzle.  I wish I hadn't.  Of course it had to be my wife walking him when it went wrong.

    The other dog owner was very angry and took a photo of my wife and Sully ranting about how Sully is dangerous and should be in a muzzle etc.  Understandable reaction, I'd be angry if a dog went for Sully, but on the other hand I don't let Sully of the lead ever and never allow him to run up to other dogs.

    Now my wife is saying she doesn't want Sully as she doesn't trust him.  A knee jerk reaction because she's in shock I know, but she can be very easily influenced by these types of situation.

    It's muzzle on again for the time being at least anyway.  Obviously I shouldn't have taken it off off soon, I know that.  I guess it's first time Greyhound owner inexperience.

    Damn it! :(

  10. It sounds similar behaviour to our Sully.  We've only had him a month, but like yours he is very calm and gentle with other dogs so long as they are stationary, even as far as basically ignoring them, but if they do anything more than walk he suddenly sticks his ears up, goes rigid and looks at them as though they are a rabbit, before bounding over and trying to grab them.  This is especially the case with small dogs.

    I think it's basically just a case of de-sensitizing him to other dogs and getting him to realise they don't suddenly become prey when they run.  How to do that is another matter.

  11. We've been trying to figure out what makes Sully growl at all of us sometimes when he's lying down, not just on his bed, but anywhere in the house.  He doesn't actually mind being petted on his bed, despite the common opinion that they should be left alone, he wags his tail if you approach his bed and looks up and asks for love.  HOWEVER, sometimes he growls and we couldn't work out what the issue was.  We have finally made a connection though.  My wife seemed to be getting more growls than the rest of us, she has been suffering from a slipped disc in her back this year and though that's healed she still has a sore muscle in her backside that makes getting up off the floor difficult, so she tends to get down and up from the floor by going on her hands and knees - she's also been given exercises by the physio which involve lying on her tummy and pushing herself up on her hands to bend her back backwards - Sully HATES it!  I've tested the theory myself and indeed he will growl at me if I get on all fours when he's lying down and if I get too close he will give a growly shout, jump up and move away (better than trying to nip I guess).

    I assume he has some switch in his brain that makes him think that we are a dog invading his space if we are on all fours.  I've never come across this before.  Obviously we can work around it, but I wonder whether we can get him used to it somehow.  I have also noticed that he gets super excited if kids are playing on their hands and knees, he can't seem to distinguish that they are still humans, just on all fours, he'll go into chase mode if he sees it.

    Anybody else ever seen this type of behaviour?

  12. Thanks again folks.

    To be clear, he's actually very good with other dogs (of any size) when they are on leads or just on their own plodding along off lead.  He only reacts if there is a group of dogs off lead playing, then he wants to join in.  I already use a harness as it just seems kinder on his neck.  He leads very well, doesn't pull or anything, he's excellent.  It's literally small fluffy things that make him hyper.

  13. Thanks guys.

    Yes I'm well aware that 2 weeks is no time, my point was that I want to know how to start reducing this behaviour ASAP rather than let it get embedded in his behaviour.

    I've been watching videos on how to maintain the dog's focus on you rather than on distractions, I'm going to give some of those a try.  I fully expect it to take a long time, but you have to start somewhere.

  14. Hi folks

    So we've had Sully for two weeks now, 3.5 year old retired racer, he only retired about 5 weeks ago.  He's pretty much been great in every way, can't fault his behaviour 95% of the time, he hasn't even bothered with the sofa and just prefers his own bed.  Gentle as anything, no sign of startle stir and invites people to pet him in his bed and cuddle him.  I've even got him coming to his new name already and I'm in the process of training him to lie down on command, baby steps but positive progress made today.

    The ONE thing that he certainly has an issue with though is his prey drive.  He goes quite bonkers on his lead if he spots rabbits in a field on his walk, yelping, whining and spinning around on his lead and trying to wriggle out of his harness.  Today he had the same reaction when we walked near a pond and he startled a mother duck out of some reeds with two older ducklings, he went crazy and tried to pull me in to the pond after them yelping and whining frantically.  Once I'd pulled him sufficiently far away he lost interest and walked on normally.

    He also reacts a little this way if he sees other dogs playing off their leads, he really wants to join in and gets very silly.

    Just looking for suggestions on how to calm him down with things like this and stop him being quite so desperate to chase and act stupid.

    thanks

    Graham

  15. Quote

    Hello Sully and family.  Well done! :clap  

    That white blaze is amazing.  I'm surprised he lasted even two weeks at the adoption kennel.  

    He didn't!  As soon as the advert was posted I was on it like a rash.  We only couldn't pick him up straight away as they had some vaccinations to do and we were going on holiday for 10 days anyway, so we agreed to collect him upon our return.

  16. Hi folks, this is my first post here.

    I'm from the UK, me and my family have just adopted a 3.5 year old ex-racer.  We have changed his name to Sullivan (Sully for short) as "Swifty" was a bit awkward to call.

    We are absolutely amazed at his behaviour and adaption to home life.  He's been well cared for both by the racing trainer and briefly by the rescue centre (they only had him for two weeks).  He's great with kids, walks well and is generally very affectionate and happy.  He doesn't make a sound at night and hasn't had any toilet accidents, he's very clean and just waits for walkies.

    Such a good boy and we're really thrilled to have him come and be part of our family.

    I'm sure I'll be scouring the forums for tips and advice.

    regards

    Graham

    sully_small.jpg

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