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Hi everyone. I've spent a lot of time reading various existing threads on alone training/separation anxiety here, so I'm sorry if I'm raising an issue someone's already asked about (feel free to point me in that direction in that case!). We adopted Louie, a five-year-old sweetheart ex-racer almost exactly two years ago. According to the rescue, he didn't cope well when his kennel-mate was adopted before him, and he had to be given to a foster family in the week or so before we adopted him. So we had a feeling he might not be brilliant at being alone. We were pretty disciplined about leaving him for short periods every day for a while, but it was lockdown and this eventually tailed off as we never really *had* many places to go. What we found, though, was that he was fine when we left and while he finished his Kong, and between minutes 20 and 40 of our absence he would sit upright with his ears in "concerned" position, staring at the door, then he would start whining and crying. The longest we ever left him was 90 minutes, and he was pretty worked up by the time we got home. Never any accidents or destruction, just open-mouth wailing (which our neighbours obviously don't love). However, I run my own business and started taking Louie into work with me, and where we live in London is pretty dog-friendly, so we sort of just got used to bringing him more or less everywhere with us. Now, the complicating factor is that about a year ago, Louie had a freak accident while chasing after a squirrel: he twisted one of his back paws and shattered three of his toes, and he ended up having that leg amputated. It took a good few months to recuperate fully from the surgery and to finish the several courses of meds he was put on, but he was so stoical and really didn't act up (he is so chill he barely even seemed to take notice of his stitches for instance). A year later, he is a bouncy, happy tripod who loves to go for his walks, and while the loss of his leg doesn't day-to-day impact on his quality of life, it does mean he gets tired more easily and we can't really bring him everywhere in the same way anymore. So: we're now in a situation where our lifestyle is less compatible with Louie's abilities, and we realised we had to go back to square one with his alone training so we could begin leaving him at home while we occasionally go out for dinner or whatever. Thanks to many of your suggestions we turned to Patricia McConnell's "I'll Be Home Soon" and have done the whole suggested program entirely by the book. Louie definitely began to seem less responsive to things like key-jingling, and often now when he sees his Kong he'll literally run to his bed in expectation. However, we're now well beyond the week five stage and I'm not sure I see much of a change in his ability to relax at home. Today I left him for 30 minutes (properly left the house and walked to the shop and back) and watched him on Barkio. He had abandoned his frozen Kong about halfway through and jumped up onto the sofa where he sat with his ears in "concerned" position and open-mouth panted for a bit, which I know signifies anxiety. Right before I got home I saw that he had lay his head down and was looking more relaxed, but I wanted to come home while he was in a calmer state rather than wait to see if that continued. Other things I've tried to help mitigate his stress at being alone: -Leaving classical music/radio on low -Adaptil plug-in/spray -Leaving a plush toy (he's not really bothered about toys) -Leaving a t-shirt I've recently worn on his bed -Shutting him into one room (the room where his bed/the sofa are) -Not shutting him into one room For context, Louie is SO lazy, extremely calm, and is otherwise happy to sleep on the couch or his bed for 20+ hours a day. Loud noises don't bother him (he is oblivious to fireworks, for example), and in all other ways he is the most low-maintenance dog I've ever encountered. We have a small flat but he's quite independent and doesn't engage in attention-seeking behaviours; he sleeps in a separate room to us, and he'll happily choose to hang out in the bedroom while we're in the living room or vice versa. He's also totally fine with it if, say, I've gone out for a run but my partner is out in the garden, even though Louie is at the opposite end of the flat and can't see my partner. He does *love* walks and tends to get jumpy and waggy when he thinks it's time to go out, so I have sometimes wondered whether he's more frustrated that he's not with us on whatever exciting walk he thinks we're on, rather than that he is actually distressed about being alone. We would consider getting a second greyhound but we live in a small flat and I know that isn't a guaranteed fix anyway! Maybe I'm expecting too much too soon, but the bit I feel "I'll Be Home Soon" misses is a plan of action for how to proceed beyond week five. Is it just a case of leaving him incrementally longer every time until we've reached 60 minutes+? How can I tell if all the counter-conditioning hasn't worked? Are there any signs that indicate the program has failed? If he does get visibly anxious (like today when he was panting) when I leave him one day, the next day do I need to go back and re-do some of the counter-conditioning before trying to leave him alone again? Or just push on? It's so hard to know if I'm making any progress when the problem with Louie was never the actual leaving, it was the bit at 20+ minutes of absence where he'd begin to whine. If anyone has any ideas, or any experience with similar dogs, I would be so grateful for your wisdom! And thank you for reading this essay-length post.

Thanks, everyone, for the good advice. We've now decided to board him at a greyhound-specific kennel near us and are feeling relieved that we won't have to worry about how he's faring while we're away (if indeed the trip ends up happening!). I wouldn't imagine that Louie would ever be aggressive toward my in-laws' cocker spaniel, but I simply don't trust that we've had him for long enough to know he won't behave inappropriately and scare my in-laws. It's also useful to know @DocsDoctor that your grey nipped when he played in the beginning. Dog training classes are a good idea. There are a lot of dogs of various breeds (particularly, it seems, small fluffy ones!) in our local park, and when we have time we try to walk Louie over to the other dogs so he can have a sniff and say hello. It's just hard because the other dogs are normally off-lead, all running and playing with each other, so Louie just ends up standing there looking a bit puzzled as to why he can't join in.

Hi everyone, We adopted Louie, a 5-year-old ex-racer about 6 weeks ago - our first greyhound. He's a lovely dog: affectionate, calm, happy to be manhandled, easy on the lead, etc. However, we noticed some concerning behaviour when we tried to start recall training him off-lead (with a muzzle) in a small dog exercise area near us - he'd start furiously chasing other dogs and ignore their barking/crying, and seemed to be trying to nip them through his muzzle. (We've since stopped doing this after reading several threads on here about greyhounds in dog parks, and the danger of muzzling a greyhound when other dogs aren't muzzled.) Generally speaking we haven't been muzzling Louie anymore when walking him on-lead, as when he meets other dogs on walks he either completely ignores them, or he greets them politely with a tail wag and a sniff before moving on. We've recently noticed though that if the other dog is running, Louie gets excited and starts to move as if he wants to join them in running. He did this and nipped a dog that ran past him the other day, and yesterday he lightly nipped a spaniel puppy who was excitedly running off lead and jumping up in front of him. He seems to be doing this playfully as he seems excited and is wagging his tail, but obviously other dogs don't like it and we're worried about whether it's a warning sign of some kind. Is this just a question of continuing to socialise him with other dogs until he learns that this isn't an appropriate way to play with them? Or does it mean that he has aggressive instincts and can't be trusted with smaller dogs? We are meant to be away for two weeks at Christmas and had been planning to leave Louie with my in-laws - but they have a (grown and well-behaved) cocker spaniel, and we're now worried that Louie might get excited in the house and end up injuring her, inadvertently or otherwise. We've been discussing various options, like asking my in-laws to muzzle Louie at all times apart from when he's eating (which seems a bit cruel), or just lodging him at a local kennel instead where there are trained professionals on hand. For further context, we haven't been able to introduce the dogs to each other yet due to Covid restrictions, but our plan had been for my husband to spend three or four days there beforehand to help settle Louie in (and do the whole thing of introducing him to the other dog in a neutral location, with the muzzle on, etc) and to then be on hand to keep an eye on the situation so we're not just throwing my in-laws in the deep end. I'd love to hear from people who have experience with this behaviour - 1) Generally speaking, is this nipping behaviour cause for concern or is this just inappropriately playful greyhound behaviour that can be easily managed over time? 2) Should we be worried about leaving him for two weeks in a household with another dog? Really appreciate your insight!