Mikalela

Almost 4 months! Yes things are going better at home, but she's still a bit shy and introverted - maybe it's just the way she is! But now she interacts with us and the house a bit more: we've even been playing with her ball for a few days in a row hihi (huge achievement given that she still has no idea of what to do with toys in general) and she's discovered my favourite armchair (yeah I know, goodbye armchair 😂). Ah, for treats: Luna has recently discovered peanut butter! She would do anything for that hihi

Hi Benedita! First of all congratulations for your new grey! Yes they are really different from other breeds as you will see, but so adorable and crazy! It's still early days and your grey needs a bit of time to adjust to her new life. Everything is new and scary for her, but hang in there, I'm sure it will get better soon! Regarding feeding then walking, yes I do that: as your grey, my Luna struggled to get out of her bed without a strong reason to do so (what's better than food!). So after a bit of trial and error I switched to feeding first, then walking. And like you, I was so worried about this, but I double checked with my vet and they said that, as long as it is a gentle walk or a potty trip, it is totally fine. Actually, she was the first one letting me know that she preferred to do this way: I have a garden accessible from the kitchen, so after each meal she was glancing at the kitchen door a few times - the message was really subtle! The first time that I opened the door after her meal she run outside, and I felt so stupid for not realising it before! For my own peace of mind, I tend to wait a few minutes before going out after the meal, while Luna scans the kitchen hoping that other food will magically appear. Another thing that I have found out only recently, is that she is not a big fan of morning walks, especially if it is still dark, cold and miserable: she prefers a quick potty trip and then back to sleep until lunchtime, when she's happy to have her first proper walk of the day. So whatever works for your grey really! I know that the first big advice that you will have from everybody is to set up a strict schedule and try to stick to it, I did that too and I think it really helped to see what was working and what was not, but with time Luna started to feel more relaxed and now she's letting me know what she would like to do, rather than following me blindly. I started a topic here a while ago to see what the others here were doing and what was their routine, it was really eye-opening to see that each grey is different and they all have different habits and little quirks! It's here if you want to have a look: For toileting, again that took a bit of experimenting: I've learnt now to let her do her thing and trust her, but at the beginning I was expecting her to pee and poo each time we were out, 4 times a day (morning, lunch, late afternoon, evening before bed). Now she's settled with 3 or 4 toilet trips (usually 2 of them are proper walks), with pee every time and poo twice a day - that is always in the morning, then either at lunch or in the late afternoon walk. I don't freak out anymore if she poos at lunch and then nothing until the next morning, I know she doesn't need to, while before I was staying out with her for ages just hoping that it would happen! For pees instead I start to get worried if it's been around 8/9 hours, then it is a potty trip whenever she wants it or not! Finally, freezing: eh I know! That is really common, have a look at the forum here and you will see that we all went through this at some point. Well done for taking precautions and reducing the frequency and length, it is all new and so stressful for them! What really helped us was keeping a cheery tone (Luna shuts down if I'm annoyed or frustrated) and take every day as it comes. I've realised that I was expecting too much too soon from her, also encouraged by the initial period where she was coming everywhere with us. With time, I've realised that at the beginning she was just terrified and completely shut down, while now I can see how much she enjoys her walks, always exploring and up for our next adventure. I hope this helps a bit! Hang in there, you're doing great!

Hi! I don't have any great advice unfortunately, but it's just to say that you are not alone! We are slightly behind you, having adopted Luna 3 months ago, but sometimes I feel the same: she is super quiet, likes to sleep all day, and still I haven't found a toy or activity that might interest more for let's say 5 minutes on random days. Like your Grey, she looks forward to the weekend when we go out for longer, and she loves her long walks in the woods, but for the rest it's just those 3 walks per day and little other interaction. One day she loves her ball and will play with us for a bit, but then it's forgotten for weeks. Another day she's up for training and gets super excited just seeing the clicker, but then no interest at all for days. Hot dogs were her favourite treats to sprint out for her last walk before bed, but we probably abused that or she learnt the trick, so now she barely lifts her head. She keeps changing and adjusting and sometimes things just "click" all of the sudden, or she develops new fears and worries that never bothered her before. I know it's difficult and frustrating, but I'm constantly reminding myself that she always picks up my moods: if I'm happy and laughing she jumps all around like a little kangaroo, if I'm annoyed she shuts down. So as HeyRunDog said at the beginning, time patience and sense of humour above all, even when it gets super frustrating. Let me know how it goes and I hope it will improve soon!

Ahah Grace sounds amazing! Same here, I've brought Luna a ton of coats, knitted one myself, and another one is on its way now -I never learn!- but she only tolerates a light waterproof coat only if it is pouring down! She gives me the same "I'm not nesh" look (thank you, I learnt a new word today!) and stops walking until I take her coat off, even if she's shaking from the cold 🤷‍♀️ And same thing this morning: it was freezing, I wanted to go home but no, let's check out every single bush and sniff every corner! We actually stayed out longer than usual 🙄 What a silly, totally adorable little princess, I love her so much!

Hi again! Sorry to bother you again but I have another update, this time a bit weird though: after a nice and relaxing weekend where she followed us around from room to room while we we busy doing other stuff (never I'm the kitchen though) and some long lovely walks, tonight we had a super strange twist. We called her to the kitchen to give her some leftover roast chicken but she ignored us, as usual. I want her to feel comfortable again in the kitchen as before, so we left the treats in her food bowl and went on with our evening. At some point, she went to the kitchen alone, ate the food, and peed right in front of the food bowl! She didn't need to go, we just went out a few hours before, and in fact it was just a small amount, what I usually call her "emotional pee" (like when she pees after a bit of stress or excitement when we are out). I'm a bit perplexed to be honest. Could it be because she was alone, in the dark and "super scary" kitchen? Or something else? I really don't understand. I can't remember anything traumatic ever happened there, and she happily has her meals twice a day in the kitchen. I'm calling the vet tomorrow just in case, but in the meantime do you have any ideas? Thank you all again! Ah, just to add: I've started with adaptil now and I can see her a bit more relaxed in general, but still fearful to go out. I guess that will take a bit of time though!

Hi! Unfortunately I don't have any experience with sprinkles, and it's still early days with my grey (just 2 months!) so possibly entirely different situation, but she went through a phase where she refused to walk too after a firework went off really close to us and scared us all to death! Like you, I thought that going out with our neighbour's dog that she always followed around everywhere (in the traffic, in busy supermarkets car parks, in the dark) would solve the issue again, and instead on that particular she did her worst! She refused to walk every few steps, freezing constantly. Once, she almost had me in tears when we were stuck for an hour in the middle of the street (thankfully we live in a quiet area), just a few meters from our house, and she was refusing to walk in every direction: not back home, not back to where we came, nothing. Even the bin lorry, which usually scares her a lot, didn't make her move and they had to drive around her! Now things have considerably improved, so here are some tips that I've been using: -When she freezes and refuse to walk, stop whatever you are doing as well and just stand there. Don't touch her, don't stroke her. I know it might sound cruel because when you see them fearful you just want to comfort them, but I discovered this was actually encouraging her fears. I just stand there next to her so she can lean on my leg and wait. Check your phone, count in your head, sing a song, whatever, just give them time to figure it out by themselves. At the beginning, this would take minutes, now just a few moments. I've noticed that there were lots of things confusing or just intriguing her, and she needed time to assess. After a while try again, with a firm "let's go now" and start to walk -I've noticed that the tone of my voice is really important: if I'm exhausted or frustrated she picks that up and won't do anything. So if you feel overwhelmed, take a moment for yourself too to reset, and try again with a cheerful but firm voice -I stopped using her martingale collar and started with an harness, because I feel it really helps me to control her (but I might be wrong eh!) -I read this trick here and it really helps: when she freezes, I put a couple of fingers under her harness and move forward like I'm throwing a bowling ball, while again I say "let's go" in my most cheerful tone and start to jog - she has to follow then. -This might not be useful to you given that your dog has been with you for a while, but I noticed that if I say "quick quick" when she starts to slow down and at the same time start to walk at a brisk pace she would trot forward for while and pick up her pace again, maybe she learned that at the track? Maybe you are already doing all of this though... but I'm sure someone else here will have other great advice. I hope this helps a bit!

Ah that gives me hope! Somehow my partner managed to pull her up last night without strangling her like it happened with me (maybe because he's taller), so we might try this again when everything else fails or when it's dragging on for too long. I agree with you that she's developing this weird fear and probably my behaviour is encouraging it rather than fixing it. I will report back! Thank you again for all your help!

Oh wow, Oh wow that is really a record!! Me too @Legendaryfrank, I'm always worried when the 8th hour mark approaches and I start to insist that now it's really really really the time to go

Awww I'm loving this thread, thank you all for the nice replies and keep them coming please! Lots of good tips and nice ideas and activities to try (dog door! I've only ever seen a cat door!), thank you so much. I hope we'll find our own pattern soon, but it's good to have at least an idea. And you're right guys, I should be more relaxed about this because as 1Moregrey said, if everything fails it's just some floor clean up, not really a big deal!

@Feefee147 ahah yes, just a bit of snow, and even a thundersnow last night that scared the ** out of everyone! It was so loud and Luna was obviously not impressed, we've been awake since 4 this morning I'm doing pretty much everything that you mentioned, except for the whistle, with mixed success: I'm still trying to find a toy that would keep her interest alive for more than let's say 3 seconds eheh, she doesn't seem to be into toys but maybe I still have to find the one! I'm planning I trip to the pet shot this weekend so we'll see. @HeyRunDog you know, you might be right. I was worried that I'm actually rewarding her staying put rather than encouraging to get up - so from now on no more treats when she's in her bed and I'll keep the whole thing short. I've tried using a slip lead (I've seen it recommended here so many times!), but she goes dead weight when I pull her up and she would get chocked rather than get up, so I'm worried to hurt her - has this ever happened to you?

So as some of you might already know, I'm experiencing some difficulties in convincing my sweet girl that it's time to go out either for toilet or for a walk. I read that consistency it's very important, especially at the beginning (it's been 2 months today!!), so I'm trying to stick to a schedule - failing mostly eheh! This is how ours looks like: -We get up at 8:00, go for a 20/30 minutes walk then breakfast -We try again to go out for quick toilet break between 13:00 and 14:00, sometimes she's up for it but often she's not -We try again to go out for toilet and longer walk at 17:00, and this time I really really really insist if she skipped the lunch break. If I don't, it's pee on the floor lol -Dinner at 18:00 -We go out again at 23:00 for the last quick toilet break before bed. What do you think? Too much? Too little? Should I shuffle stuff around? Like meal first then out? The thing is, she goes straight to bed after a meal so I don't know if she would be happy with that. I realise that each grey and each situation are different, but I'd love to hear your opinions! Thank you all for your help!

@1Moregrey Sorry for the late reply, I missed the notification. Thank you so much for the suggestion, that sounds really useful! I’ll have a look, thanks. Adaptil and calming chews are now on their way, and in the meantime I’m trying different things: giving her treats and praise when we put the lead on and leave it on at random times, leaving a trail of treats to the door when it's time to go and scattering treats near the door at random times. I've noticed that she's a bit less stressed about the entire thing now, and she spends considerably less time at the door, only slightly shaking. The only thing that takes a lot of time is to convince her to get up: for example yesterday it took an hour, with lots of cheese and praise. However, she is now associating getting up from her bed with going out, even when it’s not the case at all (like when I call her to do some training, play or whatever), so she’s leaving her bed less and less frequently. It’s a shame really, she used to stay with us in the kitchen every time we were there, and hang around in other rooms every now and then, but now she spends most of the day in her bed instead. Maybe she's trying to make herself invisible? I don't want her to think that every time she gets up she has to go out, so I even tried to let her be, hoping that she would give me a signal once she was ready to go, but instead she just got up really quick to pee on the floor! Oh what a mess... I know I sound frustated, but more than everything I feel a bit sad, because sometimes it feels like we are just co-habiting. I'm worried that I'm not fully understanding her and in some way I'm making her fears getting worse. On the bright side though, this morning she was super excited about the (little) snow that we had and she started to jump around me like a little kangaroo, with her tail going in all directions - it was really funny and I’ve never seen her so happy! And last weekend we went for a long walk in the woods and she loved it, it was a really nice moment. So it’s not all bad at all! Time and patience, time and patience!

Perfect thank you! I'm ordering it now. Ahah yeah, same here! I always worry a lot for the same reasons: is she happy? Is she bored? Am I actually helping her or just making things worse? And so on... the thing is, it's been only 2 months but I already adore her so much and I just want her to feel safe and happy. Thank you so much for the lovely message, it means a lot!

Thank you so much for the replies, they are really helpful! I'll give it a go then. @HeyRunDog that is really encouraging! Quick question: how do you use the diffuser? Do you keep it plugged in all day or just for a few hours/minutes? @smurfette that sounds like with my Luna now! Can I just ask you which ones you bought? Thank you all again, it is really reassuring knowing that you've all been there before and things can improve!

Thank you so much for your advice, that's super helpful! And I'm glad to hear that your grey improved, it gives me hope! You're right, time and patience is what we need now. It's really a shame because it feels like all the progress made in the first month went out of the window as soon as the first firework went off! And yes, it's been ridiculous this year, even if we live in a quiet area. But I recognise that it's also my fault: I really underestimated the impact that fireworks could have had on her, so I didn't take any precautions (like expose her to recorded sounds in advance), and now we are all paying the consequences Regarding food, she is food obsessed too which is a blessing, because it's the only thing that makes her move! She adores cheese and I'm using it now to convince her to go out, but I will also try with smelly ham, thank you! The advice of popping the lead on when inside, with lots of praise and treats is really great, I'll try that too. Thank you so much for your kind words!

Hi all, my first post here! We have had our ex-racing greyhound for almost two months and I think she's settling in well. She's lovely and it's amazing to see her coming out of her shell a bit more every day. The only big problem is with going out for either a walk or toilet. I know this has been discussed so many times before here, and I've read every single thread about it, but I really don't know what to do anymore and I'm afraid it's getting worse. Before the dreadful firework season here in the UK, going out with her was relatively easy and fun, she willingly walked to the door and then out every time that I picked up the leash (well, except for the last walk in the night before bed, that needed a bit of convincing!), but then that stopped entirely: she doesn't want to get up from her bed, walk to the door and then through the door. Once outside she's her usual silly and funny girl though, and being out with her is really a joy, so the problem seems to be just the process of going to the door and then out. So far, we have been able to call her to the kitchen to offer a treat at least to make her get up from her bed, but as soon as she sees the leash she shuts down, and once we are at the door (after a long trail of treats and lots of encouraging words, or sometimes when we don't have time we just resort to carry her - I know...), she starts trembling a lot, and her nose is dripping... it's really heartbreaking to watch. We stay there with the door open, she looks outside and after a while, which can be between 2 and 20 minutes, she calms down and walks through the door herself. I thought it could have also been because it's colder now, so I bought her a coat, but that didn't make any difference unfortunately. I don't want to force her, but on the other side she has to go out at least for the toilet. Any ideas?