nycgrey218

Great tips! Thank you!

Thanks. That makes sense. I'm annoyed our vet didn't give us more clear instructions about gradually cutting back.

We just celebrated one year with our boy. He's generally had very little separation anxiety and always done great when left alone. A few months ago my partner went back to work in-person, meaning we're both gone for most of the day. We have a lovely walker who spends about an hour with him midday. Didn't seem to be a problem - he basically slept all day before and after the walk, like a typical greyhound. However, two weeks ago we had to put him on a diet (he was underweight and hookworm ridden when we got him; now he's a little too chunky). We cut his food in half, from 2 cups twice/day to 1 (heaping) cup twice/day. We also swapped out his treats for the low-cal Charlee Bears. Since this change, he's become destructive when home alone. I still don't think it's separation anxiety - we have a camera, and I've seen him basically playing, but tearing up papers/books etc. A few times I've had our walker leave him with a peanut butter kong or his treat puzzle toy, which has helped. But again, he really needs to lose weight. It's hard when he's so food motivated. Any other suggestions or tips? He has a ton of toys, even some new ones, but doesn't seem inclined to play with them (unless there's food involved). We have an adaptil plug and he gets calming care probiotic in his food, in case it is anxiety. Should we try muzzling while he's alone?

Hello! Our 4-year-old boy has been with us for about 8 months now. He is very affectionate and sociable and loves every dog (and human) we come across on our walks. Doesn’t matter the breed, size, age - even with little puppies jumping in his face, he reacts calmly, playfully, and is very friendly. Only once did he growl a bit when a dog ran up from behind while he was pooping. however, when we’ve interacted with female greys, it’s a different story. Starts off well enough - they approach and sniff each other, etc - then something happens (it’s so quick, I’m not sure which one starts it) and they’ll be growling, jumping/lunging at each other. My boy will then get intense zoomies. Since we’re in the city, everyone is on the leash the entire time. I could be misreading the behavior - our boy’s body language by all accounts still looks playful (tail wagging, ears back, front legs splayed, lots of zooms) - but the female usually seems bored or annoyed by his presence. And he definitely does not react this way with any other dogs ever. Is this common / should I be concerned? Thanks!

We dealt with some pretty intense statuing from our boy (to the point of having to pick him up and carry him home!), and I’m proud to say he’s doing so much better and almost never freezes now. We found it worked best for him to keep him engaged throughout the walk (lots of positive reinforcement in the form of treats when he is walking) and to do little training activities to force him to use his other senses. We suspect he saw something imperceptible that triggered the anxiety and statuing, so we started doing “find it!” where we toss a treat into the grass and he has to use his nose to find it. For us, it was about keeping him below his anxiety threshold - basically, once he reaches the point of no return, it’s like his brain would shut off and he couldn’t move. So keeping him engaged and focused on us throughout really helped.

I've heard about this strategy - always worried about hurting him. He wears a Martingale collar (obviously) and a 2Houndz no-pull harness. Good idea to vary the route though. I don't want him to become so inflexible that we can't take him anywhere else.

Thanks for the advice! We have never let him eat "people" food - off our plates or otherwise. It seems to be only with certain foods he really wants (usually meat). If it's a bowl of cereal or something, he'll definitely sniff around, but respond to "leave it." Right now we eat in our living area, where he can see us but doesn't have access to the space. However, each time we try to go back to eating at the table, it inevitably results in resource guarding behavior. I think he just thinks he's entitled to it? He's extremely food-motivated. We might have to try crating while we eat at the table for a bit.

Hi everyone! I'm so glad I discovered this forum - have spent the last several hours reading through a lot of great (greyt?) threads. We adopted our boy in October 2020. He is a retired racer from FL and recently turned four years old. We live in NYC and he is our first pup. Generally, we've seen a lot of the great sides of greyhounds through him - he can be very affectionate, goofy, and a big couch potato. However, we've had a few significant ongoing issues with him. We've done a lot of training and see some improvements, then major regressions which can be difficult to overcome. I'll try to keep it brief: We wound up with probably the most vocal greyhound in existence. His main form of communication is barking - for pretty much anything. Excited to see you? Bark! Hungry/thirsty? Bark! Needs to go out? Bark! Wants attention/play? Bark! We don't want to give him any attention when he does bark so as not to reinforce, but it can be difficult to figure out the underlying reason. For example, if he's barking because he needs to pee, I obviously want to take him out right away to avoid accidents - but this reinforces that he can get to go outside if he barks. His barking is also quite loud. Like many greys, he has some resource guarding issues. It's thankfully tapered off as he's gotten to know us, and is less of an occurrence/less drastic (also in part because we understand his cues/body language). However, my main concern is his resource guarding over our (human) food. We cannot have our meals anywhere near him. It's almost as if he thinks he's entitled to our food (especially if it's meat). We have been doing a lot of "leave it" training with more and more valuable treats by placing them on the kitchen table and having him ignore it - he's been doing better, but he gets scarily possessive over our food. (He's generally extremely food motivated.) When he's resource guarding his own bed or his own toys, we are happy to walk away and ignore, which calms him down and (I think) teaches him that we aren't a threat. However, he obviously cannot have our food, so we're not entirely sure how to deal. Also like many greys, he's had some pretty intense statuing. This definitely seems rooted in anxiety as he doesn't show interest in even the most high-value treat. We live across the street from a park and take him on the same, short route every single walk, but he will still sometimes statue. I can take 30+ minutes to get him home when we are just across the street. I'm not sure if this is just one of those things that takes time, but he's done the same route for 5 months, so I'm wondering if there's anything more we can do. His separation anxiety is not too bad, and we've done lots of practice (utilizing many recommended tricks, like a frozen filled Kong, calming music, not making a big fuss when coming/going, etc). By all accounts, he whines/cries for a bit at first, but does settle down. While we've practice separating, my SO has been working from home this whole time with the pandemic, and will now be returning to his office soon. We are planning on hiring a walker for our boy, but I'm very nervous about such a huge transition for him. Any tips on setting him up for success would be appreciated. If you're still reading, THANK YOU! Any tips, resources, advice, etc. is so appreciated. Like I said, it feels especially exasperating when we make a lot of progress and then he regresses. I try to remind myself that even though we've had him 5 months, he's still pretty new to the environment and to being a pet. I'm also interested in trying some anti-anxiety remedies (like the diffusers or CBD), if anyone has experience with those.