duckduckgoose
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Posts posted by duckduckgoose
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I noticed a post in one of the other forums mentioning this and wondered if anyone has done it with a greyhound and whether it's easy to adapt to all the special circumstances they have! Particularly interested in whether the games can be played on-lead, whether we could play any of them indoors, and do they have clear instructions for adapting to different shapes & sizes of dog?
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I was just coming here for a similar rant!
Just back in from our morning walk (also in UK) and had an altercation with a small off-lead floof. I had seen it coming in the opposite direction from us down the same path and shortened my (muzzled) boy's lead. Owner held it at the side of the path and we passed by with no issues, then my boy went back to his favourite activity of snuffling in the long grass at the side of the path. I took my eye off him for maybe a couple of seconds then suddenly discovered the floof was back and my boy was holding it down with his massive paw and had his muzzled snoot right up close. Pulled him away quick-smart and the owner grabbed the floof with seemingly no harm done, thankfully.
What I'm most annoyed with is the floof-owner's comment of "it's okay, I've got one of those dogs too". After we walked away and I thought about it, she obviously didn't mean a greyhound as no greyhound owner in their right mind would let their floof run up to a muzzled hound. There are so many of these designer floofs in our area, all quite young and with no recall and yet it's my on-lead, muzzled dog that gets the bad reputation. Just angry and upset now.
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16 hours ago, carrotcait said:
This probably isn't the norm, but re: cleaning paws, we actually wipe off our boy's paws with an unscented baby wipe every time we come in from outside, kind of like how we take our shoes off at the door. He doesn't mind having his paws handled so it doesn't take long. It's actually been helpful because we notice any issues with irritation, etc. right away. It doesn't seem to dry out his paws too much, but we do put on Aquaphor at night every so often to keep them from getting too dry.
Our boy regularly pees on his front paws and I got sick of being whacked in the face by his stinky pee-paws when he roaches next to me on the sofa 😂
For that reason I also do a quick once-over of his front paws with a baby wipe and a spritz of Animology Stink Bomb after walks to keep them smelling fresh!
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4 hours ago, HeyRunDog said:
If Grace thinks I'm going out and leaving her behind she starts to whine and stand by the door but when I give her a Kong filled with kibble she'll happily lie on her bed and eat it before getting on the sofa and going to sleep. (I have a web cam so I can see what she's doing. Mostly it's
) Giving her the Kong is telling her I'm coming back and she has no need to worry.
That's definitely where I'd like to get to! I do always leave a frozen Kong or similar food-stuffed toy, and he will show interest in it at first - but he abandons it for the pacing and whining after a minute or two then only comes back to it when I return. Maybe I just need to change up my fillings!
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52 minutes ago, Time4ANap said:
In addition to the things you are trying, have you tried putting a crate up and leaving it open so he can come and go as he wants when you are away? It may provide the safe space he needs. We had a crate for years and just left the door open all the time. Rocket would go in there and sleep sometimes, but mostly went in there to sunbathe when the good sunbeams were shining on it. We've also had a crate setup a few times when new dogs were in the house, and have been surprised that some of the other dogs that we never thought would go near a crate have gone into the crate to take a nap.
When Petunia arrived, she was miserable being here. We quickly figured out that she needed a friend. That's when Kate arrived and all of the pacing, panting and whining stopped immediately. Oddly, now that Kate has passed, Petunia is perfectly fine being an only dog and actually seems to prefer it. Good luck! He will settle in but it's still very early in his adjustment to a new life.
Thank you - unfortunately we really can’t get another, but thankfully he does seem to love being here with us!
I do understand that a lot of greys love their crates. We’d just struggle to find somewhere a grey-sized crate would work in our home (it’s a weird layout and we already have too much stuff, lol!). Will keep it in mind, though.
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1 hour ago, greysmom said:
This is an interesting article that has some ideas you may not have tried. The "time out" object seems to be brilliant to me.
The only thing that has worked for us is anti anxiety medication when I need to leave the house. Over the course of the last 6-8 months, she's finally gotten better about being without me and we are gradually reducing her dosage. It *has* been hard with the Pandemic and basically being housebound for so long. I used walks around the block, or short drives - at least daily - to try and desensitize our dog. The other thing that helps a bit is leaving an article of my clothing with her. As long as she can smell me she seems calmer.
Thank you - definitely a few ideas I haven’t seen before here, and I like the idea of the ‘time out’ object. Will have a closer look at the links.
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1 hour ago, 1Moregrey said:
What happens if when he comes back from a walk and you are not home?
Funnily enough this has just happened - I have a regular weekly commitment and we time it so my partner takes him for the evening walk just before I leave. I was late back tonight and apparently he was absolutely fine right up until he heard the car pull into the drive. It really does seem to be tied to leaving.
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Hi - newbie here, and apologies if this is a topic that's been done to death (although I've searched the forums and not found anything that sounds just like our situation). Hoping someone has been through similar and can either give us some suggestions of things we haven't tried already or just some reassurance that things will get better with time!
We've had our 4 year-old boy at home for just over two months. He came from a regular rescue charity (not grey-specific) and we were well warned he would need someone at home with him all the time at first, building up alone time gradually once he settled in. No problem, me and my partner both work from home and we our teenage son is around most of the time outside working hours so we were confident that one of us would always be around until he was settled. We don't have that much of a social life even outside pandemic times so we fully expected to just include him in our plans when we wanted to go somewhere together.
The reality is that he velcro-attached himself to me almost immediately on day one. He mostly ignores my partner and son moving around in and out of the house, but he jumps up to follow me as soon as I move from a seat and gets distressed if I go out and leave him behind with other family members. He's not destructive, he doesn't toilet in the house or bark loudly. It's mostly just pacing and whining, but he is obviously stressed and it's also pretty distressing for the family members left in the house with him. The longest he's been in the house without me has been about 25 minutes for an emergency grocery run. At his worst point, he built himself up to a bit of a yelp / bark at the door; at his best, he settled on the sofa by himself for about 3 minutes with an occasional gentle whine (we have webcams downstairs and upstairs so I can see what he's been up to).
Things we're already doing / trying to do:
- Read the books (Patricia McConnell / Julie Naismith) - all the SA advice seems to start with the assumption that your dog will be fine as long as they have 'a person, any person' with them
- Exercise - usually a 45-minute walk before and after work, with some scent games / training / zoomie time in the garden mid-morning & afternoon
- Sharing care-giving responsibilities around family members
- Adaptil collar & diffuser and calming treats
- Calm departures & returns
- Giving 'special' toys / treats when I leave and taking them away again when I come back (filled Kong, Lickimat, treat balls, Benebone) - he abandons them as soon as I leave and then I have to 'swap' them for a lower-value treat to get them back when I return. Then he loses interest in them next time around (because he associates it with being left??)
- Music (Through a Dog's Ear) / dog YouTube on the TV
- Using a movable gate / barrier to try and create some distance between us around the house (our home layout is somewhat lacking internal doors, so it's difficult to be in a 'different' room from him during the day)
- Using the gate / barrier to give him a safe / enclosed space rather than having free roam of the house (he's never been crated and it's something I'd prefer to avoid due to space issues)
- Working through Karen Overall's relaxation protocol, but we're stuck at the stage where I have to go out of sight for 5 seconds or more.
The only thing that has worked so far is giving him a squeaky rubber ball when I leave. He will chew / squeak obsessively for up to 10 minutes (haven't tried this for longer without returning) - no pacing or whining, but just constant squeaking. This is great if no-one else is in the house, but no good if my partner is trying to work! And I'm not convinced that the obsessive chewing / squeaking isn't just another sign of stress.
There are things he does well. He at least gives me some privacy and waits patiently outside the bathroom door. He sleeps outside our bedroom and has done from his first night. He's happy to go on walks with other family members while I stay in the house. He even went into the vet's surgery for a check-up with no fuss (we have to stay outside the building because Covid).
We can't take on another dog, and none of us wants to return him - he was 'bounced' once already (possibly part of the problem), so his chances of adoption get slimmer every time; plus he's 'our' dog now and he's genuinely a joy to have around in every other way. I just need to be able to get out of the house by myself occasionally without worrying about him and the rest of my family.
) Giving her the Kong is telling her I'm coming back and she has no need to worry.
Protest peeing?
in Training and Behavior discussion
Posted
We’ve had our boy for 8 months - he’s our first greyhound, he’ll be 5 in June. He’s settled in well, but we do still have trouble with over-attachment (to me) and separation anxiety.
We only had one indoor accident in the first couple of days after he arrived home, due to not recognising his cues, and he’s generally quite good at letting us know that he needs to go outside (pacing between front and back door).
we’ve had three incidents over the past month, all of which seem to relate to him not getting attention when he wants it.
1. At Christmas, staying with my parents. He peed against their bed (thankfully not on it). It was his first stay away from home so I put it down to that, and possibly marking a smelly area (dad was catheterised at the time, so there may have been some scent in their bedroom). However it did happen at a time when I was busy with something, and he had been getting under my feet looking for attention.
2. A couple of weeks ago. Trying to have some private time in our bedroom, I had given him a special chew in his bed (in its regular spot, on the landing) and closed over the door. He whined, then peed on a pack of toilet rolls outside the bathroom. Hadn’t touched the chew. Put this one down to SA and not making a point of letting him out beforehand.
3. Tonight. Had taken him for a long walk mid-afternoon and then had to go back and finish some work (I WFH at our dining table). Teenager gave him his dinner at the usual time, about an hour after the walk. He came and stood behind me at the table for a bit, then went and peed next to / on the edge of his daytime bed. This one seems particularly weird as I thought peeing near a sleeping area was a big no-no. I usually finish work a bit earlier and come over for sofa snuggles before our dinner.
He’s due his vaccinations this month so I will check with the vet, but all three incidents happened at a time when he wasn’t getting his own way - or am I getting the wrong end of the stick?
if it is protest peeing, how do I address it without always letting him get his own way?