Booker_Aye

Small steps? I would say giant steps. She is allowing you to pet her, and letting herself enjoy it a bit? Ginormous steps. Bravo. The MFH is working its spells upon her, as we all knew it would.

Ah, those math skills really help! MarcR turned me on to Purina Select Salmon and Brown Rice, and my dogs enjoy it and do well on it. I don't know whether it is cheaper than their sensitive stomach formulation.

I checked out the Amazon.com prices. Insane.

Kimba, Fred and Henry have been doing so beautifully with a spoonful of pumpkin puree with their meals, and they all enjoy it. But ever since Thanksgiving our A&P has had a skimpy supply of the larger cans, and with three dogs, the small cans don't last beyond two meals at most. Today there were none of the larger cans at all, so I got canned yams instead. Will an equivalent amount of yams have the same firming effect as the pumpkin? Please say yes! I drain the yams so there is as little of the light syrup in which they are packed as possible.

Wow. I have always heard that lurchers were the smartest thieves going. What I love is that Red the Lurcher not only liberated himself, he then liberated the dogs he likes -- not everyone, just his best buds. Scary! Obedience training for Henry would be a fine plan. I do have an appointment scheduled with a trainer recommended by our vet, who comes to the house for a 90 minute visit. It's quite expensive, but I did just want some pointers for improving my coming home experience. Port Chester is all the way on the other side of the county, about a 45 minute drive each way, and further than I am looking to go for dog training unless it's absolutely necessary. When I got home on Friday evening, I eventually discovered that Henry (it must be Henry, because these things NEVER happened until he came) had gone upstairs to my bedroom, shredded "Kept in the Dark" by Wilkie Collins -- why that particular one attracted him, I don't know -- and dragged a pillow from my daughter's bedroom down the hall into my bedroom, tearing the hem portion of the pillow case almost completely off in the process. Now my bed has four pillows -- wouldn't you think that would be enought even for a big dog like Henry? Grrrrrrr. Today the doors to all the rooms are closed, so we will see how he does. I fully expect to come home to doors scored with greyhound clawmarks. I will look into the vittals vault or the 5 gallon snap on lidded tubs from Home Depot; otherwise I know that one day Henry will get back into the dining room and open the present kibble bin, which has a snap handle on it that I suspect wouldn't slow him down at all. I used to keep the kibble bin in the kitchen, but no more! Henry also sings in his sleep -- a deep, low singing tone that is really beautiful. He is the first of the five greyhounds I have had to do this. Wonderful.

I will give this a try. The logistics are a little challenging, because I am walking up from the basement, and I don't want to fall down backwards! In addition, Henry is not the only dog of the house. Fred is the best behaved greyhound I know, and would NEVER jump. Kimba used to be a terrible jumper, I thought, until I met Henry and found how what a terrible jumper could really be. So both Kimba and Henry will hopefully benefit from this routine.

Beautiful photographs of a regal girl, so much missed.

Well, our routine when I get home is generally to get to the back door as quickly as possible and let everyone out for a quick p&p. Getting from the front door to the back door is problematic at this point. I cannot come in through the back door and just let them out because there is a rather steep ramp to the back door that was put in for the dogs. It is not human friendly. Henry loves bully sticks, and I suppose I could keep some in the basement and give him one as I walk in. Fred and Kimba would like to have theirs, too, of course, which is all right with me. I think I will give that a try, Batmom, and see if it works. If I ignore Henry, he jumps on my back and his nails tend to tear holes in, or pull threads from, my work clothing, which is expensive to replace.

Well, Henry has settled in with a vengeance. He is blossoming, starting to play with Fred and Kimba as much as they will allow, learning the house schedule, snuggling in bed, loving trips in the car, especially to all his friends at the vet, and generally being the sweetest greyhound you could imagine. He can open doorknobs with his paws. This is a problem, but I will have to figure out what to about it. Twice now, he and his partner in crime, Fred, have gotten into the dining room through a closed door and scavenged boxes of dog biscuits and bird pellets. The resultant attacks of diarrhea were very messy! There isn't any food stored in the dining room any more... My only true complaint is that Henry loves to rear up on his hind legs, put his paws on my shoulders, and wash my face. In fact, he gnaws on my face. When I get home is the time for this behavior. He is so delighted that he cannot contain himself. This is flattering to me, but also painful, as he punches me in the face with his paws when he tries to jump up on me, scratches me in the face with his nails, makes me drop whatever I am holding, and is generally quite a handful. Can someone suggest a training regimen that would be effective to teach Henry that I adore him too, but please, no jumping?

Hurrah for Spriet!

So adorable! What sort of personality does she have, so far? (As we all know, she'll be developing, blooming, and revealing more of herself as time goes on.) Congratulations!

Oh, I am sorry. Such a shocking and unexpected loss. We all support you and your family at this sad time.

What a pretty girl! It's hard to tell from the photo but she gives the impression of being a big girl. Is she?

I definitely agree -- the fault is with me, not with Fred. If the leader from Forever Home Adoptions were here, I KNOW Fred would suddenly recall how to jump in the back of the car for her. I have honestly tried my toughest voice, pulling his leash steadily, everything I saw her do -- but for me, it just doesn't work. I suppose that from the first time I helped Fred in, he said to himself, I've got HER on the leash! But he is such a sweetheart, I can't be meaner to him than I tried to be and it just didn't work..

I am so sorry to hear this, Sue -- it's so tough when they have trouble keeping up with their calories. Maybe you might try something bland for a day or two, and then see if she can keep that down? Boiled chicken and rice well overcooked, or some posters have said that they use Evanger's canned chicken for this purpose -- and if she keeps throwing up, then maybe a visit to the vet would be in order. I hope she feels better soon and stops scaring her mama.

Fred won't jump into the back of our CRV either. On his gotcha day, the leader of his adoption group -- a very no nonsense sort of lady -- ordered him to "kennel up!" and after a few repeats, in he jumped. He has learned to do stairs, and to run up and down the ramp into our yard, both of which initially terrified him, but I've only been able to get him to "kennel up!" a handful of times. What we do is this: I take his front paws and place them in the CRV, and then I take his rear legs by the part between his feet and his hock (I hope I am explaining this correctly) and lift them into the car. It isn't as bad as picking up the whole dog -- he weighs about 75 pounds. He likes riding in the car -- he just doesn't want to jump into it. I have to assume he once must have hurt himself getting into a car. He has seen Kimba, and now Henry, jump in so easily -- but it has absolutely no effect on him. Fred is a very stubborn character in every way, and I have basically given up on having him ever leap easily into the car, although I have seen him do it and I know he can. He just won't, and we are always in such a hurry to get where we are going that it's easier to help him in than to correct him. I am a bad mother! I can see his stubborn streak come out as soon as we approach the back of the CRV- he is so clearly saying, "I am KNOT jumping in there! Help me up, Mom!" Luckily for him, he is such a sweet dog that I forgive him his minor lapses, and hope that he forgives me mine.

We had been using NaturVet, too, with excellent results, but since it says that it isn't for continuous long term use, I decided to try Fortiflora. Not nearly as helpful for my three.

When I got my first hound in 2003, I tried several high end kibbles which he never did well on. MarcR on this forum, who at the time had his three Joisey Girls, recommended Purina Pro Plan Select Salmon and Brown Rice. It's been very successful for us and for the four hounds we adopted after Booker. I have also had good success with Evanger's grain free kibble, which is more expensive and can only be gotten through shipping where we live; the advantage of the Purina Pro Plan Select is that we can get it at local suppliers. Like many others on this forum I want to feed our dogs the best kibble I can find, but the dogs seem to have different opinions as to what the best is!

That Fred might have decided he's plump enough now sounds very possible. I can see his last ribs, and his hip points, still, but he is much more solid than he was when he came. I have cut his 1 1/2 cups of kibble morning and evening down to 1 cup morning and evening, and he also gets a half can of wet food morning and evening, with a spoonful of yogurt and a spoonful of pumpkin. We'll see how he does on the lesser amount of kibble. Thank you for the good advice!

I just got home from work and this was the first thing I did, hoping for good news about Neko. I'll keep hoping.

Well, it seems that boredom might have been the problem. Tonight I gave him a different canned food mixed in with his kibble (which I reduced by a half cup, since he had not been finishing) and a tin of sardines. He cleaned his bowl thoroughly -- so did his sister Kimba. Two very happy dogs! I'll try rotating the canned food every meal and see if that will be enough to keep him happy; we will not be doing sardines every night...

Thanks for that reassurance! I don't want to spoil him, but he came to me seriously skinny and is finally at a good retirement weight; I would like to keep him there.

Fred is eating abut 1/2 to 3/4 of his bowl, whereas he used to lick his bowl clean without exception. So it's not the case that he isn't getting any nourishment at all; he is just eating much less than he used to. I could try changing the canned food that I moisten his kibble with tonight, and see if that helps, or I also have some sardines in olive oil that I could mix in. If the issue is that he is becoming a picky eater, then of course I am not terribly inclined to baby him too much. Thank you very much for your reply!

Fred, who is 6 years old and has been with me for about four months, has settled in beautifully and is a wonderful hound. But, after being an enthusiastic eater, since Friday evening he has shown little interest in his meals. There hasn't been any change in his diet for months now; same kibble, same add-ins, nothing has changed. The only thing I can think of is that he had the last doses of his Panacur March 3, 4 and 5; he had previously had doses of it in November and in December, I think, and this was the third of the three scheduled doses. Otherwise he seems to be fine; happy to go on his walks, normal in his movements, loving his bully stick when he can get one. Any ideas as to what could cause this? Is a vet visit in order?

http://www.protatek.com/reflab.html I believe that the gold standard for testing greyhounds for tick borne illnesses is Protatek: Dr. Holland, the lab chief, is extremely knowledgeable on the topic. The lab has several tick panels to choose from, or you can put together the tests that you feel are most important for your hound. They are incredibly reasonable in price, and offer a discount for greyhounds. You can access the forms and instructions for how to submit serum for samples from the web site and bring the information in for your vet. I recently had my Fred tested because his SNAP test had indicated that he had chronic Lyme and another tickborne illness, and the local lab where my vet sent followup tests just didn't satisfy my concerns. My vet drew the blood and prepared it for shipment (this was on a Saturday) with an icepack inside, and I drove over the Federal Express and shipped it to Protatek for Monday delivery. When Dr. Holland gave Fred a clean bill of health, I felt secure. The results were available within 24 hours. I am sure if you search "Protatek" on this forum, you'll get many positive reports. I am so sorry to hear about the way you lost your greyhound. I just hate ticks more than I can say -- such nasty beasts they are!