turbotaina

I call that "standing at me". Both mine do it and they do it because they want petting. If I stop petting, they give me insulted looks and wander off Mine also love other people and are beside themselves when we have visitors. It's the novelty though, so I don't take it personally. They also love new people on walks For my first greyhound, I was the person to pull him off the hauler and I fell in love with him then and there. I adopted him 6 weeks later, but honestly, it took months for us to actually bond - and he was an outgoing, very sweet boy. Within a year though he was my best buddy whom I took everywhere with me and we had all sorts of adventures. I still miss him very much, and he's been gone 4 years now With Heyokha - he bonded pretty quickly with my husband because they are at home together all day. He was a difficult pup and we had serious issues with the cats, too. So it took a long time for me to bond with him and him to bond with me (though he thoroughly enjoyed the sheath flushing I had to give him when we first adopted and would follow me around the house wagging afterwards ). He's still a total nutjob, but I love him anyway. And since his recent illness, he shadows me around the house and has to be in the same room as me all the time. Crow was just easy. Everyone just falls in love with him immediately. And he loves everyone. He's just a super sweet cuddlebug and fit in our household on day 1. Heyokha took longer to adapt to his presence though, and still gets jealous.

IggyDeer - of all the people who have posted on this thread, Neylasmom is an actual dog trainer, so please take that into consideration. BTW, I would like to add that I *do* think that some dogs can be trained to be off-leash - I'm not anti-off-leash (except in areas where leashes are the law, but that's a whole other gripe ), but as Alicia (adaerr) and Jen (Neylasmom) have both stated, it does take a lot of training. Best of luck with your pup.

Dang, Carol

I'm not going to continue this dance with you, and I stand by my thoughts on shock training, as I'm sure you will stand by yours, which is your right. However, you will be hard pressed to find any trainer versed in modern, scientifically proven rewards based methods who would recommend an e-collar. Moreover, they are actually banned in several countries, so that should say something. If you read the PLOS-ONE study I posted, you would see that training with a shock collar did not result in faster or better training than reward based methods. So, since positive reinforcement training works just as well as positive punishment (which is what shock collars are) and without adverse effects, why on earth would one use a shock collar and even risk the potential consequences? I don't expect an answer or a response. Just some food for thought

Good advice.

Good call on keeping him leashed. Look up how to teach "watch me" and "leave it" and start there with no distractions (again, there should be a ton of threads on these here). Start in your house. Then when it's solid in your house, go outside your front door. When it's solid there, go out to your front yard, get him solid there, etc. You can't just take him outside and walk him and expect him not to be distracted when he hasn't been trained first without distractions. Do not expect him to do graduate level work with a kindergartner education . When training, you build on the 3Ds - distance, duration and distractions. It's incremental. And be careful not to anthropomorphize - his quality of life is in no way diminished if you don't allow him to run off and kill things. I promise In fact, by controlling the things you can control (his safety as much as possible), he'll live a longer, healthier life.

No, they are not. http://drsophiayin.com/blog/entry/are-electronic-shock-collars-painful-or-just-annoying-to-dogs-a-new-study-r And in another study, dogs trained using e-collars did not learn any faster than dogs trained using reward based techniques, and showed significantly more time tense, more yawning, less time in environmental engagement (iow, more shut down): http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0102722 Why cause your dog discomfort or pain if you have the option not to do so?

I'm sure that was pretty scary! I've got a growler, too, but we've learned his triggers and when he growls, we back off from whatever we're doing that's making him uncomfortable. He'll still growl at night if we're about to roll over on him, but he's gotten much better over the years. Anyway, first I'll say this: don't correct growling. If you turn off the growl, he may go for a bite instead. Second: I think you need to do a vet check and also a behavioral consult, as others have stated. Good luck!

You will not break your wrist or dislocate your shoulder if you pay attention and hold the leash properly. I regularly hike with two male greyhounds, both strong dogs, both leashed, both high prey driven, both have chased, caught or killed small animals in the yard. When walking or hiking I have the leash handles looped on my wrist and wrapped twice around my hand. I keep my eyes open and I don't have problems (even though they're the two most disorganized dogs ever). My prior greyhound was huge - he weighed in at about 80lbs and had a high prey drive outdoors. He also chased, caught and killed animals in the yard. I did not have any problems hiking him, and we hiked all over. You need to train your dog to "leave it" and "watch me" so when you see his interest piqued, you distract him. There are a million threads on here for that advice, and I won't go into it here. You need to keep your dog on leash. Not only is he needlessly killing wildlife (I live in rural Maryland and I'm not a fan of groundhogs, but neither do I think it's cool to allow my dogs to kill them), he is also potentially getting himself into some serious danger. You say you live in Pennsylvania. Since I live in Maryland, I'm sure deer are as numerous there they are where I live. Have you ever encountered a buck in rut? If your dog goes after one (and you say he's showing an interest in deer now), he can be killed or severely injured by the buck. If he gives chase, he can be injured by any number of natural objects (search online for coyote dogs and you'll see what happens when greyhound skin meets barbed wire fence). Even a groundhog can cause severe damage if it gets his thin skin with those razor rodent teeth. There was once a GT member whose lurcher cornered a porcupine (in their yard) and was quilled. One of the quills punctured the dog's lungs and he died. You also run the risk of your dog coming into contact with rabid raccoons, foxes, cats, etc. Where I live, bears were recently seen. IT IS NOT SAFE TO LET A PREY-DRIVEN DOG OFF LEASH. I really hope you'll take this to heart. Also, please do not go the e-collar route. They are not humane, especially in the hands of an inexperienced trainer. Look, I get that you want to hike with your pup off-leash and you want to see him have fun. But your dog just isn't a good candidate for it. Best of luck to you both.

Check for parasites. Also, while that behavior does sound hungry, she could also be bored - try giving her a long brisk walk and see if that helps. Dogs by nature are scavengers, so hunting around for food is a pretty natural activity. Of my two greyhounds, my older boy has a super high metabolism, did not read the greyhound manual about being a relaxed type of dog and is very, very busy. When he is bored, he'll hunt for food, tear things up, bark and do all sorts of things for attention. Walking him usually helps You can also use food toys for her - check online for Nina Ottonson toys or other puzzle type games. Both ours love playing these games. They get small food rewards and have a great time.

Sending good thoughts!

A friend's greyhound was on pred long term to help manage GME and he would also get the lesions. His skin became very thin, prone to infection and very difficult to heal. OP - if you check back in, update us when you can

Dogs tolerate daily antihistamines just fine, so I'd have to disagree with your vet there, though I have no idea what's available in Croatia.

Feed her in her crate, give her special treats in the crate (real cheese, real chicken, etc.), give her chew toys in there while you are around, watching. Stay in the same room with her so she doesn't associate every time going into the crate with being left alone. Baseboard - wood putty should do it, I think? This reminds me of my old boy, Turbo. He was out of his crate after about 3 months and had run of the house. One day, he went into my bedroom and knocked over the laundry basket, shutting the door in the process. When I came home, there were some tooth marks at the bottom of the door, but then I think he just gave up and took a nap.

For what it's worth, Turbo limped on both hard and soft surfaces with his corn, and his corn was often not even visible. Glad to hear it's not OSA

While in unfenced areas, leash your dog, always. To prevent leash burn, use a leather leash. http://www.longdogleather.com/ makes excellent, soft leashes. Loop around your wrist and wrap a few times around your hand (or even do a slip knot around your wrist if you're so inclined, just be warned that if your dog takes off, and you're unprepared, he'll take you down. You may dislocate a shoulder, but you won't lose him ) and also hold in your hand to absorb shock. You may want to use two hands so that you've got the leash wrapped and held in say, your right hand, and your left hand holding about 6 inches farther down to act as an additional shock absorber. Hope that makes sense. Just wanted to add: groundhogs have very sharp, rodent teeth. If your pup gets the wrong end of that, he could be seriously wounded.

No, most likely not.

Yeah, definitely vet check - assuming she's emptying out before bedtime, she really should be able to hold it until 6:30, easily (mine will often refuse to go out after dinner and then want breakfast before going potty, so they'll hold it upwards of 12 hours!). Is she waking up at 4:00 am because she needs to go out, or she's suddenly bored and wants breakfast/play? My younger dog is still on track time after being with us for about 9 months already - we get up at 4:45 anyway, but sometimes he wakes up at 4 and wants to have a party. Good luck!

Sorry you're dealing with this, Carol. I second the consult with Couto. Or go ahead and do the specialist consult. A good specialist is worth his/her weight in gold and they very often find things that regular GP vets miss. Sending you lots of good thoughts.

The mounting behavior was likely just over-excitement. My dog never mounts any dogs around home, but when we went to GiG and I put him in the play area, he tried three different dogs He just gets so overly-stimulated he doesn't know what to do, so the default behavior is mounting.

I do think you should see a vet to rule out a UTI or possible spay incontinence. In the meantime, you and your partner will need to work together - as soon as you wake up, collar and leash the dog. One of you will just need to hold her close by while the other is getting dressed. Also, what time is her last out the previous night? I had a foster that would, without fail, urinate or defecate in her crate in the middle of the night unless she had a late, brisk walk. So if your pup has got to go so badly in the morning that she can't hold it, maybe try a later walk (and make it a brisk one, too).

Go see Dr. Jeffers in Gaithersburg. He's awesome. You may want to see if Zyrtec will work better. Both of my boys are on it and it's seeming to help.

Oh no! I'm so sorry!

Clare gives good advice above, but yeah, sounds like your environment will not be the easiest for the dog to transition to. If you're not up to the challenge of working very slowly and using very careful management (and there's no shame in that - it's certainly not what everyone signs up for when they adopt a greyhound, and most certainly not most first time adopters ), I'd do as Susan suggests and see if you can get a more bombproof dog. Good luck!