turbotaina

As for local groups, Greyt Expectations is a good one. They foster, have an adopter forum and give plenty of support if it's needed I have two dogs from them. My first dog came from Greyhound Welfare, and I was a long time volunteer with that group. Time constraints made me step down, but they do a good job. They will work with you if you're within an hour or so of the DC area (which you are) and if they can get a volunteer out to do your home visit. GEGR has volunteers right in your area though, so they're a good option for you. Both groups get their dogs from the same kennel in Florida and both groups foster, so you can't go wrong with either

So sorry Tom & Trish

Just wanted to reinforce what Fruitycake said - these are not bites, but mouthing behaviors. If he wanted to bite, your kids would be bloody messes by now Dogs frequently engage in bitey-face with eachother. It just doesn't go over so well with humans and their furless thin skin

Oh no, Erika! I'm so, so very sorry. :grouphug

(Also, until you can be sure that you or your wife can walk him without fear of him bolting and either of you dropping the leash, I'd suggest walking him with a basket muzzle ). ETA: he may not be a dog that can play with other dogs. My boy Turbo was so, so gentle in almost every aspect, and he started off doing really well with other dogs, but he had the tendency to get overly stimulated in the presense of rough play - at dog parks, he would join in with packs, he would gnaw on dogs that had gone belly up - not hurting them (though alarming their owners!) but just engaging in obnoxious behavior. So we stopped going to dog parks because he was an ass. He would just get super excited and think mouthy behavior was appropriate, when it wasn't. When I first adopted him, he was just barely two years old, and would try to do the same thing with humans. He grew out of it, with minimal work by me, but it sounds like your boy will need some work.

Well, you'll need to train waaaaaaaay under the threshold initially. That is to say, train the behavior you want first without any additional stimuli. Then start training around gradually increasing stimuli. Start small and build up duration and distractions. You'll likely never be able to train the preydrive out of him, but you should, over time, be able to distract him from the prey with a solid "watch me" or "leave it" command until you can get away from the prey. So - figure out what you want your dog to do in a particular situation, teach that behavior without any distractions/children/small animals/triggers first, then gradually introduce distractions. For a dog that is easily over-stimulated (like yours), I might want him to watch me rather than the kids. So I teach a watch me and get it really, really solid using a very high value treat with a high reinforcement rate (i.e., constantly popping food into his mouth). Then do it around the kids while they're doing nothing. Then when that's solid, do it with the kids lightly engaged. When that's solid, the kids can be more engaged. Always keep him under his stimulation threshhold until you can get a very reliable response. Move at tiny, tiny increments and build up distraction and duration. Hopefully Neylasmom or another trainer will pop in and give better advice

I'm going to state the obvious here, but until you can get to the bottom of this, if your kids want to play rough, they should do it in a room where he is not. First step to correcting a problem is to manage the environment. You'll probably want to reward him for staying away from the kids when they play (so, if he's sitting quietly on the couch when they start up, give him treats, etc.). Have you done any training with him? Such as teaching him to leave it or stay?

You can use a baby sock to help prevent rubs, though we honestly didn't have much of an issue with that.

The sad news is that you may never be rid of the corn. We fought with Turbo's for 5 years, had it hulled multiple times, it fell out on its own a few times, but it always came back. I am a big proponent of Therapaw boots. We did the boot on all walks when he was lame, and when he was really lame, we added tramadol. The boot makes a huge difference, but make sure you get one with a padded bottom (or better yet, just get a Therapaw). There were actually times when his pain was so bad, I seriouly considered amputating the toe. In the end though, he would always return sound, so I never did it.

Ok, I have to laugh at the apropos typo here

What were the numbers, Tom?

Whoops, meant psychogenic polydipsia. You might find this helpful.

I've never found NSAIDs particularly helpful for corn pain. We used tramadol, so you might want to ask your vet for that (assuming you've got something similar there).

If her blood and urine both look good, it could just be idiopathic polydipsia My boy does the same - he's been known to drink upwards of 4 quarts a day and he's perfectly fine, kidneys concentrate urine, his numbers are good. He just really, really likes water. He also drinks when he's excited, when he's bored, when he wants attention and when he's frustrated. It's an emotional response for him. Hope you can get it figured out

Heyokha has had to have his done a couple of times, and he didn't present with odor either, just excessive licking

Our new boy is like that. And he takes forever to go pee when we walk him. Our other greyhound will have pooped twice and peed on everything in sight before Crow will pee And he'll poop, like your girl. He just has a bladder of steel. Most of the time, he won't go back outside after dinner unless we take a walk. So he'll eat dinner at 4:30pm and when we get up at 4:30 am, he frequently doesn't want to go out. He'd rather have breakfast, thank you very much. He normally will go out around 8 or 8:30, so he'll sometimes hold it for as long as 16 hours . That's just how he rolls. And he drinks regularly and we add water to his kibble

Amber, my old boy Turbo had a corn that was slow to errupt from the pad. In fact, it took over a year and more than $3k to actually get it diagnosed! Once we were able to find a vet who could do the hulling, he would go in regularly. He rarely ever got total relief, but in those times when the corn wasn't ready to come out, we used a low dose of tramadol and Therapaw boots, and that kept him mostly sound. We would sometimes go weeks of him on three legs though, because nothing would work Corns suck

Ron, I would go ahead and get the scan done now, rather than waiting a week. You will have peace of mind knowing what you're dealing with (or not dealing with, as the case may be). Sending you and Leia lots of good thoughts. Oh, if you haven't tried canned green tripe yet, try it. It smells incredibly foul, but if you're right that she may not be smelling as well, that's pretty much the strongest smelling stuff out there

Well done, Robin!

Yep, what Siverfish said. These guys can dehydrate very quickly, so if she's not drinking, she may need IV fluids. Good luck!

Have a fecal done. You won't necessarily see worms or their eggs with the naked eye.

Any reason you're switching? I like to keep protein levels at mid-20s and up for young active dogs. At any rate, I wouldn't think a gradual downshift in protein level would cause GI upset.

Yeah, start with a fleece first. I laid out a bunch of money for coats for my new guy, but he runs hot, so I have to uncoat him in the middle of our walk

Colleen Pelar's book is really good and here's her site: Living with Kids and Dogs.

TBhounds- the place she's at is a shared specialist/Evet place, so yes, they do have overnight staffing (I'm guessing they'd move her over to that side). It's a really good hospital. God knows I've been there enough. Jen - we were posting at the same time. Sorry you don't have more answers, but your approach is prudent. Let me know if I can do anything for you. Also, thank god for insurance!