turbotaina

Happy to help. You might find these books very helpful as well: Mine! A Practical Guide to Resource Guarding in Dogs Feisty Fido: Help for the Leash Reactive Dog Anything by Jean Donaldson, Dr. Patricia McConnell, Dr. Karen London, Pat Miller or Dr. Sophia Yin is going to be worthwhile McConnell and London have particularly easy to understand writing styles. Donaldson is really good but not the easiest read, in my opinion. Though she did author the pioneering "The Culture Clash: A Revolutionary New Way to Understanding the Behavior between Human and Domestic Dogs" (or something like that - I normally just refer to it as Culture Clash ). On that same note is McConnell's "The Other End of the Leash" which is fabulous and should be read by every dog owner ever. Hope you find these useful. Also, see if you can find a veterinary behaviorist. Not all behaviorists are the same. Yes, a veterinary behaviorist will cost more for the consult, but pretty much any yahoo can hang out a shingle calling himself a trainer/behaviorist *coughCesarMillancoughcough* and have no real training whatsoever. If you provide your location, we may be able to give you specific recommendations (city state is fine ).

Welcome to GT First off, stop giving him bones. He doesn't need them and he obviously considers them very high value. Any time you are training a behavior, you need to manage the environment. Until you have *really* worked through all of his resource guarding tendencies, you shouldn't give something as high value as a bone (and there's a chance you won't ever be able to work through those issues). Have you continued doing the sharing exercises? Can you describe what exactly your trainer had you doing? FWIW, I have a resource guarder over high value items like bones and chews, so we just don't give them, and the problem is eliminated that way. But I don't know what else your dog may guard. Regarding the bed incident, you need to train a reliable "off" for furniture. Many, many dogs do not liked to be reached over or have their collars taken or tugged. Throw a really tasty treat (something high value, like cheese or chicken). When he's reliably jumping off the furniture to get it, start adding the verbal cue ("off" or whatever you want to use). Eventually, he'll happily jump down from wherever he is, but you need to reinforce like crazy in the beginning (the reward must be greater than what he already has (the bed) - the bed is a resource, just like a bone is - same principle applies). Know that training in an ongoing process. You can't just work on it a few times and consider it a done deal (kinda like you probably have to take CLE courses ). So that's the training aspect. And I'd really encourage you to continue to work with a positive reinforcement based trainer or a veterinary behaviorist who can give you a good, honest assessment. As to whether your dog will ever be able to be trusted with kids, that's a total unknown, sorry. You would obviously need to do a ton of work with him and he might turn out to be fine. But he might not. So do consult with a trainer or better yet, a behaviorist to get a good assessment and help guide your decision together with your husband. Hope this helps a bit. Best of luck to you! Edit: just saw the bit about leash aggression and dog park issues. I'd stop doing the dog park, period. Some dogs are fine with it, others aren't. If he's snippy at the park, he's not enjoying himself, so don't take him. For the leash aggression, there are a couple of things you can do. If he gets upset at a distance, *before he gets upset* start shoveling treats into his mouth. Stay under his threshold, turn back the other way if you need to. Eventually you'll be able to start approaching the trigger and you'll have conditioned him to think of it as a good thing. But it takes time to build up to it. Always always always stay below threshold. You can also teach a watch me or look at me command to draw his attention back to you and give him treats. Sounds like he needs a bit of work so you and your husband both need to be absolutely committed to the training. Not everyone is cut out to handle dogs that need a lot of work, and there's no shame in that. My boy Heyhokha is a giant pain in the ass, but he's worth it. Talk to a reputable trainer (preferably a behaviorist), talk to your group and definitely talk to your husband. Good luck

Heh. This thread is 13 years old now!

Unfortunately, Jen has been through this before.

Aw, Jen . Also, are they taking into consideration gigantic greyhound spleens? When I saw Dr. Couto last weekend, he indicated that they are *way* larger than "normal" dog spleens.

My kitties have all passed away Thanks, everybody!

I bought a couple of Preventic collars for the boys so I wouldn't need to use a topical. I've never had an issue with Frontline, but we just don't get fleas where I live and I figured we'd go with just tick protection. I was getting out the collars and read the box and became a little alarmed. Apparently, you're not supposed to touch the collars without washing your hands afterwards. My dogs, especially Crow, are cuddlers and they sleep on our bed and are always up on the furniture with us. Crow in particular loves neck scritches, which would result in coming into contact with the collar. Have any of you who use Preventic had any issues with (human) reactions to it?

Katy a couple of things you can try: give her a *brisk* 20 minute or longer walk before bedtime. I had a foster who was the same way and the only way I could get her through the night was to give her a fast paced walk at like 9 or 10PM. It took enough of the edge off that she'd sleep in a tiny bit. If she's waking up at 4:30 every day, set your alarm for 4:15, then gradually increase it. She should hopefully start using the alarm as her cue to get up. Make sure she's warm at night. She might be waking up because she's chilled. Try putting her to bed with a light coat or PJs and see if that might help. Vet check to make sure she doesn't have a UTI or any medical reason for not sleeping through the night (doubtful, but you never know). Hope this helps!

:grouphug

We're regulars over at TLC. Seriously. They know Heyokha by name when we walk in You are in excellent hands. I don't know if you saw their signs in there for Vitus Vet, but I'd encourage you to sign up for it. It's an app you can put on your phone and it will have all of your dog's vet records for treatment there (and any other vet that uses the service). I absolutely love it - very easy way to get your hands on all your medical records immediately. You can download to PDF on a computer and shoot to Dr. Couto - they'll have rads, lab results, SOAP notes, everything. It's awesome. I wish my reg vet used it. Hope you can get to the bottom of River's illness quickly and get a good treatment plan in place. Happy to hear he has stabilized and improved.

Congratulations, Tina! Very happy for you guys

Diane, I'm just seeing this. I'm so sorry for your loss

Yeah, try using a baby gate to keep her in with you. I've got a couch sleeper, too. He will wander in the bedroom at 2:00 am looking for snuggles though

Welcome to my world. Heyokha has been known to wake us up in the night because no one is rubbing his belly

All this. Do a fecal (or just go ahead and worm) and a urinalysis. Keep her with you at night. Also, it sounds like you're free feeding - I'd put her on a schedule of two meals per day so her elimination needs will become more predictable. Is it possible to put your bin somewhere she cannot access it, like a pantry or a cupboard? Do you have a lid on your bin? I'd try to remove the temptation as much as possible.

OP - you've clearly put a lot of thought into this and it sounds like you're taking everything into consideration. Good move going with a group that fosters, too. Contrary to popular belief, many racing greyhounds are actually exposed to children . There was one trainer in Daytona who would regularly bring her kids to the kennel and the kids would play with the racers and even cuddle up with some of them. Also, many greyhound farms have children present. That being said, not all greyhounds have interacted with kids and there are some who just don't like them or are fearful. My older greyhound LOVES kids - gravitates to them. Put GT'er Bootsy Collins' boy on his ass. . But though he loves kids, he is a resource guarder and he hates anybody being over his head, so he's not a good candidate for living with kids. So those kinds of behaviors are important to take into consideration too. Finally, I HIGHLY recommend that you read Colleen Pelar's Living with Kids and Dogs without Losing Your Mind. Best book out there for raising kids and dogs together. Best of luck to you!

Crow is such a perfect cuddler, he will make you oversleep.

Oh, Trish and Burke, I'm so sorry for your loss. Murray was a beautiful boy and so very lucky to have you.

Yep. My group had a few fosters that had to have toe amputations and they healed up just fine. You'll be doing leash walks only for a month or two but after they're healed up, they're usually good to go.

In addition to checking for a UTI (which they should do via cystocentesis), also do a complete urinalysis including specific gravity. I'd also have a superchem run to check kidney values (keeping in mind that greyhounds can run a little high in creatinine and BUN). Inquire with your vet about Cushings as well. As someone else mentioned, I'd treat for parasites, just in case (probably two rounds of Panacur, 3 weeks apart). If all the medical stuff checks out, I'd recommend you find a good veterinary behaviorist for a consult.

Hang on. Two to three BOWLS of water a day? How big are your bowls?

There's all sorts of things that could go wrong with this method and I don't think it's advisable to rely on it in the future (risk of infection, accidental perforation, etc.). My personal thought for dogs that won't poop is that when they have to do it badly enough, they'll go. You just have to wait them out. As an aside, a wet cloth to the anus should also work - this is how a dam gets puppies to defecate (well, with their tongues, but I'm sure that's not a route you want to take ) . At any rate, now that you're back from your trip, you should probably invest some time into training all your pups to go on leash. I've found that walking them in circles until they're so bored, they eventually up and poop works well. And at that point, throw them a big party. It should become rewarding for them to poop on leash. I had a foster once that was awful about pottying on lead, but she did eventually get the idea (especially when I found a treat she couldn't resist ).

Unless you and your vet can chalk all of these behavior issues up to a medical cause, you are going to *have* to do training, regardless how he did before. If he otherwise does well in the crate, for your sanity, you may want to resurrect it until you get the issues resolved. And give him a kong in it, if that's what made him happy. From the sound of it, the move may have put him on edge a bit (dogs don't generalize well, so the new smells and sounds of the new apartment may have thrown him off), then the maintenance men may have sent him into a downward spiral (did they sound the alarms while testing?). Pretend he's a new dog just off the track. Buy this booklet by Dr. Patricia McConnell. It's inexpensive, provides great training tips and will help you figure out if you're dealing with SA or something else. While others here have said that the dogs get enough exercise, can you be specific? I've often found that a long brisk walk in the morning is best (I'm talking 45-60 minutes) to help tire him out and make sure he's empty. From a medical standpoint, the ABX may have upset his stomach, so that's something to take into account. The first time I had to put one of my boys on antibiotics (due to a sheath infection), it took many weeks and the addition of probiotics before his gut returned to normal. Also, have you done a fecal/wormed him recently? Regarding the webcam, if you're dealing with SA, usually the panic attacks are within 30 minutes of departure. Can you and your BF leave together one day (maybe over the weekend) and observe what's going on (I don't know what system you are using, but I've used both UStream and Nest/DropCam, both of which can be viewed from a mobile device/remotely in real time)? You may have neighbors with irregular work hours and the coming and going and general neighbor noises may also be upsetting.