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Hello fellow Grey lovers. I want to hear your SUCCESSFUL separation anxiety stories! I just adopted a 3.5 year old greyhound, Hanna, about 2 months ago and the separation anxiety has been a MAJOR stressful item we are having to overcome. We were putting her in the crate but she HATED the crate, never went in it, and it seemed to trigger her anxiety. She also can't stand to see us leave. So we met her in the middle and put her in our spare room (its our "workout" room, and where I get ready in the mornings, we spend a lot of time in there) with her bed, a kong filled with something yummy, and a bone (and food and water). This seemed to work as she couldn't watch us walk out but also wasn't stuck in her crate. It worked for about a week and now we're back to the screaming. We did set up a webcam so we can see how she reacts (we don't use it all the time, sometimes its more stress than good) and she does have good days being alone (which makes me feel she CAN do this!!!) From the webcam I can see that she fights sleeping, but she lays down in a new spot every 10 minutes. I am also not adopting another dog. Financially it's irresponsible for me, and I want her to be a well balanced dog. I don't want to put a bandaid on it. Plus she's been alone with another dog and she could care less about the dog. We stay consistent with training, ignore her before and upon return, etc. Anyway....I'm not looking for advice, I've read it all, I'm doing it, and I'm trying all the tricks of the trade. I do, however, have a nasty little voice in my head making this worse, telling me this will never end, maybe I wasn't cut out for this, etc. I want to hear about how you overcame separation anxiety with your grey and what your dog is like now! I want to hear/see the light at the end of the tunnel to make me aware that others have gone through this and it worked!

Hi everyone! Need some advice again, you have never steered me wrong. I have had Gardenia (3 yr old retired racer, mild-mannered) for almost a year now. I am now looking to adopt another one (for her, as a playmate), but we are having some issues. When she first showed up at my door last September, she came with another greyhound (the adoptees wanted to see which one took to me better) and she was fine with that other dog. She seemed to enjoy the company of this dog and was even "sad" when they left (she was hanging out by the front door for hours). However, I have noticed that now she really does not like being around other dogs. I have not been able to get her to play with other dogs, as she just wants to pounce, chase (lol), or be "cranky" (as we like to call it) around other dogs. I generally keep her away from other dogs and avoid the dog park when other dogs are there. She shows her teeth, barks, gets snappy, and generally just does not like when other dogs approach her, but she never bites (I pull her away because I am scared of this happening although she has never done it, even when given the chance). Is there an explanation for this behavior? Do you believe she will ever get over this if we get another greyhound? She was obviously okay at a certain point with other greyhounds. I am wondering if anyone else had this problem and how they got over it. Does it just take some time/conditioning? Me and my fiancé are willing to put in the work to get the dogs to get along, but I want to know how to get to that point. Also, when taking her out for a walk, she always seems VERY interested in other dogs. She never barks or snarls, just looks and wags her tail. However, when they approach her, especially in a quick manner (mostly when THEY are off the leash), she starts to show her teeth and snarl. We took her for a long walk the other day and we came across an unleashed dog. The dog did not approach Gardenia (as most tend to do) and after a while she actually ended up approaching the other dog with NO issues. Is this just a territory or insecurity thing? I am really hoping this is something that can be overcome as we really want her to have fun with another dog. It's not just for us, it's mainly for her to have a companion. Thank you in advance for all your comments and suggestions.

Hi everyone, I just want to say what a pleasure it has been to have a place to come to specifically dedicated to all things greyhound. My mother just a month ago adopted a 2 year old newly retired racing greyhound (Emma). Emma has been wonderful, and has been learning certain things very well - there were a few issues in the beginning with Emma being in her crate at night, however my mother was able to work with her and now they have a great over night routine where Emma sleeps well in her crate. The one pressuing issue that is developing is that of separation anxiety when my mother leaves the house. She initially took a week off from work to help Emma acclimatize to her new environment. During this time they bonded, and Emma was not displaying seperation anxiety - and my mother was able to leave her alone for periods of time without her becoming anxious. (Also, Emma is not in her crate when my mom goes out - she tried this at one point, and her anxiety and behaviour was much worse - so she decided to let her roam free during the day). When my mom returned to her regular schedule of working (3 or 4 days a week, for around 4 hours at a time) Emma began to develop more anxiety when she was left alone, displaying barking, howling, and crying. Now I know that there is an adjustment period, and my mom has continued to work with Emma and has been doing alone triaining - the issue is that they live in an apartment, and people have started complaining. Needless to say, that adds a little bit of pressure to the whole situation. My question is how can we do our best to set Emma up for success? My mother and I have done a lot of reading, and I have tried to choose a plan that is consistent and addresses the anxiety itself as well as the symptoms of the anxiety. There are some mixed messages in terms of what works best, but I have been trying to get my mom to stick with the alone training. There was a period of time that Emma was doing better, and was not running up to the door when my mom would leave - however a few days have gone by, and she seems to be a bit worse - now running up to the door and blocking my mom's exit, and then barking almost right away when she closes the door. I have suggested she go back to basics and just start to desensitize the jingling of her keys, and picking up her purse, and then sitting back down and waiting for Emma to relax. What are people's opinions on providing treats to Emma once she does calm down/lay down? What it looks like now is that my mom goes in and out very quickly, and then sits down on the couch and 'ignores' Emma until she relaxes and lies down. I am thinking that this could be a good time to give her attention and treats? I know that this can be a slow process requiring effort and patience, I just worry that the behaviour is getting worse and not better. If anyone has any further suggestions, advice, or personal experience to share, it would be much appreciated! Ashley

So my husband and I are fostering a beautiful big boy who retired from racing in January. He gets along great with our other greyhound and ignores the rats that we have in a cage. He, however, hates our 2 cats. We have read all the advice on how to introduce him and fully understand that he may never be cat safe. This is heartbreaking because this boy is just so incredible, and sweet. We are on day 3 of introductions. We are introducing them in the bathroom and have our boy muzzled and leashed with the cat in the bathtub, sometimes on my lap while I lovingly pet. Day 3 is different from day 1, we are able to get his attention away for short periods of time but then he snaps back to staring. Water squirts don't faze him. One of our cats has been hissing, which makes him back up and wag his tail and whine. That is my question - whats up with the tail wagging and whimpering? Does he see the cat as a play thing or is this behavior they exhibit when they want to attack and chase, like the lure? I will be happy to answer any questions about his behavior - I am just looking for a good start and some advice.

Our greyhound girl is a terrible leash puller. I know this is a topic covered many times and I've read up a lot about it...but I'm still confused about the best way to handle it specific to our greyhound. The problem is she's very inconsistent — sometimes she's perfectly well-behaved on a leash but more often than not she's a terrible pulling monster and there seems to be no pattern whatsoever why/when she'll walk good or bad. She has a very very high prey drive which I know is another issue entirely so I'm speaking about leash pulling when she's NOT spotted prey and is otherwise walking with no prey distractions. She pulls out of excitement from smelling something interesting, wanting to stop all the time, wanting to go for a car ride (even in stranger's cars), spotting people or children (she LOVES everybody), to look at any foreign object on the sidewalk, and sometimes when she sees other dogs. As an added bonus, she weighs more than half of what I do so when she wants to go in another direction it's sometimes physically impossible to stop her. I know consistency is key with any sort of training. But we're getting frustrated at how to be consistent if we don't even know what we're doing wrong or right? She's very smart and otherwise reacts very well to commands/reprimands EXCEPT about leash pulling. So is this an alpha dog issue or just a stimuli-overload issue? And why then does she walk good one day, bad the next? Is there some pattern we're missing seeing or should we escalate this to formal obedience training/harness or gentle leader/etc? We've only had her about a year but we've made such positive progress with all her other issues. Stopping the leash pulling is the one thing we can't seem to get consistent, positive momentum with.

Hi Greyhound lovers, Help:) Looking for some advice. I recently adopted a beautiful 5 years greyhound, Pluto, brought him home on Saturday to where I live on the beach directly off Pacific Coast Highway. He had been doing great the first few days, adapting to the condo, the beach and everything new. Until yesterday. He learned the stairs that go up and down to my condo entrance right away, but since yesterday, all of the sudden, he refuses to go up them. And its the only way in and out of my condo. And the only way he can get to the street (PCH) or anywhere else to the go to the bathroom. I help him up one foot at a time, but once we get to the top he immediately pulls hard to get back down to the condo. I really don't think it is the stairs, I think he has become terrified of the traffic on PCH. As he will gladly go up and down the stairs to the beach on the other side of my building. But now he refuses to go up and down from the condo or relieve himself alongside the road on PCH where the cars are driving by. He is super afraid. If I could take him to the beach every time to go to the bathroom, it would be fine. But I can't as the tides are not always low enough. Which means if he does not go alongside the road, he does not go. Its been since yesterday at 6:30pm since he went to the bathroom. I'm worried. Any advice on this? Any thoughts welcome. Thanks so much. Joe

Baxter is doing really well. We haven't had to house train him or anything. We do have an issue with stairs but we are working on that. I was wondering about one thing though: how can you teach a greyhound to sit? With a previous dog(pug), we used a martingale collar. We pulled the leach straight up. It took a while but she sat. Eventually she got it and we didn't have to use the leach anymore. Would it turn out the same for Baxter? Would treats help? I know that sitting is sort of awkward for greys. Will this be a hindrance? I've trie the same thing I did with the pug but so far it hasn't worked. Any tips? How did you teach your grey to sit? What about other tricks?

Recently, I discovered that my greyhound Baron has been getting on my bed when I'm not home, and I'm not sure how to stop it. I have mild dog allergies, and although they rarely act up around Baron, they go nuts when I'm exposed to dog hair in the bed overnight. I've never allowed him on the bed, and he knows he's not supposed to be there (he won't get on the bed when I'm home, and on the few occasions I've caught him, I made him get down right away and let him know I disapproved). He has several dog beds throughout the house, including a giant fluffy one right next to my bed that he sleeps in at night. I don't want to block him out of the bedroom when I'm gone, because he recognized that as his den (I'm guessing, because it's where he hoards his favorite treasures). I just need a way to make the bed seem like an unattractive place to nap when I'm out. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

I have been stalking you all silently for a while now - so first a quick thank you for all the great information and lovely pics here! All of my questions up until this point have been answered in other topic threads, but I am totally stumped on this one and am hoping to be enlightened... My hubby and I adopted our first greyhound, Asha, just under six months ago. We 'fostered to adopt' which means we got her straight from the track, so we are the only retirement home she's ever known (which means this is our fault of course!). She is now 2.5 years old and is a very easy hound to live with, with very good house manners, and moderate leash and social ones . She is also the least food motivated dog we have ever come across. As a result, while she is quite well trained in commands that are enforceable by a leash or my body - such as wait, leave it, let's go, this way, and to a lesser extent, come & up, my attempts at training her to do anything that requires her to move herself by herself have failed. This includes lie down, and go to your bed, among others. The difficulty is two-fold: 1) getting her interested enough in some kind of a reward to take the action in the first place (she might not bother to follow a 'lure' and is not at all motivated to keep 'trying' things until she earns her treat) and 2) once she understands the command, motivating her enough that she will bother to do it. On a side note: I have tried the 'lazy training' method of saying the command as she is about to do one of these things of her own volition, and then rewarding her for it. I'm not sure whether she just doesn't connect the dots, or doesn't care enough to do it on 'command' later, but I have not had any luck with it. Considering most dog training assumes you can use food (or something your dog values highly) for luring/motivating/rewarding, I have tried a huge variety of foods to tempt her delicate palate. This includes: cream cheeses, cheeses, custard, ice cream, bacon, deli meats, raw and home dehydrated liver, heart etc, raw and cooked mince meats, peanut butter, bbq chicken, hot dog, fish (tinned and freshly cooked), butter, bread, fruit & veg, and so on. Many of these she won't even deign to eat in the comfort of her own home, freely given (even the ones she likes, and has eaten before on other occasions). She is a happy, relatively confident greyhound and is not at all anxious or distracted in these instances - she just doesn't care about food very much. The best response I can hope for is a low-moderate interest. She is on a raw diet, which I'm sure decreases the value of these other offerings, but I'd be reluctant to change her diet just to try and increase the value of treats. She is of course more interested in food around dinner time, but being slightly more interested doesn't go all that far when she is so disinterested to begin with. The bottom line is, that while I can use treats as training motivation/reward for low difficulty tasks, food is never going to be more important to her than an exciting situation (like spotting a kangaroo or cat) or avoiding something she'd prefer not to do. She is affectionate and loves attention and pets, but again, this has limited value for her when it comes to harder activities or more exciting environments. She does like toys too, but only when the mood suits her, so they can't really be used as a reward. The one thing she absolutely loves is walks (unless it's raining) and I have managed to use this in some training instances, but it's applications are fairly limited, at least as far as my poor brain can figure. I think one of the best examples of this as a problem is getting her to jump into the car. As mentioned, Asha LOVES walks, and nine times out of ten, we drive somewhere to take her for a walk. She also comes with us on various social visits, day trips, errands, and even long road trips and is very happy in the car, enjoying all the sniffies that accompany it, and of course being close to her humans! The point is she likes the car and has very positive associations with it. We have taught her the command 'Up' and she definitely knows what it means (we use it to get over logs and streams etc as well as in the car and on the human bed). On the way TO a walk, or if we are otherwise going out, she jumps into the car on command very easily. However, once we have finished walking, or visiting a friend etc, a lot of the time she will refuse to jump into the car. Trust me when I say this is not about the different terrain etc when the car is parked in different places - under the right circumstances (i.e. it's raining and she wants to get out of it, or she's been out with us all day and is ready to go home, or she decides that high value treat might just be worth bothering to jump for) she jumps in without difficulty. She has jumped into the car literally hundreds of times. However, when we first got her she didn't know how to jump, at all, and we had to lift her into the car, over small logs, onto our bed and so on. She is very happy to be picked up and I suspect she would really just prefer us to lift her, thank you very much! We have tried a bunch of different strategies here - including all sorts of high value treats (which works, occasionally), sitting in the car ourselves ignoring her until she gets bored enough to jump in (worked 2-3 times), leaving her tied up while driving out of sight, then coming back 30 seconds later and trying again (again, worked, about 3 times), backing her up when she doesn't jump in the first time, then asking again (worked 2-3 times)... you get the idea. All of these have been followed by high praise and treats every time when she finally does get in. But nothing we've tried works without fail, and most only work a few times before she decides she doesn't care about that anymore. What does this mean? Is she being stubborn (or dare I ask, dominant)? Or is this standard greyhound behaviour if you haven't come up with sufficient motivation for them? As we have given in on a few occasions, is she too intelligent and just trying to train US to pick her up? I'm at a bit of a loss as to the implications of this obvious refusal to follow a command she knows - and also what the heck to try next! She seems generally respectful from what I can tell - she waits until I tell her its ok to eat, she will drop/leave something she's found if I say 'leave it' (though she will try again multiple times if she is very into it and I don't take it away - but still drops it each time). She only gets off our bed slowly and with a fair bit of verbal encouragement - but she does get off, and I've noticed she takes her sweet time to get off even if someone's at the door or dinner is ready etc too. When we first got her we were very careful to always go out the door first, but we are more slack about it these days. If anyone has any tips on motivating a very non-food-driven hound, or insight into what might be going through her mind, please chime in! Thanks for reading my essay

Hi, this is my first time posting and we need some help. My dog refuses to go outside, even to potty. We got our grey, Shelby, Sept 2012, when she was 2 1/2 years old. For the first couple of months she loved going for walks. Then, suddenly, she had to be coaxed to go for a walk, although she LOVED to run around in fenced yard and would pee and poop out there. We hadn't trained her at that point, and only my husband was able to get her to go out for a walk. Long story short, we hired a very good but VERY expensive trainer for about 4 months in mid-2013. She showed us how to lead Shelby, get her to focus, and we were able to walk her again. Fast forward to about 8 months ago. Shelby started refusing to go for a walk in the morning. My husband leaves for work very early, and sometimes she would come downstairs and he'd let her in backyard to potty. But when I tried to takeher out again around 8:30, she refused to even come downstairs. I tried EVERYTHING to get her down (treats, going outside, starting my car and coming back in with garage door opening/closing) with only rare success. That meant that she wouldn't go out again until around 3:00 pm!!!! She only had 1 accident in the house. Otherwise, she'd go out with husband when he came home from work around 3. She didn't seem sick and had normal poops and pee. We'd take her out at night before bed without any problem, and she was fine then too. However, she wouldn't touch her morning meal - probably because she didn't want to have to poop again??? About 3 months ago, she started refusing to go out at all, even at night. We'd get her leash and she'd run to her bed in the den, or the couch. However, once we were able to get her outside (morning or night) she was fine. Then, about a month ago....it started again, whether on or off leash. On the rare occasions I am able to get her out, she goes down the driveway, pees, and then stops. Maybe I can get her halfway down the block, but after that - she digs in her heels and I cannot and will not drag her down the street. I try the techniques the trainer taught us (that once worked before) but now nothing works! She won't even poop. And worse - she won't even go outside. She won't even go out when out neighbors try to walk her, and she loves them. She used to go for walks with them without any problem. She is afraid of certain loud noises - school bus, "booms", and others - but even when there is no discernible noise she won't go. I do not know what to do! She's a little better with my husband, who has established himself as the alpha, but she won't budge with me. We have a vet appt in a couple of weeks for her yearly, but I don't know how much help he'll be. I'm really worried about her physical/digestive health, in addition to mental health. We cannot afford another trainer or a dog walker. This is not normal behavior. I feel like such a bad parent!!!

Hi everyone! (Be patient with me here, I am new to this ) My husband and I adopted a retired greyhound, Lester, 5 days ago and are just so in love with him and need a few pieces of advice. He is 4 years old and seems to be a very mild mannered and calm dog. Not overly affectionate, not bothered by dogs (except really big ones...he gets a little scared), not bothered by children, he's just pretty laid back it seems...at least so far. Lester has done great in the house, no issues using the bathroom in the house (so far), just follows us around wherever we go, he sleeps all night on his bed, and stays in his crate without problems while we are at work. However, we are having trouble getting him to eat. He has eaten 1 maybe 2 full meals since we brought him home, all the other times he barely touches his food...maybe a couple of bites at the most. He drinks water fine, but food is a different story. We have tried multiple different foods throughout the past couple of days and he isn't interested in any of them. We have tried giving him some cottage cheese & yogurt which the adoption agency said they loved and he won't eat that. We have started to try and teach him basic commands and he won't even eat treats as a reward. (We have tried 3 different types of treats too) And while on the training subject, do any of you have any advice on teaching greyhounds basic commands...especially without treats since he won't eat them for now? Is he just having a hard time adjusting so he isn't eating? Is praise and love enough to train a greyhound basic commands? What are some of your experiences you have had during the adjustment period with your greyhound? I know this will take time for him to adjust, I just want him to be happy (since he hasn't shown much sign of that either) and I'm just slightly worried for him and need a little reassurance that his behavior is normal. Thanks so much!!!!

Hi, We are currently on day 3 of a weeklong "sleepover" trial period with our first grey. He came straight from the kennel, so we wanted to be able to see what his behavior is like in a home before we decide he is the one. We LOVE HIM. He has been so sweet and well behaved. We are already so attached. My question is related to prey drive outside the home. In our apartment, he has so far coexisted pretty well with our housecat. We mostly keep them separated or have him in a muzzle, closely supervised, when they are allowed to be in the same room. When she's around, he is curious, but mostly just wants to sniff her butt and go back to sleep. It is easy to break his gaze when he stares and we are hopeful they can live together peacefully (but it will take months for me to feel comfortable). When we take him outside, he is like a different dog. We walked past a sleeping cat tonight and I had to forecfully push him away as he got way too excited. Then a few minutes later, a very, very small fluffy yappy dog on a leash started barking like crazy about a half block away. He immediately froze and then started tugging and jerking HARD on his leash to get over to it. All I could think was "oh god, I hope this harness is on tight enough because if he gets out, that dog is dead." I was genuinely very rattled. I dragged him away as quickly as I could, but he was definitely on high voltage after that. I guess I should be encouraged that he allowed me to drag him off and was able to calm down in a few minutes, but I'm really nervous now. We live in an urban area and our plan was to let him run in the dog park (with a big dog area) since we don't have a yard. He'll be encountering other types of dogs and some cats daily on walks. He seems fine with big dogs that he's met in our building and on walks, but the cat and the little dog were completely different. I'm so scared that we'll turn a corner and be face-to-face with a dog he wants to kill, or that he'll be able to overpower me if he gets too excited on a walk (he's 70+ lbs). My questions for you are: Is this something that can be managed with training? What should I be doing to minimize it? He is obviously completely untrained since he is fresh off the track, so I am at square one with commands. What needs to be our training priority to get him safe for walks? Thank you!

Went to Petsmart yesterday to look into a beginner class for Rumor. Was talking to the store manager who was trying to convince me to bring both dogs. I was explaining some of my concerns and the more we talked, the more I'm pretty sure he's not very knowledgable about greyhounds. ( He's not a trainer by the way. I have the trainer's card and will call and ask my questions to him). Anyway, I'm concerned about taking my dogs into Petsmart because I don't know if my dogs are small dog safe ( or any dog safe for that matter) and I think they have a pretty strong prey drive based on how they react to rabbits and cats (and toads, and bugs, etc, etc). The guy said they absolutely wouldn't allow the dog to be muzzled in class (I tried to explain about greyhound muzzles but he wouldn't hear it). He also said you could get rid of prey drive with training. I don't believe that - they were bred and trianed to chase furry things. I've had greyhounds for over 10 years and have read a lot but am certainly no expert on the breed or training. But, if I take a class I need to be confident in what I know. So, has anyone muzzled their hound at Petsmart training (at least to start until you have a better feel for things. It's other people doing something stupid that I worry about) and what about the prey drive thing? It would be fun for DH and I to take both dogs but at the same time but I worry about Marlow.

For the new grey lovers out there, I thought I'd share the method I used to teach Baron to lay down. I tried several others until I stumbled on this one and realized how stupidly easy it was because it takes advantage of a greyhounds natural laziness. You can get through the entire process in a day. Step 1-Greyhounds lay down often. Every time your greyhound lays down, give it a treat. Step 2-From a standing position, show your greyhound a treat. Let him sniff it. Wait for him (or her) to lay down, then reward. Repeat. Step 3-Your greyhound is starting to understand that when you have a treat, it needs to lay down to get the treat. Begin giving it the verbal command and gesture you plan to use, then show it the treat, then reward when the grey lays down. Repeat. Step 4-Without showing it the treat, give it the gesture and verbal command. Reward when it lays down. Repeat and reinforce. That's all there is to it. Baron learned in just a few short hours. I highly recommend this being the first thing you teach your new grey to do.

The SO and I have decided to sign up for some obedience/training courses with Sam. He sometimes seems listless and, quite frankly, bored, and we're thinking that it might help to train together, and potentially look at agility down the line. Not to mention that it would be a greyt chance to bond! I've read "The Other End of the Leash" and "Bones Would Rain From The Sky," and am quite concerned about finding a trainer that is willing to adapt their training techniques to greyhound needs, and avoiding anyone who might do damage to my relationship with Sam in the long run. Does anyone have advice about identifying whether or not a trainer has the right (i.e., safe) mindset? Are there any warning signs I should be concerned about? This is someone I'm going to trust, and I don't want that trust to be misplaced. I'm in Montreal, and would LOVE suggestions for trainers in the area, if anyone has them.

Hi everyone, My partner and I adopted a beautiful 5 year old brindle ex-racer named Chester 3 weeks ago now, and we are completely in love with him. However we are getting quite worried, as he is gradually getting more and more fearful of going on his walks with us. He has been in 2, possibly 3 foster homes before us, and has always been with other dogs. When we first got him, the first few days were great as he was very confident going for walks around the neighbourhood. He showed interest in other dogs but was never keen to get to know them any better than a sniff. Now, we struggle to get him to go more than a few meters out of our home to relieve himself on some days. He refuses to even walk past another dog when he sees one coming towards him, we generally have to give everything a very wide berth. We live in an apartment, so need to be able to take him out for exercise and toilet. I know that the adjustment period can be a long road, and that patience is going to be the only way to get him relaxed and confident again, but I just want to know if this has happened to anyone else? The confident reverting to fearful thing. We don't pull him and try to use confident, happy tones when encouraging him. We haven't found any treats that he is eager to take when outside yet, but are going to try cheese tonight. If we turn around and just let him come straight back home, is that rewarding bad behaviour or is that what we should be doing? We would really appreciate any advice that you would be able to share, we just want our little guy to be happy! Thank you

Chancey has been with me for five weeks now & has settled in at home very well. She is straight off the track (her last race was the end of December) & when out walking she is permanently on the alert for anything that moves, people walking in the distance, a cyclist riding away from us & especially people walking dogs have her pulling like mad. I am working on stopping her permanently pulling into her collar & by the time we are nearing the end of our walk she is usually a little more relaxed. When she sees another dog she is frantic to get to them & I sometimes have a screaming bucking bronco on the end of the lead, yet she walks happily with my own whippet and the whippet & IG who walk with us most mornings. I don't think she is aggressive, she just wants to go and see them, although I'm pretty sure she would chase any small fluffy that ran away from her! I am currently working on "Look at me" at home but at the moment when we are outside nothing distracts her. i have been unable to get her to sit at all, she almost seems to have to think about getting into a "sit" when she wants to! Because I am aware that she is still "keen" & there are often small dogs running loose I have a plastic muzzle on her when walking in the forest but she often nearly knocks me over or trips me up when rubbing her head against my legs trying to get it off. When walking around the housing estate where we live I prefer not to have the muzzle on as we are unlikely to meet a loose dog and I can always cross the road or detour if I think I need to avoid another dog & owner. I have found a local boarding kennel that is prepared to rent out one of their exercise pens which would give Chancey the opportunity to have a little freedom and a lope around & where I can safely do off lead recall work with her. We investigated it & spent a short time there this week and Chancey spent the early part of the time running the fence watching the smaller dogs that were out in a neighbouring exercise area but after a while she seemed to lose interest a little. I can choose what time I want to use this area & wonder if it would desensitise her to small / other dogs if I go there when I know the kennel dogs are going to be out in their exercise pens & she gets to see them & used to their proximity but cannot meet / chase them? Or I can go at lunch time when I know there will be no other dogs out so no distractions if I want to do some training with her. We have not done much training outside in my small garden as the weather has been wet & windy since she came to me & all grassy areas are just sodden & squelchy. Suggestions would be appreciated, please. Thank you. Carol.

I have a bit of an issue with Mouse. She's quite a drivey dog, and when I get treats out of the cupboard she goes nuts, bouncing around, air snapping, mouthing my arms etc .... by the time I get her focussed on a sit at least, she's expended so much energy she is panting, and I can only get limited work out of her til she is exhausted and just goes and lies down! I really do need to get her to tone it down a bit, as all her jumping and mouthing is a bit much. Should I get the treats and then walk away til she calms down? Do I need to carry treats around all the time and try to avoid the crazy excited stage? Any other suggestions?

This is me and my husbands first greyhound! We have only had her for 3 days! We love her but we are new to this and need some advice. We are trying to get her on a potty schedule that is the same everyday and works around our work hours. I work 12-9pm so I usually taker her out first thing in the mornig (around 7:00). Then feed her at 8:00. Then take her out again around 8:30/8:45. Then I do what I need to do before leaving for the day. My husbands schedule is not as set, he is currently looking for a job and is working a part time one now. He is basically gone from 8:00-4:00ish...varies on the day. We are struggling with not taking her out TOO many times. I am wondering how long this takes and any tips from you guys. How did you guys get your hound on a schedule? She has gotten up before at 2:30 needing to go out, we took her because she had to go but I don't want her thinking that's gonna be her schedule! How long have you guys left your dog in a crate?

Hi all! I've got a 5 year old male greyhound who I adopted 2 years ago yesterday. He's a pretty great boy, very quiet and sweet, loves other dogs and people, a bit clumsy, the usual. One thing I would like to work on with him is getting him to play with toys again. When I first brought him home, we had some toys for him and he would play with them a little and seemed to have a grand old time with them when he did, but then he got into my yarn (I'm a crocheter). He came running into the room with a big yarn ball in his mouth looking like it was the greatest day of his life, and I instinctively yelled NO! and took it from him. I don't think I've seen him pick up a single toy since. He'll chew rawhides and bully sticks, but no toys. Not plush or rubber or rope. I was hoping eventually the aversion would fade, but after almost 2 years, it looks like it's stuck. I feel like toys are a great way for him to amuse himself, play with me and others, burn energy, and otherwise increase his quality of life, but whenever I've tried to get him excited about toys, he gets shy and avoids. Has anybody else had this problem? Any advice to overcome it? Thanks a lot! Jackie

Hi fellow members, My girlfriend and I are new adopters of Sam, a 3 year old ex-racer, who we have had for almost 2 months now. Things are overall going very well with Sam. He has an extremely calm temperament (exactly what we wanted), he is getting along well with our cat (after cat de-training), and he is nothing less than an angel when we are around. HOWEVER, when we are not around, he tends to panic. We both work 9-5 jobs so Sam is alone for most of the day. We always leave a kong before leaving and the radio on, he can go a few hours without saying a word, and then he can begin vocalizing for 2-3 hours straight (often times we get home and hear him vocalizing from the hallway). He has been crated since day 1. We were told to give Sam barely any attention when he first arrived and that's exactly what we did. We read a lot about alone training and did everything we read (including some of the great tips in this forum!). We tried leaving him alone uncrated (as this was a suggestion), and taped him while we were gone, he continuously paces and howls and vocalizes more than when he is outside the crate. So we keep him crated as he is overall calmer. Luckily, he does not display any destructive behaviour (no accidents yet). Since we live in a condo, we are beginning to be worried about the disturbances he is making, and after this much time, it does not seem to be improving. We continue to do some alone training, but we are still not seeing improvement... Any insight and expertise you can give us would be extremely appreciated. Thanks in advance

So I want to teach my dog stay, mostly so I can try to control him if a chicken or squirrel runs by and I don't want him lunging after it. My friend told me "stay" is very simple, just get them to sit and walk away saying "stay" and then tell them to come over to you. Gradually increase the time and distance etc etc The only problem is I haven't trained my dog to Sit or Lay Down. I've tried NeverSayNever's blog, but he just goes to step one of the Lay Down learning method, and then quits when it gets time for him to bend his hips down to the ground. I can't tell if it's stubbornness or his hips. It's not very important that he lay down or sit except it seems to be a gateway trick to him learning other commands. Is there another trick I can teach him that is easier on a greyhounds anatomy? Ellums

Whilst Barbie doesn't seem to have the drive for agility (or the coordination), she does like our little trick training sessions at home. She does high five, wave, roll over, play dead, commando (crawl), spin, pray... as well as obedience type stuff (heelwork, sit and down stays etc) Kids LOVE it when she gives a high five! Here's her trick reel from a little session we did last night. http://youtu.be/ailfTiMbnWA What is your fav trick and how did you train it?

Has anybody ever used Touch Associated Clicker Training (TACT) with their dog? I read that is is good for fearful dogs, possibly like Iker. There will be a seminar offered in Toronto next month and I'm trying to decide if it's worth it. Does anybody here have experience with it? Has it been successful? Is it worth $135 for a day long seminar? Any thoughts or comments? thanks

Hey all! I've been a lurker here for a while. About 2 months ago I brought home my first greyhound, a 2.5 year old red brindle I named Luna. She was in foster for 1 week before I brought her home, and while her foster mom reported no signs of separation anxiety, I was concerned when the first evening I had her, I had to make an emergency trip to Walmart for 10 minutes and I returned to her howling her head off. I had done a ton of reading and research before getting a greyhound, and knew that a percentage of them have some SA upon adoption and that alone training is a must. I started alone training with her after her first weekend home, and was pleasantly surprised that the howling seemed to be a fluke. I downloaded an app for my iPad and iPhone (Presence) that allowed me to use my iPad like a camera and my iPhone like a video monitor. I returned to work, and was thrilled that she slept all day, even roaching in her crate! Things were perfect. I left her alone that weekend for periods of time as well. The following week, everything fell apart. That Monday, she cried/barked/howled on and off for the entire day - LOUDLY. I live in an condo complex where about half the people work during the day, so there are still quite a few people home that I'm sure were disturbed by her. She continued to carry on like that every day for the whole week. On Friday, I came home to find she had pooped in the crate (not explosive diarrhea, luckily) and was just a mess. I spent the weekend searching for a dog sitter, just a short term solution for the last 2 weeks of school (I'm a teacher and have the summer off). I left her at a very nice girl's house every day through the middle of June. During this time, I had several vet appointments and we started her on 50mg Clomipramine (generic for Clomicalm). At present, she has been on the 50mg Clomipramine for a month and has shown no improvement. She still howls, barks, and pants almost continually when left alone (she has not been destructive thus far aside from the single poop incident). It has been very frustrating and stressful as I am unable to go to the store, pool, or for a jog without her becoming extremely agitated. I simply don't go anywhere in the evening anymore because she would be too disruptive for the people living around me. In addition to the meds, I have been doing the following since I brought her home: Give her a Kong stuffed with bacon/cheese filling, some kibble, and canned pumpkin (which she loves) - she will work on it for about 1 minute after I've left, and then abandons it until I return. She totally ignores the antler chew I also leave for her. Leave "Through A Dog's Ear" playing on a continuous loop (have also tried talk radio, country music, other classical, rock...pretty much all genres) - doesn't seem to have an effect. Keep her crated with a soft bed and blanket. She's indifferent to stuffed toys. Have tried covering the crate, she just tries to pull the blanket in through the bars trying to see out. Have also tried letting her roam, but she will just stand directly in front of the door and bark, which makes it 10x louder outside the apartment. She gets a 30-40 minute walk every morning and she passes out for basically the rest of the day if I don't leave her. In the past, we tried tryptophan gel (didn't have any effect) and a DAP diffuser (nothing), and a Thundershirt (made her MORE anxious if anything). I feel like I'm doing everything I can. I'm talking to the vet later today about maybe increasing her dose of Clomipramine and see if that does anything. The only thing I'm unable to do is get a second dog...I know a lot of people say that's the only thing that helped, but I'm living on my own on a young teacher's salary and while I'm comfortable now, adding a second dog is beyond my means. I guess I'm just looking for anyone to share their own experiences with SA (especially if Clomipramine/Clomicalm worked, and how many mg's) and to give me hope that she will work past this! She is literally the perfect dog otherwise. I love her SO much! Sorry for the super long post...I am just very frustrated and wanted to talk to people who probably understand. Thanks in advance. ~Sarah and Luna