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Hello all! I just joined GreyTalk and this is my first post! My partner and I adopted our first hound named Pablo about a month ago.He is an awesome dog--energetic, friendly, very smart and follows direction well. We have had no issues so far outside of a few marking incidences inside our home, which I believe has been resolved now. The first week that we had him, he cried at night when we left him downstairs in the crate (door open; he also didn't know stairs at this point so couldn't join us on the second floor). To our surprise, by the second week, he was fine being in his crate at night and now sleeps there every night. He is always excited and does little jumps when we come downstairs in the morning and when we come home from work, but I think that is because he needs to go to the bathroom because he immediately goes to the back door. He is always ready to go for walks or dog park. When we go to the dog park, he loves running with other dogs and leans on me when he's taking a break or ready to go home. But, he doesn't play with any toys or do zoomies, make any noises, doesn't really react to treats (but of course comes running when he hears/sees the food bowl!), and never comes to us for pets. We can't tell if he likes getting pets from us; he doesn't turn his head away or show any other signs of dislike--just stares at us. A few times that we have tried to stop him from doing something, he has run into his crate or upstairs, or goes to the back door and stares outside, often for hours or even a full day. He won't respond or look at us during these times unless we go for a walk. Most of the time, he is laying down in his crate (door open), either looking at us or sleeping. It's hard to tell if he's still adjusting or if this is really his personality. I feel like he only comes to us when he needs something rather than actually wanting attention or being interested. Thoughts? When/how did you know your hound was finally comfortable and showing his/her personality?

Hello all, This is going to be kind of long winded because our new grey is giving us all kinds of trouble. I'm new to the forum, new to greyhound ownership, but experienced with other breeds (mostly lab mixes). My family (myself, my husband and our 7 yo son) adopted two male retired racers on January 1 from the same well established greyhound rescue. They were 4.5 and 5 years old, fairly recently off the track. At the rescue, both males SEEMED very laid backed and relaxed. One of them has settled in very nicely and is docile and a very easy grey. Once the other one settled in, his true personality has come out, which as it turns out is kind of manic. I think he was sort of shut down at the rescue. Anyway, the troublesome male has some aggression issues which include but are not limited to: 1. Growling / snapping / biting the other male grey over resources and attention 2. Sneaking on the couch and growling when we tell him to get off 3. Stealing things that belong to us and chewing them up (pillows) or SWALLOWING THEM WHOLE (sock, which he vomited up a week later) When he began showing these behaviors I institued a NILF approach, he lost couch priviledges and we block it off when we leave the room. We continue to crate both dogs when we leave the house. When out in the house, I watch him like a hawk to try and make sure he isn't grabbing something he might swallow / hurt him. I also try and watch his body language very carefully so that if he starts to give the other poor grey the stare down I intterupt him to snap him out of it. It's exhausting and unrelenting with our busy lives, but I'm putting forth the effort. I also consulted a greyhound-specialized positive reinforcement trainer in mid February. She encouraged us to establish firm boundaries and work on positive reinforcement training with waits at door thresh holds, practice drop its for when he grabs something so I can get it out of his mouth for his own protection, muzzling both dogs when needed / especially outside during playtime, and not allow him in the kitchen when we are cooking. He's improved a lot with me, but not at all with my husband. He continues to growl at, and has twice has snapped at him. Once when my husband was trying to get him out of the kitchen and grabbed his collar (noted, don't grab his collar) and the other time was last night when the dog was licking his paw while lying on his bed and my husband crouched down to investigate. He hadn't shown any bed aggression or sleep startle previously. My husband thinks the more obedience I practice with him, he gets easier / better behaved WITH ME, but the more he seems to be lashing out at the other dog and my husband, which may be true. He is also an exuberant and joyous dog who is incredibly smart as confirmed by the trainer, and is really wonderful most of the time. But he continues to be somewhat unpredictable and about once a week he snaps and does something aggressive. Help? Advice? I do not want to return him. I am becoming discouraged that the situation isn't improving significantly and he might be a danger to the kids coming in an out of our house. I can not have him continue to torment the other poor new grey who has been so so tolerant. Our trainer thinks he is trainable, but my husband has no trust in the dog. I can't be present every minute of the day to supervise him within the family.

As of today, we are celebrating our 4-week anniversary of adopting our beautiful brindle greyhound. We were aware that there may be an adjustment period when it comes to stool softness when switching his diet, but I'd like to hear some opinions about how long that usually takes. Our boy is eating Nutro Max adult dog food (higher quality than what the foster home gave him) and he is still having very soft, mustard colored pudding poops (good luck eating pudding or mustard again!). We have tried giving him yogurt and that did not seem to help much. How long does the adjustment period usually last? Should his poops be more solid by now? He has been recently tested and does not have any worms, so that isn't the problem. Also, how frequently do greys typically poop? We've seen anywhere from 1 time to 5 times a day so far. Thanks!

Hello All!
 New poster here, been reading a lot of good information here for quite some time, and I thank everyone's helpful posts as they have answered a lot of questions I have had along the process of adopting these wonderful dogs!
 Let me apologize for the length of this post to begin with. I want to provide as much information as possible and see what y'all think.
 Our situation is a little different than many others I talk to, as this will be our only dog. Seems almost everyone with greyhounds has more than 1! Especially all the fosters, who always have several dogs in their homes at any given time.
 We had an adoption go wrong a couple month ago, we fell in love with this retired racer who unknown to pretty much anyone, had extreme separation anxiety. He was perfect while we were home, but the minute we left, despite everything we tried, he would go crazy in fear. Actually got to the point we were afraid he was going to hurt himself trying to chew out of the crate, then the baby gate, then the door. We were using a camera that we can watch on our phones while we are gone to monitor him. We tried getting a trainer in our home who recommended we not leave him alone at all for 4-6 weeks and extremely slowly work on alone training, then if that didn't work, it would take close to 6 months of the same treatment to "probably" get him over his fear. We had him almost 2 weeks trying to work something out, but it was just getting worse. So, the adoption agency took him back since we could not eliminate the stressor (we had to go to work the next day again). Was a very, very sad thing...
 We have read several books and went off recommendations to work slowly up being gone for extended times (probably longest we would need to leave him alone would be 6 hours). We spent several days starting at just minutes, to half an hour, to an hour, etc. over the course of 4 days (sounds fast, but we work and can't set any more time aside for the adjustment/training).
 Well, fast forward to today, we recently chose to foster a dog in hopes of determining if he would be a good single dog and okay while we are away for work. We're going on a week now, and I am seeing signs of the same behavior as our previous dog, and it concerns me and I want to get some opinions on what y'alls experience has been... And also how to tell the difference between separation anxiety and just the "normal" adjustment they go through.
 A little information to cover some bases. He is huge! 95lbs. Too tall and long for our crate, which was the largest we could find locally. He could fit, but be extremely cramped and probably couldn't even turn around or lay down comfortably. I don't want to leave him cooped up like that. If he would fit, I would try to use the crate, but he is just too big. It would also have to be in a separate room, not enough space for that crate in our room. So we are using a baby gate to keep him in the bedroom while we are away. Also, he also only has his front teeth (k-9's and fronts, that's it), all of his back teeth had to be removed. He isn't interested in rawhides, and I can understand why, he really can't do anything with them. I could only imagine licking a burger instead of being able to chew it... Would be torture! We leave a frozen kong filled with peanut butter, but he looses interest pretty quick, about 15 minutes, even with peanut butter still inside. He also has a couple toys available to him in the room.
 After we leave, in about 15 minutes, he starts barking at the gate. The first few times, he would bark frantically and run around the room barking, then play with the toys a little (30 seconds maybe), then back at the gate barking. On our longer training (4 hours), I would say total was probably 3 hours barking and whining, with at max an hour of actually laying down. He chose to jump on the bed to rest (we didn't want to let him on the bed in the first place, but if it makes him more comfortable while we are gone, we can adjust, as long as he doesn't try to hop up there while we're in bed). The past couple days, he has started chewing at the baby gate a little and jumping on the door. The only reason I think he hasn't hopped over the baby gate is because there is tile on the other side, and I think he is scared of jumping onto it. The baby gate is actually about 6" lower than the bed, so I know he can make it, just doesn't try. He will bark at the gate, then run around the room barking, then up on the bed barking, back at the gate barking, then finally jump back up on the bed and lay down for a couple minutes. One of the things that is the most concerning is the chewing the gate though, especially because he can only use his front teeth.
 Does this sound like things you would expect with adjustment, or the beginning signs of separation anxiety. He already won't let us out the front door, and will whine and scratch the door if one of goes out front, even when one of us stays inside with him. He pretty much won't leave our side, which I know is part of the adjusting, but freaking out when we're gone is what I'm worried about.
 If you made it this far, thank you for reading my extremely long post! I hope some here have experience with similar issues and can help us through this and offer suggestions as to what we can do to help his adjustment. Advice for activities to keep him occupied would be great, and also any treat ideas that we give him to occupy him while we are gone (similar to how effective a rawhide is) since he doesn't have most of his teeth.
 Thanks again, and I look forward to talking to you all in the forums!
 Chris