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Our new hound (4 yr old male, former racer, gotcha day Aug18 2018, second grey we've had) has been such a great dog so far, EXCEPT for first thing in the morning. He waits for our alarm to sound before he gets up (and wants us up), but when he does he's so uncontrollably excited that he's a bit of a hazard to himself and us. At first it seemed more about getting fed because he'd calm down quite a bit after his breakfast and calmly go outside, but lately he is developing a habit of beginning to pee (dribbling or even just giving in and going), before we feed or can even get the coat on to let him out into the yard! We're right there to do the big "NO" and open the door sans coat, but definitely need some ideas for the best way(s) to remedy the situation. We've switched to letting him out immediately (and breakfast afterward) but he remains a maniac. Before this, we'd been working on calming him down by asking him to lie down (into sphinx) before we'd fill his bowl/open the door. He does pretty well obeying the command but now the pee will start flowing while he's in sphinx so that's a non-starter. It's getting cold here (Wisconsin) so we need to be able to get the coat on before he pees and we'd obviously like for the pee to happen outside. Secondary to that, we'd like to figure out how to train him to calm down during this time, because it is only a matter of time before his morning antics cause an injury to himself or one of us. My first thought is to put a belly band on him before bed and to take it off right before we open the door for him in the morning, but is the belly band going help train the "don't pee in the house" behavior? Or is it just a band-aid to save our floors? How do we train "calm down" when the only time the command is necessary is when he's so amped up that he can't focus and pees in the house? One thing that concerns me is that when he pees (outside) he takes FOREVER, longer than any dog I've had or known. This guy could win contests, I swear. His stream becomes weak & slow right away and then it's like he's peeing in morse code, starting and stopping (he doesn't move around or mark). He's not a marker on walks or in the yard (or in the house), he just stands and waits for it to all come on out. He's been that slow that since we got him, which concerned me initially but the urinalysis done in Sept came back clear. It feels behavioral because it is only happening at one time of the day, but his slow flow also has me worried that it could be medical, despite the uneventful test and nothing else of note. Thoughts?? Hopefully anticipating some questions that might be asked (can you tell how much time I spend on GT?): He seems to drink a normal amount, the dish is usually not dry at feeding time when we refill, but we'll start keeping better track of how much water we're giving/he's getting. He had a urinalysis in mid Sept which did not show anything significant. He definitely has the ability to hold it for 8-9 hrs, and does not get this hyper or leaky at any other time, like when we come home from work, etc.

Help! Our 5.5 y.o. has started peeing in the house after being housebroken for a year and a half. He has been checked out by the vet w/no medical issues. He doesn't ever lift his leg when we're with him, but he seems to do it the minute we leave the house (even if we're just in the garage or yard). We know that the problem must be separation anxiety and we are working on that... but I find it so odd that he is lifting his leg after a year and a half of being totally housebroken. We have not had any lifestyle changes. Has this happened to anyone else? Any thoughts?

Hi Everyone! We adopted Simon the wonder greyhound almost two months ago and I can't believe we got so lucky with this special pup. He came to us missing most of the hair on his bum from some severe fleabite dermatitis, worms, ticks, and missing half an ear from I'm guessing his racing days. In two months his hair is probably 80% grown back in, he is calm and happy and all around doing really well. I have a couple of other questions around helping him interact better with babies and small dogs, but a more pressing issue came up over the last couple of days- With the exception of two incidents during a short round of prednisone to get his flea allergy reaction under control, he has been taking potty breaks like a total champ. We have never come home to an accident, We take him out every 6-7 hours, sometimes more like 9 over night, and he never seems distressed or like the pee is urgent when we take him out. Our vet assured us that the peeing in the house with prednisone was very normal (heck, I'm pee every 15 minutes when I'm on prednisone) but up until yesterday he had no more issues with potty time. I noticed a damp spot on the carpet yesterday morning, nothing too bad but definitely pee. I cleaned it up with our anti-odor disinfectant and left it to dry. Several hours later i came around the corner to Simon letting out the BIGGEST pee on that same spot. This wasn't a 'marking' type of pee, this was a full bladder, cant even bother to lift one leg kind of pee. Poor buddy was making eye contact with us while we tried to tell him to stop! We didnt reprimand him, I just scooped him outside while my husband got the floor cleaned up. My only thought is that he may be stressed because he has a tiny dermatitis blotch on his leg that he licked raw, and we had briefly put him in a cone to let it heal. Maybe the stress of the cone/discomfort got him worked up? Maybe he hates the cold THAT much that he realized he could just pee the rug? ( I am in Boston and we've had our first round of cold weather.) To be clear, he is not on any medications right now. All of his other behaviors/poops/general tail waggyness are normal, and we keep him pretty bundled up outside to negate the cold. Do I need to be worried about this? Is it possible he can still smell the pee from the first time in the carpet and it signals 'this is a pee spot' to him? Any guidance would be great! I don't want him to lose his confidence because I know he knows he is supposed to go outside. Thanks for any advice! I've been LIVING on this forum during our first couple of months gathering the great advice here. I'll post a picture when I figure out how!

Ok, so Aiden has been mostly great in the house until the last couple of days. He had diarrhea issues for a while and went in the house, but I didn't blame him because he had tummy a upset. That is fixed now, so no problem there. He went pee in the house twice because I was not quick enough getting him outside first thing in the morning, that was ok too because it was my fault. But the last couple of days, he's been going in the house (seemingly on purpose). It happens when I’m at work and my mom is watching him. She'll let the other dogs outside to potty and play, and when she turns him away from the door and tells him he can't go outside with them, he'll go to the carpeted hallway and pee. He'll do this even if he just went out and peed half an hour ago. Is this a behavior thing? He doesn't do this to me when I'm home. Or does he just need to empty his tank more when he goes out? Is it time for a belly band? I've never had to use one before, so how do you use it exactly? We know he likes to play with the other pups, but he can only play with the one large dog outside in his special fenced area. And they play kind of rough, so they need to be supervised when playing. The other two pups are less than 10 lbs, so they can only play inside when supervised, not outside. (Also, my mom babysits during this time, so she can't spend tons of time supervising outdoor play) Any help is greatly appreciated!

We brought home a new greyhound yesterday. She is young - barely two and not housebroken. Thankfully she has chosen a rather cheap throw rug as her spot of choice when we do not catch her in time. That is something we can deal with. The rub is she was previously adopted and barely lasted a few days in that home apparently kept crated while owner was at work and this was horrible - crying whining etc. Separation anxiety?? After her return to the adoption agency it is unclear whether or not they crated her but we were told she hates the crate. Needless to say we have two set up in the living room and she has been closed in on a few occasions so far for a couple of hours at most. She has a bed to chose as an option too. We also got the phermone plug in and that is near the crate. Did I mention that we have a 5 year old male who is mellow as mellow can be? She has currently gone into said crate and is laying down (door open). We are both home until Monday night. I may play hokey on Tuesday just in case. She is on a bed uncrated for bedtime. The first night (a given) was rough. But an added twist is that she seems to be afraid of the cats. She whines and cries when she sees them. This is a concern with leaving her uncrated. Will the presence of the cats roaming around agitate her so much that she works herself into a lather and has an accident or destroys something or hurt herself? Our dog walker will be by midday and if I high tail it I can be home by 3:45. I have rambled as I am sleep deprived, but my gut says with her young age, house breaking concerns, fear of the cats that it would be best to have her crated while we are gone and that we can turn the experience into a positive one for her. At the least we did get a baby gate to block off the hallway and allow the cats to be in the bedroom and avoid accidents on the wall to wall carpet there. But I am still leaning towards crating.... Please confirm for me!

We had crates for our two greys since we got them last November. Initially they really seemed to enjoy the crates as a safe place. We tried leaving the crate doors open when we went to work, but upon our return we would find that they took the liberty to relieve themselves in the next room..same with overnights, too (even though we left them out quite a few times). The process of closing the doors of the crates during our absence went on for quite some time. The main problem was that two huge greyhound-sized crates took up much space in our small family room. This led my wife to want to try our grand experiment. We put up a child security gate in the space between our family room and the livingroom/dining/kitchen area (we have a fairly open floor plan in our house). This confines our hounds mainly to the family room and the hallway to the backyard door. I'm happy to report that, after three weeks, our hounds have not made one mess. We also had reservations for our Chesney, who is a bit of a spook and often retreated to his crate as a 'safe place.' But Chesney has adjusted well, and the absence of his crate has actually led him to be more sociable. Now, I just need to go find a block of wood to knock on )

Hi everyone: We got our new adopted hound, Oz, last Saturday. We're so happy to have him, but we've run into some transition hurdles. We've read a number of the posts here (all of which are helpful!) and the recommended greyhound adoption books. We just want to make sure that anything we're experiencing isn't out of the ordinary, as it seems to be getting tougher and tougher with a few issues (particularly housetraining, walking, and sleeping). I'll outline them here, but more than anything, we're just looking for some guidance and support! Our Home: City, 3rd floor apartment, 1 cat, 2 flights of stairs. My wife works from home, but I'm gone at work during the day. The first two nights were really impressive. He was learning the stairs very quickly, and took quite a few walks around our neighborhood and parks. He slept in his crate without a peep both nights. A few accidents inside the house the first afternoon, but nothing on his first full day at home. We kept him leashed inside, and gave the cat an escape route to our bedroom with a gate that Oz couldn't cross. He seems to be getting "No Kitty" and only whines or makes to chase her if she was running or jumping around. Good progress. He seemed to be settling in remarkably quickly. Starting on Monday though, he started to freeze outside, and get more and more scared...so much so that he wouldn't go downstairs at all. We took him to vet on Monday night for his first general check-up and getting him there (walking distance) was a very stressful experience for him and us. He checked out OK, but we learned later that he has giardia--which he's now being treated for and I'm sure adds to his stress level. That night, he wouldn't go in his crate at all (his foster told us about this), and still won't. We set him up with his bed in our bedroom and he was only able to sleep for 1-2 hours at a time. Last night, he slept even more poorly. During the day, inside, he seems to be doing great and lays around calmly (he gets tons of rubs and pets) unless we try to crate him or go outside. He's started to have surprise accidents in the house, before we can get him out--often sneaking to a room where we aren't. We're able to get him past the stairs more or less, but he locks up once he's past the front door looking very frightened. He's so scared to go outside that we can't get him out on his routine, and if we do, he's so scared he can't get past our front door to go. I've been able to get him going for walks a few times by walking with purpose and not stopping until he follows, but he fights the leash quite a bit---i don't like doing this because it's very stressful for him and me, but it's the only way to get him going to pee and poop. Other times, he won't move at all. We're just worried about how's he's regressed. We feel bad we're stressing him out so much and just want to make him comfortable. We're kind of in a vicious cycle: Can't get him out to pee, so he pees in the house, and can't get him out for walks or in his crate, so he doesn't sleep well. We know it takes time and patience, and it's still the first week, but we just want to make sure we're not doing something drastically wrong, and make sure this is relatively normal as he transitions to city life. Thanks for any responses, and if anything, we're just getting it all off our chests! We're confident he'll come around with the love and care we're giving him, but just have to cross these hurdles. Any advice would be great.