Lady Fae Is In The Building

[Guest nd5thyear]

Hello All,

 

I've been on this website for a couple months and after our research we decided to adopt Lady Fae (Formerly "Gone Astray" - GH Data Link last Tuesday (11/22/11)!! She's an all black female and is 3.5 years old. And she is absolutely the best dog I have ever met. In fact, she has already semi-conquered stairs so far! The small easy ones have been conquered, the last ones are the set we have (we live on the 2nd floor) which wind near the top. Although she went up them all by herself yesterday!!

 

This is the first dog for me and my wife (married this past July) and the greyhound breed seems to be a perfect match - we're so happy and love Fae to death!

 

Here's my attempt to upload a few pictures of her (fingers crossed):

 

 

Overall, she is such a sweetheart. We live in Chicago but took her to Cleveland to our parents' house for the long holiday weekend - she slept the whole way and was very behaved. Unfortunately it's back to reality as we were back to work Monday and she's learning the new routine of the crate from 7am-12pm and then from 1pm-5pm. I had a couple observations/questions and was wondering if I should post them here or search for a new thread.

 

High level, they include the following:

 

1) She peed in her crate yesterday before we took her out at noon (her first accident - we've been taking her out every 3 hrs since we got her). She did fine in the afternoon though. Being the first day of her new routine I'm not too worried and we'll see how she does today. We also limited her water this morning to see if that helps.

 

2) She barked/whined a good deal yesterday morning when we left for work, again hoping this subsides with time/adjusting to the routine (gave her frozen kong, long walks before hand, left tv on, etc). We realize that she's gone from lots of ppl in Cleveland to the crate by herself but we have been working on alone training and was able to crate her in Cleveland gradually.

 

3) When we came home from work in the evening we found she had ripped up the comforter that was in her crate (she was given another frozen kong for the afternoon shift). We've replaced that with a bunch of towels for now to see if it continues. We'll be sure to monitor her but it appears she didn't ingest any of the stuffing.

 

4) She seems to not want anything to do with relieving herself during our last nightly walk (does fine going on lead all other times) but we'd go out for 30-45 mins and she won't go - this is around 9:30/10pm. It's cold out but she has her winter coat and it started Sunday night (after having her for 5 days already). Maybe it's because she was back in our Chicago apt as she spent Wed night to Sunday morning in Cleveland. This is why we had tried to adopt her on the 12th to give her a full wk and a half with our work schedule but we're glad to finally have her!!

 

Again, these are very expected occurrences, especially only having her 1 week and getting onto our work routine. We'll continue to work with her and give her plenty of exercise/stimulation to continue growing our bond, trust and routine.

 

We're so glad to have her and look forward to providing updates in the future!

 

- Jason, Erin and Lady Fae!

[Guest Wasserbuffel]

She's lovely, and I like the name Fae. I had a chicken named Fae several years ago!

 

It sounds like the bulk of her issues (wetting, crying, shredding) are related to Separation Anxiety. Work on alone training and hopefully she'll settle in quickly.

 

As for not going at last turn out, she might start once she's familiar with the routine, or she just doesn't have to go.

[msjpk]

Congrats and I am partial to the black doggies, she looks like my Lou. My son lives in Gilberts, not to far from you.

 

The most helpful info I can give you is the following:

 

Sounds like she is anxious when you guys are not around, everyday as often as you can, perform your routine for leaving the house, i.e. put your coat on, grab your keys etc. Then leave the house, first for about 2 min. then come in again with no fussiness, put your keys down, hang up your coat. Do it again, same routine, this time expand the amount of time, (yes your neighbors will think you r crazy) do this routine and keep on expanding the amount of time you leave.

 

You see, she cannot tell how long you are away but she will see that you will always come back.

 

When you leave set up a routine with her, put the radio on, give her a cookie, put your coat on, grab your keys- same thing every day.

Have you given her a kong in her crate? Frozen kong with peanut butter and a goodie inside can keep her amused for a time.

Do you walk her before you go to work? Another excellent part of her routine, walk, radio, Kong etc.

 

Let us know how you progress- we all have terrific hints to keep everyone happy, good luck

[Guest nd5thyear]

Sounds like she is anxious when you guys are not around, everyday as often as you can, perform your routine for leaving the house, i.e. put your coat on, grab your keys etc. Then leave the house, first for about 2 min. then come in again with no fussiness, put your keys down, hang up your coat. Do it again, same routine, this time expand the amount of time, (yes your neighbors will think you r crazy) do this routine and keep on expanding the amount of time you leave.

 

You see, she cannot tell how long you are away but she will see that you will always come back.

 

When you leave set up a routine with her, put the radio on, give her a cookie, put your coat on, grab your keys- same thing every day.

Have you given her a kong in her crate? Frozen kong with peanut butter and a goodie inside can keep her amused for a time.

Do you walk her before you go to work? Another excellent part of her routine, walk, radio, Kong etc.

 

Let us know how you progress- we all have terrific hints to keep everyone happy, good luck

 

Thanks for the tips.

 

Yes we do give her a frozen kong with treats/peanut butter. She gets one in the morning and afternoon (have 2 in our rotation) each time we leave.

 

Regarding the alone training with our routine (put on jacket, get keys, etc), since we crate her should we put her in the crate, leave for 2 mins, then let her out each time? Then after some time do the same, put her in the crate, and leave for 5, 10, 15 mins? How many times can i do this during a day - in other words should I give a minimum amount of time between each installment? Can I do this when i get home from work or should i wait for the weekends since she'll have been in the crate all day? I'm just trying to see an example of a schedule I could use to work with her on this.

 

Lastly, would these alone exercises impact the daily routine she knows of in the crate at 7am, turn out around noon, back in crate by 1pm, turn out at 5pm?

 

Thanks again!

[msjpk]

The alone training should not impact the routine she is in now.

 

Have you ever left her alone not in the crate? It may be to soon, but maybe she doesn't like the crate!

 

I would do the alone training when ever you can, after she eats, after dinner, especially on weekends- I did it an entire weekend, back and forth in and out, totally confused the doggies and that's what you want, but always leaving without a fuss and returning without a fuss.

 

Not sure if you walk her before work but it is a good tool.

[fsugrad]

Congratulations and welcome!

I love that 3rd pic of Fae and the other pretty lady...is that your wife?

Fae is gorgeous!

[robinw]

You can also try leaving the TV or the radio on for her.

btw, black hounds are the best, aren't they? not that I'm biased. Congratulations!

[Guest adam]

I remember seeing a thread about "Gone Astray" on Greyhounds Only's Facebook page. I made a dumb joke about changing her name to "Gone Ashtray" to make her a walking anti-smoking ad. No one laughed. :'(

 

You have chosen a better name.

[Guest widowcali]

Congrats. She sounds great. You sound like you are doing everything you should with training and stuff.

 

1) An accident every so often, especially as she's already demonstrated that she can hold it, isn't too worrisome. Just take her for an extra long walky before you leave in the am.

 

2) I would always leave my television on, just loud enough to block the noise to and from outside but not enough to hear it outside my apartment, with Cali and Widow. They like Food Network. I don't know if this actually blocked the noise, or if they just didn't make too much noise, but my neighbors usually didn't know I had dogs until they saw us walking (I lived in apartment complexes for the first few years).

 

3) My Cali likes to nest, a lot. She didn't actually rip up anything, but she would make an unholy mess. Try a crate pad that is specially made to resist tearing or digging. Someone here might be able to point you in the right direction. Nesting is just a natural thing.

 

4) My Widow would often not want to do anything on our last walky of the night. So I would take her out first, wander for a bit, and then put her back in the apartment and take Cali out. I'd wait for a bit and then take Widow out again. Sometimes that worked.