Petting A Greyhound In Bed?

[Guest GreyGrey]

Hey!
My family is thinking of having a pet greyhound at some point and we have been doing allot of research. We have had panflits and read them.
We keep seeing: "Do not disturb your grey when its in its bed"
Does this mean you cant fuss them when they are in their bed?
I have heard this from a number of people.
Thanks!

[OwnedBySummer]

Not sure what you mean by "fuss them". But yes, some greys have what is called sleep startle -- so you don't pet them or even loom over them when they are in their beds. Personally, I don't know anyone who has a grey with this so I don't know how prevalent it may really be.

[Guest GreyGrey]

Yeah I mean like stroking them. Someone suggested calling its name on another forum. It makes sense I guess.

[Guest 2dogs4cats]

I have had 4 GHs and none of them have had sleep startle. Some do and some don't. I could "fuss" with any of mine while in bed, but have heard that others cannot.

[Guest GreyGrey]

Ah ok. Thanks for the info.

I know they are big sleepers which is why I asked this question.

Thanks!

[GreyTzu]

Any dog can be prone to sleep startle. It is not a greyhound thing. It is not advisable to randomly pet any dog that is sleeping.

[KickReturn]

IMO it doesn't matter whether the Grey has sleep startle or not. I subscribe to the protocol that all Greys much be approached with the utmost respect when they are "down", either on the their bed or lying elsewhere. Ex racers did not grow up in homes and were rarely if ever approached when they were down. The feel vulnerable particularely with their bellies exposed and may react defensively. When you do approach do it from the side and never from above. Watch the dog closely, in time you will learn their body language when they invite you and when they prefer to be left alone. If there is no reaction than suspect that they may be asleep - even with eyes open.

Edited December 22, 2012 by KickReturn

[Guest Dragon]

I don't think that's necessarily a "greyhounds only" thing, but it's probably mentioned so often because you cannot always tell by looking at greys if they are sleeping. They don't have much of an eyelid, so often they look awake when they are not. That being said, my boy has NO sleep startle, and my girl always wants her humans as close as possible when she is lounging. It's not been a terrible problem for us...mostly just a precaution that we don't catch them off guard when they are sleeping because they have sharp teeth and all...However, I am much more cautious when it comes to "non-owners" and/or kids and sleeping dogs.

[Guest GreyGrey]

We have fostered dogs before and we own one Cav.

We have fostered 1 other cav and a Collie.

Luckily there are no children about in the house. (Not that, that would be a problem)

Thanks for the info on this. I thought its what you guys said it was. Just thought id check.

Thanks

[Guest DeniseL]

I just adopted two greys in July. My girl sleeps in bed with us. You could drop a bomb next to her, our pick her up and move her and she wouldn't even wake up. She likes kisses and tummy rubs. My boy, on the other hand, definitely sleep startle. He will wake up snarling and barking. Never lunged or bit, but I make sure not to hover over him (makes him very nervous) and give him ample warning when coming near and I know he is sleeping. I have been told it may improve as he gets more relaxed and feels safe, but not yet. I just make sure he has a safe place to sleep where the won't be much interaction, and i respect his space. I still love him to death. He is soooo silly...my big boy.

Edited December 22, 2012 by DeniseL

[Guest blueberri]

I don't respond particularly well to being woken with someone looming over me either!

 

I think it pays to respect animals, rather than expecting them to put up with anything simply because they are dependent on us.

[Guest KsFrets]

We also have a girl that sleeps in the bed, and she's a raggedy-anne doll and we can shove her and move her and flip her over and I don't think she would care if a tornado would tear the house apart around her. Interesting enough, she's also the one who could care less about fireworks or thunder. But our male is totally the opposite, and you can't breathe around him when he's sleeping, and he's really bad about snarking at the other dogs or cats if they get too close when he's laying down. He's also the worst about fireworks and thunder. I wonder if there's a connection there?

[Sambuca]

I don't respond particularly well to being woken with someone looming over me either!

Me too!

I can also be resource aggressive when someone tries to take me food away without permission and the dogs learned that very quickly. And I don't blame 1 of my hounds for not liking strangers petting him since I don't like strangers petting me either.

[Feisty49]

Like people, each dog, whether Greyhound or not, is different. My girl has no issues about resource guarding or sleep startle. She's a light sleeper and pretty much looks at me whenever I move around the room. If she's so sound asleep that my walking around doesn't wake her, I don't touch her because waking somebody -- person or dog -- from a sound sleep is just plain rude. I figure if she can sleep through the noise of the house, she's really tired.

[Guest Playful_Grey]

I don't know if anyone mentioned to you that sometimes greyhounds are asleep but their eyes are open. (This may be true of all dogs and not just a "greyhound thing"). I'm new to the greyhound world - well dogs in general. However it was stressed to me that I should gently say their name before I pet / touch them when they've been laying down. Even if they're eyes are open. As mentioned before it's a common respect thing. Smile.

[GeorgeofNE]

Not sure what you mean by "fuss them". But yes, some greys have what is called sleep startle -- so you don't pet them or even loom over them when they are in their beds. Personally, I don't know anyone who has a grey with this so I don't know how prevalent it may really be.

Yes you do! To the extent you "know" me!

 

Truthfully, the old adage "let sleeping dogs lie" applies to ALL dogs. The difference is that you typically adopt a Greyhound as an adult, and if you get a retired racer, he or she has spent time in a kennel, where there is NO possible way to get close to them without waking them up because all the dogs in the kennel wake up when humans arrive. Any dog who is suprised out of sleep can snap or bite.

 

It's not that big a problem though. It's easy enough to make sure your dog is awake before you pet it!

[Guest FreeholdHound]

My grey Harry definitely has sleep startle, touch him by accident when he's in bed or anywhere else and head comes up snarling & air snapping. My childhood mutt did this too. All who come into my house are warned of it. Call his name & wait til he responds before you touch. He does sleep with his eyes open sometimes so if he's down let him be, I wake up the same way when startled so who can blame him?

[Guest memadeit]

My greys used to startle,but as time went by, they got so used to us, they don't even open an eye when I step over, around or even right by their head.

[Guest mld]

Why disturb a dog when it's sleeping in its bed! If the dog is awake and laying on its bed, if you want to pet him, just call him to you and give a treat and pet him. Watch for signs of stress and calming signals

Licking lips, panting, brow furrowed & ears to side, moving in slow motion, acting sleepy or yawning, hyper vigilant, suddenly won't eat, moving away, penis crowning cheek puffing, whale eye, and chattering depending on other body language and pacing.

[Guest Krizzy]

Our boy is super gentle but the first week we had him, I was petting him while he was laying on his bed, and fell asleep next to him. I felt him shake (im guessing he was having a racing dream) i got up and he was startled and nipped me in the forehead. I don't think he meant to do it, but he was just got startled and that was his reaction. Now, after 4 months, he has gotten better, but we now know to wake him before touching him.

[silverfish]

Not all of them are sleep-aggressive/sleep startlers. I've had six greyhounds over the years and have been able to pet all of them in their beds. Two of them took a long while to accept it, and until they did, I had to be very careful around them while they were sleeping - neither of them lunged or bit, but they'd wake up snarling and growling until they were awake enough to see who I was and that I wasn't going to hurt them. One of them came to me food-aggressive, too, but he didn't take very long to get past that.

 

The bottom line is that you really shouldn't bother any dog in his or her bed unless you know they're willing to be bothered. That means making sure they are awake, and aware that you are approaching and making absolutely sure they are not warning you off with subtle body language. This means learning the body language and being aware that greyhounds often give much, much more subtle body language than most other breeds. For instance, the 'look away' is often reduced to an eye flick where the head will not move at all, and the flick is so fast you might miss it. And the 'nose lick' can be so reduced that all the inexperienced owner might notice is a kind of gulp or swallow.

 

Sometimes a dog will come to you ready and willing to be petted on his or her bed at any old time of the day. Sometimes, getting to this stage takes a lot of work.

 

 

We also have a girl that sleeps in the bed, and she's a raggedy-anne doll and we can shove her and move her and flip her over and I don't think she would care if a tornado would tear the house apart around her. Interesting enough, she's also the one who could care less about fireworks or thunder. But our male is totally the opposite, and you can't breathe around him when he's sleeping, and he's really bad about snarking at the other dogs or cats if they get too close when he's laying down. He's also the worst about fireworks and thunder. I wonder if there's a connection there?

 

It's an interesting thought, but I don't think so, judging by our own experience here. For instance, Renie, my first therapy dog, was so tranquil and bomb-proof that you could literally drag her across the floor while she was sleeping (I did, once or twice, when she'd got herself under the recliner and DH wanted to put the foot rest down ) but she'd be a quivering mess in a thunderstorm, and nothing worked for her; not the DAP, not drugs, not behaviour therapy and de-sensitising. The only thing she was good for during a storm or firework display was panting herself halfway to acidosis under the desk and expending a week's worth of energy on shaking like a jelly on a spin dryer. On the other hand, Jack, who was so unfazed by storms and fireworks that he would ask to go into the conservatory so he could stand and watch the lights, was one of the ones I couldn't touch on his bed at first, and the one with the food aggression!

[jetcitywoman]

I don't respond particularly well to being woken with someone looming over me either!

 

LOL, me too! Especially the bat emoticon part. (DH jokes that I punch the cat in the head when she bothers me at night. I don't, but I have been known to push her away.)

 

If it helps the OP, in addition to all the great comments so far, I want to add that I think sleep startle can be desensitized somewhat. It has to be done extremely carefully and slowly, like over the course of a year or two. Capri had a pretty good case of sleep aggression, and now she's quite capable of cuddling while napping and nobody gets hurt. The way to do this is to let her fall asleep as you pet her. Do NOT sneak up to her while already asleep and try to pet her. That's not desensitization, it's setting the pet up to fail. But if you start when she's awake, she's more likely to remember that it's you touching her if she wakes up again. I want to stress again, that you must take tiny baby steps with this. It cannot be rushed.

[a_daerr]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I disagree with the "let sleeping dogs lie" adage. While it's true that some greyhounds do have legitimate sleep startle, most are just not accustomed to sharing a bed. It's a form of resource guarding. I have trained both of my dogs to be used to human presence and accept petting while on their beds. In most of our training classes, we even bring the dog's bed as a target for them to lie on in between exercises. To clarify, this process obviously didn't happen overnight- we only started the training when I was 100% sure the dogs trusted me (which took several months or bonding and confidence-building). But the bottom line is, I don't think it's appropriate for a dog to guard anything. There are too many situations where people or other pets could get hurt as a result of resource guarding.

[Guest jonesyvoor]

I was pretty naive when I got my dog and after her incessant crying when being left in her crate at night I invited her into my bed on the 4th night to sleep with me. By luck or intuition i've never had any problems with her with regards to sleep aggression. I'm a somewhat restless sleeper so I'm sure I wake her numerous times by my tossing and turning and she usually sleeps through it all. She certainly has no problems with it.

 

I have had a few occasions in which I've rolled onto her arm or leg in my sleep (her fault though for stretching her long legs out! ) and she's let me know it. She doesn't bite or react aggressively though. However, if I get her good she'll growl lowly until I get the hell off of her and then we both fall back to sleep.

 

I think the key for me is that A) my dog trusted me very early in our relationship and got the rules pretty quick and B ) I had established that the bed was mine by getting into several times before inviting her in.

Edited December 25, 2012 by jonesyvoor

[Jerilyn]

Just to present the other side of the situation, my Lila LOVES to be stroked, scritched, and fussed over when she is in her bed, either just laying there or if she is sound asleep. Be cautious in the beginning and you'll know pretty quickly what your dog does and does not like.