Getting Cold Feet About Adopting A Greyhound

[Guest Clawsandpaws]

I started training within a week or so of my grey coming home. I fed her by hand, and worked one or two things in at mealtimes. Although it helped that my grey is VERY outgoing and food motivated.

I would definitely do some hand feeding! It helps the bond/trust so much!

[Guest jaws4evr]

I’m late to the party here… but they’re all different.

 

I also grew up with Shelties… in my experience Shelties are very different than GH. We have had just the one GH and she’s extremely sensitive, probably more-so then most.

 

She is very docile, gentle, and has good manners. She doesn’t bark, jump, push or pull on the leash. We can bring her to anyone’s house, as long as we bring her dog bed or a plus blanket so she knows where she should be. She’s perfectly content as long as she’s with us, and has a soft place to be.

 

We also are 9-5 workers, and we leave her loose with our other dog (Pitty mix) while we’re at work with no issues. She’s never eaten anything, chewed anything. She did have a couple of accidents in the house (she didn’t equate the “upstairs” with the plus-carpet basement) but this ended fast.

 

In my experience though the GH brain is a more “linear” brain… whereas a Sheltie herding brain is capable of some more complex thinking.

 

Our GH couldn’t reason her way out of paper bag, but she’s a wizard with routines. She’s kept calm and easy just by sticking to our routine. She doesn’t need to be entertained. She just needs her meals at normal times, and a walk per day, and she’s happy as a clam. She’s a bit more difficult in unfamiliar situations and needs more guidance than our “smarter” pitty mix.

 

Shelties are another story, those herding breeds can be terrible for destructive behavior if they’re not properly brain-drained.

 

But really, every dog is different… you could end up with a GH who’s everything you want, or you might not.

[Guest mvd5555]

Yeah I'll wait on the training. She's been great so far slept the whole night and ate all her breakfast and everything. She's been stuck to me like glue though so after our walk this morning I carted her upstairs while I'm studying in my room downstairs. She's crying a lot though :/ I want her to get used to her crate for when I have to leave. Is it because she knows I'm still home?

[Guest 2greys2cats]

Yeah I'll wait on the training. She's been great so far slept the whole night and ate all her breakfast and everything. She's been stuck to me like glue though so after our walk this morning I carted her upstairs while I'm studying in my room downstairs. She's crying a lot though :/ I want her to get used to her crate for when I have to leave. Is it because she knows I'm still home?

Her crate should be in the same room you are, or at least in the same vicinity where she can see you. That's why she's crying. Our adoption group always recommends putting the crate in a room that is used frequently and is near the family. Remember this is all new for her and she's extremely scared and nervous and lonely. Doing alone training would mean you would have to leave the house for very short periods and come back and it takes days to weeks to do this. Hopefully you're not in school too often where she won't be left alone for nine hours a day right off the bat. If you want to get some good studying done, put her in the same room as you are in.

[Guest Clawsandpaws]

Yeah I'll wait on the training. She's been great so far slept the whole night and ate all her breakfast and everything. She's been stuck to me like glue though so after our walk this morning I carted her upstairs while I'm studying in my room downstairs. She's crying a lot though :/ I want her to get used to her crate for when I have to leave. Is it because she knows I'm still home?

You should crate here where she can see you, Greyhounds have never been alone before (assuming she wasn't in foster care) She may be scared/nervous or just plain lonely. I never crate trained mine (he simply hated it and I gave in) so I can't help with that

[krissy]

Most of them cry the first little while home because everything is new and even the most confident dogs are usually a little unsure. If you want her to be quiet in her crate and just generally not worry about her being anxious then you need to put in the time to alone train her. Some dogs are more prone to separation anxiety but even the ones that aren't will usually cry the first few days at home. Do your alone training and ignore the crying. Any attention you give her in response to her crying will increase the crying. It's tough but has to be done. The first night Kili came home at 8 weeks old she was so loud and frantic my downstairs tenants thought Summit was dying (they didn't know we had gotten a puppy). It took a lot of will power to just ignore her the first few days. Now she rarely carries on in her crate. She just settles in and starts working on her Kongs.

[Guest 2greys2cats]

You should also consider giving her a busy ball with treats, or a Kong with treats and peanut butter in it. You can't expect her to just come into your home, which is a strange place to her, and be quiet in her crate all by herself.

[Guest mvd5555]

Yeah the point of me putting her in a different room is to alone train her a bit because on Monday I have to leave her for 4 hours, come home for a quick lunch visit and 4 more hours. I gave her a kong which she finished (too quickly, I'll have to make it harder next time haha), and she cried. She's quieting down now though, I'll let her out once it's been an hour and a half and then try it again later while I go to the store. If I'm home, she won't ever be crated once I get her used to the routine, so no point putting the crate in my bedroom she needs to be ok alone in it.

[vjgrey]

You're leaving her in a crate for an hour and a half on her first day home? Poor sweetheart.

[EnzaFerrari]

I'd do some reading on alone training. The only way to get them use to being alone is to leave. And come back. And leave. And come back. And leave. And always come back. Putting her in the crate with no treats or something that says, "This is AWESOME!" and not leaving isn't really teaching her anything beyond "I hate this crate." Many greys love them, mine did not.

[Guest mvd5555]

I gave her a big kong full of peanut butter. she's been crated for about 6 hours a day at her foster home (for two months). I left her for an hour, and when she was quiet i came and let her out. I'll do it again later when I go to the grocery store. This is what I was told to do to make sure she can handle being alone. I'm confused, I was told to do alone training so why exactly is she a "poor dog." I am doing what will make her life less stressful in the future. It is not as though she has never been crated during the day before, and she happily went in and worked on the kong. When it ran out I heard her start crying. She did stop eventually, so I'm less concerned. It's hard to leave her there when she's crying though I can't help worrying. I would rather know how she is going to react though before I ACTUALLY leave her in the future. Letting her stick to me like glue the first two days, and then leaving her for four hours the next doesn't seem like a good plan.

[vjgrey]

I'm confused, I was told to do alone training so why exactly is she a "poor dog."

 

Leaving her in a crate for an hour and a half while you're still home isn't "alone training." Alone training involves actually leaving the house, initially in increments of minutes, so that she knows you'll always come back. And what you're doing doesn't necessarily give you a good picture of how she'll react when you do leave. She obviously knows you're still there.

 

While it probably helps that she's been crated in foster care, that doesn't always translate to a totally new environment. They're crated at the track, too, but being crated in a place they don't know and without any other dogs around (I'm assuming the foster family had another dog, or dogs?) is very different.

 

It just seems (to me) a lot of stress to add on day one, when she's still trying to figure out where she is and what's going on.

[Guest mvd5555]

I did what was recommended by the adoption agency.

[Guest 2greys2cats]

You're leaving her in a crate for an hour and a half on her first day home? Poor sweetheart.

I agree. Alone training starts with five minutes gone, 10 minutes gone, 20 minutes gone, etc. Not putting her in a crate for an hour and a half all by herself. Also to do the crate training you have to make sure their bladders and stools are totally empty so they don't have a reason to cry for a bathroom break

[Batmom]

If she's just whining and not going nuts, if you're not leaving her in there for more than @ 1.5 hours at a time while you're home, and if she has plenty of out-of-the-crate time to see what all goes on in your home ... I don't see any big problem. There is a difference between being home and actually leaving, so you might have to do some additional alone training (leave the house for 2 minutes, come back, etc.) but then again you might not -- all dogs are different.

 

I tend to acclimate a new dog with less crate time then you're using but the adoption group knows what's worked for them and what's worked with this dog in her foster home. I'd follow your gut + their guidance -- don't let us all distract you with all our variations and objections and what not. Come back and read here in more detail if it seems to you something isn't working quite right and you want more ideas.

 

Oh, and congratulations!

[krissy]

You do need to actually leave the house for short periods of time for alone training. However I found it very helpful to also crate the dogs while I am home. My rationalization with that is to teach the dog that sometimes they have to be alone, and just because I am home doesn't mean they automatically get to be with me. I found having them relax in their crate while I was home helped them to learn to relax in the crate when I left the house. I think you're doing fine. DOG forbids dog be put in a crate for an hour the first day home. I think it's a good thing to start that right away. I never take time off when we bring home a new dog. The dog comes home and starts right into our schedule. I don't take a week off and have the dog get used to me being around 10 hours of the day just to leave for9 hours a week later. She's not a poor thing so long as she's getting attention as well. She'll be fine.

[Guest mvd5555]

Thank you. She seems happy as far as I can tell

[Guest OPointyDog]

One other suggestion - you can try freezing the kong and they last longer that way and might keep her busy longer. We put pumpkin mixed with dog kibble and some peanut butter in ours, and put them in the freezer. Even our dedicated chewer takes 30 minutes or more, and sometimes comes back to it later as it starts to melt. Other people use cream cheese or yogurt in them.

 

Congrats and looking forward to some photos!

[Rickiesmom]

Wondering where the pictures are? Always fun to see a new adoptee.

[jetcitywoman]

I did what was recommended by the adoption agency.

 

Sometimes things aren't explained quite accurately enough, and sometimes people misunderstand the directions. I'm not attacking you or your group, just trying to help you understand why we're giving you what looks like different instructions for alone training. It's the same thing, you just need to take smaller baby steps. As 2greys2cats said, start with only a few minutes alone at a time and gradually increase the time. The first few lessons are completely focussed on teaching "I'm coming back". Later lessons that stretch out the alone time are then teaching "no matter how long I'm gone, I WILL come back". But you have to start with the first lesson.

 

As to my first comment about things not being explained quite well.... I once watched an adoption coordinator show a brand new grey adopter how to teach a dog to sit by hugging it and folding it's back legs. This is a legitimate method, but I would NEVER do it with a brand new dog on the first day before the dog knows who you are and has no reason to trust you. It's no surprise when I later heard from the new owner that they took the dog home and tried it - and immediately taught the dog to run away from them. It's not a major crisis when something like that happens, but then you do have to take a few more steps backward to regain the dog's trust before you can go forward again. And for a brand new adopter... well, they don't need that, frankly. So when people tell/show you things, ask lots of questions and proceed with caution.

[Batmom]

See, that's where opinions differ.

 

I don't start out leaving a new dog for 2 minutes. I start out by leaving a new dog for 20-30 minutes if not a full hour. Some dogs get WAY excited if you come back in a few minutes versus being gone long enough for them to settle and nap.

 

I also have never had a problem with hug-and-fold. I wouldn't do it to a dog who was afraid of my touch -- I'd want to work on that first -- but even my spook girl was fine with hug and fold.

 

Most things depend on the individual dog .

[Guest k9soul]

I had one adoption rep person tell me to keep Rudy's Martingale on at all times and to keep it very tight.. I disagreed and use a thin tag collar that can break away if it gets caught on something. I think it's good to look at things from all angles and take in different perspectives, and ultimately make the decisions you feel most comfortable about for your dog.

[Guest 2greys2cats]

I had one adoption rep person tell me to keep Rudy's Martingale on at all times and to keep it very tight.. I disagreed and use a thin tag collar that can break away if it gets caught on something. I think it's good to look at things from all angles and take in different perspectives, and ultimately make the decisions you feel most comfortable about for your dog.

That is the worst thing one can do. Do you know how many accidents happen from greyhounds with their Martingale's on? The buckles can get caught in the bars of the crate, and when they're itching with their back feet many greyhounds have had their feet get stuck in that loop. It is not safe at all to leave a martingale on. And I'm sure many people do it, but that is just opening the dog up for an accident. I used to do it until my boy got his collar stuck on a cabinet knob and almost choked himself. Thank god I was home when it happened. You were smart to not listen to your group.

[Guest k9soul]

That is the worst thing one can do. Do you know how many accidents happen from greyhounds with their Martingale's on? The buckles can get caught in the bars of the crate, and when they're itching with their back feet many greyhounds have had their feet get stuck in that loop. It is not safe at all to leave a martingale on. And I'm sure many people do it, but that is just opening the dog up for an accident. I used to do it until my boy got his collar stuck on a cabinet knob and almost choked himself. Thank god I was home when it happened. You were smart to not listen to your group.

 

I agree with you. This rep seemed very paranoid about the dog getting out and losing his ID, but there are some risks worse even than that. My group's printout advises the breakaway collar, so I was surprised when this rep instructed me that way. She just seemed super worried about the dog somehow getting lose and not having his tags.

[Guest 2greys2cats]

I agree with you. This rep seemed very paranoid about the dog getting out and losing his ID, but there are some risks worse even than that. My group's printout advises the breakaway collar, so I was surprised when this rep instructed me that way. She just seemed super worried about the dog somehow getting lose and not having his tags.

I still have ID on my dogs. I use stretchy collars with their names and my phone number embroidered on them. I think having ID on our dogs at all times is so important.