Quirks?

[Guest Lygracilux]

Hello all, hope you are having a wonderful week! Its pretty much been damp, and dreary in MA....makes me want to not got to work and just curl up with Fusion and the Fiance under blankets forever.

 

Anyways, this isnt so much of a question more just a discussion about weird/cute/funny behavior.

 

Fusion has been doing just wonderful, over the weekend we brought him to meet my fiances parents dobermans, and they all just loved each other. I was very nervous as one of the male dobes is very energetic and pushy. But Fusion just kind of ignored him until it was play time. It was great. We've also been starting some basic clicker training which he seems to be picking up very well.

Now that his personality is coming out more and more, there are two things that I cant wrap my head around.

1. If I sit next to him, he will literally bathe me. Licking my hands, neck, arms, legs, ect. Im pretty sure if I let him he would do this until his tongue stopped working. Im assuming this is a sign of affection, anyone else have a grey like this?

2. He still whines. Always. Ive come to accept that this is his way of talking? He whines when I walk out of the room, when I walk back in, when I come home from work, when he wants something,or when hes discouraged because he cant cross the invisible threshold from living room to kitchen (its very cute)

These spurts dont last long maybe a few seconds, unless he has to go out. Then he'll whine until were out the door. Is this normal?

 

If you could give some insight, and share some strange behavior your hounds do, i'd love a good laugh!

[2hounds]

My Paradise (first hound) was a serious whiner. She would whine about everything! Tippy doesn't whine but he will give a big Barooooooo! if he thinks it is time for dinner.

[Guest normaandburrell]

My first grey was a whiner, too. He made this tiny peeping noise, like a baby chick. Sometimes I would say "enough" to him, and my son would say "I can't even hear him!"

He also nittered, very loudly. We didn't know what it was at first and kept putting blankets on him, assuming his teeth chattered because he was cold.

[Guest sireltonsmom]

Our Beau is a talker and it's so cute. Fusion probably a good communicator. As for the licking, if it isn't something you want, or if you have a finite tolerance, teach him 'leave it' for any behavior that isn't ok with you. Beau wakes me sometimes with butterfly kisses to my eyelids. He will lick until I sit back and pick up the paper or tell him leave it. I'm not sure if it's the salt on our skin or what. Glad you're enjoying your boy. Good that he and the Dobes get along. I had Dobes before Greyhounds. Many similarities.

 

It's been raining daily in Sarasota, FL too. It's annoying - makes routine walking for the greys tough.

 

Beau Mindy

[NeedlenoseJake]

We have a whiner too. It's probably my own fault because I give in to it. He's just so pathetic! This morning he woke us up at 3 am whining to get on the bed. I'll take that over being a barker any day.

[greysmom]

Both are normal behaviors. I currently have one licker and one whiner - not the same dog.

 

The licker will completely wet me down if given half a chance, and anything is an occassion for licking. Especially, for some reason, if I change my clothes. The whiner is just her way of communicating and she's always been this way. Her registered name is LPH Cry Baby, and I've met her owner/trainer, and she was a whiner even as a puppy!

[surrygreys]

Henry is a major whiner and like Fusion he will pretty much whine about anything. I had to laugh when you wrote about the "invisible threshold" between living room and kitchen because Henry does the same thing! It's like there's a line he just won't cross. Oh well, guess it's better than having a hound who's trying to put his nose on the counter while you're cooking!

[Guest Doggone]

Autumn neither licks nor whines. In fact, she's pretty much a "silent" dog.......EXCEPT when she's asleep! She'll bark, whine, sigh and yip, but mostly she ROOS while sleep-roaching!!!

[Remolacha]

Charley (5th grey) is my first licker. She will lick my skin, my clothes, my hair, whatever she can reach, weirdo I have had several whiners. I'm not crazy about it, but it certainly is perfectly normal! I think it is their way of communicating. Just be prepared to listen to it for the rest of his life, I have never known a whiner to change

[Guest Lygracilux]

Hahaha awh all of these are too cute. I just love how they all have different personalities, but some of the same quirks. The lickies dont bother me either. Nothing a wash cloth bath cant take care of.

And whining>barking anyday.

[Guest herbsofmine]

I have two lickers--they're littermates. They do stop if I tell them too, though. It is funny because they were known to be that way when they were racing, too. One of the people who helped in the kennel said they just licked him wherever they could reach. My Danny is a whiner, too. Mostly out of excitement. My Duke, Danny's brother, is a barker. He barks whenever he thinks it is necessary!

[Guest PipDG]

Harvey's a whiner! When he wakes up in the morning (he sleeps in the lounge across the hall from our bedroom) he will lie on the sofa and whine quietly to himself for five or so minutes before he gets up. He will also whine if we're in the kitchen and he's on the other side of the baby gate, or just if he's a bit too full of energy in the house and doesn't quite know what to do with himself. It's quite cute really.

[sobesmom]

I've never had a whiner - thank goodness because I probably couldn't handle it!

 

My Diana is a "mouthy" dog. She licks out of affection, and he also licks for comfort. She licks her own legs and her bedding when she goes to sleep. She licks in her sleep. She play-bit when she was excited. We corrected that.

 

She licked my arms, face, legs, shoulders, whatever, out of affection. I don't like that. I don't care for dogs licking me. So - we modified that behavior. I would just gently put my hand on the top of her nose, push down a bit and say "uh-uh" and then I'd pet and snuggle her. I showed her gently that she needed to stop licking me, but she'd still get the attention and have the closeness she desired. She hasn't licked at me in years. She does still lick her bedding when she goes to sleep sometimes, but I think of that as a harmless self-comforting thing.

 

I also taught her "give kisses". I don't like it - but kids do. Diana LOVES kids. If you get near her face and make the "kissy-noise" she'll lick your face. She won "best kisser" at a greyhound group event - and they all laughed because all the other dogs "kiss" their people naturally - and mine did it by "command" -and I had a stranger who was OK with being "kissed" enter her in the contest! LOL!

[Guest jenmm]

Bernie is a whiner. He whines for attention, for dinner, for walks, because he's cold, because someone's in his way......or simply because he can.

 

Zoe is a licker. She just licked the carpet till she fell asleep.

 

And they're thieves! Lance and Zoe like anything relatively soft. Parker grabs and takes my laundry if I drag any behind me.

 

Joey is the dumpster diver. If the lid is open, his face is in the garbage. There can be nothing but a receipt and he has to sniff it thoroughly.