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Greyhound Freeze


Guest widfam

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Hello all,

 

My partner and I adopted a three-year-old female greyhound (Alice) from a rescue shelter on 12/26/2016. She was racing up until 10/2016. She is extremely sweet and good-natured. The only issue that we have been running into is her freezing up. We knew that greyhounds tend to do this, especially in new situations.

 

We live in a third floor walk-up, and our stairs are quite steep. Every time we try to take her outside to "do her business", she freezes and refuses to come to the door. My partner gives her a strong tug on the leash, and she begrudgingly will make her way to the stairwell. Getting her down the stairs is a combo of treats, calm reassurance, and firm leash guidance. Once we get outside, she pees and poops in our backyard area, but she has no desire to walk around the neighborhood. Positive reinforcement and treats move her inch by inch down the driveway. We have also tried applying more pressure on the leash/pushing her from behind/moving her legs, none of which help. Sometimes she freezes for up to five minutes at a time. If we manage to get her in the car and drive her somewhere new, she is much more inquisitive and tends to not mind walking around (though she will still freeze up from time to time). She especially likes being off-leash at the dog park. However, as soon as she can tell that we are heading back home, she runs up the stairs with little prompting! I am worried that she has begun to associate the scary new task of going downstairs with walking down our driveway and around our neighborhood.

 

Our question is: What do you do when your greyhound won't budge? Is it okay to be applying firm pressure to the leash? As long as she does her business in the backyard, we are happy. Walking around the neighborhood can wait. We know that greyhounds can take weeks, if not months, to adjust to their new surroundings. We just want to make sure we are taking the right approach to everything!

 

Any words of wisdom would be much appreciated. We are excited to be joining this greyhound community. Thanks so much!

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I would definitely not be too concerned with extra walking for a week or so. Her statueing is result of anxiety, not stubbornness, so giving her some time to settle in and become familiar with her new life will be good for her. When she does statue, circling is a good strategy, as is using yummy treats to lure her forward. Once she becomes more familiar with her neighborhood she should get more enthusiastic about walking.

 

Time and patience. Patience and time. Everything she's doing is completely normal, so just relax and enjoy this time of learning with her!

Chris - Mom to: Felicity (DeLand), and Andi (Braska Pandora)

52592535884_69debcd9b4.jpgsiggy by Chris Harper, on Flickr

Angels: Libby (Everlast), Dorie (Dog Gone Holly), Dude (TNJ VooDoo), Copper (Kid's Copper), Cash (GSI Payncash), Toni (LPH Cry Baby), Whiskey (KT's Phys Ed), Atom, Lilly

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Time. Time. Time.

Add loads of patience.

And more time.

 

She has never seen stairs before. Or city traffic. Or anything else that we take as normal 'life'.

 

Please take the time to read the Kathleen Gilley article...

Edited by BatterseaBrindl

 

Nancy...Mom to Sid (Peteles Tiger), Kibo (112 Carlota Galgos) and Joshi.  Missing Casey, Gomer, Mona, Penelope, BillieJean, Bandit, Nixon (Starz Sammie),  Ruby (Watch Me Dash) Nigel (Nigel), and especially little Mario, waiting at the Bridge.

 

 

SKJ-summer.jpg.31e290e1b8b0d604d47a8be586ae7361.jpg

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Guest nnamdismom

I scratch behind the ears and sing or hum. Over time you will find out what soothes your dog just like you find out what soothes your human baby. Stairs are super duper hard for greyhounds, mine would never learn the extra steep set in my old home. Taking breaks is good too if you seem to be making no progress going up the stairs just sit on the step closest to them so they know it is a safe spot. I wouldn't pull on the leash because they get really weird about feeling like they are about to be dragged and that could give you MORE resistance. Just be patient and a lot more time than you think you need for doing things that make her freeze up. Dogs can sense our emotion so well. If you feel calm, and don't get stressed out, over time as the dog trusts YOU more she will trust that how you are feeling is the right way to feel. Over time she will be like know what mom is not scared of this, maybe I don't have to be either. But if you feel stressed about the thing they feel stressed about (we all have it is so natural!) they will feel that. I always got nervous before the stairs because I hated the battle. When I started forcing myself to feel calm, the dog noticed and it got a little better and over time it was completely fine. Be patient and you're going to be fine too!

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Time. Time. Time.

Add loads of patience.

And more time.

 

She has never seen stairs before. Or city traffic. Or anything else that we take as normal 'life'.

 

Please take the time to read this Kathleen Gilley article...

http://forum.greytalk.com/uploads/gallery/album_3279/gallery_21971_3279_4292.jpg

 

I think this is a working link to the article BatterseaBrindl mentioned: http://www.northerngreyhoundadoptions.org/ThoughtsOfAGrey.php

Edited by 3greytjoys
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