Fostering

[KittyDaHownd]

We are adopting a greyhound that has never been fostered before. We have had greyhounds in the past, but they were all fostered. Any tips?

[greysmom]

S/he will need to be potty trained and introduced to ev.er.y.thing in the house. They may walk in and be perfectly fine, or be really freaked out - and you won't know which you have until you get them home. But potty training is the biggest concern.

 

Next will be Alone Training. This dog has likely never been left alone, so you need to start this process early and often to see if your new greyhound is going to be able to be left at some point.

 

Some things to introduce: walking on leash, beds, slick floors, panes of glass in windows and doors, different sounds and smells, stairs.

 

Is s/he being spayed/neutered before you pick them up? Wormed? Cat tested? The dog might need medical vetting and the group should pay for that.

 

Otherwise, I think you're worrying too much! You've had greyhounds, so you (at least intellectually) know what you'll be dealing with. Enjoy the process!

[MaryJane]

Stairs can be a problem - they may try and jump down a flight a stairs so keep on a leash going up and down until their actions can be identified.

 

Sliding glass doors need to have decals put on them otherwise the dog may run through them.

 

Keep on leash outside even with a fenced in yard until you know if dog will try and scale fence and always be outside with dog as they could run into something. Rremove anything from yard like a wheelbarrel that has protruding handles that a dog could run into.

 

If you have greyhounds too, muzzle all dogs until you can determine whether there are any space issues

 

Feed dogs separately (fenced off from one another) until you determine whether there is food aggression.