Retired Grey behavior changed in the morning.

[Jay]

Our 4.5 little girl grey is about 2.5 months off the track. The past few mornings her behavior has changed. My girlfriend and I keep the morning routine relatively the same. We wake up around 6:30-6:45am take her on her walk at 7am she pees and poops on the morning walk and then we come back home. The walk is typically about 15-20 minutes long. We then feed her breakfast at about 7:45-8am. Then my girlfriend and I go through our morning routine by making coffee and breakfast for ourselves and hang around the apartment relaxing before we start to getting ready for the day around 9am. I work from home and my office is connected to the living room with no doors and I can see the entire living room from my office. So I will sit at my desk and start to slowly work while my girlfriend is in the bedroom and bathroom getting ready for work that she commutes to. During this time at about 9-9:30am our grey usually will lay on the couch and sleep or lay in the bedroom and watch/sleep while my girlfriend will get ready but the last few days our grey will start to anxiously pace, cry, and whine. She will sometimes also paw at the door that we leave to go outside through. We will try to calm her down by giving her some attention and some pets but she will lay there and anxiously "talk" to us. So we think maybe she needs to go outside. When we take her out she does not pee or poop she will just walk and sniff and then when we get close to being back on the street where our apartment is she will lead us back home. Once she gets home she will drink some water then lay on the couch and sleep. My girlfriend and I are kind of stumped on what is going on with her and we speculate what it could be but we are really not sure. Like I said before this is a new behavior for her and besides these last few days she has been fine the last couple of months and has never really had behavior similar to this. Please let me know what you think and maybe what we can try to help her out. 

[Jerilyn]

Most of the time stuff like this is nothing, dogs are weird.    But greyhounds are also super Routine Dogs. She has probably figured out that your wife is going to leave and that makes her a little anxious. Maybe make your wife leaving a fun time, like she gives your pup a great treat on her way out?

[Time4ANap]

What Jerilyn said.  She is still learning the routine and figuring out what she does and doesn't like. The dog you have now will be settled in and entirely different a year from now. By then, she will also have fogured out how to work the system for anything she wants. 

[greysmom]

Three days.  Three weeks.  Three months.  Those are the general timeframes of a new companion animal settling into their adoptive home.  She's now comfortable in her new environment, and feels bonded with her new humans.  She knows what the daily routine is - even how it changes on the weekends - and can anticipate what's going to happen.  She may be a bit anxious that your wife is leaving, or she may just be getting excited for knowing something is going to happen, or she may just want to go out for a quick walkie-sniffie and is letting you know.

I have one greyhound now that if you do an action or change the routine just *two times* - even if it's not on consecutive days - that means it's a "rule" now and should always happen.    So if you've taken her out when your wife leaves or walked her to the car or bus stop once or twice, your girl might be anticipating - expecting - doing that every day now.

She's also getting comfortable enough that she's starting to express her opinions and desires - when she wants a treat, when she wants a walk, when she needs to potty, when she wants you to leave her alone so she can nap in peace (  ).  Greyhounds are *extremely* good people trainers, and they can train a human faster than we can train them!!!  So if you're sure there's no other reason for her to need to go out right at that time, set a boundary, tell her to lay down (use this time to teach her the command to "go to her bed"), and ignore further attempts she makes to get her way (whining, pacing, barking, scratching, pawing - though don't let her destroy your door moulding or carpet - interrupt that behavior quickly and calmly).  She will, eventually, get it, and settle down, but it might take a couple weeks.  Greyhounds are also extremely persistent!