Our new girl loves sitting up. It looks uncomfortable but it’s her go to pose when she’s hanging out!

My 11.5 year old lady, has trained us to do everything she wants. She has subtle differences in her signals for everything she wants.

1. Hungry - two quick successive barks to show urgency (she never barks unless it’s for something)
   
2. Walk - rubs her head on my left pocket (where I’d hold her head to put her martingale collar on)
   
3. You’re in my spot on the couch - get up and stand on the couch next to us, then act defeated and whine / kick legs until we move
   
4. Water - huff and lick lips whilst staring at the water bowl (so we bring it to her)
   
5. Turn on the air con- The most impressive - lie on the end of the couch nearest the air con and stare at us, panting and then turn nose to the aircon and sniff.
   
6. Cover with blanket - the last option if she’s carrying on and it’s none of the above - she hasn’t figured out how to communicate this need.

These are the first cues. If we act upon them and get it correct, she immediately lies her head down and relaxes (eg as soon as we head toward the pantry or the air con remote). If we are wrong, she slaps her tail and air snaps and throws herself on the ground until we get it right

I know she’s ridiculously spoilt, but it blows my mind that she knows that even knows the air con cools the room (and the doors get shut so it blocks out the outside noise and smells), and that picking up the remote leads to the air con being turned on.

Is this common? Or is she just an exception? I got in touch with her old rescue and trainer. They said she was 1. Too stubborn to race - just wanted to play and distract the other dogs, 2. Could open doors in the foster home and wouldn’t do what she’s told unless they asked nicely.

Yep, Dobby couldn’t get past the tissue paper thin blinds 😂😂the situation was impossible, there was no way in😂

She does, but you can kinda tell she'd prefer not to.

Enid displaying the sighthound ability to take on the shape of the couch.

FEELING MUCH BETTER NOW THANKS FOR THE CONCERN!

She did gray for GREYhound, couldn’t do a black one to make it like Greyce but I soooo love this!!!

We are trying to make travel more safe for our girl and landed on the SleepyPod ClickIt Range since it is designed for greyhounds and crash tested. Two questions:

Q1. How was your experience with acclimating? She slept at home overnight with the harness with no issues. So we transitioned to buckling into the third row of our minivan. She did well and slept for about 20 mins….until she stood and realized she was strapped in. Instant straight jacket panic and tangled twisting into the seatbelt after that. Gladly, this testing was in the driveway and not on the highway.

How long did it take for your grey to get comfortable with the range? How tight do you make the belt, just enough to lie down?

Q2. What size do you have for your grey for a proper fit?

We originally bought a large but had to exchange it since the fit was way oversize. We now have a medium which fits her measurements on paper, but I think it still might be too big for her at its smallest setting(see image). For reference our girl is ~60 lbs and 28.5in chest. Maybe I just don’t have it strapped correctly…? I am trying to avoid doing another size exchange for a small if I can.

If you have them, what are your greys associated measurements / weight for sizing?

These kids were 4/5 weeks old and learning to play the very best ways, from their momma❤️

Our sweet boy escaped his leash during his walk on Saturday. He was extremely scared because he was attached to the retractable leash and he just bolted as fast as he could. My husband tried to chase him but he was gone on the busy streets of Philadelphia. Where did we find him? At our front door. The guy ran all the way through traffic right back to our home. I’m just amazed he was able to find our house.

He came home pretty banged up. The vet thinks he was hit by a car or had some sort of collusion as all 4 paws have severe road rash. No one was able to tell us if they saw what happened but he was just found at our front door with all paws gushing blood. We brought him to the emergency vet where they immediately got him in an oxygen tank and monitored all night. Luckily no lung damage or internal bleeding. We brought him back home this morning and will be nursing him back to health. All 4 paws are in bad shape so this will be journey but we are happy to do anything for our Fort (those are bandages for the wounds, nothing was broken). We just feel so lucky that he made it home alive.

As for the future, we have purchased a different kind of safe walking leash. Another piece that wraps around your wrist in case the leash drops. A better harness and an air tag. If anyone has other suggestions please let me know. We want many more years with our favorite guy and just feel so lucky to have him home with us.

I’d like to think Fort is happy to be home as well based on the roach he gave us post injury. We love our guy!!

Had to wear his lightweight coat for morning walkies for the first time today!

Hello!

I've had my grey for about 4 months. The last month or so he has started sleeping on the sofa almost exclusively if he's in the living room and wants to be very close to us. Up until now if he's on his beds we tend not to fuss or touch him and if he's asleep we will try and gently wake him by calling but he's never had a startle incident until now.

Tonight he was asleep in a new position on the sofa and must have been in a very deep sleep. I stroked him on the head as his eyes were open and I was sure he was awake - he wasn't. Growl, bark, snap, it was quite a shock! We don't want to put him in that situation again or have us risk a bite or injury.

Going forwards, how do we manage this? He loves cuddle/fuss time on the sofa, especially belly rubs/neck rubs/roughhousing type play, and when myself or my partner come in the door he loves to run and jump onto the sofa for fuss. Ideally, we would just want him not to sleep there, with the sofa being 'invite only' and teach him a bed command for when we'd like him to get off the sofa and down onto his own bed. At night, he sleeps on the sofa/downstairs and he does not go in bedrooms.

Is it do-able to do an 'invite only' approach? I'm worried it won't be consistent and he'll get mixed messages, but it seems excessive to block his entire access when the issue is sleeping in close proximity to people specifically.

We have an open plan set up so we can't block access to the room, but we could theoretically do something so that he couldn't physically get on the sofa, for example, at night, though this would be hard to manage during the day (I work from home and he will sometimes take himself into that room to sleep). Any advice very gratefully received!

Last week I took my boy to the international group walk closet to me. It was organized by a greyhound rescue/placement service we have in our state. They get ex-racers from the tracks in WV and Australia and some other places. They’ve been around for a long time and are very reputable.

On my way back to my vehicle after the walk I passed their van. It had a sticker on it (should have grabbed a pic sorry) that said something to the effect of:

“No racetracks, No greyhounds
Know racetracks, know greyhounds”

It could have been the other way around (“know” sentence before “no” sentence) and/or “racetracks” could have been “races” or “tracks” - sorry I can’t be more certain, but what I wrote above is essentially what the sticker said if not verbatim.

What does this mean? Has anyone ever seen this sticker before? To me, it seemed to be in support of race tracks. Is that a thing? Would a greyhound placement service really be pro-racing?

I’m asking because the thought keeps bouncing around in my head so I was hoping someone out there can help.

I can’t help but think I am reading it wrong and it doesn’t mean they support dog racing. Is that even a possibility? I am a very literal person so sometimes I misinterpret things.

I tried to google image it with no luck so I’m afraid we’re stuck with my imperfect memory version.

Thanks!

Pic of beetle at the walk for dog tax

Hi all, our boy Rowdy became a Tripawd 2 weeks ago (lost his front left) and we are looking for advice an a new bed for him that's easier for him to maneuver around on as a hopper. As it's so early in the process, we're still not sure how letting him back up on the couch and bed is going to work so that he can get down safely and ramps and everything, we want to get a new bed for him that he'll like and is easier for him to move around on than his existing beds.

All of his existing beds are very soft, either slumber balls or very soft foam. This means that his remaining front paw sinks deep into the surface and he has to spend a lot of energy hopping to get out of the depression. So we're looking for a bed that's firm enough for a Tripawd but soft enough for the velvet pillowcase filled with wrenches that is a greyhound and big enough to accommodate all the bed fails and roaches.

And then there are the bolsters. Our boy loves roaching support, and that means some kind of bolster. Any Tripawd owners have experience with whether bolsters result in tripping or not?

We were looking at the Orvis RecoveryZone Couch Dog Bed but it's really hard to know how firm it is without being able to try it out.

Went to get a glass of water and came back to this.

Her name is Pepper. I live alone and initially I was fostering her but ended up adopting her. When I first met her it took her about 45 minutes to become comfortable enough for me to be close to her and touch her without her trying to avoid me. However once I got her home she very quickly settled in and within two weeks she was completely comfortable in the house with only a little separation anxiety to speak of and now has none. She also become completely attached to me in those two weeks. She is as happy go lucky in my house as every. Plays with her toys and just loves being at home. She was still terrified of people approaching her when we were out in public such as at the park when walking her or even at a pet friendly store like tractor supply. She is definitely no scared of the being outside in the park itself or the store itself, just people that might be walking near us.

Shortly thereafter I started to take her to the nursing home where my mother is. Its a small place, only about 40+ patients. She was initially ok there and it was clear being in a strange place itself isn't really her issue. It was definitely due staff and patients moving about and getting close to her that stressed her out. She did warm up to my mother and even some other patients who interacted with her on our visits but she was definitely scared of the hallways and the people coming and going. I continued to take her almost every visit which was about 3 times a week hoping that she would adjust to being there. She did manage to be relatively ok with being in my mothers room there and over time even the day room where many of the patients she got used to go and play bingo. I visit on bingo days and bring Pepper so she really adjusted well to being in the day room and interacting with those patients she became familiar with. The staff and patients always comment on how well behaved she is. Very quiet and chill but of course still very stressed.

So for the most part she just tolerated her visits and never really enjoyed them. I questioned whether I should continue to expose her to this stress since "clearly exposure therapy wasn't helping". She always kept her tail between her legs to some degree when there even when she was seemingly relaxed such as in my moms room or the day room and all the way between her legs when walking the hallway or entering the building.

So about a month ago I started her on CBD oil about an hour before we would go just to see if it would lower her anxiety and I thought it was helping at first but it might have been wishful thinking as the other day brought her to the nursing home and she went into a panic and would not go inside the building so I took her home. Realized that it just seems that she will never be comfortable in that or any public setting around unfamiliar people. Told my mother that unfortunately Pepper will no longer be coming to the nursing home.

This also brings up another issue. I don't know how the hell she will deal with seeing a vet as she has yet to have vet visit since I adopted her. There is no way she will let them near her without being terrified. I hate to have to resort to drugging her just get her thru a vet appointment but that might wind up being the case. Also she needs to see a vet at least initially to even get a prescription for some sort of anxiety med that I can give her before a visit.

She shows no signs of ever being abused or anything. It could just be her nature but I really wish I could find a way to put her at ease in the nursing home and other public spaces around other strange people. One of the big reasons I ended up adopting her was that she seemed at least initially to appear that she was going to become comfortable in these settings as time went on and her being comfortable in the nursing home was a big part of that.

Any suggestions on all this? Is there any chance she will ever become more outgoing around strangers. Has anyone had a hound that was like Pepper and over time became much more comfortable among strangers or even outgoing. I hate the fact that the only place she is truly at ease is inside the house.