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I think rescue is fair to say given that without the adoption groups, they would simply be euthanized after retirement. It is true there is a major health benefit due to the selective breeding used for racing. Also it's nice to not have a bunch of AKC dogs that only come in one color and look deformed (see: AKC German Shephards).
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Aug 1, 2014 20:02
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SUPER HASSLER posted:One thing to say about the tracks; they breed for performance. actionjackson posted:It is true there is a major health benefit due to the selective breeding used for racing. Also it's nice to not have a bunch of AKC dogs that only come in one color and look deformed (see: AKC German Shephards). I think you need to be careful how much you conclude here. Greys are bred for performance on the track, not for long-term health and happiness. Since they retire by 5 or so, I'm sure the breeders aren't concerned with illnesses or problems that start to come up, say, around age 10. To be sure, breeding for athletic prowess seems likely to result in healthier animals in the long term than breeding for appearance, but it also breeds animals that may only be good at one thing. Many greys have trouble sitting, for example, and our older one struggles to change between standing and lying down. I'd be surprised if this wasn't related to their ridiculously long legs, which are probably great for fast running, but not so much for general movement. Their lack of body fat is also something that helps them go faster, but is a real drawback during the winter here in Wisconsin. In fact, our dogs seem pretty sensitive to both warm and cold weather. I'm sure that didn't matter during a quick sprint around the track, but it's an issue now, when we have to be careful about when (and how far) to walk them.
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Aug 1, 2014 20:32
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More greyhound pics please! Here is Reese at the beach. He is not convinced he likes the water running after 
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Aug 4, 2014 23:10
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Mona's eating pattern has just shifted in the last few weeks - she used to wolf down her meals right away, but now she'll leave it and eat over the course of the day. We took her to the vet and they did a physical and took some blood work, but nothing seems wrong. Anyone else encounter a similar change in behavior before? She's getting all of her food, and still has interest in treats, so I'm not super worried, but it's a pretty significant change. I'm thinking it might just be stress from the baby keeping her up, and from being back to being alone for the day, after 4 months of having my wife be at home during her maternity leave.
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Aug 5, 2014 00:58
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Rory's eating has changed over the last month or so as well. Instead of scarfing her food down in half a minute, she eats a lot slower now. Many times even after I say, "Okay! Good girl!" after making her wait, she won't go for it right away. I chalk it up to her resource guarding towards the cats lessening over time. She's not as worried they're going to eat it if she doesn't inhale it right away, I think.
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Aug 5, 2014 01:28
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It's weird that it'd go away after 4 years, but I suppose anything is possible. Mona's appetite seems to be returning a bit to her old pattern. She doesn't always go right for her food, but, when she does decides to eat, at least she finishes the whole meal.
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Aug 8, 2014 01:42
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Same thing's happened with Remy since I moved. In the mornings especially; he'll eat a bit, lie down, then go back and continue. Anybody have any tips on teaching greyhounds soft boundaries? Generally since I've had Remy he waits until I'm ready to leave, then will sprint to the elevators, back to me, then back to the elevators. I suppose he must have gotten comfortable in the hallways since the neighboring dog moved; because the last couple days, at around 5:30 or so (when he thinks it's time to go home; often well before I'm ready), he's been leaving the team area and doing some sprinting to the elevators then back on his own. He's responsive to me calling him back, even before he's taken off, but he won't just lie back down once he thinks we're about to leave. I could keep him on a shortish lead, get a pen for the last couple of hours, or even try take him out and back in again, but the ideal solution would be to teach him he can only leave with me.
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Aug 8, 2014 08:09
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Peristalsis posted:I don't know, I think it works okay from a marketing perspective. It's pretty clearly an indictment of the industry that is using up and discarding perfectly good dogs, not of the dogs themselves. And it pulls the heartstrings more than "come see our dogs who have finished their racing careers, and are now moving on to the next exciting chapters of their lives." Also, there are people who want to feel like they're saving abused/neglected animals to feed their savior complex, or who have strong opinions and only want to deal with others who share them, so statements like this are going to appeal to a demographic that other rescues might not reach. I just wonder how they'll keep dogs coming in to the rescue, if the racetracks find out they're being badmouthed. From my dealings with that particular rescue, this doesn't surprise me. They seem like very nice people, but...not so great at some of the PR stuff? We tried to get an application through to them, carefully worked at getting it in the exact form they wanted over a period of several weeks (their website apparently had serious issues), and then...nothing. We've even called back at different times during the day, and never gotten a response. Either they think we are horrible people and even speaking to us is a danger to their dogs, or they are pretty bad at communicating/going through some serious stuff that makes focusing on the rescue impossible. Given the fact that every time I look at their petfinder listings I see the exact same dogs, I'm guessing it's that second one. I'm sure they mean well, but we've pretty much given up on adopting through them. We HAVE been working with another rescue that seems to really have its act together, though. We're going to visit a potential hound tomorrow. Hopefully the fact that our current dog is a recovering brokendawg will make us seem like good adopters instead of flakes, since they've asked us to bring her along. Here's the brokendawg. She is not a greyhound, but she's a skinnydog, so close enough. 
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Aug 9, 2014 05:17
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I love long haired sighthounds. 
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Aug 9, 2014 05:48
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Long haired sighthounds confuse me I thought I saw a borzoi once, but then it turned to look at me and it disappeared.
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Aug 9, 2014 05:51
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slap me silly posted:Long haired sighthounds confuse me I assume for borzoi it's because of the climates. That's one of my favorite breeds, but I've only seen them at dog shows.
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Aug 9, 2014 23:54
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Rory met her sister Vastra this weekend!  They look and act like the inverse versions of each other.      It is very hard to get two hounds to stand still next to each other long enough to get a decent picture....   ...much less four.  A teeming miasma of dogge.   We are not sure if Rory is Bizarro Vastra or if Vastra is Bizarro Rory.
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Aug 10, 2014 23:27
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I now own a greyhound! He's doing really well, all things considered. No accidents in the house, already ate a meal and drank some water. I was also able to get him to experimentally chomp on a toy a little bit. I took him for a walk while my husband took Chelsea to the park. It's a whole new experience to be able to answer "Can I pet your dog?" with "Yes." We're using a basket muzzle for now, to make sure everything is fine with the cat, and since this is day 1, have more or less done crate/rotate with the dogs. I'll see about posting some pictures tomorrow. He is a super nice boy, follows me around the apartment, and likes hugs. Edit: He pants a lot, though. Guessing that's just nerves at being kidnapped by strangers. ArmadilloConspiracy fucked around with this message at 02:48 on Aug 12, 2014 |
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Aug 12, 2014 02:44
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ArmadilloConspiracy posted:Edit: He pants a lot My does this from May to September, indoor AC notwithstanding. I assume it's normal? Also, hello, pics!
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Aug 12, 2014 03:12
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My boy's racing name was Rob Lee Walker, but my husband decided that was boring. Thus, I now present: Chelsea Dagger and Jonathon Fisk  I really, really love his ears.  My husband got to hug him last night. Today he has decided I am the superior person, probably because I've been home all day. He refuses to let me out of his sight, and just sort of...stares at my husband.  He is a big tawny attention sponge. This morning, whenever I tried to do something, I ended up with his head in my lap. So I spent most of the morning doing this. Having a dog that seeks out attention is kind of weird.  Once Chelsea settled down on the couch, Fisk figured out he could lie down, too. This is kind of his default spot, now. Hopefully he figures out the furniture soon.  Still no accidents, though he did wake us up to pee at 4 am. only an hour and a half from when I usually get up, so not too bad. He has a habit of blundering into my legs and then just leaning against me when I walk him alone, but knocks it off when I'm walking him and Chelsea. He has stairs all figured out, and is starting to learn his name. When we picked him up yesterday, he had a scab on his knee, which he licked off today. Luckily, unlike his dumb sister, once I put some antibiotic ointment on it he decided licking it would be gross, so he's leaving it alone now. Chelsea is mostly okay with him, but has gone on a partial hunger strike. The cat is furious and has camped out in our bedroom closet, but came to sniff his foot while he was asleep, consequently waking him up. He didn't even try to go after her when she ran off. This may have to do with the fact that every time he has tried to sniff the cat, she's hit him. I still have the rest of the week off from work, so that should help him get adjusted. He's a good boy.
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Aug 13, 2014 04:03
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Congrats on your new family member and don't be shy with sharing the adorable pics. I'd say you are off to a good start!
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Aug 14, 2014 00:11
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So...is greyhounds hitting their tails on things and ending up with blood spattering everywhere a thing? Because I'm pretty sure that's what happened. Fisk is apparently Not Okay with the blender, frantically tried to flee the noise, and crashed into some stuff. He didn't whimper or anything, I didn't know anything serious had happened until I noticed there was blood were he was laying. I thought he'd pulled off a scab from his knee scrape, but upon further investigation, no: it was coming from his tail. I managed to get a makeshift bandage on it (it seems to have stopped bleeding), and am trying to get ahold of my husband about setting up a vet appointment, as a quick online search suggests this really isn't a DIY job. Upon further investigation, there were a lot of little drops of blood pretty much everywhere. Most of it was on the dishwasher. Can a dog seriously just...hit its tail on the dishwasher and end up getting cut? Chelsea has never done any such thing. I realize that in the grand scheme of things this is probably a relatively minor issue (he seems to have forgotten that anything even happened, and is going about his buiness as normal), but it makes me feel like a complete screw-up.
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Aug 15, 2014 18:29
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Yeah it's called Happy Tail  http://www.grassmere-animal-hospital.com/happy_tail_bandaging.htm
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Aug 15, 2014 19:05
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It happens to some dogs. If it continues to happen you may have to have part of the tail removed.
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Aug 15, 2014 19:06
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Bookmarked the bandaging page; I will probably need it, as I just finished putting on bandage number 2, after the first summarily fell off. The good news is the bleeding has mostly stopped. Good to know this isn't necessarily something that makes me a huge failure. We're going to the vet at 4:30 to make sure everything's okay/allow me to stop being a nervous wreck/convince me that I'm not horrible and he isn't going to get repossessed or something.  Other than this traumatic incident, things have been going great. He's figuring out his name, will now get into his crate more or less on command, and is warming up to my husband again. (After all the bandages, he's probably going to like my husband BETTER than me.) He got one paw up on the couch today, so hopefully he'll figure that out soon. We've also gotten more rugs to keep him from slipping around so much. He actually makes walks much simpler. Since I started walking them together, Chelsea has stopped barking at people and loud engines entirely, and has mostly stopped just standing there and refusing to move if she doesn't like the direction we're going. He also blunders directly into my legs less often when Chelsea is around. He seems to have much less prey drive than Chelsea (saw a rabbit today and just flat out didn't care), so I won't have to worry about 150 pounds of hound dragging me toward squirrels. He'll also gladly look away from the cat for treats, meaning he gets to be muzzle-free most of the time, since he sticks by me all the time. He seems largely unconcerned with the bat creature looming behind him.  Streeeeetch  Imagine a womanchild playing video games on the empty portion of the couch, and you will have an accurate picture of how things look most of the time around here. 
ArmadilloConspiracy fucked around with this message at 20:21 on Aug 15, 2014 |
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Aug 15, 2014 19:57
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Sweet. You're lucky you get any couch!
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Aug 15, 2014 20:00
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slap me silly posted:Sweet. You're lucky you get any couch! I'm really hoping he "gets" the furniture soon. Before we got him, Chelsea would spend most of her time on our bed, and at best I'd have the cat on the couch with me. I think Chelsea's just been hanging out more lately to keep an eye on him/remind me that she's my real dog. Either way, I'm glad she does it. He seems to take his cue of "it's time to lie down and take a nap" from her instead of pacing around the apartment or monopolizing my lap as much as he can with just his head. For the first couple days, I could barely do anything online, because there would be a pointy face between me and the screen. EDIT: We went to the vet. He shaved the tail to check, and he had two tiny little abrasions. The vet said this wasn't bad enough to even warrant bandages, just antibiotic ointment twice a day for a week, and a cone if he refuses to leave it alone. So I feel like less of a bad dog owner now. ArmadilloConspiracy fucked around with this message at 23:27 on Aug 15, 2014 |
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Aug 15, 2014 20:21
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Hey Goonhounds, I'm about to move with my wife to a new apartment and I've been thinking about adopting a Greyhound (probably not a retired horsedog since I'm in SPain and I don't think dog races are big here) since I read they are pretty lazy and don't mind apartments as long as you take them out to stretch their giant monster legs like any other dog. I just wanted to know how true this is. Both me and my wife work, but she has different schedules so the dog would be alone some times, or spend some weeks in constant company, and our apartment isn't going to be very big. So, even though I've read a couple of times that Greyhounds are chill dogs and that they don't mind an apartment, I just wanted to hear it from actual owners. Also, are Whippets the same in this regard, or do they personalities differ from their half-giant cousins?
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Aug 18, 2014 12:05
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ArmadilloConspiracy posted:I'm really hoping he "gets" the furniture soon. Mona won't go on a piece of furniture unless she's invited to first. Once she knows it's ok to go on a specific piece, she'll go on to it on her own no problem. It's actually pretty convenient. Not sure why she's like this, but maybe it's the same for yours. Hugoon Chavez posted:Hey Goonhounds, I'm about to move with my wife to a new apartment and I've been thinking about adopting a Greyhound (probably not a retired horsedog since I'm in SPain and I don't think dog races are big here) since I read they are pretty lazy and don't mind apartments as long as you take them out to stretch their giant monster legs like any other dog. Mona is good with 2, 30 min walks a day, and the occasional run in our backyard. If we had to move to an apartment she'd be fine, although we'd probably lengthen the walks if there wasn't a convenient place to let her run. We've stayed in hotels with her for over a week at a time, and been fine.
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Aug 18, 2014 13:38
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Hugoon Chavez posted:Hey Goonhounds, I'm about to move with my wife to a new apartment and I've been thinking about adopting a Greyhound (probably not a retired horsedog since I'm in SPain and I don't think dog races are big here) since I read they are pretty lazy and don't mind apartments as long as you take them out to stretch their giant monster legs like any other dog. Oddly, I just heard* this weekend that there's a problem in Spain with Galgos, which seem to be similar to greyhounds. Apparently, they're a hunting breed that traditionally isn't treated very well. The woman I was talking to about it said there's a big rescue in Spain called Scooby that is trying to get these dogs into homes as pets once their hunting days are over. The galgo we saw looked sort of like a whippet, I guess, though the owner said she was small even for a galgo. She seemed very sweet, and to have a greyhound-like temperament. * I'm not vouching for the accuracy of anything this woman told me, just passing on her comments.
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Aug 18, 2014 16:21
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Peristalsis posted:Oddly, I just heard* this weekend that there's a problem in Spain with Galgos, which seem to be similar to greyhounds. Apparently, they're a hunting breed that traditionally isn't treated very well. The woman I was talking to about it said there's a big rescue in Spain called Scooby that is trying to get these dogs into homes as pets once their hunting days are over. The galgo we saw looked sort of like a whippet, I guess, though the owner said she was small even for a galgo. She seemed very sweet, and to have a greyhound-like temperament. Oh drat, this is great, thanks for this! Technically, "Galgo" is "Greyhound" in Spanish, but I think that in Spain specifically, "Spanish Galgos" are another breed altogether. I'll have to contact them and ask them about it to check Spanish Galgos are ok with apartments!
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Aug 19, 2014 08:30
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Galgos Del Sol is another Galgos rescue. Not vouching for how good they are, but I heard about them when I bought a greyhound hat for one of their fundraisers.
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Aug 19, 2014 11:26
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My 1-year-old Iggie is petrified of strangers. She's been with me for approximately 4 months now and I'm assuming it's because she was unsocialized and in her kennel for the first 8 months of her life. Is there hope for such a dog in ever not freaking the gently caress out on the street when a motorcycle passes by / group of strangers stand nearby / someone yells etc? Will dog school even help (she's not afraid / aggressive towards other dogs) at this point?
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Aug 24, 2014 15:56
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lovely tuna snatch posted:My 1-year-old Iggie is petrified of strangers. She's been with me for approximately 4 months now and I'm assuming it's because she was unsocialized and in her kennel for the first 8 months of her life. Is there hope for such a dog in ever not freaking the gently caress out on the street when a motorcycle passes by / group of strangers stand nearby / someone yells etc? Will dog school even help (she's not afraid / aggressive towards other dogs) at this point? Yeah there is hope. I volunteer walking dogs at a shelter that frequently gets puppy mill dogs in – breeding adults that have spent their whole lives unsocialized in kennels, and their puppies. I obviously don't see how the dogs turn out in the long run, but I do see the changes that occur over the first few weeks, when they go from cowering at the back of a cage terrified of everything to happily going on walks with people. Seeing a trainer, maybe one on one, would probably be a good idea – but I wouldn't give up.
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Aug 24, 2014 16:11
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lovely tuna snatch posted:My 1-year-old Iggie is petrified of strangers. She's been with me for approximately 4 months now and I'm assuming it's because she was unsocialized and in her kennel for the first 8 months of her life. Is there hope for such a dog in ever not freaking the gently caress out on the street when a motorcycle passes by / group of strangers stand nearby / someone yells etc? Will dog school even help (she's not afraid / aggressive towards other dogs) at this point? I took my brokendog to a socialization class for several months when we first got her, and she definitely improved. It wasn't a full "cure", and it didn't happen right away, but it got us to the point where things were workable. I highly recommend them, if you can find one.
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Aug 25, 2014 01:52
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I will edit this post to include more pictures when I'm conscious, but right now, I have a problem. For the last three nights, Fisk has decided that it's super cool to start whining around 4 am. We have determined that this is NOT an "I urgently need to go outside", thing, as last night we called his bluff and he was fine. So it's...really dumb separation anxiety, I guess? I don't know. Can a dog even GET separation anxiety when you're two rooms away? Anyway, we've been doing our best to ignore it and hope it stops. I would be just fine with waiting him out on this particular stupid phase. But we live in an apartment, and I'm getting a little worried about possible noise complaints. We're going to talk to the neighbors today and let them know we're working on it; I'm just really hoping I don't have to look at choosing between breaking our lease and giving this guy back to the rescue.  Relatedly, how long does it take between a whine and an action for a dog to associate the two? If I go to the living room (where his crate is), he will completely stop, whether I get him out of the crate or not. I've been waiting about five minutes after the whining stops; is that enough? Right now, the only workarounds I can think of are: 1) Try to rearrange the bedroom so two crates fit in there, probably displacing the dresser to the living room. 2) One of us sleeping on the couch every night. 3) Putting talk radio on a low setting in the living room, maybe? I've heard that can help. ArmadilloConspiracy fucked around with this message at 10:56 on Aug 30, 2014 |
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Aug 30, 2014 10:44
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It sounds like he definitely wants to be where you are. Does he need to be in his crate to sleep? Our boy Reese actually doesn't like being in there and has slept on a bed or old comforter on the floor of our room at night without a crate since like the second week he was home. This is moot of course if your dog need/wants to be in there. Every hound is different, Tortolia's family had a greyhound when he was growing up and she wasn't comfortable unless she had hers to sleep in so YMMV. Reese will go in his crate when we put him in there but is honestly just sad and is so much happier out of it. Just his particular personality. I do know that another dog in this thread, Mona has a pretty rad bed set up too if you flip back a few pages. On a side note, shameless plug for my entry into the August post a pet thread, if you get a chance to go see please do voting is going on now and even if you do not vote for us there is plenty of cute over there.
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Aug 30, 2014 15:45
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Fuzz Feets posted:It sounds like he definitely wants to be where you are. Does he need to be in his crate to sleep? My husband took Fisk around to apologize to the neighbors, and ran into the other greyhound owners in the building. They also suggested leaving him uncrated, so we're going to try bringing him into the bedroom with one of the dog beds tonight. The cat will be pissed that we have to shut her out of the bedroom, but she can deal. She's a bitchy cat anyway. Also, apparently one of my neighbors works the night shift, another can sleep through a nuclear war, and the third had already been up since 2 and didn't hear anything. So I guess I was worried over nothing? ArmadilloConspiracy fucked around with this message at 18:50 on Aug 30, 2014 |
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Aug 30, 2014 16:48
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Oh man. We went through the same thing our first night with Rory. Crying and howling until 4 am when I gave up and slept on the couch next to her. The next night, we brought her into the bedroom with us. She didn't make a peep all night and it's been that way ever since. Even if your neighbors aren't actually bothered by it, you're still being an excellent neighbor by at least acknowledging the situation and taking steps to correct it so good on you. Today I took Rory to my local bathe-your-own-dog bathhouse and I saw the big male I almost adopted back before I got her with his new owners. I didn't say anything at first, but I ended up in line at the register behind them. The husband saw Rory and asked if she was an Italian Greyhound. I said nope, standard issue grey. He was like, "holy crap, she's so much smaller than our guy!  " I mentioned that I knew their dog and that he'd even been to my house, haha! We talked at length about learning to sit and whippy tails and stairs and such. It was a pretty cool coincidence running into them.
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Aug 30, 2014 18:38
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pastor of muppets posted:Oh man. We went through the same thing our first night with Rory. Crying and howling until 4 am when I gave up and slept on the couch next to her. The next night, we brought her into the bedroom with us. She didn't make a peep all night and it's been that way ever since. The really weird thing is that he did this the first night, then stopped for a couple weeks, then started again. He even went through almost two weeks of "My owners both work now" sleeping just fine in his crate. I don't know what the heck this is all about, but hopefully a bedroom with two loose hounds in it will be the answer. (Chelsea gets pissed if he comes to visit while she's crated, so we'll be leaving her door open.) Luckily, Chelsea is super good crated or not, and I'm not sure Fisk is actually aware that destroying things or peeing in the house are things it is possible to do. He'd be a perfect dog if he didn't have this single irritating habit.
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Aug 30, 2014 18:48
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I have also found that bringing the dog into the bedroom with me is a quick and easy cure for nighttime whines Nowadays I often just let him have the run of the house all night and he goes to the door and barks when it's the proper time to get up. Regarding waiting a few minutes after he stops whining - I haven't tried very hard with that approach but also haven't had much luck. Instead I would suggest waking yourself up before he whines and going and dropping a cookie in his crate. Catch him before he gets whiny in the first place and gradually increase the time between visits until it's the whole night. If you're serious about keeping him in the other room.
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Aug 30, 2014 19:33
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Real quick wanted to share this pic that is definitely not my husband, who didn't want a dig in the first place, cuddling with our dog, no sir., couldn't be him. He also definitely does not have tons of dog stories of Rory's daily activities while I'm gone for the day and he's working from home. Tl,dr: get a greyhound
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Aug 30, 2014 19:54
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D'awwwww!
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Aug 30, 2014 22:48
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I have to say that I feel quite lucky that I adopted a dog that just makes no sound whatsoever. I have now had Adam for 13 months and I can count on one hand the number of whines he's given me. He is chill as gently caress 24/7. Here's a picture in case you forgot what a greyhound looks like. 
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Aug 30, 2014 22:55
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Classic bed 
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Sep 3, 2014 13:38
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