March 7, 2012

Snickers is back. It did not work out with the family that she went to. They found that their son is allergic to dogs. She was with them for two weeks. When she came back it was as if she never left us. She fell right back into our usual routine. Tari didn’t care that she came back but Guinn, our cat was happy to see her. Guinn came out of hiding once she knew it was Snickers that came into the house. Snickers and I got at least one 3 mile walk in the first week she was back. Then it turned cold and I picked upsome kind of bug and was not up to walking. This past weekend she met her new potential adoption family and it went really well.

I believe she is completely house broken now. She had two accidents the first two nights she was back and I caught her right in the middle of her peeing: A sharp “no” sent her to her crate and she knew she did wrong. She sulked most of the evening. The next night she had another accident and she went right to her crate by herself. We made her stay there until it was her last turnout time in the evening, which is 10:00 pm. We took her out and then she was in for the night. The very next evening, after she had dinner she started to dance around and go down the hall. I watched her and she kept going to the door, so I took her out and she did her business and wanted to come right back in. So I think she now understands and has not had an accident since. She has finally made the connection that she is to do her business outside. Yeaaaa!

Tried to brush her teeth today and she just won’t let me do it. So it may be that she is just one of those Grey’s that will not let you brush her teeth. She will let me look at her teeth but not brush them. The good thing is she will chew on a bone.

Looks like Snickers will be heading to her new home next Saturday. They have a nice big fenced in yard and a puppy pal for her to play with. She will leave us next Saturday. We will wish her well in her new home. I will miss my fun walking companion and her energy.

February 9, 2012

Snickers will be leaving us in a few days to go to her new foster home. The folks are fostering her with intentions of adopting. We hope it works out. She is a great little girl. We love her and loved watching her grow in her retirement. She really does like her walks and appears to be house broken. She gets a little antsy when she needs to go out so you kind of have to pay attention to her. The other day I had Snickers out in the yard and when she was ready to come in Tari, our grey, decided that she wanted to go out. There they were out in the yard together for the first time and they really got a long well. What a sight to see the two greys running together! Tari in the lead the whole time but then she has such long legs and she was a good racer for 3 years. Here is a picture of the two of them together! Fostering is such a nice experience and yes it is a lot of work, but is very rewarding. I am going to miss Snickers, my greatest concern is that she has a good home and is happy. I think she is going to love being around the children. This is what allows me to let her go. I’ve written up the paper for the new owners that gives them and overview of her little quirks... such as, she daily ritual with her stuffed toys. Each night I put the toys in the basket that is in the living room and each day, throughout the day, Snickers takes them out and plays with them in the bed room.

January 21, 2012

Snickers is showing the real signs of a greyhound. She found all of Tari's soft and cuddly toys and has taken them to "her Spot" to play with them. It is so much fun to watch her toss them around and pounce n them. Greys sure do love their soft toys.

She is not totally house broken yet. We have ad a few accidents so we continue to keep and eye on her. Last night we had snow followed by some light rain which made the surface of the snow rather crunchy. Neither dog likes the feel of the ice under their feet. Snickers walked carefully over the ice and snow and finally did her business and was happy to get back into a warm house and eat her breakfast.

We do not have a problem with her going into her crate. She loves it and now understand the command "in" and goes right in to recieve her treat. She learned this rather quickley. I'm sure the reward of a treat helped.

January 18,, 2012

It has been a few days since I reported how Snickers is doing. Well, a lot has happened in these past couple of days. She is a happy and pleasant girl. She is now more comfortable in her surroundings and is eating as most Greys do… that is eating quickly and everything in her dish, and if there is anything left over in Tari’s dish she finishes that as well. Tari doesn’t seem to mind. She pays no mind to Guinn the cat, most of the time. But occasionally will chase her but not in an aggressive way, just curious. Today they were both lying in the same room facing one another, as cool as could be.
We did a “Meet and Greet” at Petco on Saturday, and all went well until the very end. Snickers is comfortable around children and approaches everyone. She is a real lover of people. She acted like the official greeter at Petco. At the end of the day though, a puppy came up behind Snickers and spooked her. Since that time she has been showing a fear of other dogs. She and Tari are still ok. So we need to address this ASAP. I have taken her out for walks prior to this incident and she was fine with other dogs. Now she is cowering when she sees another dog. I have a friend who walks her dog past my house and am trying to be sure that she is outside when this dog walks by so she can see that there is no harm. I have called for professional help as we do not want this to be ingrained in her. I am hoping it will get a little warmer today so I can take her for a walk where we have been before, where we have encountered other dogs and she was not frighten. I am hoping that she will not show any fears with those dogs. We’ll see.

GOOD NEWS! I took Snickers out for a walk and we walked by two dogs with no incidences! Both were barking and coming toward her. One stopped on its property line, the other was restrained on a leash. So it may be wherever she sees dogs in front of our house. When the weather warms to a point that i can take her else where to see what her reactions are we will be able to assess what the situation is. However, it is good to know that she is not fearful of all dogs. The problem may not be as great as I thought it was. Thanks goodness.

Snickers - Day 4

Snickers is very curious. She wanders around the house looking and sniffing at everything. I caught her tugging on a rug here, a quilt there, a dresser scarf and later in the day she pulled her quilt out of her box. I caught her doing these things and corrected her each time. She gave us the impression that she wanted to gnaw on something so we gave her a raw hide bone; this satisfied her. She has a gentle mouth and is not aggressive at all. She is not even an aggressive eater. It takes her sometime to decide if she really wants to eat. She will take a bit here and there then finally will eat most of what is in her bowl.
Loves her crate! We are allowing her to stay out of her crate for most of the day today to see how she does. We leave the door open and when she is tired she goes in there for a nap. We do not even close the door! I would highly recommend that she continues to be crated as she is comfortable and secure here. We went for another walk this afternoon and she has started to relieve herself in the street rather than the grass. I do not know why; but at least she doesn’t do this in the house. All is going well and it seems that Tari is ok with this too. They have not had any scrapes since the other day. Snickers got the hint that Tari is not the playful type. It has been so much fun watching her personality come out. She is doing many of the things our first greyhound, Isis, did at this age.

Snickers - day 3

It was really cold this morning, so I put Snicker’s coat on before taking her out. When we went out I kept hearing a low rumbling sound only to realize that it was her teeth chattering. Poor baby was cold even with her coat on. But the problem was she would not go to the bathroom. So I took her coat off, she went and then we came right in. There were a couple of nice surprises today and those were:
- She does the stairs without a problem,
- She does not have a problem walking on wood floors (Tari does so we have rugs throughout the first floor of the house.) Snickers doesn’t even use them.
- She is cat friendly. She went nose to nose with Guinn our cat, and didn’t do a thing. Guinn on the other hand gave her a warning hiss and Snickers walked away.
- She is a kisser
- She has not tried to get on any furniture…yet!
- She has not counter surfed in the kitchen …yet!
- And so far no accidents in the house
We sent more time outside today and we had her out of her crate for a longer period of time and gave her some toys to play with. She is a happy little girl. We do expect to see some additional changes as she get more comfortable with her surrounding. We’ll keep you posted.

Snickers - day 2

Some better pictures of Snickers...

Snickers had a good night’s sleep and as expected we started to see her true personality. She is quite playful and a very happy little girl. To start with we did the stairs in the back yard. She did them both up and down without a problem. I also took her on my usual 45 minute walk and not only was she able to do it; she is a good walker and stays with you without having to stop frequently. She and Tari are getting along well. We still keep the muzzles on them when they are together... just in case Tari gets a little jealous and decides to snap. So far this has not been an issue. She is playful and has been trying to get Tari to play in the house; Tari wants no part if it. It kind of shows you the difference between a 2 ½ year old and a 7 ½ year old dog. We took Snickers outside in our fenced in yard a couple of times today and let her loose to see what she would do. Surprisingly she wants to stay near while at the same time did a little exploring. The nice thing is she does know her name and responses accordingly. She also understands the word “No” even though we have not had to use it very often. So far no accidents in the house and this probably because we are rather diligent in taking her outside frequently and praising her when she does do her business outside. Within the next few days we will allow her to roam the house for longer periods of time and watch her closely to see if she really is house broken.

Meet Snickers

Today, we got our first foster Greyhound. Her name is Snickers and she is a 2 ½ year old small red brindle. She arrived around 10:15 am. I just knew she was going to be a sweet girl when she started wagging her tail as I spoke to her through the window of the van she arrived in. When she greeted us, my husband, Fred and I for the first time, she was not shy. She took to him immediately. Today is a transition day for Snickers, everything will be so new for her. Once she seemed a little comfortable we brought Tari, our 7 ½ year old Grey which we adopted two years ago, out to meet her. Both were muzzled, as you do not know what might happen when dogs first meet. All went very well. They seemed good with one another. Fred then took them for a short walk while Camille went over the instructions and necessary paper work with me. Fred also tried to see if Snickers would go down stairs in our back yard. She did, but had to come back up on the grass. This is a good start. Our initial assessment is that she is going to be easy to train. She is a good walker and is good on the leash. If it is warm tomorrow, I will try to take my 45 minute walk with her. We’ll see what happens. Here is the picture of her that we got from the track kennel. We’ll take pictures tomorrow. She needs her rest after the long trip she had last night. She is much prettier in person. Hopefully tomorrow's pictures will show how pretty she really is. Sleep well Snickers, today is just the beginning of your wonderful new life.