Post by Heather (& KC) on Dec 27, 2015 12:15:19 GMT -5
I wanted to share our journey and challenges with Bruce. He's now been home a year and I have to say, it was touch and go on whether we would be able to keep him. Bruce is our third greyhound and admittedly we had such easy integration with our first two that when it came time to introduce Bruce to my parents and their Westie, we completely mishandled it. Bruce lunged for the Westie, Kaylie. Kaylie got vicious, which never happens. We spent the rest of the night with one of them in a crate and if Bruce came near Kaylie's crate, she went crazy. It was horrible as we spend a lot of time with my parents at their cottage. We wondered if we'd have to return him. It was still very early (2-3 weeks) but it was coming up to Christmas and there were a lot of hounds at the kennel and I didn't want to send him back. There was something about this dog that made us want to try again. While walking him he went crazy at a bigger dog that was behind a fence.
We took Kaylie and Bruce to a personal training session and successfully introduced them. Bruce was good with Kaylie although it still felt like he was overly interested. LIke prey. Same reaction with squirrels. We went back to my parent's place and while they co-existed, I still felt like Bruce was too interested and focused on the small dog. The trainer had given us suggestions for introductions to other dogs and we had a semi successful one on a walk. Then came Christmas Eve last year and he grabbed a puppy. We were devastated. The puppy was unharmed.
We were starting to get attached to this guy. Thunder (our other grey) had a bad injury while they were playing and we had to have a toe amputated. So we delayed further formal training but spring and cottage season were coming. We took him to a few greyhound runs where there are other breeds on the other side of the fence. We went for another 1:1 session and it went well. Still not confident or comfortable we enrolled in obedience training. More for socialization than training. There were 2 other students, both small enough to walk under Bruce. The trainer even brought in another small fluffy white dog for intro. Then we brought Kaylie in again. No issues.
Armed with a gentle leader for walking (alternative to a collar and one that redirects a nose/mouth), we tentatively went to the cottage. Muzzle in hand. By this time we were very attached to this amazing clown. If we had to, we'd board him when we went to the cottage. Everything went well.
It is truly incredible how great he is now. He's not interested in other dogs in the same way. We're very grateful that we had the opportunity to work with him. And ever grateful to the trainer who took our case when others wouldn't. While this won't be the solution for everyone, and some high prey dogs will never change, there are cases where the dog just needs to learn that these other animals are dogs too. I hope this experience helps others in the future. I know I scoured the boards trying to see if this was something we could overcome. Be very careful and diligent but try supervised introductions. Get a good trainer. And, lesson learned for us do introductions the way they tell you to in the greyhound books!!!!
We took Kaylie and Bruce to a personal training session and successfully introduced them. Bruce was good with Kaylie although it still felt like he was overly interested. LIke prey. Same reaction with squirrels. We went back to my parent's place and while they co-existed, I still felt like Bruce was too interested and focused on the small dog. The trainer had given us suggestions for introductions to other dogs and we had a semi successful one on a walk. Then came Christmas Eve last year and he grabbed a puppy. We were devastated. The puppy was unharmed.
We were starting to get attached to this guy. Thunder (our other grey) had a bad injury while they were playing and we had to have a toe amputated. So we delayed further formal training but spring and cottage season were coming. We took him to a few greyhound runs where there are other breeds on the other side of the fence. We went for another 1:1 session and it went well. Still not confident or comfortable we enrolled in obedience training. More for socialization than training. There were 2 other students, both small enough to walk under Bruce. The trainer even brought in another small fluffy white dog for intro. Then we brought Kaylie in again. No issues.
Armed with a gentle leader for walking (alternative to a collar and one that redirects a nose/mouth), we tentatively went to the cottage. Muzzle in hand. By this time we were very attached to this amazing clown. If we had to, we'd board him when we went to the cottage. Everything went well.
It is truly incredible how great he is now. He's not interested in other dogs in the same way. We're very grateful that we had the opportunity to work with him. And ever grateful to the trainer who took our case when others wouldn't. While this won't be the solution for everyone, and some high prey dogs will never change, there are cases where the dog just needs to learn that these other animals are dogs too. I hope this experience helps others in the future. I know I scoured the boards trying to see if this was something we could overcome. Be very careful and diligent but try supervised introductions. Get a good trainer. And, lesson learned for us do introductions the way they tell you to in the greyhound books!!!!