Post by whovian on Jan 26, 2014 22:10:49 GMT -5
I seem to have a lot questions today.
I am wondering if any of you have experience with helping a grey learn how to handle slippery floors.
As you may remember, River is recovering from a central metarsal fracture. She will be out of the woods totally for reinjury in March and the healing process is going well.
The phobia of the floors on the other hand...
I've put runners down on the floors in almost the entire house now and River technically has a path everywhere she would want to go. I also bought traction shoes from dogbooties and they've been amazing. We've made a lot of progress on the tile in the last month especially.
Here is the trouble: River's phobia of the floors is preventing her from learning to manage the mats safely now. River frequently gets "stuck" so that she is on one mat and there is an 8 inch gap between her mat and the next one. Even though she could easily step across the gap, she panics. She does a little dance, working herself up, and then catapults herself across the gap. And unfortunately no carpet tape I've found is strong enough to hold a mat in place when all that greyhound muscle and force lands on the end of one. So the carpet slides, and she slides, and her worst fears about the evil slipperiness of floors is confirmed again and again and again. If only she would figure out that jumping doesn't work and try calmly walking across them...
I tried closing all the gaps so the house was solid runner but that just reinforced her idea that carpets were for greyhounds and the rest of the house is for people. It's not a helpful concept when we have to go out in public - like to the vet's. Moreover it's a safety concern in my book. I don't know what I would do with her if the house was burning down - she'd been more afraid of the floors than the fire.
Ultimately I am sure that a year or two from now I will look back at this post and smile, but for now she is very frustrated and I am very sad. In her magic traction shoes she can't really slip, but she can really hurt herself tobogganing down the hallways on the mats. Any ideas on how to teach her (with minimal traumatising) how to approach her fear calmly? How to walk across - instead of launch herself at - the mats?
I've tried leashing her and slowly guiding her across, but that is the quickest way to lose her trust in me. Just wearing the leash makes her try extra hard to please me, which makes her panic (and therefore slip) more. I am not opposed to that method in theory, but I really donโt know how to do it and retain her trust.
I have also tried putting a trail of treats out across the mats and that really helps her gain confidence and move slowly. Until she decides to move fast. It just takes one time, one jump, one slide, and we are set back weeks of confidence building. Am I just not being patient enough? Is this something that will just take a lot of time because she has to figure it out on her own? I try very hard not to react at all when she slips so I am not helping reinforce her fear.
(BTW, for people reading this thread who don't yet know if a greyhound is for them, please don't let this post paint greys the wrong colour. I suspect our case is very unique. River's fracture never set properly and, though there is no x ray evidence from the track in her file, our orthopedic surgeon thinks she was constantly healing and rebreaking her hock from her last race in June until he saw her in September. No one would have known because there was almost no swelling even when it was clearly broken in the x ray. She had almost no activity and was almost never out of her crate until the bone healed at Halloween. June to November is a long time hurting and a long time to develop a fear of hurting. Thankfully the vast majority of greys have an easier start to their retirement. And when she is outside, and the slippery floors are far away, you'd never imagine she'd had such a rough year because she's such a happy, lovable, wonderful dog :-) )
I feel better just having written about this situation, like I can come at it now with a fresh perspective. So thanks for reading my novel, and thanks in advance for any words of wisdom or encouragement the forum might have
I am wondering if any of you have experience with helping a grey learn how to handle slippery floors.
As you may remember, River is recovering from a central metarsal fracture. She will be out of the woods totally for reinjury in March and the healing process is going well.
The phobia of the floors on the other hand...
I've put runners down on the floors in almost the entire house now and River technically has a path everywhere she would want to go. I also bought traction shoes from dogbooties and they've been amazing. We've made a lot of progress on the tile in the last month especially.
Here is the trouble: River's phobia of the floors is preventing her from learning to manage the mats safely now. River frequently gets "stuck" so that she is on one mat and there is an 8 inch gap between her mat and the next one. Even though she could easily step across the gap, she panics. She does a little dance, working herself up, and then catapults herself across the gap. And unfortunately no carpet tape I've found is strong enough to hold a mat in place when all that greyhound muscle and force lands on the end of one. So the carpet slides, and she slides, and her worst fears about the evil slipperiness of floors is confirmed again and again and again. If only she would figure out that jumping doesn't work and try calmly walking across them...
I tried closing all the gaps so the house was solid runner but that just reinforced her idea that carpets were for greyhounds and the rest of the house is for people. It's not a helpful concept when we have to go out in public - like to the vet's. Moreover it's a safety concern in my book. I don't know what I would do with her if the house was burning down - she'd been more afraid of the floors than the fire.
Ultimately I am sure that a year or two from now I will look back at this post and smile, but for now she is very frustrated and I am very sad. In her magic traction shoes she can't really slip, but she can really hurt herself tobogganing down the hallways on the mats. Any ideas on how to teach her (with minimal traumatising) how to approach her fear calmly? How to walk across - instead of launch herself at - the mats?
I've tried leashing her and slowly guiding her across, but that is the quickest way to lose her trust in me. Just wearing the leash makes her try extra hard to please me, which makes her panic (and therefore slip) more. I am not opposed to that method in theory, but I really donโt know how to do it and retain her trust.
I have also tried putting a trail of treats out across the mats and that really helps her gain confidence and move slowly. Until she decides to move fast. It just takes one time, one jump, one slide, and we are set back weeks of confidence building. Am I just not being patient enough? Is this something that will just take a lot of time because she has to figure it out on her own? I try very hard not to react at all when she slips so I am not helping reinforce her fear.
(BTW, for people reading this thread who don't yet know if a greyhound is for them, please don't let this post paint greys the wrong colour. I suspect our case is very unique. River's fracture never set properly and, though there is no x ray evidence from the track in her file, our orthopedic surgeon thinks she was constantly healing and rebreaking her hock from her last race in June until he saw her in September. No one would have known because there was almost no swelling even when it was clearly broken in the x ray. She had almost no activity and was almost never out of her crate until the bone healed at Halloween. June to November is a long time hurting and a long time to develop a fear of hurting. Thankfully the vast majority of greys have an easier start to their retirement. And when she is outside, and the slippery floors are far away, you'd never imagine she'd had such a rough year because she's such a happy, lovable, wonderful dog :-) )
I feel better just having written about this situation, like I can come at it now with a fresh perspective. So thanks for reading my novel, and thanks in advance for any words of wisdom or encouragement the forum might have