Thinking about adopting a greyhound

tylersbabe

Hi just thought I would let all those who offered great advice and support know. I am having to let Millie go back to the greyhound rescue.

We went to the vets today and the lovely lady vet advised this was one of the worst cases of seperation anxiety that she had seen for a long time. In fact she had only seen one other dog this bad and they were a collie, who ended up with a family who were there 24/7. Going onto advise medication could help but only after many weeks and the behavioural intervention could take years not not months to help, indeed may never help due to severity of anxiety.

Well I live on my own with only mum for support and I have to work, Millie would invariably be on her own for short periods , and I do not agree with a dog being on medication just because they are in the wrong environment.

I feel horrible now, so am off to cry even more.

I pray this beautiful little girl gets the family she deserves I am just sorry it is not me.

foreign_correspondent

how sad for you and for Millie, but unless she can be helped to cope with this soon I think you are doing the best thing - it is such a shame, but I guess she may just have to be with someone who is around more, and you need a doggo who is happy to be left alone for a little time.

Do you feel you have tried everything you can? I have heard DAP diffusers can be handy but I have no personal experience of seperation anxiety yself so cannot advise more.

tylersbabe

foreign_correspondent wrote: »

how sad for you and for Millie, but unless she can be helped to cope with this soon I think you are doing the best thing - it is such a shame, but I guess she may just have to be with someone who is around more, and you need a doggo who is happy to be left alone for a little time.

Do you feel you have tried everything you can? I have heard DAP diffusers can be handy but I have no personal experience of seperation anxiety yself so cannot advise more.

Vet said due to severity DAP would not work have tried herbal stuff with no affect. The problem is the distress caused for Millie. Have spoken to rescue and they feel she would be better with an easy going male dog to learn from, and minimise anxiety. There is a bit of a mixed history for this girl and our experiences do not match up to the information impareted about her. The rescue took information imparted on trust (as you would) and thought she would manage as an only dog, unfortunatally it is not working out, to the detriment of Millie, if you saw how upset she gets it is truley distressing for her.

I do feel very guilty about this but we are the wrong family and by trying to be the right family (which I truly wish we were) I am worried that she will miss the real right family for her, and a future of true happiness which she deserves.

Ohhhhhh this is not good no more doggies for me for a while I think.

MrsTinks

Tylersbabe if you do decide not to carry on with Millie then have a think about fostering... This will enable you to "testdrive" dogs and then if they are not right for you then at least they will be far better placed to find the right home based on your observations and hopefully the next home will be their forever home
There are so many greyhounds out there that need homes... But many need to be assessed first and have some chill out time before being placed
Kira (not a greyhound as clearly shown in my avatar LOL) had huge anxiety issues too - she destroyed large parts of the house when left alone but we got there in the end. Main tool was a crate - it became her "safe" place - she slept in it, ate in it and hid stuff in it (ok she wasn't supposed to...). Kongs stuffed with food when we left made us leaving a positive experience and never making a fuss of her when we got back meant she soon just accepted that going was cool and coming home was actually dull and at least when we were out she could catch up on some z's and bouncy 3 times as much later!
Patience and not letting her think that she was right to be so worried when we left eventually cracked it... now she couldn't care less if we leave the house... *sigh*

tealady

Hi Tylersbabe. Look at it this way, you have helped Millie by being able to give the rescue centre valuable information which will help her and any new owners. Unfortunately sometimes with the best will in the world a home just isn't right for that particular dog. I hope one comes your way soon who is a match made in heaven.

user55

Bring a responsible dog owner means sometimes having to make hard decisions, and I appluad your courage in making the right one for Millie. I know you feel as though you have failed her, but you haven't at all. To keep going despite her stress would be more of a failure at the end of the day.

You have given her a fair go at a good home, and you have advanced the information available on her so that her next home is more likely to be suitable. So well done.

There is a perfect dog for you out there. I can highly recommend laid back males

Scarlet_Newcastle

Tylersbabe

I rehomed a one year old greyhound in May, she howled constantly even when we were in. The neighbours complained and we had no sleep.

I felt exhausted because we couldn't sleep and had to watch her constantly so that she didn't pee in the house. To start with she would even do this in front of us!

Just when we thought things were getting better, we would come home and she would have destroyed something or be howling. And either me or my husband would decide it was enough and say we would have to return her to the rescue centre. We often thought we should have got a older dog.

She still isn't perfect, just the other day she ate a shoe. Ok, partly my fault because I left it out. But you learn not to do this.

But the majority of the time she is brilliant and I love her so much. She got used to being left, although a change of routing at home means we now have a dog walker.

Please don't think I am judging you in anyway, I just wanted to tell you me story so you knew that it does get easier.

Good luck what ever you decide to do.

Tarry

I am sorry to hear that it didn't work out

moomin5

I'm really sorry to hear it didn't work out with Millie, I can imagine you will be very sad to return her after getting to know her.

It sounds like Millie needs either doggy company to make her feel more confident about being left or someone whose home more that has the time to help her cope with periods of being left. Thats not a failure on your part and its not always easy to tell which dogs will be ok as lone dogs. There will be another home out there suitable for Millie and a hound that will be happy in your home too, so don't give up.

Personally i probably would use the anti-anxiety medication on my dog if necessary as i have had to for myself in the past, with great results. Anxiety is a pain in the butt as it makes you feel physically ill as well as panicky/terrified, therefore you then get stressed when faced with the same situation again as you remember that it made you feel unwell/scared. In the end you get more stressed and try to avoid those situations in future. Its a difficult cycle to break and the medication reduces the anxious feelings so that rather than freaking out, you stay at a level of calmness that allows you to get through scary situation rationally. Eventually you learn that actually that situation was ok and your no longer scared After a while you don't need the meds anymore as you have learn't that you can cope in the scary situations, so naturally will not get anxious about them.

When we first adopted Hector & Throp we had a few issues but after a month somehow all the problems resolved themselves and we'd all managed to fall into a harmonious existance. I think its perhaps a bit like being new parent, it seems hard work at first but everyone adapts and then its all fine. We knew however that it was possible for us to resolve our boy's issues and so stuck with it.

Some greys adapt and settle in easier than others, but i am always amazed by how adaptable they are. I'm not sure i'd cope anywhere near as well with being taken away from living within a big family with constant company, set routine and similar living conditions that i'd known for life and then being transported to say a spaceship with all sorts of new things/sounds/smells and just one/few people for company who'd then go out and leave me alone in the strange place.:eek:

tylersbabe

Well "miss Millie Mops" has gone back *big sigh*, when they picked her up they said she would be better in a larger family where there are more coming and goings and less alone time, or with a relaxed male dog. So she could get used to alone times and used to the fact people do come back at a pace which works for Millie. Rather than the big shock she got from being with a one person family, where inevitably she was alone even for just short periods. Put it this way this little girl deserved a better mom than me, I was wrong for her....

Also on the plus side they already have a family in mind who are looking for a smaller little girl doggie, so hopefully this will work out for Millie.

I still feel blooming awful though:o