Rehoming our dogs

Crisp_£_note

catkins wrote: »

I probably know over 30 greyhound or greyhound cross owners and quite a few of them have more than 1. I would say only about a third of them have dogs than can be let offlead (some of the people who have more than 1 dog can't let all of them off). Some of the others can only let their dogs offlead in a totally secure field and not everyone has one of those nearby. There are several reasons the dogs can't be let off - no recall, dogs will run off, dogs will chase and often try and kill other creatures (rabbits, cats, squirrels etc) or even just that some of the dogs will just run mindlessly and could run into something and injure or even kill themselves. I know of a couple of dogs who ran into trees at full pelt and died.

Thank you for your supportive post. We do try to care for others safety as well as our own and be a responsible dog owner.
We had to rehome our cat (mother in law took it in) shortly after taking in the Greyhound as it kept getting chased which if it were my decision I would, previously also explained, have kept the cat and rehomed the Greyhound X but even then we tried to do our best. Our Greyhound has only just chased away a squirrel in the garden as I post!

Crisp_£_note

tea_lover wrote: »

Based on what? Would be interesting to know why you didn't even try.

Based on the information we were given when chatting to the behaviourist before signing up she said the vets advice was sufficient to be going on with if we couldn't fund her as it wasnt going to be a one visit fix. The insurance wont cover her fees and the vets wont accept the friend we have who is a behaviourist as she doesnt have vet approval qualifications. The rest of the advice we have found out from doggy friends which we have tried for free. Good advice though is rarely free these days.

The questionn we asked ourselves was do we continue with what knowledge we have or assume it useless and raise the funds and hope that works better? The situation is now we have no time to wait. We did what was best with what we have.

Stnaptol

Having read through the whole post, I think the best thing to do would be to rehome both dogs and get a cat, they don't require walking, huge amounts of space and are much less fussy about sharing food/raiding bins. Plus it is very tricky to badly train a cat.

Your dogs need more exercise and you can't provide it, you either need to pay a dog walker to exercise them as needed or work out a way you can exercise them if you want to keep them.

In regards to the feed issues. Give put them in different rooms with the doors shut, not a baby gate, a shut door. Time them for 10 mins. If they don't eat the food, remove it. They will soon learn to concentrate on eating and not fighting.

I would also seek the advise of a trainer, I have had trainers call to my house my when my dog was younger (he's my first dog, I wanted some good advice) and it was around £30 an hour.

Stnaptol

Crisp_£_note wrote: »

To put this into some kind of perspective our dogs are like our children as we are unable to conceive. Yes we know they are dogs and not humans and so that is how we see and treat them with the respect to be dogs. So asking us to choose who we 'throw out' and who 'stays with us' is almost unnacceptable behaviour.

If you are going to treat them like children, invest some time and money in training them to be good citizens, not only that but fulfilling their basic need to be exercised.

Crisp_£_note

Given a chance to update the situation I would like to point out that it was some days ago I posted the other post in desparation.

The reason for the string of replies (not excuses) was to answer individual questions raised since I originally posted. There were over 40 responses upon logging in earlier so this seemed the simplest way.

We have followed a lot of advice from previous threads:

Establishing a routine, basic training, playtime rules, garden habbits. Regular exercise wet / winter day indoor exercise, stimulating the mind activity, indoor wear out, bed time routine, separation at mealtimes, separate area for dogs and us for some time out, curbing noise nuisance, muzzling, feet nipping, herding, separation anxiety, food and treats and very basic training commands to name a few! Sometimes its hard when we dont work from the same book but we are getting there.

Thank you to all those who have helped with advice and also to those who arnt on this forum who have helped as well.

We have consulted a few new doggy friends who have put us in contact with people who can help. I am seeing one later this week who is coming to see how she can help. If she cannot she can foster our dog or dogs long-term or just short term for some respite and intensive training - FREE! No she isn't qualified or vet checked /approved but she does already own several Greyhounds and Lurchers always has had dogs and horses and loves animals for their own wellbeing standard and understands the issues we maybe facing right now.
She has also mentioned she knows someone else who retrains bad behaviour using animal therapy (T-Touch or something?) and also rehabilitation dogs (pack teaching?) which we may wish to think about later on.
We are also searching for a secured field or arena within driving distance to let them run.
Once the agressive behaviour improves we will look for a regular dog walker / trainer.

We certainly wont give up on the dogs and I am considering therapy myself for my fear issue if the Dr will help.

Being slow mobility also exasperates the fear naturally.

First things first though a check up at the vets. To look at the links provided earlier and maybe a trip to the library next week.

At least now we have a plan coming together.
Thank you.

pelirocco

sulkisu wrote: »

So breaking it down, you have two large dogs of breeds which generally require a lot of space and plenty of exercise. You live in a small bungalow and due to a disability, you are unable to exercise them sufficiently. Even without the aggression and other 'issues', this looks like a very poor pet/owner match. It's a shame that you were not advised before taking these two dogs in. Sadly I don't think that perseverance is the answer - I wish you luck with rehoming them, but as another poster said, I don't see a happy ending here.

You of course know what their situation was when they took on the dogs ?, things change , people circumstances change, and from the little i have read of the posts it appears the dogs behaviour has changed too .

As much as i love my dog , if his behaviour changed and he was aggressive enough to scare me , and i couldnt / wouldnt pass him on to someone else and risk being attacked I would have him put to sleep

catkins

sulkisu wrote: »

So breaking it down, you have two large dogs of breeds which generally require a lot of space and plenty of exercise. You live in a small bungalow and due to a disability, you are unable to exercise them sufficiently. Even without the aggression and other 'issues', this looks like a very poor pet/owner match. It's a shame that you were not advised before taking these two dogs in. Sadly I don't think that perseverance is the answer - I wish you luck with rehoming them, but as another poster said, I don't see a happy ending here.

Lots of greyhounds do not want or need a lot of exercise. Both of these dogs are getting on in age now so neither of them may want a lot of exercise.


I don't see that they are breeds that need a lot of space. I know lots of people with greyhounds, lurchers, greyhound crosses etc and most of them live in pretty small houses. One friend has a greyhound/lurcher cross and a saluki/lurcher cross and lives in a very tiny 1 bed house and has no problems.


For all we know the OP could have lived in a mansion when they first got the dogs. As far as I know we also do not know if they were suffering a disability when they first got the dogs. Things happen in people's lives but that doesn't necessarily mean they should be getting rid of their pets particularly when the rescues are overflowing

Tiddlywinks

Crisp_£_note wrote: »

As for all bills (including Sky and holidays (really?! especially without a minder who will take our 2 and not wanting to put mother in law in danger either despite her happy to be a sitter)) technically is my husband who funds these and I have little choice. I am not just moving it on. The dog is controlling me so maybe I should move out and abandon it even more?!

I do what I can with that which I have. Little is better than nothing at all.

Oh come on... your excuse for not going to a behaviourist is money yet you have Sky and have recently been on holiday. Why don't YOU have a choice?

I feel sorry for those dogs as they are clearly - from all you've described in your various threads over the years - living in a less than suitable environment.

You owe it to them to treat them properly... they are living things not just accessories that you get to change when they don't match your lifestyle.

How many excuses are you going to come up with?

suse*

My dog is a rescue and had lots of problems so I had to go through lots of training and behaviourist etc etc. One thing you might be able to do is check the food you're feeding them. If you feed dogs food with lots of enumbers / colouring etc it can make them change behaviour a bit.

I noticed a real difference in my dog once I changed her to a hypoalerginic food without the nasties in. She now has skinners salmon and rice at the moment and is a lot calmer in herself.

It might just be worth checking the ingredients of what you're feeding your two, as something like just changing food might help calm them both, and make your other training work better too.

Also are you claming all the benifits you can for your disability as you might be able to get PIP or something to help cover the cost of a dog walker.

rising_from_the_ashes

Crisp_£_note wrote: »

We go a quote for initial consultation with 1 follow up call, however I forget right now how much it was but know it was not cheap around £100. Husband discussed this and decided we were not likely to get much assistance from them to even alleviate the issue let alone solve it.

Sorry but how on earth can you know that if you haven't tried


Maisie is a predatory chaser - walks were awful when she came (couldn't let her off lead or she was off & I certainly couldn't walk her far enough on lead to replicate an hour+ off lead exercise x 2 / day)


It took ONE session with someone to watch how she behaved when she was out & suggest several things I could try


You know what ..... one of them worked!


She's obviously not cured (as it can't be) and I do need to be vigilant when we're out & there are certain places we can't walk or it's a disaster BUT we have a solution that works and she gets enough exercise and enjoys it - and I'm not in tears & exhausted at the end of every walk

Crisp_£_note wrote: »

Only solution I have found under such circumstances is to stay separated as long as possible. There is no going into Lurcher X domain to retrieve half eaten bowl. I can only command he go into the garden from a safe distance behind the gate and ask him to fetch a toy - thus distraction technique should the food bowl be empty.

If that's what needs to be done, so be it!

Crisp_£_note wrote: »

I am unable to walk them any more due to a disability. I can just about manage to play ball with them in the back garden.

Mother in law walks them when she can (but this has problems of thier own) husband walks them when he is able

Who walks them the rest of the time?


Hubby - don't see any mention of him doing it?


Sorry but dogs need regular exercise - if no-one can do it that day, you need to get a dog walker




Re feeding - dogs do not need fed x 3 each day. Most are fed x 2 / day and some people only feed once / day.


They can be fed before hubby leaves & when he gets back if him being there makes such a big difference




Where did the dogs come from / how did you end up with them?


TBH I'm actually pretty horrified you got dogs that are known for chasing prey when you already had a cat!


Were they cat tested before you got them?




Also - as I said earlier, if you'd stuck a little money aside each week / month since you started having problems - you'd have enough for at least the initial consult with a behaviourist