I need some advice regarding my dog.

[mrs_tommo22]

Hi, too keep it short and simple ive had dogs all my life but mia does throw me!

I think shes been abused, shes so painfully shy and nervous its heartbreaking to watch, she really is a sweetiepie.
Yesterday a bad habit came to light, she was laying on my bed!so i told her to get off and there was no recognition of the command - great. So i motioned for her to get down and repeated get off, nothing.
So in the end i got hold of her coller and pulled her off and she completely froze and was frightened by it - she really is painfully nervous at times. And i felt gutted i had frightened her. But what can i do - i dont want her thinking she can get away with things and i dont want to upset her either.

Also she is still on trial and they gave to me on trial - in season! so im not seeing hr best side as well as shes a bit down from it all.

Though when the trial is up, were keeping her. Shes very sweet and gentle, excellent with the kids, shes house trained and we know we can make a differnce to her as its not fair that shes being put on trial in all hese different homes as thats defintely making her nervous too.

Also when shes homed with us we know that they greyhound trust will pay for her to be spayed, vacinnations, flea and wormtreatment. so thats all good.

But what can i do with her manners as there terrible, can i take a gently approch to her as shes nervous?

 

[kazlin]

Does she like having a brush? That would be one way of her getting used to physical contact from you. Also some basic training maybe with a doggy treat and lots of fuss after. They say that a disciplined dog is a loved dog

 

[mrs_tommo22]

Apperently she does like having a brush so I can do that. Were being firm with her and following through but its trying too do it without scaring the bejesus out of her!

 

[daftscotslass]

About the bed thing - bribery! Offer her something she likes and call her or tell her "off" (not tell her off as in give her a row lol) in a nice but firm voice. like kazlin says make a fuss of her if she does get off and she'll soon associate it with a treat.

She sounds like a lovely dog, well done for taking her

 

[mrs_tommo22]

Funny you say bribery! I just caught her doing it again lol and this time i came back with cheese! omg ive never seen her fly off the bed so quickly!!!!!!

 

[LilysMummy]

Sally is the same. Somebody somewhere has been so horrible to her. She is petrified of feet - if you lift them by her so somebody has kick the shit out of her She will get better, atm the cling to you because they are loving the attention. TBH Sally is spoilt because she suffered 6yrs of abuse she deserves a bit of loving. She wouldnt eat when we first got her because she was so confused. Oh and had never seen stairs before so that was fun lol. My dad used to have to carry her up and dpwn the stairs for the first week. She will get better, and if cheese helps lol keep using that.

P.S Sally hates anybody tugginf her collar it doesnt do a thing lol maybe its just a greyhound trait?

 

[mrs_tommo22]

Sally is the same. Somebody somewhere has been so horrible to her. She is petrified of feet - if you lift them by her so somebody has kick the sh*t out of her She will get better, atm the cling to you because they are loving the attention. TBH Sally is spoilt because she suffered 6yrs of abuse she deserves a bit of loving. She wouldnt eat when we first got her because she was so confused. Oh and had never seen stairs before so that was fun lol. My dad used to have to carry her up and dpwn the stairs for the first week. She will get better, and if cheese helps lol keep using that.

P.S Sally hates anybody tugginf her collar it doesnt do a thing lol maybe its just a greyhound trait?

Aww thanks for that lilysmummy, she has been abused. They say they have good lifes in kennels. Its bullshit. I have been spoiling Mia loads! but we love her so much we cant but not!

Im going to carry on with the bribary of cheese until she learns - but shes pretty stubborn at times!

Shes defintely clingy at the moment, but then were only on day 4 of her being here. But like i said above im keeping her come high or hell water. Shes wonderful and if she comes out of her shell she will be lots happier and i want her to be confident and happy. I hate watching her move around the house slowly and watching everyones every move.

Hoping with patiance and love she will be a different dog next year.

 

[LilysMummy]

When you first see her play omg it brought a teat to my eye! I know that sounds really stupid but knowing what she has been though and then to see her jumping up and down so happy was wonderful. It took about 5 weeks for her to do that but it was all in her own time
When we got Sally all her back half was yellow where she had been made to sit in her own wee it was so horrible. I know yeah they say the kennels were nice but no way. The kennels we got her from was nice but no way were they before that.
Have you got her from RGT?

 

[Sherlock]

Awww sounds like you are going to have a lovely dog there regardless.

I had a rescue dog who had been abused by his previous owner. So badly it needed a court case and he was banned from keeping dogs for 10 years. I'll spare you the details but when I bought Bowie home he had far more angst than even the rescue centre realised. I could not get him to go in the kitchen for months and the sound of a saucepan or frying pan being gotten out would send him hiding. Anything spitting on the hob also had him cowering.

Anyways, he was the sweetest most loyal dog anyone could wish for. He spent the remaining 10 years of his life by my side more or less.

I had to take baby steps with him. Things like his collar were off limits till I had really built up trust with him. Mind you I never have mine in their coller if in the house. If I needed to move him I would do so by picking him up. Greyhounds are soft things and although big and leggy if you wanted to you could lift her off, at least to get her feet round and poke her off the bed gently. We had a lurcher we used to do that with. Just loved being on the bed and would not move for anyone, so I used to slide her off it Even though she knew the command to get down she would not. Wilful thing and had selective hearing

I'd try a treat and command as you offer it perhaps. Or lift/slide her off. Or the other one is to not let her on the bed but to teach her to lie alongside on a blanket or some such. That would be my preference for a large dog tbh. They are happy so long as they are with you in the room. Or simply get up and call her to follow you. Use a command you know she knows and walk out the room. Make a bit of a game of it and be happy and she should respond better. Hopefully she will prefer to be with you than on the bed. Do that a few times and then slowly start introducing another command to replace it. They are bright, she should latch on.

The softly softly apporach is good with greyhounds and whippets. They are quite sensitve natured and do react well to positive handling. We have a whippet who we got at 6 months old. He's coming along a treat but is nervous and still has his dippy spells. But he is quick to learn and eager to please. Love him to bits and he really is part of the family.

 

[mrs_tommo22]

Awww sounds like you are going to have a lovely dog there regardless.

I had a rescue dog who had been abused by his previous owner. So badly it needed a court case and he was banned from keeping dogs for 10 years. I'll spare you the details but when I bought Bowie home he had far more angst than even the rescue centre realised. I could not get him to go in the kitchen for months and the sound of a saucepan or frying pan being gotten out would send him hiding. Anything spitting on the hob also had him cowering.


Anyways, he was the sweetest most loyal dog anyone could wish for. He spent the remaining 10 years of his life by my side more or less.

.

Aww sherlock that had me in tears, he sounded like he was a wonderful dog and even better companion. How anyone can treat animals that way is appalling. Dogs are such wonderful companions.

I had to take baby steps with him. Things like his collar were off limits till I had really built up trust with him. Mind you I never have mine in their coller if in the house. If I needed to move him I would do so by picking him up. Greyhounds are soft things and although big and leggy if you wanted to you could lift her off, at least to get her feet round and poke her off the bed gently. We had a lurcher we used to do that with. Just loved being on the bed and would not move for anyone, so I used to slide her off it Even though she knew the command to get down she would not. Wilful thing and had selective hearing

Yes I can relate to the wilfullness and selective hearing - a little like my children as well! The coller she defintely doesnt like being tugged - so we want to take the gently approch with that - and cheese does it in abundence!!! we had a situation last night with that she didnt want to come in and I did pick her up and lug her in but she went dead weight - she froze and thats something as well we have to work out too.

I'd try a treat and command as you offer it perhaps. Or lift/slide her off. Or the other one is to not let her on the bed but to teach her to lie alongside on a blanket or some such. That would be my preference for a large dog tbh. They are happy so long as they are with you in the room. Or simply get up and call her to follow you. Use a command you know she knows and walk out the room. Make a bit of a game of it and be happy and she should respond better. Hopefully she will prefer to be with you than on the bed. Do that a few times and then slowly start introducing another command to replace it. They are bright, she should latch on.

She has a duvet to lay on in my room at night and has done from the start - i hated the idea of leaving my baby in the kitchen on her own! so shes with us and the back door is left open so se can nip out to the loo. It that regard she is fantastic with toiletting, ive always had to re toilet train dogs in the past.
She does follow me around alot - even too the loo

The softly softly apporach is good with greyhounds and whippets. They are quite sensitve natured and do react well to positive handling. We have a whippet who we got at 6 months old. He's coming along a treat but is nervous and still has his dippy spells. But he is quick to learn and eager to please. Love him to bits and he really is part of the family.

Thanks for the advice though, will take it all on board as shes my firt greyhound and defintely wont be my last now. I think when mias completely settled down and fully trained then in a couple of years when ive moved house etc i will probably have another greyhound or whippet.

 

[Misslarue]

All the advice given sounds good hun. Just wanted to reassure you things will get better. My dog is a rescue dog. She was in a terrible state when we first got her. She was rescued with her brother from appalling mistreatment, it was that bad that her brother died within a few days of being with the RSPCA and thier owners were prosecuted and banned from keeping animals. It took weeks of us visiting her to build up trust before we could take her home. She would wet herself because she was so scared of all people. She would shake, not want to come into our house (she had always been kept in the garden)
But you should see her now! She is a different dog! She's happy and friendly, loves being with people. Shes full of life and such a beautiful dog I would say it took alot of time and patience for us to bring her out of her shell and for her to trust us. But it was totally worth

 

[LisaJ1986]

My mum's dog Billy was like that. Although he was 12 weeks old when we got him. He'd been beaten, burnt, god knows what else. He was badly scarred and didn't take very to people stood up next to him as you tower him too much. To make things worse he really wasn't house trained. We had no choice but take the soft yet bribery approach. He was such a naughty pup. He ate mattresses, stairs, bannisters, wall units, an entire computer room was destroyed, back seats of a car! We took it one step at at time and now he's brilliant. After almost 10 years he's only just coping being around other men. He used to hide.

It does take time but you do normally get there in the end.

 

[LaineyG]

My two are both rescues too!

Mack was so badly abused and yet is now such a lovely loyal boy. Molly was spoilt rotten (litteraly, we almost had to roll her into the house when we got her as she was sooooooo fat!) and she has more behavioural issues than Mack!

You might have already done this, but have you had her hearing checked?

It might explain the ignoring you (although I know that selective deafness is a trait in our cannine friends!) and the jumpiness when you touch her?

Just a thought!

 

[mrs_tommo22]

Well when shes ours offcially I will take her to my vet for a check up and have her ears checked. The poor thing has lots of things that need doing doing - she will hate me lol!

Shes been good as gold today apart from jumping thr fence into the neighbours garden - twice! took her out for a walk good as gold, she really enjoyed it and came back puffed and slept! is sleeping next to lappy now and giving me the occasional lick bless her. She stalks me when i open the fridge, she knows she as cheese pieces in there

Did some basic training while i was out with her and she responded okish too it, shes going to take some work

 

[Snuggle]

You've been given some great advice Sarah and Mia sounds like a sweetheart Treats are always the best way to train, as soon as they have did something good reward it with a treat and loads of fuss and they learn that this is a good thing to do. Dogs are always eager to please their owners. Its a shame she gets frightened, it makes me so upset that dogs can be scared because of past abuse
Sounds like you're doing fab with her and love her loads already

 

[mrs_tommo22]

You've been given some great advice Sarah and Mia sounds like a sweetheart Treats are always the best way to train, as soon as they have did something good reward it with a treat and loads of fuss and they learn that this is a good thing to do. Dogs are always eager to please their owners. Its a shame she gets frightened, it makes me so upset that dogs can be scared because of past abuse
Sounds like you're doing fab with her and love her loads already

In love - yes! shes a poppet!

Did some more basic training in the garden earlier with the cheese- with regards to her ignoring me previously, she was very good listening earlier, i called her while ratting the cheese pot and she came straight back! so piece of cheese and one happy puppy lol!

She is very eager to please and all we can do is reward her good behaviour. Ive had real sucesses with other rescue dogs ive owned so im hoping she will follow the same road. Im glad i got a young bitch though this time as before ive picked up older dogs and only had them a while before they have died being oaps!

Heres to dog training!

Hasnt left my side this evening - awwwww!!!

God i sound like a nutjob.

 

[ShineyHappyPeople]

What happenes these people that abuse animals?? Do they not go to jail?

Not being able to keep a dog for 10 years doesn't seem like punishment for a dog abuser..

 

[mrs_tommo22]

They need shooting!

 

[LilysMummy]

I know its s heartbreaking seeing the dogs Its horrible when we find something else that ally is scared of. I know greyhounds are bloody soft and big babies but somethings you can see just trigger something horrible that she used to happen to her

 

[Sherlock]

Sounds like things are going well.

Can I just offer one piece of advice/info about treats. Use some proper dog ones. Cheese is bad for dogs and is like us eating a McD's burger each time they have a little lump. Won't make her ill per se but isn't a natural dog food and better avoided. Proper dog treats are better all round. We use James Wellbeloved treats for Eric and he loves them.