Lure Coursing Practice

Otto's family, Joe and Shari, and I took the dogs to their first ASFA lure coursing practice on Sunday April 17th. Shari and I both took pictures so some of these are hers and some are ones I took. The ones of me are all hers and the ones of Moose. She got some great action shots! The dogs all did great too! Miles ran the whole course with enthusiasm and without looking tired. I think it was 860 yards that day.

I played with Photoshop a bit to get this of Miles starting the course

 

This was Otto's very first time chasing a lure since he didn't get to go with Miles to the straight race practice. He ran part of the course then got unsighted and restarted. He caught onto the game quickly and seemed to enjoy it a lot.  I think he is going to be good because he is really agile in spite of his size.  We wrapped both of the pups legs to protect them from the line. I was so glad that we wrapped them in different colors or I wouldn't have known which was which. Otto had the royal blue wraps and Miles wraps were more turquoise.

Moose got to be the test dog and looked a bit like Alice in wonderland the first few times the lure turned. Never saw that happen at the track! The lure operator was really good about getting it way ahead of him before a turn so he had plenty of room to turn. Moose slowed a bit the first few times to figure out where the lure was going then turned and sped up. He did the whole course and didn't seem too tired afterward. Playing with the pups has given him some stamina I guess. 

Moose was quite excited while waiting for another turn. I am lucky he didn't get away from me.

Moose was a lot more excited about catching the plastic bags at the end. Miles just sniffed each one and looked like he was thinking, "All that running and they are JUST plastic trash bags!"

Don't let your greyhound play with plastic bags.

Red Coat in Snow

Miles is pretty tired today after playing with the lure pole several times yesterday and exploring the forest on leash in the snow. Most of the earlier photos he was not wearing a coat but we actually started out with one. He slides, falls, digs and rolls in the snow so the coat was quickly heavy, cold and wet. We dumped the coat because his fur seemed to shed the snow better. He was running around so much he really wasn't cold and actually laid in the snow panting to cool off a few times. Here are some of the early photos when he was actually wearing the coat.


Miles is a smiler. When he is happy he grins like his mother Sara did. He is pretty happy running and will grin at me as he runs toward me then swerves at the last second. Makes him look pretty fierce in his photos.



Have suddenly seen some new behavior out of Miles in the last few days. He has never been the best eater since he has really never been hungry. It is a constant challenge to keep weight on the pups with the amount of energy they burn every day. I feed Miles raw meat, eggs, milk, veggies, supplements and occasionally some grains. I add some fat and oils to help boost the calories. Beef is our staple since it is higher in fat and because Miles is not fond of chicken at all and only likes pork and venison slightly better. Miles picks at his food and may or may not finish it. We are on 2 meals a day most of the time to get him to be hungry enough to finish a bowl. He gets about 10 minutes to eat then it is picked up and put away until the next meal. He often skips meals if it is chicken. He always gets the same chicken for the next meal so it doesn't really help. He is more likely to eat his food if Otto or Pinky are in the room with him to keep them from getting it. If he leaves food in his crate he runs in quickly if another dog gets near the crate. Funny how he doesn't want the food but doesn't want anyone else to have it either which leads to his strange behavior over the last couple of days.

My dogs have always gotten to clean off plates after we are done eating. They do this together and never have been allowed to growl or be possessive of the plate while they are sharing it. The other night Miles growled and snapped at Pinky when they were sharing a plate. Totally new behavior for him and odd since he is so laid back about eating. He even licks off the plate very slowly in no hurry. We made it pretty clear that that was just the WORST thing he could have done and he lost the plate for a couple of moments. Then was allowed to rejoin Pinky and has shared the plate nicely since.

Last night Miles had a bone and Pinky walked by him. He charged at Pinky growling at him and snapped at him. There was contact and Pinky yelped but there was no damage. I went after Miles since I was standing nearby. He realized right away he had made a huge mistake and ran for his crate. He was running so fast he slid on the wood floor and hit the door hard and yelped. Once he made it to the crate he stood there whimpering and shaking. Funny how he ended up punishing himself for his behavior much more severely than we would have. He stayed in his crate (door was always open) for a long time in self exile. After about an hour I called him in to the bedroom for bed. He slunk in with his head and tail down, nervous and very submissive. He waited for permission to get up on the bed and had to be invited a couple of times before he got the courage to join us. I think he probably learned from his mistake and isn't likely to repeat it.

Funny how he remembered what he had done for so long and was so upset about it even an hour later. You always hear how dogs don't remember what they did wrong and don't show shame or feel guilt. I am not sure that is true. I can tell when I get home if a dog has done something wrong just by their greeting. If they come up glancing around, head lowered, slinking or don't come up at all, I know I need to look through the house to see what they did wrong and WILL find something. A normal greeting is happy, tail wagging and much different than an "I screwed up" greeting. I have always heard that any "guilt" the dog shows is actually the dog responding to a human's disapproval. There is no way I could be giving off disapproving signals when I have no idea a crime has been committed though.

We only disapproved of Miles behavior instantly last night but didn't speak to him or reinforce our disapproval in any way for the hour he stayed in his crate. When I called him into the bedroom I intentionally kept my voice upbeat and normal since his misbehavior was long over. Still he was obviously sorry and very cautious when coming back into his pack because of his bad behavior.

Miles really hates to get into trouble and just a look or a word is usually all it takes. "No" just means not to do that and is the lightest correction word I use. An "ACK!" is usually what I use instead. Big transgressions get an UH OH like chewing on my things or growling at Pinky. Miles hates to hear UH OH and I have to watch that I don't use it accidentally in conversation because he will slink off if he hears it even if he has done nothing wrong.

Another behavior that just started in the last few days is being protective of the house. The night that the snow started there was something outside the fence. Miles was very concerned and stared and stared into the dark and paced by the windows looking out and growling. He wanted out frequently and would pace on the porch barking and growling. He was too nervous to get off the porch and go to the area of the yard he was barking out or where he could actually see out of the fence though (bushes obstruct the view through the fence). He has never done anything like that before and sounded scary enough that I hope whatever was out there left.

The coyotes are always out there so I don't think that would have set him off. A neighbor reported seeing a large black cat crossing our road and coming onto our property a week or so ago. He thought it was a panther or something. I haven't heard of any being in this area and hope one didn't escape from the zoo. Probably a big black dog. There was a bear that ended up in a nearby shopping center a could years ago but those are really rare in this area too. It definitely wasn't a human because Miles would run to the fence to say "Hi".

I am sure that there are more behaviors to come as Miles goes from the submissive puppy stage to a more confident adult.

One Year Old!

The boys turned one year old on January 6th. We had a little party for them with doggy cake - a white cake mix with plain peanut butter between the middle layers frosted with plain unsweetened cream cheese. I also baked peanut butter and liver treats for the dogs. We had a human cake, ice cream and finger foods - the party really was an excuse for the humans to get together after all. We had a house full of dogs that got along very well together, most that have been featured in the blog at some point. Duchess the german shepherd, Roo the lab mix, Pinky the Italian Greyhound (Miles housemate), Shug the greyhound (Otto's housemate), Champ the greyhound, and of course Miles, Otto and Kohle the birthday boys. Would have liked to include Piper but she lives too far away. Took some photos of the party with a cell but they were all too blurry.

We have more snow and this time we got around 10 to 12 inches. More than I remember in the 21 years I have lived here. Yesterday it was soft powder and the dogs really enjoyed it. During the night we got a little freezing rain and it froze so there is a hard layer on top now that the dogs slip on and break through. They are hating life now. I had to clear a little trail off the porch last night for them so they could get out to go potty. Here are some photos of Miles playing with his lure pole yesterday in the snow. He is pretty serious about it and I think is going to make a good lure coursing dog when he is old enough.

Exiled to Siberia

We are having record lows - around 12 degrees last night. Even Miles, who loves to be outside, will hurry out to do his business and come straight back to the door. This morning was the coldest morning so far and I expected the same thing.

When Miles didn't come back to the door in 10 minutes I got worried and checked on him. He was on his outdoor bed under the poolhouse porch in the most perfect sit. The pups used to sit comfortably all the time but now are not really comfortable in that position anymore so rarely sit unless I ask them too. I figured it was too cold to lay on the vinyl bed.

Five minutes later I looked out again and he was in the same position and I could see him shivering from the house. I called him and he didn't move. Called again and he stood up briefly and returned to a sit on the bed. Very weird! Miles ALWAYS comes when called and fast. Called him again and he ran to the (off limits) flowerbed and sat there. I yelled at him to get out of the flowerbed and he moved a couple of feet and sat again in the flowerbed. I yelled several more times and he slunk out of the flowerbed very upset and came up on the porch but wouldn't come near me or the door. He returned to a perfect sit on the porch, shivering so hard that he looked like a giant Italian Greyhound.

Then I noticed a big marble sized piece of poop frozen to his tail. I would have picked up on that if he had been doing the butt scoot but he was just sitting. Had to go out in the cold in my jammies and slippers with toilet paper to get it off before he would come to the door and come in. Poor guy had exiled himself to Siberia for getting poop on his tail.


Miles did two Christmas Parades on Saturday - Travelers Rest and Pickens. He did great at both and wasn't afraid of any of bands, loud cars, confederate soldiers shooting muskets and cannons, or the police car with flashing lights and siren right in front of us. He did want to eat the miniature horses that were right behind us in the TR parade:0 He towered over the two the cute little horses. The TR parade was SO long! We walked and walked for miles then had to find our way back through TR to get back to our car. I love to hike long distances but had blisters from this. Am not sure how many miles we walked. Even Miles was tired. That took all morning and part of the afternoon. Later in the afternoon we had to line up for the evening Pickens parade. Fortunately that parade was much shorter. Why is it that few parades make a circle back to their original starting point?

Remember Roo? She was in some early puppy photos playing with Miles. She is a probably a small lab mix that was a week older than Miles and much closer to the same size when they were babies. Roo did the Pickens parade with us. The pups always remember each other and start wrestling right away. This time they were playing "reindeer games" I guess. Roo got pretty dirty after being rolled around on the pavement by Miles.


Now that Piper has been adopted, Miles is having to get used to not having another puppy here to run with every day. He definitely has a LOT more energy without her here. The very cold weather isn't helping because he hasn't wanted to play outside as much as usual and I sure haven't wanted to go for many walks other than the MILES and MILES we walked on Saturday at the parades. He had a sore between his toes that was pretty much healed before the parades but with all the walking it opened back up. With the cold and sore toe we didn't have his brother Otto come over to play today or yesterday so that only made matters worse.

Miles broke the coat closet door when his friend Jann came over. He was NOT behaving calmly at the door like he was supposed to and was jumping around excitedly. Ran into the closed folding door while he was bouncing around and broke one of the runners at the bottom right out of the wood. A big pup that is still working on self control and manners can do a lot of damage without LOTS of exercise every day.

Miles is becoming more and more of a snuggler. He has been sleeping with us most of the time but does still get down on his own bed for part of the night. He likes to poke his nose under your arm or in an armpit much like Streak did or he lays draped over you. He has taken Streak's place in the walk in closet and lays there while I am changing or putting away clothes.

One funny thing I have noticed that Miles really doesn't like is when I am shaking out freshly laundered clothes to get the wrinkles out. He doesn't like that pop and will run out of the room. Have been working on that strange fear and have him stay in the room in a down stay which is already helping a lot. Strange that muskets and cannons firing in the parade didn't bother him but the snap from clothes being shook out does.

Streak is Gone

Streak - My Easy Street RE, JC, CGC, TDI
June 29th 20o2 - Nov 18th 2010

We lost Streak on Thursday, Nov 18th to Osteosarcoma (bone cancer) a little over a year since I lost my other greyhound JD to the same disease. Streak always limped a bit because of some arthritis in his toes and corns that just developed in the last year. We had been pretty sure about a year ago that he had Osteo in his shoulder but it didn't show up in X-rays. His limping got a little better this summer and he was able to run some but then gradually it got more pronounced. At the end of Sept during our beach trip he fell off the bed and landed on his sore shoulder. He has been on pain killers and mostly on just 3 legs since then. Even though there was no bruising or swelling we hoped it was just an injury that would get better with time but it got worse. When he started yelping in pain when laying down and couldn't get comfortable, we knew it was time for more X-rays. The cancer diagnosis came as no surprise. With the corns on his feet, it was painful for him to walk on 3 legs so he was not a good candidate for amputation. I am not sure that I would have put him through that to buy a few more months with him anyway. There is no cure for osteosarcoma and taking off the leg just buys some time until the cancer comes back in the lungs.

Streak earning his Rally Novice Title. He went on to complete his Rally Advanced and his Rally Excellent titles.


Playing with his favorite Christmas gift last Christmas

Streak was a role model for Miles and I can only hope that Miles will be close to as good as Streak was. I called Streak "Streaky the Good" because he never did anything wrong. Once he knew the rules he would never break them. I could leave a plate of food out on an end table and he wouldn't touch it - all day- even if I left the house. He was a Therapy Dog and did home visits and visited schools to educate children about dogs. He performed at the Georgia and Carolina Renaissance Festivals as a member of the Hounds of East Fairhaven for years. He was the most tolerant dog I know and could calm an aggressive dog down with his calm energy just like Cesar Millan's pitbull, Daddy, on the Dog Whisperer. He convince many people to adopt greyhounds at meet and greets and convinced their dogs that greyhounds meant no harm.

Streak herding sheep with me


Like Daddy, Streak was a gentle giant. He was the most muscular greyhound I have ever seen and the heaviest out of nearly 1000 greyhounds our adoption group, Greyhound Crossroads, has placed. He raced at 92lbs which is about 20lbs heavier than the average male greyhound. There have been a few taller but the one that weighed the closest raced at 85lbs I think.

One of my favorite photos. It shows what a gentle giant Streak really was. He was so tolerant of Miles and never did any more than growl at the pups when they got out of line.


Streak raced at Victoryland in Alabama then at Jefferson County Kennel Club in Monticello Florida. I saw Streak race in Florida when I was there to pick up a load of retired greyhounds and remembered him because I had never seen a greyhound that big before. Months later I met him when his trainer led out the bouncing, wagging, giant to meet me. She knew I had a soft spot for the big guys and wanted me to meet him in hopes our group would take him when he retired. She said he was a very special guy and one of her favorites. A few months later he retired and I got him as a foster, not long before his 3rd birthday.

Streak had no desire to be the leader of the pack. He was easy going and just went with the flow. The only thing that bothered him was someone yelling or if he though he had done something wrong. He just wanted to please and other than that was a happy go lucky guy that would whip you with his tail but didn't have an aggressive bone in his body. That was perfect for me because the greyhound male I had, JD, was a dominant guy that tended to be a little grouchy with other dogs. My second greyhound needed to be a more tolerant guy that wouldn't take offense at JD's grumpy outbursts.

Streak and JD promoting greyhound adoption at a Christmas event.


Streak with Miles at about 6 months


Little Miles trying to keep up with Streak at the Playday field.


We will miss Streak. He was the most amazingly perfect dog I have ever met. He loved to snuggle and had no personal body space at all. He loved to have you lay a leg or an arm over him and would snuggle closer. I even laid across him and sat on him sometimes. He tried his best to be a big lap dog when you were sitting on the couch. He would role over on his back at meet and greets and reach up with his paws to pull people down to visit with him. He never did the greyhound roach where they put all their legs in the air and sleep on their back. The only time he rolled on his back was when he was trying to get someone to snuggle with him.

Streak's self appointed task was to watch over me. He always followed me where ever I went but never had any sign of separation anxiety. He just followed me from room to room his entire life unless I told him not to. He even followed me into the walk in closet when I changed my clothes and laid at the bathroom door when I was in the shower. He would often walk in the shower himself in hopes he could have a shower. He wasn't fond of showers but figured out that showers meant that he was likely to get to go someplace fun. He loved to go for rides and in cool weather loved to wait for me in the van while I ran errands. I could leave him in the van with groceries because he knew they were mine and wouldn't dream of touching even the juiciest steak.
Streak and JD with me at the Beach

Miles is the only greyhound in our home now other than fosters. He just has Pinky the deaf Italian Greyhound for company. Miles is a busy pup and doesn't seem to miss Streak much. Pinky depended on Streak though and would lay near him so he felt the vibration of Streak getting up. Pinky didn't miss anything going on in the house that way, even being deaf. Pinky has been more clingy in the last few days. I am his ears now since Streak is gone I guess. Miles is still a big clumsy pup and Pinky stays out of his way most of the time for his own safety. I don't think Miles and Pinky will have a close relationship like Pinky and Streak did until Miles gets older and calmer.

Pinky and his big brother Streak. This photo was used on cards to raise money for a greyhound adoption.


I sure wish Streak could have stayed longer. He was just 8 and we only had him 5 and a half years. He had definitely earned his angel wings here long ago though and no dog deserves heaven more.