2 Years Old

Miles with gold eyes and Otto with the ball

Miles and Otto celebrated their 2nd birthday on January 6th. Hard to believe that they are no longer considered puppies. Even thought they look like adults they still have quite a bit of puppy in them. They are a lot calmer than they were but they still are active for greyhounds. Their attention span can be long if they are doing something exciting like hunting a bird in the yard. Like teenagers, they have a hard time concentrating when their friends are around, especially girls.  There are still occasionally some naughty things done like holes dug in the yard, a toy unstuffed or a guest jumped on and french kissed. They know the rules but still "forget" occasionally. We really haven't had the damage that people talk about from greyhound puppies and Miles hasn't need to be crated when we leave ... until recently. 

Miles has started going in the bedroom by himself and has the zoomies before bedtime - usually when we are in the other room watching TV. He grabs a toy, spins on the bed and jumps on and off sliding on the covers until they fall off. The fitted sheet doesn't slide off so ends up like this. This is the 3rd one torn up in a few weeks.

Torn sheets

 So Miles has gone back to total supervision at home. He is crated again while we are gone. We still do a lot of exercise to prevent things like this and it makes all the difference with a puppy most of the time. This happened after a 5 mile hike though.

The blue puppy eyes have been gone for a long time now. Miles is the only one of the litter that ended up with the gold wolf eyes. Sometimes they make him look a little freaky or evil in photos but he couldn't be any sweeter. He is such a snugly guy and sleeps with some part of his body flopped over me or Roy.  He doesn't growl or try to bite, we can take food and toys out of is mouth and do anything to him.

Miles is still very goofy but has changed some. At our greyhound playgroup he would run, yelp or roll submissively on his back if one of the adult dogs disciplined him. That would send the pack into prey drive mode and they would all jump on him. We would try it every few months hoping he would eventually outgrow that behavior that so he could play safely. He has always been fine playing with fosters in the yard and dogs we are dog sitting at our house.  In a large group of high prey drive dogs that behavior is very dangerous though. He has finally started standing up for himself and doesn't run or scream anymore. I got some pictures of the boys playing on their birthday.

Miles Goofing Off

Otto

Miles

Miles and Otto (with ball)

Otto (with ball) and Miles

6 months old

A little late posting but Miles (above) turned 6 months old on July 6th. He weighed a bit over 50lbs and Otto slightly less. Not sure what Kohle weighs or the size difference between the boys because we haven't seen him all month. The pups are very tall and lanky. At 6 months they are the size of a female greyhound and taller than some of the foster females we have had recently. They aren't as long or as muscular as adult greyhounds so are much taller than an adult female that weighs the same as they do. They were closer in height to a 60 - 65lb female (racing weight).

Miles blaze is getting smaller and thinner the bigger he gets. It is getting harder to tell him and Otto apart now. Otto is just a bit darker in color and more narrowly built but they have been the same height for awhile. Miles used to lay with his legs straight out behind him like a frog but he quit doing that about the time he turned 6 months old. The other pups hadn't done it since they were pretty small. He started a new behavior about the time he stopped that one. He grins now. Usually when he is very happy like when we come home or when we have company. He lifts that nose and lips and shows all his teeth in a happy greyhound grin sometimes his teeth snap together like a gator just like JD's.

Handsome Otto looking very grown up


The pups are going through the 2nd fear phase now. Odd things scare them - like swimming in the pool. They tend to over react to things that never bothered them before. A larger dog coming over to play scared Otto and he ran away screaming and peeing in spite of all his early socialization. The boys were both very afraid of the water when we finished filling the pool and would even run away from us after a few swimming lessons that they didn't enjoy. Even after Miles started swimming on his own he would not get in the pool if Otto's owner, Joe, was in the water just because he had helped during some of the early swimming lessons. Glad I had read about this stage beforehand so I wasn't surprised by it.


Love this one! Otto looks like a grazing deer and Miles looks like the big bad wolf.




They are great pups. Very active. Although they play very rough, blood has never been drawn. It often looks and sounds like they are killing each other though. After watching them play, I can see that most of the loud rough housing at the greyhound playgroup that we stop really is just play. Greyhounds stay with their littermates for the first year of their lives instead of being separated from them at 6 or 8 weeks like most dogs. Their play gets rougher as they get to be adolescents but they have learned to be gentle with their bites. They have so much control. Even when one is clearly angry with the other, the discipline that is given does not draw blood. Occasionally there is a scratch or a scab that I find later but so far that is as far as it has gone.


Water still coming out of one of their pool toys as they carry it around.

Fourteen Weeks Today!

GOLD EYES!

Miles eyes stayed blue for a lot longer than the other pups and I was beginning to wonder if he was going to look more like an Australian Shepard then a Greyhound. Otto's eyes were already getting dark when I got them at 5 weeks old. All the other pups eyes got dark quickly too. Miles eyes gradually got gray then kind of green but it now looks like they are going to be gold. As you can see in the pictures his ears have recovered from the bad ear week last week. I love the gold eyes. Streak's eyes are gold too.









Momma Sara still hasn't been adopted and I have to admit that I am in no hurry to see her go. It is so much fun to see a mother raise her pups in a natural way. I believe that Miles will be a better pup because of her influence. Sara still plays with the pups and has a lot of energy for 5 years old. She will run and play wrestle for an hour at a time with Miles. I didn't have Otto over to play for the last week because it is hard to watch two pups on crutches. Sara had to fill in for him and would play with Miles several times a day. She is always gentle and Miles rarely yelps. His legs have grown so much that when he stands up on his hind legs he can rest his elbows on Sara's back. Miles is 27lbs now. Otto is up to 25lbs and the other brother is 17lbs.




Pinky the Italian Greyhound joins in the Greyhound Games



Watch the ear!


Mom decides enough is enough and gently pins Miles to the ground. Game over.


All that rolling in grass made me itchy.


I talked to Mel at the Birmingham Track Adoption Kennel and two of the pups were adopted by a family in Florida and are home now. The runt and one male are still at the kennel. They are supposed to go to families in Oregon and California. They have put on weight and have gotten over their skin infection and have all their hair now. The runt has a dark brindle glossy coat. The male is a lighter brindle and has a thicker fuzzier coat.