Maddy

Oh these are awesome thanks. I am toying with the idea of putting all the rescue dogs thru the greenhounds program I know there is one in Victoria but I cant for the life of me find it right now. I know in some states you can do in home training and then have them tested but in Victoria I am sure they need to go to a kennel for a week so still looking into that. What do you think? Worth it to be able to send the dogs out with a green collar or better to let the owners go through it with their pets? We have one adopter who moved to Victoria and she's having her girl assessed through GAP. As far as I know, this does involve the dog being kenneled there for some amount of time but I'm not sure of the exacts. I don't think Victoria has quite the same thing as NSW but it's worth seeing if you can become an approved assessor. Greyhound Safety Net would be best able to answer questions there. Perhaps send them a PM.

I would assume they do more. I cant speak for all but I wont just get a dog and place it. IMO you have to have some time with the dog especially since sometimes dogs into a new home can act very differently day one then day 12. A lot of times in my experience the behavioral probs don't come out until the dog feels comfortable in its new place this is why its important to me to have a dog in a home environment for a bit. I am not saying any rescue who doesnt is bad but just throwing my 2 cents in. I think I probably would go as far as saying that. In my opinion, dogs should be held for at least 14 days after the pound, if only for the purposes of disease control. This is very true, especially if there is a high rate of Kennel Cough or Distemper in the shelter. The last thing you would want to do is have an adopter spending money to treat their pets because you were in a hurry to re-home. IMO quality placements trump Quantity placements I mean sure its great to re- home a ton of dogs but if you are not making sure they are in a home that is good for them you are just adding to the problem in the long run. The other issue is parvo. If you manage to infect a foster carer's property with parvo, it can be difficult to ensure it's clean/safe enough to place dogs there again (let alone the risk to their own pets and the spreading of the virus through normal activity). Personally, I like to keep dogs for at least eight weeks. They get vaccs done first and then testing. If they pass testing (at roughly four weeks) they get desexed. And then tested again at about six weeks, stitches come out and so on and so forth. Even doing it that way though, we've had one dog somehow slip through testing- ended up being DA (although it is possible the issue developed further in his new home, I consider that there should have been some sign of it that I missed. Either mistake in testing or mistake in placement, my fault whichever it was)

Don't get me started on teenage hellhounds I'd take a thousand incontinent oldies over one obnoxious teenager :laugh:

I would assume they do more. I cant speak for all but I wont just get a dog and place it. IMO you have to have some time with the dog especially since sometimes dogs into a new home can act very differently day one then day 12. A lot of times in my experience the behavioral probs don't come out until the dog feels comfortable in its new place this is why its important to me to have a dog in a home environment for a bit. I am not saying any rescue who doesnt is bad but just throwing my 2 cents in. I think I probably would go as far as saying that. In my opinion, dogs should be held for at least 14 days after the pound, if only for the purposes of disease control.

This is just from my own experience of setting up a rescue so it'd probably be a good idea to do some more research, in case I've missed something (I probably have, it's Monday ) Set up policies for the group (and then stick with them- trust me on that one) Things such as rehoming and surrender policies. Here's a link to some of ours and although everyone will have different ideas about how to run a rescue, it'll give you somewhere to start from. An accepted standard for greyhounds is that they be small dog safe but do not need to be cat safe (as many aren't). Consider how the rescue will be run. This is aimed at adopters but again, some things to think about. Testing. Write up suitable temp/prey drive tests and use them each and every time. Make sure you keep records of everything behavioural, even minor things. Records. Again, very important. This includes behavioural records and health records. Record chip numbers like your life depends on it and make sure adopter information is retained in each dog's file (in the event the dog gets impounded, etc. and that informaiton is required) Educate adopters. I try to do this by adding an article every now and then but also include information packs to adopters and general health information. We get a lot of email from people who have adopted greyhounds from elsewhere and haven't been given the information they need. You don't want to be one of those groups who rehomes and runs. Dol is also a great resource for rescues and not always as scary as some people claim it to be :p

That's what the feet on greys look like. The webbing extends to the pad of the toe, just as it also appears in the photo Steve posted. I guess you can count me amongst those who can't see any difference

I think our most facepalm-worthy surrender was a greyhound that had bad recall. "You have a greyhound who doesn't always come when called, especially when it's off chasing something? You don't say.."

Definitely agree with this. Of the three greys I own, two are oldies- the eldest (ten years old) has a bladder that goes at the worst times (last time was literally right in front of a visitor, he was excited to see her and.. yeah), eyesight that is rapidly failing (which makes him a bit snarky around the other dogs), joints that are starting to show their age (which leads to whinging late at night if his bed isn't soft enough) and the vet bills.. dear god, the vet bills. Oh, and he's a nightmare to walk now, 500m is about as far as he can go before he gets tired and just stops dead. But having said that.. would I take on another oldie? Without a doubt, yes. In fact, I'd say the oldies are much easier to look after than puppies (which makes me wonder how some people manage to cope with puppies but have trouble with senior dogs).

Without knowing the exacts of their laws (not a subject that really interests me), I'd have to assume implied consent is taken into account. To give an example here.. male animals. Obviously though, creating a physical reaction isn't obtaining consent- which makes the whole AI issue (which is perfectly legal everywhere) very interesting. If intercourse with a male animal is rape, why is stimulating an animal for the purposes of collecting semen acceptable when the dog still hasn't consented to that sexual activity? We have some odd double standards when it comes to pawing animals for our own purposes. What an odd thing to say. My great-grandfather was from Rostock and I have heard of this sort of thing in Germany. Which proves nothing either way, of course, because what sort of family discusses this during conversations of heritage? "Ah, yes... I remember living in the old land, back when it was still legal to live in a de facto relationship with a poodle.."

One of our dogs will bark when he hears the gate or door open but it's actually excited "OMG I HAVE VISITORS I LOVE VISITORS OMG TREATS OMG VISITORS!" barking, even with complete strangers, he's very friendly. I guess you might end up with a few bruises on your leg as he can sometimes get a bit over-excited and then sort of rears up on people but beside that.. totally safe. Of the others, the old girl is more likely to hide, most of the fosters either bark or get excited. Bosley.. I'm not sure of. He's had tonnes of socialisation but he really doesn't seem keen on strangers or even visitors he's met before. He backs up and barks- I imagine if you cornered him in the house or he felt threatened enough, he might nip at someone. Really though.. I could think of nothing more dangerous than a dog that will attack people who enter without the owner present. A dog that doesn't know the difference between a delivery person and a thief is a dog that may find itself wearing a DD collar if the owners aren't careful.

There have been a few threads about Shoo tags but basically, the answer is no. http://www.dolforums.com.au/topic/205618-shoo-tags/page__p__4846107__hl__%22shoo+tag%22__fromsearch__1#entry4846107

This. If you don't vaccinate your dogs, that percentage will be much higher and rather than just being an unfortunate accident, their deaths will be entirely your own fault. It's bad enough losing a pet to a preventable disease, nevermind also carrying the extra guilt of knowing it was your fault. Arguing that it didn't work once and therefore it doesn't work in general is just throwing the baby out with the bath water and refusing to listen to reason. I never said that, I did say I have over the years lost 3. in each case was told it was sheer bad luck. then this article states is approx 28 percent. at least knowing that would have been better than thinking how unlucky can you get losing 3. helps put into perspective. I always vaccinate , gee As Sandra has pointed out.. In your case, it was just bad luck.

If you're in a hydatids-prone area, regular worming (4-6 weeks) of dogs will greatly decrease your chances of catching it. Obviously there's still a risk involved but more frequent worming out will greatly reduce that. It comes down to exposure- four weeks of exposure is much less risk than twelve weeks of exposure (or constant exposure if you're not worming for hydatids).

This. If you don't vaccinate your dogs, that percentage will be much higher and rather than just being an unfortunate accident, their deaths will be entirely your own fault. It's bad enough losing a pet to a preventable disease, nevermind also carrying the extra guilt of knowing it was your fault. Arguing that it didn't work once and therefore it doesn't work in general is just throwing the baby out with the bath water and refusing to listen to reason.

Hydatids tapeworm (very definitely the worst) can be picked up from eating contaminated meat. The hydatids won't hurt the dog too much but if passed on to humans, it can kill in a very unpleasant manner.

Antibiotics don't work against these viruses? They must be the result of some new terrible- oh.. wait.. antibiotics don't work against any virus, regardless or how new or unusual it is. Because a virus is strands of DNA, not a living organism like bacteria. But anyway.. To be honest, I'm shocked that a DVM would want to put her name on an article like that- I know I sure as hell wouldn't want to. It's a trashy scare article and verrrrrry heavily anti-vaccination. I guess even some vets are pants-on-tinfoiled-head stupid/paranoid.

If you removed the fat and minced the frames yourself, probably okay. Otherwise, I'd avoid them as frames have a lot of fat on them. For meats, roo, rabbit, horse or venison are probably the best options in terms of fat content.

Advocate doesn't cover tapeworm so you need a wormer in there that contains praziquantel. We currently use Advocate and Troy Wormex to cover fleas and worms. For ticks, we spray on a bit of permoxin if we plan to take the dogs to an area where ticks might be a risk.

And more.. :D http://www.greyhoundhaven.com/ethicalrescue.htm If a rescue is not willing to answer those questions, I'd be donating my money elsewhere.

Definitely not. Even if it weren't for the allergy issue, there's still the hygiene issue for me. If someone else wants to risk worms or bacteria though, I guess that's their business

I've felt that way about a few foster hounds, just no connection with them I have to admit I struggle to like Bosley at times- his temperament reminds me a lot of a previous foster that I wasn't overly fond of but.. I committed to keeping Bosley (he's partially blind and his breeder was worried about him being bounced from home to home) so I guess I have 10-15 years to sort it out. It's definitely not easy though, especially when you have a really good dog to compare to. In Bosley's case, that's actually Kiff- even though he's old and lazy and grumpy, we communicate well and we're past even needing verbal cues, he just knows what I want (by body language or whatever).

Personally, I'd be very careful using any of those as some are absolutely not safe if your dog ingests them (by licking, for example) or if too much is applied to the skin. There are also many oils that can cause extreme photosensitivity or skin irritation, even in smaller amounts. For the risk/benefits, I'd be using a tested, proven flea treatment product containing actives that have an actual effect on the parasites. Going "natural" sounds great in theory but in practice.. results are dubious, at best (and very dangerous, at worst).

We had one removed from our oldest grey (he was ~5 years old at the time) and although the vet warned us of the likelihood of more appearing, he's now 10 years old and we've not had another since. From what our vet explained to us, hemangiosarcomas on the skin is not as serious as elsewhere in the body and because he was a mostly white dog, likely caused to sun exposure. I'd definitely still be concerned but the chances of it having metastasised from elsewhere (which is the biggest worry) aren't that high.

That's what ours prefer, too :p There's been a few "walks" that have ended with me staggering slowly towards home, trying to carry a 30+kg dog because he's le tired and doesn't want to walk anymore. Trips in the car though.. best thing ever.

I have a nine month old grey pup and at the moment, he's going through a bad case of the teenage uglies- gangly and skinny, despite a really good diet. I get dirty looks from people when I walk him and I'm sure if he ended up in the pound, most people would think he'd been starved (which obviously isn't the case, he's currently getting almost double what the adult dogs eat, we're just being mindul of his intake to ensure he doesn't end up with joint/growth problems). He's also going through another fear stage so strangers are terrifying again (unless he's in our house, where he can navigate around better) and he's also scared of any container with tap water in it- this one I have no idea about- he won't drink tap water, either (and he definitely wasn't abused by any tap water that I know of :p ) We have several adult dogs who are afraid of brooms (after brushing past the broom in the dog room and making it fall over) and two dogs who are scared of me carrying things above them (because I've dropped things while trying to carry them through a pack of giddy, excited hounds). Most of the greys will also cower at loud noises and shy away if someone raises their arms suddenly. None of them were ever mistreated, they're just cowardly lions.