Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

wordless Wednesday

My Greyhound part #3 Dog food and poop expert

The basic principal is simple what comes in must come out at some point !!

When we first got Bentley we thought food was going to be quite easy. Buy a big bag of descent quality kibbles, feed it to dog, dogs is happy, then dog poops. In our head, that was pretty much the whole story. Pretty simple, no big deal. Shirley, from Greyhound rescue Quebec even gave us a bag of food that most greyhounds like and do well on. So we were good right? But She did tell us that greyhounds are known for their sensitive stomach, we just didn't know how much.

The first few days were pretty straight forward, 2 cups of kibbles twice a day and don't let the dog run before and after his meal, no worries. But the picking-up after your dog thing didn't go all that good. Not that we didn't carry bags or that we didn't want to pick it up... The stools were just way too soft to be picked up. But we were told that it might take a week or two to stabilize the dog to it's new retirement diet. After a week, he was indeed making progress on the firmness side, so it was looking good. It was also time to put Bentley on the scale to see how he was doing. We knew his racing weight was 80 pounds, so we had figure that 2 pounds over or under should be a pretty nice weight for him. But, big surprise, he weighted in at 73.9 pounds, he needed to put some pounds on. So we thought," No problem, we will just feed him more kibbles..." WRONG !!! We then learned that there is such a thing as feeding to much kibbles. We quickly realize that the extra kibbles were going almost right through :(

That's when we determined, after some phone calls and research on the web, that we needed to give our greyhound something else then his usual food for him to put on the extra pounds. So I needed to cook for the dog ! Don't get me wrong, I love to be in the kitchen but I did not imagine one minute that I would be cooking (it's really more overcooking then cooking) rice, pasta and mash potatoes for my dog ! And since they have sensitive stomach, I tried one thing at a time. We started with some well overcooked mushy rice, although Bentley did put some weight on, it did not have a very good effect on his digestive system. Then, after a week or two, came the pasta still very overcooked thank you very much !! We tried several kinds, but they did not help to put some weight nor firmed up the mushy poop. Then we gave the mash potatoes a try and we finally started to see some positive effects. We then added some boiled ground beef and voilà, he started to put on some pounds and kept it ! So finally after almost two months, he is now up to 78 pounds and we can pick-up after him without leaving a trace !!

Although it takes a bit more time and caring then a normal dog for a retired greyhound to become fully comfortable in a house,it is well worth it. They make really "greyt" loving, quiet, gentle house pet and once settled they will be greytfull to you for saving their live.

On a final note. I have been ask so many times what happens to racing greyhound when they are done running. If you watch this video, you will have a general idea of the industry. Beware that some of the footage can be tough to watch, especially if you have a retired greyhound sleeping on the coach next to you....

Cheers :-)

My Greyhound part #2: The first week

The first week you bring a retired greyhound into a house is when you realise you will have to teach, a fully grown dog, stuff you would not even think a "normal" puppy would need to be teached !! When we first got home with the dog, we went for a little walk around the block, Bentley was walking very nice on leash, so far all is good... Then we got back home....

First : The four steps from the driveway to the front door. It seems that during his 4 years of racing (70+ races and about 30 wins) our retired Greyhound (Bentley) never had to go up (or down) any stairs. But after a few minutes, and a bit of cheering, Bentley did manage to go up those steps in a very unelegant fashion !! We then knew that it will be a big challenge for him if he wants to get to the house second story through those 14 hard wood steps !!

Second : It also appears that at the kennels where he spend all his live up to now, they don't have any windows or mirrors. So the first thing Bentley does once inside is to try to get right back out through the full size window beside the door... Bang !! Yep my boy that's glass, hard and transparent ! It didn't take long for him to get use to windows, but the mirrors ... You just can tell what he's thinking, Oh cool! another greyhound, he looks just like me and he wants to play too !! Still to this day we are not certain he understand what he's seeing in the mirrors ...

Third : Food, you have to teach this dog that not all food in the house is for him. And that is pretty easy with a small or medium size dog. But with a very tall dog that's another story. See the back of Bentley is about 31 inches from the ground, taking into consideration that your standard dining table is around 30 inches tall. This dog has to look down on what's on the table and he does not have to stretch very high to see what's on the kitchen counter !! So the first few days you really have to re-think where you put anything containing food.

Four : Sleeping at night. Let me put you in context. Our bedroom is upstairs, the dog's crate is downstairs, he can't go up or down the stairway yet and this is a dog that never spent any time, especially at night, alone. So guess what.... The first few nights either my girlfriend or I slept on the coach !! But it didn't take long for Bentley to settle in and master the stairs and before we knew it he was sleeping on the floor, on a pile of pillows in our bedroom !

But on the other hand, within a couple days he was settled in. He was eating good, releaving himself outside, was getting pet by children on walks, we took him to friends houses to meet people and other dogs. He was so easy going that it felt like almost like he had been living with us for years ! He was really enjoying the begining of his retirement and we were very happy to have such a good calm dog that gets along with everybody !

Stay tune for part #3, when we become dog food and poop experts !!

Wordless Wednesday

My Greyhound part 1 : Why a Greyhound ?

Ever since we adopted a retired greyhound in april, I have been asked all sorts of questions. So here's the story on why we chose to get a tall, skinny, funny dog and how we got him.

My gilfriend and I always wanted a dog but since we were not spending enough time at home because of work and other social outings we were always postponing the "dog project". We thought that maybe someday the day would come that we would be free enough to care for a 4 legged furry thing. Well that someday came around last winter.

With a new job that enables me to work from home a couple days a week and a lot less social commitements, we started looking at what kind of dog would fit us best. We agreed that the top criterias needed to be : Quiet, easy going, gentle with children and grown-up and finally medium to large size. We also agreed that we were going to get a rescued dog. Yes puppies are nice but there are so many dogs that need a second chance in kennels everywhere.

So we slowy started looking at what was available at our local recue web sites without really ''falling in love'' with any available dogs. A bit later, in march we were attending the St-Patrick's parade in Montréal and then, between two floats, was the crew from greyhound recue Québec and we tought : yeah how about a retired greyhound ?

After the parade we got back to the house and started reading books and articles on the web about those gracefull dogs. After several hours of reading and watching videos like this one on youtube we were sold to the breed. Then a quick phone call to Shirley from greyhound recue Québec and a long and interesting visit to her house to meet her, her husband Ernie and most of all their 2 greyhounds, Dara and Sergio, got us hooked. They took the time to explaine how the dogs lived and how they are treated during their racing carreer, to gave us an idea of what to expect. They told us the dos and don'ts to start the dog's retirement on the good "paw".

You can quickly see that these guys love greyhounds, they go through so much trouble to save a handfull of racing greyhounds every month and yet they don't make any money off of this. They just do it for the dogs.

So of course we signed the papers and the waiting began. A week later, a phone call from Shirley saying that a "big fawn boy" fitting our profile was available. We were to come pick him up next week-end !! So we spent all week going from pet stores to pet stores gathering the things we needed : food, bed, nail clipper, id tag, treats, doggy tooth brush, etc.

Then saturday came and we finally saw our "big fawn boy" coming out of the van ! He came along with 4 or 5 other "ex-racers" and we immediatly understood why he was called BIG !! He was at least 2 inches taller then all the others !! Still suprised by how big he was, we brought all the dogs to a fenced area where they could finally stretch their legs after the long drive. One by one the volunteers inspected every inch of the dogs, cleaned the ears, gave them a bath, a flea and worm medication. And then finally it's time for a little walk before the car ride home, where we were to discover how bizarre and fun it is to care for a retired racer ...

Stay tuned for part #2 : The first week !!!