Adopting a Greyhound : what I've learnt so far

hi everyone thanks for coming to my channel it's been ages since I last posted a video had a lot of things happening last year 2019 building a house moving into a house fishing off the working here just lots of crazy busy things but here we are and today's video I thought that I would go through a few things that I would have liked to have known when I got olive I've had olive now for two and a half years and there are a few things that I've learned along the way that I thought I'd pass on to you plus I thought I might do a bit of a combined Greyhounds information video along with a plant to her and a house - all in one package so I'm going to take you from room to room as I give you some tips that I've learned along the way about only a greyhound [Music] so to sell this off we're in what will be eventually the study is not the whole house isn't fully finished yet but so anyway this is the study one of my favorite things in the study my Greyhound bookends there's one here and there's one on another shelf as well so tip number one if I could tell myself something that I needed to know before I got olive two and a half years ago first thing I would say to myself is get a crate Oliver sleeps in a crate I put her in there every night she knows that's where she sleeps she sometimes puts herself to bed in there during the day she feels quite comfortable with it I usually put a blanket or something over the top of it just to make it feel a little bit like a den and she operant treats there on her own I don't have to force her in there having a crate has a few benefits if you've got other animals and when we first got olive and we still do have a a very old cat so to protect him and you know of any mishaps because I wasn't sure how she was going to react or how the cat would react with her in the house to protect them both we decided to create at night times most dogs greyhounds included prefer not to soil their bedding and greyhounds also have been a kenneled during their racing career so that's the benefit of getting a greyhound at home they've already had that toilet training they know not to soil their beds and they wait until mostly mostly they wait until they're taken outside to toilet and that works for us we don't have any 12in problems with olive unless she's got some sort of upset tummy and there's been a couple of accidents but that's it two and a half years a couple of accidents during the day she has full access to the whole house she's very much an inside dog but just at night we crater up walking now towards the balcony beautiful Seabreeze I live about five or six hundred meters from the ocean in Perth in a Hampton starts at home tip number two pet insurance this is some of my plant collection before we go on that's a little bit of my plant collection and this is sort of like a secondary TV room I've snuck my plants into the house one by one my husband when we first moved got so tired of moving 70-something pot plants that he was adamant that I was not going to have more in the house but I mean one by one are we sneaking Oh smoochie girl sorry I'm a bit distracted with your plants there so pet insurance I highly recommend getting some kind of pet insurance there's a lot of them out there but do your research greyhounds tend to be a little bit of accident-prone they can get injured with the slightest bump or scrape or even playing with other dogs or playing on Rona in the backyard they can get a little scuff and before you know it they are bleeding and the stitches or needing claws remove that kind of thing Olive one day was lying down in my living room she caught her dewclaw on the table and pulled a number in us but Penn insurance covered that another time Olive was down at the beach and got attacked by a dog in fact it was I wouldn't even call it an attack it was just a flash of aggression from another dog and it lunged at her its teeth just caught her on her shoulder and she got a massive massive rip from her shoulder blade all the way down her side $1,000 of the vets in that case the other owner paid for the full cost of it but if that had not happened I'm very glad that I had pet insurance that would have been covered so I would definitely get pet insurance what accident and emergency mile she's giving me misses this is a greyhound hug oh yeah Little Miss Little Miss smoochy here wasn't always the sweetest hand it took probably I would say a couple of years before she would actually come seeking out a cuddle from us but now she's quite snugly and cuddly so don't be worried if your greyhounds a little bit aloof they often like their own space which brings me to my next tip and that is if your Greyhound is lying down and resting leave them alone there's a thing called sleep startle which I didn't know about until it actually happened and that is pretty common with greyhounds and I'm not sure why they do it exactly maybe someone out there watching - are you gonna could sleep on it uh-huh but basically what happens is if they are asleep and often they can look like they're awake when they're asleep their eyes are sometimes open doing creepy zombie kind of faces but sometimes they are asleep and if they are touched or nudged or you breathe on them or you walk past them sometimes ah you just did a nose drip on my father sometimes brushing against them waking them up can result in sleep startled which can be quite frightening the first couple of times that I live did it and she did doing a lot but she did it a few times it she sounded like a rabid wolf basically killing a rabbit that's something it's like a reflex action and they can't help it they do grow out of it I think Olive certainly has grown of it Olive come clean your ears inside out come here come here let me fix your ears there we go good girl they grow out of it Oliver hat doesn't do it anymore I got her used to the idea of being touched when she was asleep I just allowing her to be sleep sleeping next to me on the floor and the TV room or something and I would just continue to stroke her and cuddle her as she dropped off to sleep so just to kind of get her used to being touched but if you've got young children or other animals please teach them to leave the greyhound alone when it's having a sleep they need their own space that's where again where a crate comes in handy because then they can go in their crate they can have their own space no one's going to accidentally touch them and if they do frighten them they're not going to get hurt if the Greyhound is in their crate so another good reason to have a crate so it's sleep startled would be my next tip be ready for it and leave your Greyhound alone when they are sleeping sorry that's a really long tip but hopefully you know what I mean as you can see a little miss stubborn over there has not moved in spite of me calling and calling her so tip number three be very very careful where you let your greyhound run and play don't let them off lead only take them somewhere where there is an enclosed fenced space especially while you're getting to know your greyhounds personality and prey Drive definitely not at a dog park I would avoid those to start with some greyhounds are a little bit reactive when you first bring them home to other dogs some of them are great Oliver's fantastic she loves other dogs she loves other people normal greyhounds that are like that some of them are quite reactive to other dogs particularly small dogs and some are not so I'm a fine great hands are not CH the most obedient dogs I have to say if you're torn between getting a cat or dog then a greyhound is a good choice in fact I often say that olive is about as obedient as the cat so not very she will come to me when I call her if she wants to and if she doesn't want to since she won't so if you're outside somewhere and they are off lead or they get away from you if they see something that they want to chase if they have a strong prey Drive you can call them and they may not come back and that can end up in disaster straight onto a road in front of traffic I've only want to think about it just be careful and yes this is my bedroom just a quick joke there some more of my plan more balcony space over here a little chandelier I love that chandelier my variegated monstera while we're here I have to say eight leaves now when I first got a little bought it with two leaves on it yeah it's got eight and another one is starting to come up anyway laughs about plants let's keep going I'm gonna take you to a room that people don't often take people to look at and that is my bathroom I left my bathroom so quick tour in here let's have a look around maybe I should [Music] [Music] [Music] put her in a setting my grandad thank you what you doing Open Sesame funny you show her how you go down the stairs yeah some greyhounds struggle with stairs so if you have stairs be patient with your greyhound give them time to get you some stairs because it might take them a little while to UM to get used to navigating stairs she would go in the kitchen she would go in the kitchen and show everyone the kitchen shall we should we go in the kitchen you like the kitchen don't you cuz his food in there oh oh oh is this some food he's do some food in the kitchen already okay well he's my dining room behind me speaking of aging I do say so myself I'm really I'm loving this room beautiful jute rug and a lovely timber table and timber lease I love it too much chairs don't like timber legs they do have timber legs but that's not what I meant with a built-in sideboard that is a great idea no I I wanted that in this house you can put your things that you're serving on the sideboard get them off the table over the way kitchen living room I get distracted it's just been Christmas you can see I still got my Christmas tree and my little Christmas tree in training I like to call that one that's a real one and that's a fake one we need some more furniture in there as you can see it's not completely finished yet but we're getting there my next thing I wanted to tell you about about from showing you my alliances looking at me mum what are you doing here crazy lady sorry only you know I'm crazy alright so next tip connected to the one before about not touching a greyhound when it's sleeping something that I find really really useful and that is to have cafe met I say cafe met because I tell Oliver that it's a cafe met but it's actually a bomb I got the biggest bath man that I could find at a home shop and I have two of them one in the car sometimes one in the wash and I take it everywhere with me I just roll it up when I'm going to a cafe roll that I'm sitting on my arm get to the cafe I rolled it out like a red carpet and she lies of her mat it's a fantastic way of keeping her in her own little space she knows that that's where she's supposed to be she flunks herself down there she sits quietly on her mat and she doesn't bother anyone I was terrified that people were gonna step on her because taking your ground anywhere like a cafe sometimes this space is not too big it's a little bit like trying to a small pony in a confined space and then have people not trip on it or step on it so cafe Matt is a great way I'm giving her a definite space to lie in and I think it makes her a little bit more visible to people as well so they're a little bit less likely to step or trip on her as they go past if I the dogs approach or people or children especially if they approach when olive is on her match and she's having a little nap I always always wake her up and make her stand up before anyone approaches her if kids say can I come and pat your greyhound I say of course she loves Pat's because she does and she loves children she loves all people she loves men especially with beards she loves dogs of all kinds but I always make sure that she's standing up so that she doesn't feel threatened or that her space is being encroached upon or that she doesn't have sleep startled so I've always make her stand up and then people can pat her and she loves that she's just in heaven when people come and make a fuss of her she can just do that all day long down there one thing I haven't done yet [Music] look at all my plants beds you're gonna need more than one bed if you've got an upstairs and downstairs house like I have two storey house you're gonna have to get another bed I need to get a bed for her for upstairs she spends most of her time coming upstairs with me wandering around looking for something to make a bed on a couple of times she's jumped onto my bed which is a lot higher than the bed we used to have and it's white what was I thinking but anyway she's not allowed on there anymore but she tries to get up sometimes so she needs a bed a nice comfy bed and that's the kind of bed that she likes smile she's got down there so I'm gonna have to get another one for her to have as the upstairs bed she might also get another bed for the balcony and then she can a balcony bed she is yeah I've given up trying to number my tips I've lost track of what tip number I'm up to sorry the light is going crazy bright because I'm trying to focus on olive here what was my next tip gonna be clothes you are going to need to buy a wardrobe Oh when I say wardrobe I mean you're gonna need a collection of coats depending on where you live you will need some clothing items for your greyhound so if you're interested in the sorts of things that olive wears I have got a separate video that I filmed earlier this year called winter dress your greyhound sorry about the flaring if it gets to 15 degrees or lower then you will they do feel the cold very easily because they don't have a lot of body fat hardly any and they can't regulate their temperature either with with cold so in the cold weather you're going to need to put a jacket of some sort on have a look at my video went address your Greyhound if you want some more details on that and in the heat you will need to find ways to keep them cool some of them like to have a paddling pool some of them like to lounge under the air-conditioning all day long some of them like to go for a swim with the beach and some of them just like to lie flat out on the ground on the tiles in your hands if you have tiles so be prepared to spend another tip if you get together with other greyhounds for a play which can be lovely [Music] the other dog that they know is ground and so when they see rounds and I went Oliver sees greyhounds she goes bananas for them and so it is lovely for them to get together with greyhounds for a play or a walk or something if you are going to take them somewhere they can run around off lead and enclosed safe space where you're allowed to do that it's a really good idea to take muzzles and I know that muzzles are horrible and olive hates hers I rarely put it on her because she passed the green collar test which means she doesn't need to wear one but if they even if they have passed a test and they don't need to wear a muzzle it's still a good idea to have them wear them if they are playing with a group of greyhounds because sometimes they can get a bit excited they can get a bit nippy and accidents can happen okay my final tip would be to learn a little bit about dog body language this could really save your Greyhound from danger at times the time that Oliver got attacked I should have seen it coming I should have read the signs in the other dog the signals that you can see in a dog's ears the way they carry their tail the way they hold their head when they're approaching your dog quite often when Oliver meets new dogs for the first time and she loves dogs I had to teach her that you can't just go barreling up to a dog nose first and just barge into its space a few times she got growled out I've told her to look forward to meeting other dogs when I see other dogs in fact she knows what the word dogs and there's a doggy she knows what that means I point out dogs to her as well on her walks I sort of speak to her encouragingly so that she sort of gets a positive vibe at oh there's a dog coming along and quite often before the dog gets to her I will spin her around so that her tail is facing the dog so that she gives off the vibe that she's a little bit submissive and friendly it sets up a good greeting with the other dogs and I always make sure it ends on a positive note so that she has good experiences when she's meeting dogs that would be my advice to you learn to anticipate what other dogs intentions are and also what your dog's intentions are well thanks for watching and thank you for putting up with my house to plant to a hand greyhound tips for new greyhound owners if you're thinking about getting a greyhound or you're about to get one or you're not sure if you might like a greyhound I highly recommend them they are fantastic dogs we've just loved every moment with olive and I hope we have many more years with her best dog I've ever had you won't regret it but just a few things that I think might be helpful you should for you to know before you get one and I hope this video has helped you

Channel: Natalie Powell

Views: 74,919

Keywords: Greyhound, rescued Greyhound, adopted Greyhound, adopting a greyhound, tips for adopting a greyhound, what to expect when adopting a greyhound, plant tour, hamptons, hampton style house, coastal home, house tour, hamptons style, how to live with a greyhound, living with a greyhound, exercising a greyhound, where does a greyhound sleep?, are greyhounds good pets?, greyhounds as pets, greyhounds and stairs, greyhounds and cats, plant obsession, plant decor, greyhound exercise

Id: 571v9V_CnKs

Length: 20min 36sec (1236 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 22 2020