Looking To Find A Good Breed For A Household With A 3 Yr Old-preferably Medium-large To Large, But Not Huge!?

We had a house fire in oct/04 and lost our 2 cats & 2 dogs. We’re ready to have housepets again. It’s a no-brainer with the cats, but, we will be introducing my munchkin to dogs, since she is too young to remember the ones we had. I am curious as to what are good breeds to have with young children. The 2 dogs we had were very old and were not threats to the baby. One was a cocker spaniel, the other a golden retriever/daschund mix (imagine a retriever with 3 inch legs-he was just too cute!). I am a firm believer that children should grow up with a companion or two if at all possible, and I am ready to start over again with a new dog.
I will definitely be looking to adopt, and I am not sure if I want a puppy, or one that is grown and house-broken already.
We have also been investigating retired greyhounds, but they are kind of iffy with cats.
I will have to find something soon as this is an incentive for potty training that IS WORKING!!!
Do NOT want any small yippy yappy things!

Personal Experience With Igs?

I might get an Italian Greyhound. One year old female, chocolate….
I’d like to hear experiences if anyone has owned one….
I know all of the breed characteristics and have been around them. Just never lived with one. They seem like such sweet dogs…
Don’t need to hear their legs break easily and they are hard to potty train, already know that too.

I’m At My Wit’s End With My New Puppys House Training! They Won’t Go Outside!?

I just got two Italian Greyhound pups who are 3 months old. I didn’t know this before, but I’m pretty sure they’re from a puppy mill. I’m looking into it. They were raised in a kennel from birth, have never been outside and never even been able to run around on the floor. Everything is all new to them. I’m trying so hard to be patient. I won’t bring them back to that place, so I’m really trying to work with them. They’re well behaved , very loving, sweet, but the one thing that is their downfall- they won’t pee or poop outside! I do the thing where I’ll keep them kenneled, take them out, if they don’t go, I bring them in, kennel them, take them out again in 15 minutes or so. Most dogs won’t pee where they sleep… these WILL. THey stink and their kennel stinks. I feel like crying! My kids and I are very attached to them, but I have a 2 year old who’s always walking on the floor. They just don’t get it when we’re outside. It’s freezing MN here, so they just sit and shake and cry. Help!

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Greyhound With Separation Anxiety?

I love my grey, and have had her for a year now, and was hoping that over time this problem would have improved. It has not. Even though she is house and crate trained, if you leave her alone for too long – even if you leave the ROOM for too long – she will get up and pee in the house. If you leave her in the crate for too long, she will also pee or poop in the crate, and then eat it, and puke, and eat the puke, and puke again…. tasty. She does cry sometimes too if you leave tied somewhere (when I go to the barn she gets tied up with her warm bed… but even if she can see me she still cries a bit). I just feel like I can’t trust her out alone for any period of time, even the time it takes me to go take a shower! I hate having to lock her up in her crate EVERY time I leave the house, even for short trips, but she has also done things like chew on everything she can find when left by herself, electical cords being her favorite chew of choice (note: she won’t play with toys or chew on real dog chewies, ever!). I’m not sure what I can do, because she only ever does it when I’m not around!

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Socializing My Dog With Kids?

I have a mutt from the humane society. We have no idea what she is, but people have asked us if she’s: lab, greyhound, Viszla, Dalmatian (body/head shape, not coloring), pit bull… She’s about 10 months old, and at her shoulders she’s right at the top of my knees and weighs 48 lbs. We’ve had her for 4 months. We’ve done some training with her at home (house breaking, sit, stay, lay down, come, shake, etc.) and she’s been VERY smart. We walk her on several long walks a day and play with her inside. We take her to the park probably… 5 times a week. We walk her around on the walking paths and let her run free in the baseball fields (fenced in) with tennis balls. She LOVES other dogs and wants to play with every one that she sees. She’s also pretty friendly with dog owners. But she’s skittish around other people. She backs away from people and puts her tail between her legs. Like I said, we do try to socialize her. When she backs away, we usually let the person try to give her a treat, but she won’t eat from them. She’s especially scared of kids. We’ve been kind of “forcing” her to be around people by taking her to petsmart just about every day and she’s getting a little better… she’ll walk up and sniff someone from the back or the side. But if they’re facing her, she’ll get scared.
It would be great if she’d have a comfort level with people like that of a service dog… but I don’t see that happening lol.

How Do People Live With Dogs Peeing And Pooing Inside Their Home?

I have been watching Victoria Stilwell’s “It’s Me or the Dog” and I am amazed how people can live in a home with dogs peeing and pooing everywhere. I don’t mean puppies which are being trained. It is natural that they will have accidents. I am referring to fully grown dogs which should, if they had been properly trained, known better.
The show the other day was 2 Greyhounds (gorgeous dogs) which were gated in the kitchen overnight and every morning and when they returned home there was pee and poo all over the kitchen. Video footage showed the dogs walking through it and then jumping up onto the kitchen benches. How can people live like that? It makes my stomach turn just thinking about it. My own dogs have been trained to stay out of the kitchen altogether – let alone not peeing and pooing through the house.
The stench must be stomach turning in their homes.
How can they live with this every day of their lives?

I Need To Travel From Phoenix Az To Pueblo Co, With My Adult Lab Mix. What Are My Cheapest Traveling Options?

I have no car and I am just trying to get home to my mom, whom I just found out is very sick, as soon as possible!! But i have a full grown lab mix that i have to take with me… As far as i know greyhound doesnt take anything but assistant dogs… Is there a train or maybe a one way flight that will only cost me around $200 bucks?

What To Do With My New Dog?

I have a new 20 month old greyhound who has been in kennels up til now. I also have 3 other ex racing greyhounds who are all older.
Poppy (the new one) is beautiful but very mischevious and eats or chews everything. I understand that, coming from kennels she is now going through her ‘puppy’ stage and needs to do this. I dont have a problem with it and we all just have to remember to remove everything from her reach. The real problem is peeing. She has access to the garden all day as I am home and I make her pee last thing at night too. In the mornings,however, there is always a puddle by the back door.
I am quite pleased she is obviously trying to get out as she does it by the door but she cant seem to hold on, is there a way of training her to wait til someone gets down and opens the door for her. We never lie in til late as all the dogs need to go out.

I Need Help With My Dog And A Very Tough Decision…?

My dog sydney, a coonhound (maybe greyhound or doberman mix) Keeps running away… I know that hounds run away a lot, but I live right in town. She runs away when I leave town. Thats the only thing that worries me is that she will get hit by a car. She is very well known by the police too! But she has 3 legs and she was found running on top of a ski pass with her leg amputated. She is such a wonderful dog… I have training classes lined up for Thursday. Do you think she can learn recall? She will linger outside the house, but wont come in! I dont know what to do, and my mom loves her, but doesnt know if we are the right home for her… She is perfectly fine except for running away… she recently chewed threw her leash while I was in Salt Lake City, UT and she is stuck at the shelter while we debate… Plz Help me!!!!!!!!!

How To Socialize A Greyhound With Other Dogs?

We’ve had our greyhound for a little over 3 months. She’s perfect with my parents dogs when we visit their house, but growls at new dogs that we meet while on walks/ in pet stores/etc.
Usually it’s a hackle raising growl at the new dog as they meet face to face. The growl happens so fast that I cannot seem to find a time to correct before she actually gets that growl out.
She seems to want to meet new dogs, but doesn’t pull us over to them. She’s very polite on the leash. I think it may be getting worse as she settles in more and more with us. Maybe guarding me? She is a momma’s girl….
After the growl happens I try to redirect her attention to stop the growl. If I physically pull her back she will try and lunge at the other dog, so I try to move to the side and get her away.
Usually if she’s off leash and with the dog in a pen or fenced in area she’s fine after a “your not the boss of me growl” I almost feel that she doesn’t know how to greet other pups in a social manner so she feels uncomfortable and growls, which puts me on edge!
It’s only with dogs that I let her meet, never at dogs we just walk by.
So I guess my question is how do I help her become more comfortable? Most dogs we meet on walks have no manners and are crazy! Not balanced polite dogs. Usually dragging their owners over to us to meet! I can certainly see how that would make our pup uncomfortable. I hesitate to take her to a community dog park and turn her free. The dogs there will probably be too excited for her to learn how to properly interact with dogs.
She’s NOT food motivated and will refuse to take any treats if she in any type of new environment. Sometimes will even refuse to take treats while we are training in our quiet apartment. I iwsh I could get her motivated enough for some clicker training.
I hesitate to sign up for a dog class, I almost feel like it would be a waste of time. She’s not in need of any help, other than socializing with a bunch of different types of dogs.
Any ideas on what I could do?

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