Confining a greyhound

[Flippetydip]

Hi - sorry, I'm aware I'm going to become a total pain with all these questions.

I've heard it said you shouldn't confine a grey to one room as they'll wreck themselves and the door trying to get out. Does this also go for shutting off rooms? So e.g. we leave her in the room she's usually in, door open, access to hallway and kitchen but shut living room door - is she likely to go yampy trying to get into living room?

Also, I know this is probably an unanswerable question but is she likely to become desensitized to small dogs the more we go out on walks? I'm aware everything is still extremely new - up to three days ago she'd never seen anything other than other greyhounds.

I can't speak for all greys but when we leave ours we tend to keep the kitchen door shut (so he doesn't attempt to extract the contents of the bins!). We also usually shut the upstairs doors too. I'm fairly confident that all he does when we're out is snooze on his bed though.

When we first left him for a couple of hours he did like to collect things, I came home to find a bra, my old teddy bear, a couple of coals from the fire, a tube of antiseptic cream and a bottle of prosecco on his bed. He doesn't do that anymore but does explain why we keep doors closed!

I prefer to crate than confine a dog to one room - being shut in with no ability to see whats going on is quite stressy imo. But shutting doors of rooms you don't want them in is fine.
If you reward not reacting to small dogs, she will get better. Try a 'look at me' command with a handful of treats as you walk along, and get in with the treats before she sees/reacts as you don't want 'I bark at the fluffy things, then mum gives me food', you want 'fluffy things boring, mum luffly' as the message.

Depends on the dog. I had 2 greyhounds and when I was out they had there duvets on floor of lounge. Never any issues whatsoever. No destruction, collecting, nothing. They loved to sleep and neither wanted to get on the sofa either (yes they were definitely greyhounds!)

My girl was never good with other dogs whilst out even other greyhounds (apart from my male grey) but especially small fluffy ones - never grew out of it, however my boy, even though an ex-racer lost his prey drive almost immediately and loved all other dogs but tend to think he is the exception. When my girl died, he used to go to doggy day care occasionally even when I was home so he could spend the day with 9 other dogs - he loved it!

Some useful info here:

greyhoundgap.proboards.com/thread/29756/new-hound-home

And other similar pages worth a read on the same site.

Can only speak for mine but he doesn't cope well being confined to a room. I only do it when I'm hoovering a room as he's frightened of the hoover. Generally he's a lot more relaxed if he has free run of the downstairs.

I can't answer about small dogs as mine is fine with all dogs, sorry. Hope you get sorted.

Mine's a lurcher but he's happiest with open access. He's scrabbled and scratched several doors before I realised this and it does mean that I have to check and tidy the kitchen before I leave the house.
He also collects random things sometimes!

Open access here. All ours have a free run of the house except the utility room.

I leave my Greyhound at home with every door open as he cries if you shut even one door, including the loo but I make sure no bleach down toilet (flushed several times), I've came to home with him with sleeping with his snout in my Ugg, I like to think he misses me that much! (grin)

I've never heard that before! I actually have the opposite with mine, we have an open lounge/kitchen and if you don't shut the door when you're not there he stands at the bottom of the stairs and whines, but if you close the door he is perfectly happy!

Mine has never been destructive but I know some are. I don't think it's a grey thing, just a dog thing.

On the subject of little dogs, yes he'll get used to them but might need help. I took mine to socialising classes for 6 weeks and that worked brilliantly, he loves all dogs now.

It took me a few weeks to work out what my grey wanted. Now I know that in her case she always has to have the exits covered

As long as she can see the front and back doors (both are in my hall), she doesn't really mind if I close the living room door or the kitchen one (though I very rarely confine her to the hall - she usually has hall and kitchen when I'm out).

When we visit my parents she has to have the hall and the living room as they both have doors leading outside.

When we are on a train she likes to lie down in the carriage end so she can see the doors on either side of the train, then gets all morose when she has to move to let people get on and off the train.

It might be a bit of trial and error - a compromise between the rules you impose for your own good reasons and what your dog prefers.

Mine are allowed anywhere except the kitchen when we're out. The low cunning my old boy is capable of knows no bounds. He hasn't figured out this bin though. yet