Greyhound/hound owners - can I ask some advice?

[gerbo]

We have our new beautiful boy home from Dog's Trust. He's 4 and in good health.

I have a few questions and the net seems full of contradictory opinions!

1. He came with a martingale collar (wide) and harness. Should he wear this collar all the time, or just a house collar? (Haven't bought yet) Do you put the martingale on for each walk and attach lead to it, or attach lead to the harness?!

1. He has sloppy poos. I know this is probably nerves, but we're wondering about his diet. He's on Wainwright's complete dry food. Is the packaged raw food much better for them? Is there a better quality mid to high price fry food which is better and may result in less mousse like poos?!

1. Do we leave terry brushing for a while as it may be too much stress? He's been here only a couple of days.

He's seemingly settling well, is toilet trained, seems calm and relaxed and loves his duvet beds! I think his foster carers did a great job....

Any advice gratefully received.

Hi! We have a rescue greyhound and I can certainly address number 2 question.
We tried EVERY type and make of dry/wet food from the most expensive to the cheapest. His poos were so sloppy and frequent that we questioned whether he actually benefitted from the nutritional aspect.
We were recommended BARF (biologically approved raw food ).
We have never looked back and our beloved dog seems so much more contented. An added advantage (for you as an owner) is that there is very little waste and it is formed and not too smelly.
There is a lot of choice out there if you google but we settled on Pets at Home and choose the Turkey or Chicken variety as this seems to suit him best. If your Freezer is big enough to accommodate it is more cost effective to bulk buy. (We order 3 boxes every fortnight but this will be dependant on your dogs weight).
Good luck.

Congratulations on being the human to the best dog :)

1. I just use a house collar at home. I didn't get on with a martingale, so went to a body harness which reduce the pulling from my two. See how you get on, each hound seems to prefer a different collar

1. My two had sloppy poops at first. After a couple of weeks it settled but grain-free food has completely solved it. Although don't get one high in legumes as its bad for their heart. I like Barking heads.

1. do you mean teeth brushing? if so, I left it a couple of weeks and built it gradually but still neither of mine like it (they tolerate it). I use the little pads that go on your fingers. I'm sure others will have advice on this though

Congratulations! No expert advice but ours has his standard martingale collar nearly on all the time, it doesn't bother him at all and although he's not a bolter or jumper I prefer him to have something with identification on just in case. We just clip on a lead as he hated harnesses, but I think I'd rather he was in a harness as I do think about those delicate necks. Just get it well fitted due to their funny chest shape!

We've tried a few foods so you might need some trial and error, allaboutdogfood.co.uk is a good site, just be gradual with any changes

Brushing is a sporadic affair here, I'd say it won't hurt him to wait a little bit while he settles in. We found the 3 day/3 week /3 month guidance pretty spot on with our rescue hound.

Sounds like he's fallen on his paws with you

Following, as we have just got a rescue lurcher!

We use a harness for leads, rather than the collar - I hate the sounds dogs make when they pull on collars. We just have a house collar for her tag, no martingale.

With the harness, don't use the Julian K9 that everyone seems to have! The construction with just the bar across the front means that sighthounds (with their barrel chests, skinny tums and narrow heads) can slip out of them. Make sure the harness has a Y shape at the front, and preferably a third strap round the tummy if they are a potential flight risk (ours is an ex-hunter).

We were recommended these ones:
Ruff Wear Webmaster
Vari-fit Houdini
And ended up buying this one, which is based on the Webmaster, but has pockets for carrying things on walks.

1. We have a lovely soft leather collar for walks, Martingale only for walks
2. Ours had sloppy poo until we moved to raw. He has frozen food delivered from They love it.
3. With raw and bones to chew, ours doesn't need much brushing, gauze on the finger works well as a starter

And we have similar poo problems! I think it's the food she's on, which is very high in cereal products, and low in protein. We are gradually tranistioning her onto Eden dry food, which is 80% meat and 20% veg, and comes very well reviewed and rated (the rating website a PP mentioned is very useful). We're going slowly though, as it's much richer than her previous food, and we don't want an upset tummy! She loves it though, wolfs it down in comparison to the other food.

Mm a gorgeous hound and no pic. That isn't how this site works op...

I have lurchers. Mine always walk on a martingale, neither of them like harnesses and as they walk nicely and don't pull its fine. My foster puppies wear a harness while they are learning to walk nicely, and I use the perfect fit harnesses to get the right shape for them. They wear a house collar permanently for their tag, and the martingale gets popped on for first walk and then taken off after the last walk.
They do have sensitive tummies. Mine have Burns sensitive dry food plus Burns wet food or Naturo or Butchers. They love Chub roll which is wheat free and suits them, but it smells awful! We have to be careful with treats so use natural ones like dried sprats or dried meat from Treats2sit4
Leave things that might stress him for now. A nice antler to chew will help his teeth

@gerbo I should have mentioned that you can supplement with carrot/apple,etc. .My boy loves a little apple but has decided he no longer likes carrots!
If you are thinking of buying a coat I would recommend ordering one online as shop ones didn't quite fit properly but maybe that's because my boy is a lurcher although is a greyhound in looks and personality. I was able to send exact measurements and his coat is perfect for cold weather.

A wide martingale - I'm assuming 2" from your description - is a bit too wide to be comfortable as a house/tag collar. Many hounds wear a narrower, less heavy duty collar all the time and have the martingale on for walks.

Make sure the martingale is correctly adjusted: they're designed to stop the hound backing out of the collar in an emergency, as many hounds heads are narrower than their necks. For this to work, the D-rings on the main part of the collar should not touch when the collar is tightened (if the dog pulls, or you do); an inch or two between is ideal. Without any lead pressure the collar sits nicely on the neck like a normal flat collar. Pop it over the dog's head and adjust the collar accordingly with the slider buckle. Once you've done that, you should still be able to slip the collar on and off without adjusting it further but the collar will stay firmly on the dog when it needs to. Just check it when you put it on to make sure the adjustment remains correct.

Legally the dog must wear an ID tag whether on collar or harness. If you attach the tag to the martingale, attach it to the slider buckle not any of the D-rings so that it doesn't interfere with the action of the martingale.

As to harness or collar it depends on the dog; some dogs pull more in a harness so are easier to manage on a collar, some pull less and are happy to mooch about on a harness. Some need a double-ended lead attached to both; experiment somewhere safe before deciding which is best for you.

Some greyhounds coming out of the racing industry have been fed appalling diets. Although marketed specifically for them, some foods have such a low nutritional value that the dogs need to eat a huge amount of it to get enough to get by, resulting in equally large and sometimes unpleasant poo. It can often take a while for their bodies to adjust to smaller amounts of better food. Try not to change foods too rapidly, and add a probiotic supplement to each meal.

Teeth cleaning can come as your bond develops. In the meantime, you can try natural chews and chew toys to help keep their teeth clean.

One thing I would recommend it that you buy belt/buckle fastening leads rather than clasp fastening ones. Sighthounds can be heavy on the lead and clasps have been known to fail (I talk from experience). Greyhound rescues are a good place to get them. Also 3 point harnesses are a must.

My boys wear their martindales all the time. One walks with a lead buckled to his collar and one has a lead to both collar and harness as he is a bolter.

Enjoy your new dog - a word of warning though - one is never enough!

And don't use a Flexi lead!

Hi we use a fabric house collar from red dingo for wearing all the time
www.amazon.co.uk/Red-Dingo-White-Collar-31-47cm/dp/B07S7F513R

Martingale collar with clip on lead for outside - our boy has been fine with this

Sloppy poos - he had a delicate tum for a few weeks when we got him but I suspect that this was partly due to stress. Now he is on kibble plus vegetables and various treats 😊 (within reason) and poos have settled down.

Ours is obsessed with stealing slippers to put in his bed and also seems to have taken over all the sofas! We love him to bits though, hope you have lots of fun with your long doggy!

@fliss444 Where did you get your coat from?

I tried so many foods with my lurcher, but the best for him was James wellbeloved dry with a little nature's menu wet food. He hated his teeth being brushed so I used PlaqueOff to stop them getting bad.

Picture of the big fluffy beast !

Wow, so much helpful information,
thanks.

@fliss444 - which food exactly do you buy from Pets at Home? There's such an array of raw out there. I think we'd like to give him the best diet we can, it's a win win with health and less from poos maybe?! Looks like trial and error is the way forward, and slowly slowly.

@Parkandride - what is the 3day/month/year rule please?

I'm looking into everything now. I'll try to attach a photo.....

My pointy hounds have raw and cooked veg every day. Great for keeping teeth clean. Ours have half dry and half wet food. Photo is lovely op!! Congratulations on your amazing new friend..

The 3 3 3 'rule' (not really a rule) is a guide to how long it takes rescue dogs to settle in.

The first three days they might be stressed, scared, confused

In the first three weeks they'll start to settle, come out of their shell

By the end of the first three months, they should feel that this is their 'forever home', and feel settled and comfortable.

www.rescuedogs101.com/bringing-new-dog-home-3-3-3-rule

@gerbo
We buy Natures Menu which come in 400gr blocks. They are frozen and we just defrost accordingly overnight There are a few varieties and we have found the most suitable ones to be lamb and chicken, chicken and turkey.
There are instructions how much to feed according to weight.

@fliss444 I found the raw mince at pets at home.

Probably a stupid question but is that covering their nutrient needs? Just meat? As you said, you can supplement with some fruit/veg, oats....

Willing to try if it improves the poo. It's a bit stressful when his poo makes a big mark/stain- I feel guilty leaving that on the pavement!

Thanks all. Ordering a house collar now from Silver Peacock, and will invest in a good harness, although they're expensive!

Is it normal to feel as if you've just brought your first newborn home?!?!?! I'm on pins! Happy, but anxious...

Just in the subject, sorry for jumping in OP, what about nail grooming? how often and what to other owners recommend to use.

Aww, congrats on your new family member. I have a rescue sight hound (a podenco - Spanish breed). He wears a martingale collar most of the time, in and out of the home - no issues at all - and I add a harness for going out, with his lead clipped to both (he was a houdini when I first got him). I bought a ruff wear web master harness - fabulous things, and worth the money. He has a variety of coats for cold weather which really do make a difference - hes miserable when cold (and moved from the Canaries to Scotland!) and loves to be outside when toasty in a coat.
He went through phases of loose stools - combination of stress (he's a nervy boy), and an upset tummy until I got a food combo he agreed with. He has a mix of meat, biscuits and veg (loves most veg) now and is great on it.
Just a word to recommend taking your time with him - my boy took an age to really settle (he admittedly had a really rough start in life).

No newborn ever took up as much space on a sofa op!!

And hearing on here about greyhound farts I bet no baby smelled as bad either!!

Can't advise on the teeth brushing too much as ours loves having his teeth cleaned, he's weird 😂 comes home from his evening walk and sits patiently downstairs for his teeth clean before taking himself upstairs to bed.

We had the same poo issues, tried all sorts, he wouldn't eat raw so now I make his food, boiled mince with whatever veg we have lying around and rice, he has that mixed with tails dry food. He loves it and no more sloppy poos.

He has a house collar and we just put his martingale on for walks.

Nails are done at the groomers, I tried it once but he screamed at me so I leave it up to the professionals