Rehomed Greyhound Experts

[m00rfarm]

My son has adopted a greyhound from a place in Essex which takes in ex racers and finds people to adopt them.

The greyhound is a very nice dog. 4 years old, was racing until November last year. She is very calm, polite, friendly and really settling in well. She has learnt how to wag her tail (in circles!), play with her toys and seems to enjoy being part of a family.

However, she struggles with knowing where to wee and poo. She gets a lot of praise when she wees and poos outside or on walks. She whines when she wants to go out, and she is always let out immediately. However, occasionally she just wees on the sitting room floor without any warning. It is always cleared up and sprayed (hard wood floor) and there is no smell to encourage her to go in the same place.

Today, I came into the house and took her into the garden where she immediately had a wee and a poo. She came back inside, wandered around a bit, had a drink of water, then walked outside (where it was slightly spitting with rain), came straight back inside and immediately weed before I could do anything about it! She was watching me, and by the time i had got up and told her to go outside, it was obviously too late. I made her wait outside whilst i cleaned it up, and she KNEW she had done wrong.

Is this normal with a rehomed greyhound, and do we just keep doing what we are doing? Are there any other ideas?

Firstly, I am not an expert! I do have two rescue ex-racers, though, so my advice may be helpful?

By far the most important thing is to be patient and kind! All the dog wants to do is what she thinks you are asking of her 🙂

Keep taking her out and every time she pees/poops reward with a treat.

Greyhounds are so sensitive and it's a huge adjustment from racing to pet dog, she just needs a lot of love and a little time.

It’s pretty normal for dogs that have lived in kennels to take a bit to housetrain fully - it’s just patience and waiting till they fully get the idea that inside is no longer the place.

Aso though, greyhounds hate the rain - even tiny bits of it, you might want to lock yourself out there with her if she needs and it’s raining … and also watch for fake peeing 😐 one of mine (not a pointy but equally averse to rain) will pretend he’s peeing to get into the dry quicker

Not an expert but have had greyhounds.
I do agree that this will be a massive change for her and patience and love is required. Just to add, dogs don't know they've done wrong so you need to banish that idea.
You need to establish a routine. At the start I took my greyhound out every hour and praised when the deed was done. I cleaned up accidents without saying a word. I stretched the time to 90 mins, then 2 hours, 3 etc. I think a female dog is easier because some of my dogs have had the urge to mark without needing a wee.
There are lots of training resources on YouTube (non-aversive methods) so lots to look at. It's very common with rescues especially greyhounds who have often never been in a home. There needs to be plenty of time to decompress and just get used to everything. They are brilliant, gentle creatures. I loved mine so much but there are definitely challenges. Don't blame the dog, blame the system.

Thanks everyone :) I think one of the things she is doing is confusing us most - weeing (she is definitely weeing as I can see it!) and then coming in, having a drink of water, then a minute later, weeing again. She comes to us to be told how wonderful she is after weeing and pooing outside, but does the "eyes and tail" thing when she wees in front of us inside. She clearly knows but we understand it is early days yet. The idea of fake weeing to get it over with is a bit of a concern though! Also, on walks she prefers to wee on concrete rather than grass which I think is strange.

If she's lived in kennels all of her life, she's probably more used to weeing on concrete or paved areas.

OK - I was not sure whether they were allowed grass or some other surface to wee on.

I've had my Greyhound coming up to 4 years now. When he gets tremendously excited/there is a change in routine - he does random wees and we have carpets! Otherwise he has always been perfectly housetrained and arrived like that. Its very random - if it increased in frequency I would get to the vets.

Greyhounds love/are used to routine so absolutely agree ensuring they have that routine is so important. They have a strict routine in the kennels - they just need to get used to the new routine. For mine he has a wee after breakfast, dinner and before bed - it really helps them feel secure ( and helps with timing) . Similarly fresh water after a walk helps too. On walks he loves to pee every 5 metres - that's another story !

The praise for weeing outside might be misinterpreted unless they are being praised immediately after the deed. I don't think Greys are unintelligent - they just think differently to other dogs so don't always respond to usual training routines. She just might need time to get used to everything. Praise for asking to go out and using a special word ( mine's busyboy) might help too - one of the ladies at the kennels we adopted from taught us that . Do use them for advice and there is often an associated facebook group for retiree owners too. Sometimes you can get insight from the racing kennels who might keep up with their ex-racers - I was warned that mine would hold onto his toileting until he has had breakfast.

You have to remember with dogs that have been used to living in kennels that they have no concept of having to hold - they just toilet whenever they feel like it

so they need to learn to only go outside and that there’s a routine to that as well

it’s a lot for them to learn

she might not fake pee, I don’t know how common it is, I just know my hates rain dog will try it 😂

Many kennelled dogs will just wee in the kennels - they have no concept of “going out” to toilet so it’s a whole new learning experience for them.

My understanding is that greyhounds really don't like weeing etc in their kennels, but they do have a regular routine - so once yours figures out this is her kennels it could well be fine. We've been very lucky. We had, I think, one accident on the first day with our first boy and that was it. Our current boy was fine very quickly except he very occasionally deposits on the stone floor in the hall if he's feeling a bit stressed. Otherwise he's absent mindedly started to wee against the Christmas tree a couple of times and once against a cardboard wine box (and stopped as soon as he was told). We just went out very regularly at the start, always after meals and drinks and got them into the habit of it and going to the back door when they needed to go. As others have said, they often don't like rain, so put a coat on her or even hold an umbrella up if you're taking her out into the rain.