I've never had experience of teeth being removed, but our last two had been in on occassions for other minor surgery and it's always a worrying time. Typically they get over the anaesthetic within a day or two.

As far as neutering goes a month is a long time in the life of a dog, so provided Tula is fine and healthy at the time there's probably no reason not to go ahead.

Obviously in matters like this you're best guided by the vet rather than well-meaning keyboard warriors like me

Thanks for all the posts about Booker & Tula. I love reading them & hearing about all their antics. I have 2 greys, one of which, Maisie, was from Celia & Jimmy. To see the changes in her even after almost 3 years is fabulous. It's one of the most rewarding things I've ever done.
I fostered a few times too which was a brilliant experience but got VERY attached to my last foster so haven't been able to bring myself to do it again - never say never though. I'll probably end up like Bridget Bardot, lol.
You have no idea how great it is to hear how happy you all are & how very lucky Booker & Tula are to have found such a fabulous home.
Keep the posts going.
Re teeth extractions, fortunately haven't had experience of the canine kind so can't give you any handy hints/tips. As for vets visits - Brionnach got the snip last week & Maisie cried the WHOLE day he was gone! Bless them, they just don't like being without each other

Just done our last walk. Tula was only out 5 min and then wanted back in. Booker had a longer walk.

Tula has recovered a fair bit since she came home. The bleeding has almost stopped, but still a little bit. We got bloodmarks in their bed (covered with old towels) and on "their" spare bed in the office.

She still does not want to take any food or water, but is a bit more alert and walks in and out of the living room. She knows where the water is if she decides to have a drink.

Booker is still spending a lot of the time with her.

We managed to get her to swallow her last painkiller for the day. She is back to the vet tomorrow morning for an after care check.

Last night on the way home from the vet I stopped by the park so she could come out of the car and straight on to the grass. I had picked up her poo, but set it down on the grass in order to help her in to the car. I forgot it there... I did however remember this morning and walk by there with Booker and picked it up.

Tula is much better. Her gums are still bleeding, but much less. As usual she came to wake us up by licking our faces.

The tongue of Bloodzilla.....

She had water and food this morning. After I came back from taking Greg to work they were both at the door greeting me. Now she has wondered around living little drops of blood everywhere. That is however not so important. I can clean that. The main thing is that she is much better. We are heading over to the vet now for a checkup on both her gums and paw.

Tula had to be left at the vet again. Poor girl. The bleeding should have stopped by now and it has not. She will receive a light sedative and then they will try to stop the bleeding. I am to call and check about 3pm.

Have to admit to a wee lump in my throat when driving home alone. Think I need to take Booker on a long walk and calm down.

What a shame, I came on for an update hoping she'd be all better. Thank you for keeping us posted and hopefully when I come back later she'll be tucked up under the watchful eye of Booker and you'll all be feeling much better.

Rest assure Karen, she is better. Marked difference this morning from yesterday. The only thing is that the bleeding from her gums had not stopped yet and it should have, so it is being checked in to. Thats all. Still feels bad to have to leave her there again though.

Booker is doing well. Poor fellow has not had much attention on here lately. We have given him good long walks, a couple of extra yesterday and today, and it's therapeutic for him and us.

He has started to behave a lot better and calmer when meeting small fury "prey". Of course when some idiot throws a stick for his off the lead Pit bull to fetch in such a way that it lands right in front of us, TWICE???!!!!!, it was a bit much even for him. He started to howl wanting to play as well. I shouted to the guy to stop doing that and he walked off with his dog. Booker was not too difficult to calm down and we carried on with our walk. He has been very good lately even if he still pee's inside from time to time. At the moment he has had his pig ear after the walk, he is sleeping on the floor in the living room and I need to get an air-freshener in here...

I am now going to call the vet or an update and pick up time for Tula.

Hi,
it's greyt to know Booker and Tula have finally found their forever home together! I've really enjoyed following their progress.
A small percentage of greyhounds are what is known as "bleeders". I don't know that much but hopefully any vet that any of us use is familiar with it. It's a concern if there's an accident or the dog requires surgery e.g. neutering as a transfusion may then be needed.
Hope Tula is home with you soon!

Michele

They are still working with her. She is fine. They said the bleeding looks like it has stopped for now, but they want to keep her for observation a bit longer. If she starts to bleed again, they may keep her overnight for observation. If it remains stopped, she will be home tonight.

TULA IS BACK HOME!!!!!!!!!

She is a lot better. She had a little food. For the next few days it will for the most part be wet food mixed in with some dry food soaked to be soft.

She is resting now, still feeling the effect of the sedative that was used. The bleeding is all gone and she has been cleaned up so she looks pretty and shiny again.

She just came in to say hello wanting some attention. Definitively feeling a lot better.

I'm really glad to hear that Tula is feeling better. I love the photos of her on the sofa. She looks so comfy. DFS may approach her soon to take part in the next advertisement campaign for its next sale.

Tula that is great news!
Hope you are feeling better soon.
Make sure you keep being spoiled.
Hugs and cuddles.
George & Morag
and big woof woofs from Billy and Lassie

That's fantastic news.

This morning she was all "perky" again and in a good mood. We did a short walk with her and a longer walk with Booker. She had some dry food that we soaked for a 15-20 min mixed with a fair bit of wet food. We are back to the vet at 11:30 today for a check up again, just to make sure. She does not seem to have any pain at the moment maybe due to painkillers.

Don't think Booker will be too happy when we have to leave him alone again...
At least it's only for a short while.

Everything is almost back to normal.

Tula spent about 2 minutes with the vet and then we came home. We are going back next week. She has recovered and is back to her normal self. She ate this morning and mid day I gave her a can of wet food and she ate all of it.

Booker is glad she is back home. They are both sleeping in their bed at the moment.
I am finally loosing some of the stress...

Booker is next for teeth treatment...

The twins are snoozing happily in the livingroom with us. Tula has snuck up on the couch. She is a bit high on the painkillers we gave her as revealed by her "rolling eye's" when walking around.

Here is Tula making herself veeeeerrrrryyyyyyyyy comfortable....



On a different note: In a previous post I said that we bought a hatchback for transport of the whole family. That was a typo. It was supposed to say an Estate. Sorry.

We had our morning walk today and all is fine. Tula is still getting a shorter walk, but that is because of her paw where she also had a small insertion. Booker got a long walk.

At the moment it seems like we have taken a couple of steps backwards when it comes to discipline. I think it is because over the last couple of days, the walks have generally been shorter and we have let them start to sniff around as they wanted until they did their thing and then taken them back inside.

That is stopping as of this morning!

We are still letting Tula do shorter walks, but not Booker. This morning we had a 45 min walk and he kept pulling on the lead wanting to put his nose anywhere. I did not let him do anything for a while and when I did he did not waste a lot of time sniffing. The exception is that when we do start the walk they are a bit desperate so we let them have a relieve fairly soonish. They both have their favourite pee-spot. A tree for Booker and a patch of grass for Tula

On a more serious note:
Last night I had a perfect example of the decease of trust that is spoken about elsewhere. I have to say that it is an excellent article.

Lately they have been very well behave when we meet other dogs. We have walked past them, given corrections and carried on walking. I was walking them alone and it was fairly quiet outside, so I decided to walk them without the muzzle.

I was in the park and had walked in to walkway that was only about 20 yards long and led to a little sitting area and lots of grass and trees around. As we get ready to leave, I see another guy coming down the walkway. He is being walked by his little Poodle on a flexi-lead and collar with a flashing red light on it.

I stoped and waited, expecting him to take the other path as he had seen me. No luck there.....

He (or the dog) takes the path towards us. As out paths on this somewhat narrow walkway has to cross, I decide to start walking and just walk past. Of course they are fully focused on this little dog, triggering all their instincts. I maintain the speed, keep a short lead trying not to have tension on it. I have to give several corrections, but it all went fine until we were had passed and reach about 2-3 meters apart. Then the little dog turned around and started to pull on his lead and barking at Booker and Tula. I thought Poodles were supposed to be smart.... The reaction from Booker and Tula was immediate, they launched. As mentioned I had them on a very short lead, so they did not get far. The other dog with his human pet had passed on my right side. Tula was on my right and Booker on my left. Booker curved himself around me and barked.

When I corrected him I got bit on my right thigh. Hard enough to scratch the skin and give me a swelling, but not enough to draw blood. There was no hole in my jeans either. The whole thing only lasted a very few seconds. He new he had bit me, both because of my reaction as also by the way he behaved for the rest of the walk.

There is a couple of things I want to emphasise here: He did not bite me on purpose, I just happened to place my leg between him and the other dog. Also, although I was mad (it did hurt a bit) I do not blame Booker at all. I blame myself and I also blame the other dog owner for being so stupid as to come down the short dead end footpath after seeing me standing there with 2 large hunting dogs.

I think there is a couple of arguments to be made here. As an owner of two powerful dogs trained to chase it is my responsibility to make sure I can control them at all times so a narrow footpath is equally safe for everyone. That being said, it is also the responsibility of small dog owners to not get themselves in this kind of situation. In other words a joint responsibility if you like.

I am not ready for Booker and Tula to start socialising with other dogs yet. (except Greyhounds) and the number of times we have taken a different path so we can concentrate on the walk are too many to count. I need to know them better first. After all, three and a half weeks are not very long.

This brings me to the final point. TRUST. The article written about this is very good and well written. And this incident proofs it. I did not trust them when we walked by the other dog. Maybe they sensed that, but more importantly, I trusted them enough to not use the muzzles on a quiet night out. No harm was done apart from my sore leg.

That was the lessons learned bit over with. On the positive side, Tula has again found her spot on the couch (see pic above) and Booker is sleeping on the carpet. They both seem very content at the moment. I am walking them again at around 13:00. I might walk the separately as Tula is still having shorter walks. We will see.

Good to hear that Tula is on the mend and happy again

Your tale about Bookers antics with other dogs concerns me though. I think given his close encounter with the Dalmation and this latest incident with the poodle you should keep him muzzled at all times, regardless of whether the two of you are walking them or not. This time he got your thigh, but I'm sure you'll agree with the benefit of hindsight that was more luck than judgement. If he had nipped somebody elses thigh or dog you could find yourself on the receiving end of the dangerous dogs act if whoever he bites next time chooses to take that route. I'm sure you would not like to even start to think about the consequences of that happening.

Public perception of greyhounds varies as much as the nature of the dogs themselves. In general people are not wary of greyhounds in the same way they might be of a snarling alsation, doberman, rottweiler or staffie. Some small dog owners fear that a greyhound may mistake their pet for a rabbit, others do not. A small dog could bark at Kell all day long and he'll just stand there wagging his tail at it. If the same dog tried that with Booker it sounds like it would be a very different story, which is why he should be muzzled.

I don't want to sound like I'm lecturing you here because that is not my intention. I just honestly think that keeping Booker muzzled will keep him safe.

I had them both muzzled for the afternoon walk today. But I am not letting him get near enough any other dogs to cause damage. Thats why I had them on such a tight lead and also stepped in the way. I will make sure that he is safe at all times. That being said I think you are right, which is a shame.

The walk today was a good one and for now I just need to reinforce the discipline from before Tula's ordeal.

Whilst you can do all you can to try to avoid small dogs sadly there's nothing much you can do about owners who let there small dogs run free, or virtually free at the end of a flexi lead. Common sense would dictate small dog owners would be wary of bigger dogs, but unfortunately common sense doesn't seem to be that common any more!!

On the plus side, I think you'll find yourself slightly more relaxed walking them muzzled because you won't constantly be worrying about other dogs. You may also find over time (and we're probably talking years not weeks here) that your dogs will mellow as they get older and more used to other smaller breeds.

On a seperate note, anyone looking for the excellent article on trust mentioned a couple of posts ago can find it here

Hi guys

We've been following this thread the whole way through and its been so useful with knowing what to expect with our two new greyhounds. We got Logan and Jazz (previously Jet and Sweetie) from Celia and Jimmy on Thursday and are doing well so far.

Sounds like you're doing a great job and I love following what you're up to

Nicola

Hi Nicolai,
You're doing very well, since they are two big, strong dogs. Today we rehomed Moss to a young ( very fit ) lady. As you may remember, Moss is another greyhound who wouldn't take prisoners ! We supplied the lady with a harness and extra lead, which helps control a dog when it is reacting towards another dog. You may remember, when you saw one in the kennels, you thought that it looked like a doggy brassiere ! Such a harness might help you in a similar situation.

Hey guys. Thanks for the encouraging comments. And steve, thanks for putting up that link to the article I mentioned. Everyone should read it.

We are just in from evening walk and I walked them with their muzzles on again. It is right that fee a little more relaxed, but at the same time I don't like having to use them as they clearly hate it. For the time being it will have to be though.

Great to here about the dogs being rehomed. I try to keep our experiences as honest as I can bot on positives and negatives.

For those that don't know, we live on the third floor in an old tenement building. They are not too crazy about the stairs, but have learned to walk up and down pretty good. Today when we came in from the walk, Tula decided to go straight ahead in the hall while me and Booker started up the stairs. As a result I had to stop, take a few steps down to get Tula on the right track. When she started to walk up the stairs, Booker had managed to turn around and was facing downwards.......

The recovery was interesting.....

For some reason they suddenly seem to have taken a couple of steps backwards. Still as loving as ever, but Tula has started to get in to our bed again and Booker has peed inside 3 times today and Tula ones. Maybe it is due to the disrupted schedule and Tula not only having been unwell, but also high on the tablets from the vet. Or maybe it is a normal face after about this period of time after moving out of a kennel

Or:

Maybe it is me having a negative effect as I have been a bitt more stressed than normal last week or so due to various things happening all at ones. I do make an effort to be calm and provide that safe sanctuary.

Maybe all of the above. All is being sorted anyway. I guess it is now more important than ever to maintain good, safe discipline and a calm environment.

I just caught this images 5 minutes ago of Tula against the wall. I don't think I have ever seen a dog lay quite like that before....



Sorry for yet another pic of just Tula, but this one is hysterical.

Hi Greg & Nicolai
When we first re-homed our Billy, neither of us had ever owned a dog so it is all about learning about each other.
The first dog he met was our neighbours 8 week old Border Collie and he was terrified of it and tried to back away. Billy like many Greyhounds did not understand that dogs come in all shapes and sizes that were not greyhounds.

At first he was muzzled all the time till he learnt about his new surroundings smells and other dogs etc. Gradually when we were out walking we took his muzzle off a little bit sooner every walk till we were both confident in each other. Then we removed it completely as we felt comfortable with his progress. We were able to socialise fairly quickly with most other breeds of dog but always being careful how we met, always trying to forward plan the situation.

To this day Billy won't go up the stairs in the house although will do stairs when he is out.

We re-homed Lassie 6 months later and did the same routine with her. The first thing she did when we got her home was to go up the stairs and has not stopped since. You do learn by their body language how they are responding to the events around them.
We are always careful around small dogs, Making sure they are on a short lead and by our side, So that they know who is Alpha. They would think they were Alpha if they were walking ahead of us.

Billy's main problem is loud noises like big lorry's and buses he will bend down and back away although he is better if you let him watch them as they pass. When we are out walking we always talk to them giving them constant praise if they are walking well and behaving. If we do meet another dog they do not know again we always talk to them and praise them for good behaviour around the dog.

We do have to watch Lassie around other bitches that are submissive to her as she does react to that behaviour sometimes for some reason.
Generally though they are great, We just try to watch ahead and think hounds all the time.

Being dog owners now its amazing how much glass on the pavements and paths that you have to avoid. Before you never saw how bad the problem was with broken bottles etc, especially after the weekends.

Hope our experience helps it is a big learning curve.
Our two pick up on everything different around them they are very clever.Hopefully Tula and Booker will settle for you soon.

Also as Celia and Jimmy mentioned we use harnesses for Billy and Lassie, For us it works. But some people say you have less control of the head. Personnel choice is best.

All the best
George, Morag, Billy & Lassie

Thanks for all of that and thanks to Steve for his post on the other thread.

We are learning all of this as well. All the glass on the street and also in park is certainly a big issue in the east end of Glasgow. Booker and Tula has no issues with noises at all.

We just came in from a really good walk with them. We wanted to take a longer walk, but we are still limited until we are sure Tula's paw is properly healed. She seems ok though. Now more interested in walking on the pavement than the grass. We still make her walk on the grass. We walked around a green with 4 football peaches on it so they bot got a good walk. I find that this is a good time to walk because it is all quiet and it is easier to get in to the "zone" and just concentrate on the walk. We also find the quiet nights relaxing as well. They both behaved exemplary. Tula is the most submissive of the two. I never even had to shorten the lead around my hand. She just walked so quietly behind that I found myself turning around to see if she was still there.

Booker still tries to pull a little, but we do keep him back and once he is in "the zone" he is the perfect walker as well.

Greg starts work later tomorrow, so we are trying to stretch the time before we go out...

They will wake us up when they decide it is time to go out. That is one lesson they learned quickly.

They are getting better at telling us if they need to go out and I am getting better at reading their signs. I try to keep it to regular times. That means I sometimes have to ignore them and then suffer the consequences....

As said in the post above: it is a big learning curve...

Hey guys glad to hear that Tula is all better!
As the owner of the delightful, but sometimes a little mad Bambi I just wanted to make a comment on the whole muzzle thing. I have had Bambi for about a year and a half now and whilst she is way way better that she was originally in terms of her reactions to other animals I will never be aiming to walk her without a muzzle as she is too unpredictable and also other dog owners can be completely irresponsible when it comes to controlling their own dogs. Near the beginning of the time i had her she had one incident where she wanted to go get a cat and i stopped her by shortening her lead - if she had not been muzzled that day she definately would have bitten me as she was totally consumed with going after the cat. Its hard to believe this on meeting Bambi but she is a completey different dog when her mind is set on going after something!!
All Im saying I suppose is that it sounds like you are caring for you puppies in a fantastic way but dont get too hung up on the getting rid of the muzzle thing cos its really not such a big deal if it means keeping them safe. My Bambi is the sweetest girl ever for the vast majorty of the time but it only takes a moment to ruin that.

Hi Joan!
You make some very valid points. I have never been so aware of irresponsible owner as I am at the moment. All I can say is that this awareness and knowledge puts an even greater responsibility on us to make sure they are kept safe.

We are just in for the afternoon walk and it was good walk with lovely weather only interrupted by a little drizzle. For now they have found themselves a spot in the sun and are snoozing away. In the living room of course.....

Only to emphasise the point. During this walk we met 3 teenage girls with a border collie off the lead. They did not seem to worry much about anything. The collie, however, was very well behaved and stayed on the opposite side of the walkway with his/her's head down.

As usual Booker and Tula was focused on this dog as we passed it. Again Booker turned around my legs in front of me as we were walking. But no barking this time. (I always walk Booker on my right side and Tula on the left, even when I walk them separately) When I make my corrections I try to do it as soon as I see their attention going elsewhere. I do this by making a sudden pull on the lead combined with a poke with one or two fingers on the side. I always try to poke on the opposite side from where they are turning. When I did this to Booker I could hear a very short snarl as he turned towards the poke, which I reacted to by pulling the lead the opposite way and poke on the other side.

I am sure this snarl was not towards me but rather a reaction to an unexpected poke he did not know the source of. After this he was completely fine again. The rest of the walk he kept his head down for the most part and stayed in his place. I correct as soon as he start to move forward. Unless he is in a pack of other Greyhounds and wants to be in the front, a short and quick pull of the lead makes him fall back, sometimes only the sound I use to accompany this is enough, but not always.

Before you all ask, they were both muzzled on this walk and I felt a little more secure for it, but I had to admit to still feeling slightly on edge as we passed the 3 girls with the collie.

I just got up to get a pic of them curled up together around each other, but as soon as I went to get the camera, they got up as well.... Sorry

Booker in particular has a habit of getting up and follow me where ever I go in the house and here he always, always stay in his place with his head down. hehehehhe

They are great. Now they walked in the bedroom and they are both making noise to get me in there as well. I could use a snooze with them... In their bed!! lol

A long lye in is definitively a thing of the past. So far, the longest we have managed to stay in bed is until 08:45 and that was over a week ago.

Usually around 6-7 they start to get a little restless. This morning it was at 07:15 when they woke me up by licking me under my armpit.... uuuh! I am ticklish as well..... Normally they lick our faces. It is quite cute. They "attack" from both sides. One on me and the other on Greg. Then they change sides...

Tula is doing well on her recovery. Still a little sore in her gums, but we soften up her food so it easy for her. During feeding time now, they are both laying down on floor while we prepare their food. For the most part anyway...... Booker is still the most restless, but a good walk before does make a difference.

During the walk this morning we met 2 english Bulldog's off the lead. I met them a week ago as well. One of them came right up to us and was curious about us. There was no barking or aggressive tendencies that we could detect, but that does not mean anything. Booker did not make a sound while facing this dog and wrapped around Greg's leg. This dog was puppy. We turned him so he faced away and then walked on. The puppy backed off.

Sorry Booker. It is not going to happen.

The owner was shouting at his dogs from the other side of the area we were in, about 200 yards away and being ignored.

Booker has discovered that he likes to poo on top of raised areas, such as a cut of tree stump, he backs up to trees and this morning it was on top of Daffodils getting ready to sprout. I wonder if it tickled.....