Hi everyone

Today we fostered our 2nd grey JAZZ and this will be the official thread where you can all find out how she is getting on.

Like little TC who we fostered over Xmas/New Year we will be able to let Celia and Jimmy know how Jazz is in the home environment and around other dogs and hopefully the end result will be that one of you lovely lot that are reading this will give her her forever home. At worst JAZZ gets a little break from the kennels (she has been there for nearly a year now).

Day 1

The first thing she did when she got back home with us was meet Jack and Minnie (Forth came with us to pick her up). No aggression was shown, they all had a good sniff and Minnie showed her (told her) the house rules (after we had obviously but Minnie needs to have her say as well!).

She then spent around an hour in the garden with Lyndsey chasing a tennis ball around! She was really enjoying herself and that’s the first thing you notice about her; she is full of fun! Thankfully it's not overpowering and she genuinely seems to be a lively girl that isn't aggressive and isn't dominant.

She has tackled the laminate floors with the minimum amount of fuss; in fact I don't think she has even noticed they are any different to normal flooring!

We took her on a nice long walk with her new brothers and sister and she was fine. Bit bouncy but not pully in any way and responded very well to our instructions. We came across a couple of other dogs but all she did was look briefly at them then continue on her walk, she showed very little interest in them. The big plus point here was our own Minnie walked wonderfully on the walk, she seemed to enjoy walking with her new foster sis.

So far there have been no toilet accidents and all her business has been done outside - so far so good.

Let’s hope she continues like this for the next couple of weeks.

Well done guys - you did a fantastic job with your last foster dog, even though I lost the bet that you'd keep her

Very pleasant 1st night sleep for JAZZ.

She slept downstairs with our other 3, did not make as much as a squeak through the night and there was absolutely no mess when I woke up this morning. In fact she even waited until she had her breakfast before she went outside to go to the toilet (which she done with the minimum of fuss).

For a dog that has never been in a house before she has picked up the rules very quickly.

I'll be honest I was expecting a few whinges through the night from her and maybe a little mess on the floor when I woke up but no, absolutely nothing.

Exemplary from the bouncy one so far and she has now gone back to sleep with the other 3.....

We decided to take JAZZ and our crew for a nice long walk in Edinburgh today, up round Arthurs Seat area.

For a bouncy girl she has not quite figured jumping into the car yet but you can tell she wants to so hopefully it won't be long. She finds the car quite interesting but I'm not sure she fully understands the concept just yet! Instead of sitting down she decided to stand up all the way! Thankfully on the way back she did sit down and looked much more comfortable, she seems a very quick learner I have to admit.

On the walk itself she was perfectly fine. No pulling and she only got excited at one dog (as you can imagine there were plenty at Arthurs Seat on a Sunday!). The one dog she did 'bounce' around at was a little terrier that was darting past at a rate of knots so she can be excused, she was by no means difficult to calm down either which is a good sign.

She walks with a little bounce in her step and she really seems happy to be in the home environment, no nervousness and extremely loving. Loves people and is inquisitive without being intrusive.

She tackled the stairs today and amazingly she had success on her first try!! It certainly anything but graceful but she did it. She also managed to come down on her 1st attempt (with a tiny bit of help). She really does seem a natural in the home as she has now tackled laminated floor and the stairs and passed both at the first attempt?!?

Her current favourite hobby seems to be looking out the front window at the world passing by, she is very intrigued by this new and exciting world that she can see.

She has a habit of jumping up to try and get her food whilst it is being prepared but that will be easy enough to solve. Once we have told her to stop doing it enough times and realises the others don't do it I'm confident she will stop (however, I have not ruled out that Forth has put her up to this as it seems like something he may well tell the 'newbie' is OK to do!!)

So far JAZZ has the makings of a wonderful and loving pet greyhound

Well done!
I think she is treating Forth and Minnie as her mentors...In addition to this I suppose both of them like being mentors in general...
Maybe Jack does not like interfering with someone else's business...

Stan

Jack enjoys his sleep too much to get involved with anything that isn't eating or sleeping

As for the other 2, Minnie likes telling the others what to do and Forth likes telling others to do things for him!!

They are an odd and varied crew.....

JAZZ had another excellent night.

No whinging through the night and no toilet accidents. I think she just gets it; she sleeps when we go to bed and wakes up when we get up and all toilet business is to be done in the garden.

She has been for her morning walk and is now sound asleep in one of the dog beds.

Easy

Another good night from JAZZ. Slept all night - no toilet accidents.

She is very much in the 'pushing the boundaries' stage at the minute. Head in everything, seeing what she can and cannot pick up. So far nothing has been destroyed and anything she picks up that she shouldn't she drops instantly when told. She fully understands that (Minnies) toy box is full of stuff she can pick up and play with and the 2 girls regularly empty the contents of the box on the floor/sofa!!

She has taken to lying on the sofa and nuzzling her face into us which is very cute, she is certainly a people greyhound.

We walked passed a dog this morning that was barking and growling at us and JAZZ did get a bit bouncy but she was anything but aggressive. I have a feeling she is more of a 'want to go join in and play with the dog' than a 'want to attack the dog' sort.

She is currently snoozing with Forth....well I say 'with Forth' but I mean she has lay down beside him and he hasn't moaned at her!!

Well little Miss Jazz is turning out to be quite a little character!

We give our 3 rawhides every couple of nights (small ones not the large ones) and get them to sit/calm down before they get them. Our 3 went about the business as usual (went crazy for 10 secs when they knew they were getting 1 then calmed down when they realised they wont get it until they are calm) but Jazz obviously has not yet figured the routine. So instead of trying to figure out what we were trying to get her to do she ran up to Jack and stole his one direct from his mouth!!! Obviously we took it back from her (after a small struggle) and then eventually got her to sit so she would get her one. She somehow finished her one first and then tried to steal Forths rawhide......after the dressing down Forth gave her she won't be trying that again!!!

At the moment the walking routine is 2 and 2 in the morning and then all 4 together in evening. This gives me time to concentrate on Jazz on the walk where there is only 2 and then she gets experience of walking in a pack in the evening. It also lets her be in house on her own (well with 1 of the others but not me) for 20/30 mins whilst I take the other 2 for a walk in the morning. Forth n Jazz went on the 1st walk this morning then I came back and took the other 2. Forth n Jazz were put in the living room (beds are all in here) whilst I went on walk with Minnie n Jack. When I returned from the 2nd walk I found Jazz in the kitchen!!! Somehow she had managed to open the door between kitchen and living room!?! Jazz is now the 6th Greyhound we have had in our house but the FIRST to ever manage to open a door on her own!!

I will be watching this little madam a little closer from now on.....

I must add that nothing was destroyed in the kitchen, she just seemed to be looking about like a nosey little greyhound.....

Little madams are often nosey but not always into cooking
By the way...what is a rawhide????

Stan

They are like dog chews. To be honest I'm 100% sure what they are made of but the dogs love them and even Jack who has had about half his teeth removed enjoys them!

Jazz also loves them (a bit too much if she is willing to steal from others mouths!!)

Hi Guys,
You are doing a wonderful job with the wee girl. You are giving her a great chance of finding a forever home.
Thank you very much for your efforts.
Celia and Jimmy.

Dear Ben & Lyndsey,
I had a lucher called Mr Bean and he could open any lever handled door, inwards or outwards. He used to sometimes let himself out for a tinkle in the night and the first I would know was when I found the door open in the morning - he never did master shutting it again!
Sadly, it was his downfall as he did it one night and the garden gate had been left open. He must have heard something across the road and he dashed out and was killed outright by a passing car on a country lane at two in the morning. I shall never forgive myself.

Marion

Very sad to hear Marion. Sounds like a set of very unfortunate circumstances, you should not blame yourself in anyway. I'm sure Mr Bean had a wonderful life judged on the way you still talk about him

Little Miss Jazz is doing well but still very much seeing how far she can push her luck!!

We have had a couple of pee incidents through the day but this is down to her not quite knowing how to tell me when she is needing out. For the first few days we would put her out every hour or two (as you do with new dogs) to get her used to doing toilet outside. She picked this up quite quickly so now its up to her to tell us when she is needing, sometimes its obvious to us and sometimes not so obvious but she will get there, she does pick up things quite quickly and it's all part of the learning process. Our own 3 have developed their own individual ways of letting us know they need out for the toilet and I'm sure Jazzy will also find her own way as well (she maybe already has her own way and we just haven't sussed it yet!).

She still does not understand why Forth doesn't want to 'play' through the day and credit to the big man he is doing a grand job of ignoring her - The Big Man does not play, he snoozes!!

Walking is still good, bouncy when she sees other dogs but zero aggression. She is actually a real joy to walk.

She is still going up on her hind legs to look for food in the kitchen but she is responding to us telling her 'NO'. Slowly, but she is getting there. Although she is a greyhound after all and they are notoriously greedy b*ggers!

Jazz update

Jazz is coming along well. Walking is very good, bit nosey but generally she is very easy to walk.

We left her at home for just over an hour last Sunday (she was in 1 room with Jack, other 2 were upstairs) and its safe to safe she wasn't completely happy! She had peed on the floor and had managed to open the curtains and look out the window herself by time we had got back! However, we left her in house on her own again last night for the same amount of time and this time it was all good, nothing out of place. Another learning curve for her but thats all part of the fostering process for her.

She still likes to try and steal food but again she is responding to commands and isn't simply ignoring us now!!

She is also desperate to come upstairs with us a night so at the moment I'm spending about 20 minutes in a battle of wills to get her to settle before I go to bed. A big breakthrough last night where she actually understood what I was telling her to do and she went to her bed and stayed there. She wasn't like this at the start but I guess as she gets used to us she wants to spend every second with us (she is that kind of dog) so it's basically about us letting her know (and reinforcing) her boundaries.

Her and Minnie are quiet an attention seeking duo but their saving grace is the are extremely lovable!!

Jazz is yet to show any aggression, we even came accross a cat on the walk and she was the only one not to go crazy (Forth and Jack HATE cats!!), I would confidently say she is non-aggresive.

I would also confidently say she is an attention seeking and very playful little madam (but thats not a bad thing.....)

All being well we will hopefully be at the Dunfermline walk on Sunday with Jazz (and Minnie and Forth, Jack doesn’t do long walks until summer time, it’s an agreement we have reached between us!)

This will be a great chance to see the little girl if any of you wonderful people are maybe interested in taking on the bouncy one and giving her her forever home.

She has now confidently mastered climbing AND coming down the stairs and has also mastered jumping into the car AND sitting down in the car (much easier than standing for the entire journey).

She stills follows us around like a little canine shadow but she is more settled in the home. She does go to bed when we tell her and although she does wake us up in the morning at times she does not moan or whine when we go to bed.

Unfortunately she has actually gone into heat since we have had her so we are on full alert with the boys but so far there has not been a problem, Forth sometimes shows an interest but in general the are too lazy!!

If you are interested in adopting Jazzy then Sundays walk is an ideal opportunity to see the little one, she has a lot of love to give

Just been in the garden playing tennis with JAZZ.

She isn't very good at returning the ball though, she simply catches it in her mouth and runs inside with it?!?

Still, she is thoroughly enjoying herself

Hilarious. That's much better than my 2 - they run after the ball & then look at me as if to say "do you seriously think I'm going to run all the way back to you . . . no chance"

We returned Jazz to the kennels today after the walk in Dunfermline. She had a great time with us for her 3 weeks and hopefully some of the house rules we have taught her will stay with when she finds her forever home.

We thought it would be a good idea if we summarised the little girl so that anyone interested can look over this post and see if they think Jazz is the kind of grey they may be looking for.

- Good in the car, can jump in and out without any problem and also sits down for the journey (after a couple of minutes anyway!)
- Can handle going up and down the stairs very easily
- Can handle laminated flooring with ease
- Excellent on the walk (although not the greatest fan of rain, bit who is!!)
- Does not pull on the lead or show any aggression towards dogs or humans
- Does not seem to be a fan of cats but also does not go crazy when she meets one
- She does put her 2 front paws on the counter to look for food but she does respond when you tell her to get down (she is a greedy little madam!)
- We had a 2yo child in the house and she was fine (even when he pulled her tail!)
- Toilet accidents in the house were few and far between and she was starting to tell us when she was needing the toilet (she is about 85-90% house trained and was learning fast and I'm confident that she would pick up new house rules v fast)
- Loves playing with a ball and generally playing around in the garden
- Very affectionate and loves a cuddle
- Was never aggresive with our 3 greys and although Forth didn't really like it she did cuddle up to him at times (the big man does not do cuddles!!)
- Doesn't have huge separation anxiety but she would bark a little when we first left the house but she would settle (we did a few trial runs)
- Learned not to bark when we went to bed at night although she was a bit of an early riser (6.30-ish), most dogs do settle into a routine and she would eventually learn to sleep for longer (all our female dogs seem to do this - wake up early but then longer we have them the longer they sleep in morning)

All in all she is a very loving and affectionate dog who just wants to be with people. She is by no means perfect but she is still only 2 and was responding well to commands. Like all dogs she was getting used to the routine and was settling in well. She was pushing boundaries but we were firm with her and she responded.

I am very confident she would make an excellent pet dog and although we put on a brave face when putting her back today she will be missed by us (but maybe not Forth as he can get his bed back now!!)

I hope little Jazzy finds a loving home very soon.....

Went and met Jazz with our family today and we think she is gorgeous, got a few amendments to make to our garden fence to make sure she is safe but hopefully we will be able to give her the forever home she is looking for.

Wow, Brilliant news !!

Brilliant!! Absolutely fabulous news

She is a wonderful little girl who just loves being with people. She will push the boundaries like all new dogs (well she did with us anyway!!) but she is so fun loving she will brighten your life no end.

Just don't expect her to give the ball back when you play tennis