On Fri, 31 Dec 2010 17:23:21 -0500, (Jo Wolf) wrote:

Yes, and Greyhound rescue babes believe most of them, such as that a
Grey can't be taught to sit...... {grin} or retrieve..... or.....

Well, they can be taught to do anything any other dog can do, but some
things are going to take a lot longer and be a lot more effort to
teach. And it is true that most ex-racing greyhounds don't sit on
their own and that it isn't a comfortable position for many/most of
them. Having done greyhound rescue for the past 15 or so years, I
could tell you stories. The worst by far was the family that couldn't
bear to tell their poor rescued greyhound "no". Over a period of
years, he turned into a nasty beast, growling at the other dogs and,
eventually, all family members. When he bit a neighborhood child,
they had little choice but to have him euthanized. They called me
when he was just growling at the other dogs, and I told them to get
him into obedience classes pronto. Apparently they didn't have time
for that. And these were dog people.

Sally Hennessey

Yeh, we had a family like that one a few years ago. Only we saw them
before the dog started to growl. They were counselled about what was
going to happen if they didn't change their ways. They didn't. He did,
and worse. After he did a pretty fancy bite job on a family member,
they had him euthanized. But in the meantime, they'd gotten a greyhound
puppy from a race breeder, and were well down the same road with him,
the last we heard. They are now known to every grey rescue in some
distance.... and to local all-dog and other breed rescues in about the
same distance.... so are on their DNA lists.

Kathleen and Gil Gilley, "the dancing greyhounds", are friends..... and
have been wowing grey lovers over most of the US for years with their
demos. My boss used to appear with them at times with her greys when
they did a variation on a drill team as part of the demo..... usually in
FL, GA, or AL. I've known Kath and Gil since they moved up from Panama
a good number of years ago and switched to greys from Dobes (Pharoahs
before that).

Jo Wolf
Martinez, Georgia

On Sat, 1 Jan 2011 16:27:35 -0500, (Jo Wolf) wrote:

Yeh, we had a family like that one a few years ago. Only we saw them
before the dog started to growl. They were counselled about what was
going to happen if they didn't change their ways. They didn't. He did,
and worse. After he did a pretty fancy bite job on a family member,
they had him euthanized. But in the meantime, they'd gotten a greyhound
puppy from a race breeder, and were well down the same road with him,
the last we heard. They are now known to every grey rescue in some
distance.... and to local all-dog and other breed rescues in about the
same distance.... so are on their DNA lists.

Unfortunately, despite all of the advances in technology and science,
there just does not seem to be a cure for stupidity on the horizon.

Kathleen and Gil Gilley, "the dancing greyhounds", are friends..... and
have been wowing grey lovers over most of the US for years with their
demos. My boss used to appear with them at times with her greys when
they did a variation on a drill team as part of the demo..... usually in
FL, GA, or AL. I've known Kath and Gil since they moved up from Panama
a good number of years ago and switched to greys from Dobes (Pharoahs
before that).

I'm very familiar with them and have seen them at reunions. I've seen
other breed drill team-type performances and things like that and know
some ex-racers that have earned obedience titles, so it certainly
wasn't news to me that greyhounds could be trained like that. But
many greyhound people are not dog people - a lot of them wouldn't have
any other breed and they aren't the type to do obedience training. So
the Gilleys do ex-racers a great deal of good by performing at
reunions and other places where those greyhound owners will see them,
and maybe some of them will be inspired or motivated or something, and
do some training with their dogs. Ex-racers are normally pretty
well-behaved dogs, and I've seen countless dogs that have gone into a
home, never had a bit of training, and never gave their owners a lick
of trouble. They're good dogs for first-time dog owners. That's all
really good for the breed, since there are so many thousands of them
looking for homes, but it also attracts some owner types who maybe
should own only the Gund breed.

Sally Hennessey

Unfortunately, newly organizing grey rescue groups also attract a fair
number of members who should only have a Gund. That's been the reason
for failure of many such groups. Lottsa placement mismatches, panic or
refusals when an adoptor wants to bring a dog back, deciding to take
ghastly dogs from the breeders instead of from tracks.... The group
still active in this area only survived because some experienced folks
who had sort of retired from rescue jumped back in, took over, and edged
out those who only wanted the glory and bragging rights, trained the
ones willing to work, and still stay active enough to guide the group.
They've learned that they can't handle/foster or place large numbers of
dogs in this area, so select carefully. They also work to keep adoptors
"in the system" with social events and informal gatherings.

Don't know if this is "universal", but the region that goes to
BeachBound Hounds in Myrtle Beach, as well as the locals here, use red
bandanas on the dogs that aren't dog-friendly. A neat idea......

One of my now-deceased Border Terriers idolized one of the boss's grey
girls. She was tiny..... the weight and height of a top-of-the-standard
male Whippet.... When they were running together, Sage'd pull in her
speed enough that Schroeder didn't loose interest..... and every time he
stretched out in full extention, he yipped..... so we always knew when
they were running, if we were in the office at the training center.
They'd rat together in the naturalized front corner of the yard (nearby
dumpster sometimes had leftovers from worker lunches at an auto parts
store). Sage would catch a rat, then couldn't decide what to do with
it.... Schroeder would take it from her and finish the job.

Jo Wolf
Martinez, Georgia

On Sat, 1 Jan 2011 23:22:24 -0500, (Jo Wolf) wrote:

Unfortunately, newly organizing grey rescue groups also attract a fair
number of members who should only have a Gund. That's been the reason
for failure of many such groups. Lottsa placement mismatches, panic or
refusals when an adoptor wants to bring a dog back, deciding to take
ghastly dogs from the breeders instead of from tracks.... The group
still active in this area only survived because some experienced folks
who had sort of retired from rescue jumped back in, took over, and edged
out those who only wanted the glory and bragging rights, trained the
ones willing to work, and still stay active enough to guide the group.
They've learned that they can't handle/foster or place large numbers of
dogs in this area, so select carefully. They also work to keep adoptors
"in the system" with social events and informal gatherings.

I guess I was never lucky enough to be on the receiving end of any of
that glory, but there must be a lot of people who think there's glory
involved in greyhound rescue because there are certainly a fair number
of greyhound rescue people who should only be placing Gunds. My
personal favorites are the ones who do take more dogs than they can
handle, adopt to anyone who can sign their name, and then suddenly go
out of business, leaving others to take in their (many) returns.

Don't know if this is "universal", but the region that goes to
BeachBound Hounds in Myrtle Beach, as well as the locals here, use red
bandanas on the dogs that aren't dog-friendly. A neat idea......

It is pretty universal, due mostly to greyhound discussion lists and
the Celebraing Greyhounds magazine, and it is a good idea. Mind you,
some of those dogs, especially when attending events where space is
tight, would be better left at home, but that's just my opinion.

One of my now-deceased Border Terriers idolized one of the boss's grey
girls. She was tiny..... the weight and height of a top-of-the-standard
male Whippet.... When they were running together, Sage'd pull in her
speed enough that Schroeder didn't loose interest..... and every time he
stretched out in full extention, he yipped..... so we always knew when
they were running, if we were in the office at the training center.
They'd rat together in the naturalized front corner of the yard (nearby
dumpster sometimes had leftovers from worker lunches at an auto parts
store). Sage would catch a rat, then couldn't decide what to do with
it.... Schroeder would take it from her and finish the job.

Heh. In the years when we did have Siberians as well as sighthounds,
I used to say that one of the main differences between the two was
what they did with what they caught. For the greyhounds, catching the
rabbit/squirrel/whatever was the goal. They would kill it and then
kind of wander away, but Tasha the Siberian would eat what she caught.
One time I took a squirrel from a greyhound and disposed of it, and
the horrified look on Tasha's face was priceless. "You're going to
WASTE that?!" Different breeds really do speak different languages at
times, and it can be fun.

Sally Hennessey

My boss, Marlene Stachowiak, and I wrote an article on the Canine Good
Citizen test, with photos, a number of years ago. I'd forgotten about
it until you mentioned Celebrating Greyhounds. We used one of my Border
Terrorists for the distractor dog for the handshake and chat....
probably Schroeder, who's been gone for 3 years now. One of our puppy
class instructors does animal photography, so we have a "built in"
capacity.... and she used to have a rescue Afghan, caught in the median
of an interstate, that she put a CD on. Sam was lovely, and rather
comical.

My only claim to fame with sighthounds was getting bribed into judging
Italian Greyhounds at a conformation match..... Oh, and monitoring
Marlene's Irish-bred (boy, did she have a THICK coat!) grey during a
school presentation. The dog started to wander off and I Touched her
collar. She screamed, and I almost dove under a table..... AH, yes....
life in the dog world....

The Border Terriers are avid hunters, but as a breed aren't usually
"into" munching on their kills. Louie caught 8 'possums over 1 1/2
years, but only ate one, finishing it off in front of me, as I brought
up everything I'd eaten in about 2 weeks...... GURK!.... Stopped
counting the birds and mice he's caught.... but have seen him kill and
immediately eat a mouse. Fred and Alvin would play pass with the corpse
of any mouse one of them caught. Schroeder just wanted to trot around
showing them off, but swallowed birds head first.... I"d find the
"processed" remains in the yard. Classically, the BT makes a kill and
leaves it on the back doorstep...... but Schroeder brought one in the
house, and upstairs to drop it in my face while I was asleep....
Basically, they make the kill then play with the corpse for a while,
then drop it on the doorstep, or "deliver it to hand" like a retriever
with a bird..... I had one foster quarantined in my garage for two
weeks, in an exercise pen.... field mouse made the wrong decision and
started to short-cut through the pen.... She started yelling After she
killed it. When I arrived from the room off the garage, she was still
barking at it and whacking it around like a hockey puck with her front
feet.

I've seen a couple of Sibes mouse-hunt with that funny four-foot sproing
into the air that coyotes use when mousing..... and friends' IW boy grab
a hare on the run.

Jo Wolf
Martinez, Georgia