Greyhound people...help with people seeking missile please!

[FestiveFuzz]

So our lovely boy is going from strength to strength. He goes to day care several times a week for socialisation which has really helped with his anxiety when meeting new dogs. We've worked really hard on recall at home, on a lunge line whilst out and at a local hired field and have recently started letting him off in a nearby public area that's fenced when we have high value treats. He's been absolutely fab, even stopped and turned mid zoomie to come back to us when called as there was an older lady heading our way and we didn't think she'd appreciate a greyhound flying at full speed towards her.

The only issue we do have is he thinks it's the most fun thing in the world to literally hurtle towards us and he often doesn't try to avoid us cue plenty of near misses and several direct hits! I'm not so fussed about us if I'm honest, but do worry about him harming himself as one particular incident at the weekend resulted in the greyhound scream of death (OH also has a pretty bad bruise on his shin). He quickly recovered and continued running about like a loon but it's only a matter of time before he properly hurts himself.

We know he can avoid us, as for the most part he just runs loops around us but when he's super excited he just seems to forget to stop. He's incredibly boisterous, which we love, but we'd really like to find a way to encourage him not to run full pelt at us of possible so any tips would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Nici]

You could try to warn him before he runs into you with one of those air spray cans, I think they are called "pet corrector".
The problem might be that your greyhound gets too excited to hear the deterring noise, but perhaps it's still worth a try.
You want to do something so unexpected that your greyhound stops in his tracks when he comes too close to you at full gallop.

 

[FestiveFuzz]

You could try to warn him before he runs into you with one of those air spray cans, I think they are called "pet corrector".
The problem might be that your greyhound gets too excited to hear the deterring noise, but perhaps it's still worth a try.
You want to do something so unexpected that your greyhound stops in his tracks when he comes too close to you at full gallop.

That definitely sounds like it's worth looking into. At home he responds to "steady" but when he reaches full speed he doesn't seem to listen...it sounds counter productive but when we've called him back from people/other dogs we've always whistled which he seems to respond to even when he's excited so maybe (thinking out loud here) that would work better than a traditional 'verbal' cue.

 

[CorvusCorax]

Throw something desirable...large/visible treat or toy past you/to the side/through your legs (depending on your height lol) when he is within a certain distance so he doesn't make physical contact. I would never do something that may intentionally deter a dog from coming back, which an air spray might.

I also have an 'easy' command to slow the dog. And very bruised legs.

 

[FestiveFuzz]

Throw something desirable...large/visible treat or toy past you/to the side/through your legs (depending on your height lol) when he is within a certain distance so he doesn't make physical contact. I would never do something that may intentionally deter a dog from coming back, which an air spray might.

I also have an 'easy' command to slow the dog. And very bruised legs.

Good point about the air spray possibly detering him from returning...definitely don't want to do that as we've spent a ton of time making sure he comes back when asked. Throwing something desirable definitely sounds like a better option, but we still keep him muzzled when off lead at the moment as he's not always 100% clear that small dogs aren't just funny looking rabbits...and with some of the idiots around here who think it's totally ok to let their out of control dog off lead with no recall it's better to play it safe. Just the other week he was attacked by an errant off lead dachshund whilst he was on the lead, I still dread to think how he'd have responded had he not been muzzled!

 

[SpringArising]

Oh my Staffie does this. Really annoying! He'll run up from behind and make absolutely no effort to avoid me :rolleyes3:

 

[druid]

Teach him a stop whistle to go with your recall whistle. Easy enough to do (my lurcher has a stop whistle as he works as a retriever)

 

[FestiveFuzz]

Oh my Staffie does this. Really annoying! He'll run up from behind and make absolutely no effort to avoid me :rolleyes3:

Haha the only blessing is he doesn't try to nose spear us whilst charging else we really would be in trouble!

 

[{97702}]

Oh dear - this is absolutely typical greyhound behaviour, all of mine do it! I have simply learned to swerve quickly but I like CC's idea if you need an intervention

 

[CorvusCorax]

Yes, owning an utter bonehead leads one to develop impressive ninja skills.

'Brilliant, great engagement!'
**calls ambulance

 

[Clodagh]

I like CC's idea, but he may not be food orientated? I wonder if a rabbit skin dummy would be a good toy to throw? My labrador would sell her soul for it!

 

[FestiveFuzz]

Oh dear - this is absolutely typical greyhound behaviour, all of mine do it! I have simply learned to swerve quickly but I like CC's idea if you need an intervention

That makes me feel a little better, as newbie grey owners we were beginning to think our pooch was just a tad on the special side! Thankfully he only seems to do it with us, so at least we don't have to worry about innocent bystanders being caught in the crossfire.

 

[FestiveFuzz]

Yes, owning an utterly bonehead leads one to develop impressive ninja skills.

Haha that's for sure! I was more worried of the damage he might do to himself given the size of OH's bruise the other day but I guess if he really hurts himself he'll learn not to do it again.

I like CC's idea, but he may not be food orientated? I wonder if a rabbit skin dummy would be a good toy to throw? My labrador would sell her soul for it!

He's definitely led by his tummy, but failing that we have a stuffy pheasant and duck that are his absolute world...just not sure whether this would still work when he's muzzled.

Teach him a stop whistle to go with your recall whistle. Easy enough to do (my lurcher has a stop whistle as he works as a retriever)

That's interesting, how did you go about teaching him the difference if you don't mind me asking?

 

[CorvusCorax]

You could tie something to a lunge whip and use it as a flirt pole/hold it away from your body also.

 

[druid]

That's interesting, how did you go about teaching him the difference if you don't mind me asking?

Mine are two different noises - rapid fire pip-pip-pip-pip-pip is a recall, a single loong whistle blast is stop. We start by giving the sit command verbally followed by the stop whistle and rewarding move up to sit-stays (moving away from the dog while it's on the drop) and then lowly introduce the sit/stop command while the dog is pottering about at walk before more high octane situations. There's lots of gundog stuff on line with good descriptions of teaching the stop whistle

 

[CrazyMare]

My greyhound does this too. I think it's a greyhound thing. We just dive out of the way.

She ran into a wall earlier this week too, discovered tonight she cracked the plaster. Ran into something else 10 days ago and had her leg stapled together for it. Ran into something last summer or the one before and broke a toe....

Greyhounds are not the brightest and once Lucky is at top speed, she's even less bright!!!

 

[deb_l222]

Sorry I can't offer any practical help whatsoever but your post really made me chuckle at the image of a big, daft greyhound thinking "I'll get em".

 

[{97702}]

Sorry I can't offer any practical help whatsoever but your post really made me chuckle at the image of a big, daft greyhound thinking "I'll get em".

That's my boy exactly Hoover is the Tomsk of the greyhound world - all brawn and no brain, but not a bad thought in him ever - he has a poor spatial awareness combined with a 36kg body

 

[MotherOfChickens]

not a greyhound but after Quarrie trook me out when he was about 7 months old during a very enthusiast recall, I taught him a steady command-he now slows down using one time tempis 'steady' doesnt seem to translate when canicrossing downhill though.

 

[paisley]

 

[Luci07]

Staffords are knee height. I have been sent flying on numerous occasions with a Stafford coming back at full tilt. It was worst when we had a brother and sister who liked to take a branch and carry it together - think something along the lines of carriage driving...

Never had a good answer. Just developed better eyes on the dogs to get them to drop the branch or get off the path!

 

[Nici]

I would never do something that may intentionally deter a dog from coming back, which an air spray might.

Right you are, good point.

 

[CorvusCorax]

Mine would probably regard the can as a tasty snack, but, ya know, he's a bonehead

 

[Nici]

Mine would probably regard the can as a tasty snack, but, ya know, he's a bonehead

Hehe, got to love dogs!

 

[Clodagh]

Mine would probably regard the can as a tasty snack, but, ya know, he's a bonehead

But imagine the power of his farts if he swallowed it!

 

[{97702}]

That makes me feel a little better, as newbie grey owners we were beginning to think our pooch was just a tad on the special side! Thankfully he only seems to do it with us, so at least we don't have to worry about innocent bystanders being caught in the crossfire.

LOL - in my experience pretty much all greyhounds are a tad on the special side I think the 'greyhound sway' cartoon sums it up for me really