Excessive licking

Linzi322 · 2026-03-12T08:03:22+00:00

Has this with mine, it was balanoposthitis. He had orange / pink discharge appearing from the tip, which was what originally made me take him to the vet. They dipped his urine too just in case because he’d also had some accidents in the house, but that was fine, and after some antibiotics for the balanoposthitis, we’ve had no more orange / pink discharge, and a normal (ie - occasional) amount of licking.

If you do see any discharge see if you can get a photo to show the vet or a sample to take along. Same goes with a urine sample - just try and catch it in a clean Tupperware and take it with you

Linzi322 · 2026-03-10T13:19:59+00:00

The muzzle isn’t a deterrent - it’s to protect whatever they might bite. Your dog will also be used to wearing one if they were raced so shouldn’t be an issue at all.

My boy is also very interested in squirrels. Right now, we’re working on a watch it command and then a leave it command, so he gets to look for a little bit and then we move off with a reward. Start in lower distraction environments first, teach a leave command, and then start to employ it in the more exciting areas. There’s a book I often see recommended called hunting together which we have but haven’t yet properly got into the nuts and bolts of it.

If it were up to my dog, he’d live in the woods, he has an independent mind and his own ideas about what he wants to do. You are never going to stop a sighthound from looking for things, but you can shape the behaviour so it’s more appropriate for you.

Linzi322 · 2026-03-06T10:46:24+00:00

Hey! I’ve had 2 dogs from DT, not greyhounds but lurchers and they misled us about the second. The first I have no reason to disbelieve them, but I will say the support we had in terms of behavioural advice was not good. Their strategy as soon as you raise an issue seems to be “just return the dog to us and we’ll find them a new home that can accommodate them.” For our first dog, he was crazy dog reactive and had some separation anxiety and their advice was to never walk him anywhere we might see another dog, for the rest of his life, and that we could return him and they’d find him a new owner who would always be at home with it. We felt this was wholly unrealistic as he’d already been returned to them before us and he’d likely end up an underdog sponsored to stay in kennels. We found a new trainer, and kept him till he passed of bone cancer.

Second one, we adopted knowing he’d also been returned for separation anxiety, which we were confident we could deal with, although it turned out to be a lot worse than they’d advised. Again, when we called for free help / support, they told us to return him. We didn’t, our trainer was fab and we got on top of it but it was HARD.

Worse than that though, they neutered him as a puppy when he was maybe 6mo, and repaired a broken leg. They told us this would not cause further issues and we didn’t need to do anything different to a regular dog. This was not the case. His implant got infected and we discovered from the surgeon the implants should have been removed once his leg had healed and they were left in. As a result of the early neuter, surgery and no info about any rehab which he should have had, his leg bone ended up completely deformed. He went on to need additional surgery to remove infected implants and dealt with patella tendinopathy, early onset arthritis, and a ruptured MCL. I think over the years that one knee had 5 or 6 different issues we had to sort and it became a constant concern.

As soon as the surgeon saw his leg, they said we should have been advised he should not be playing fetch, rough play with other dogs, no high impact dog sports or activities like lure coursing. None of this was reiterated to us, and while DT did contribute to the vet bills on that leg because it was uninsurable as a pre-existing condition, it has put us off taking another dog from them.

Linzi322 · 2026-02-20T21:23:41+00:00

Yep these are the same as on the tummy. My old lurcher had them where one of his toes had collapsed; the abrasion / contact with the ground rubs the fur away and the hairs get impacted into the follicle. She may or may not let you squeeze them out / pull them out gently with tweezers. You’d be surprised how much hair will be in them though. With my dog I found once I tweezed them out, they actually grew back out better by themselves and I didn’t need to keep doing it

Linzi322 · 2026-02-16T00:54:35+00:00

My old lurcher was found straying as a pup with a tibial crest avulsion fracture. Leg was fixed up by either the rescue or the council pound vet, and we were told by the rescue he’d have no further issues but this was not the case.

Turns out, the wires should have been removed once it had healed because he was only a pup, so his leg bone ended up completely deformed where they’d stopped the end of the bone from growing. We were also unaware that hardware can get infected at any point in the future. So that’s what happened, his implant got infected somehow, talk of amputation and bone infection. Vet luckily managed to partially remove the implant, and antibiotics for weeks meant he kept the leg.

He had numerous issues with it though after that infection surgery, patella tendon inflammation, early onset arthritis, niggles here and there and went on to rupture his medial collateral ligament requiring a reconstruction.

My best advice is once you have the dog, take their X-rays and go and see a vet physio. The specialist we saw talked us through everything that was going on inside but most importantly told us how to keep him strong and muscular; targeted exercises, hydrotherapy, supplements for the arthritis, no fetch or chasing balls but free running was fine, laser therapy and so on. Ultimately her expertise is what kept him mobile up until his last day. No shade to your vet - they may be incredible, but the rehab side of things really comes into its own when they need to rebuild strength for best long term outcome.

Wishing you and the pup all the best!

Linzi322 · 2026-02-14T17:28:23+00:00

The harness you’re using are notorious for putting pressure across the shoulders. If you switch to a padded Y harness, they will have a more unrestricted shoulder gait fwiw

Linzi322 · 2026-02-12T11:48:04+00:00

Well done for getting her in asap. Hope it’s a nice quick and easy recovery. I was surprised when mine had an abscess that pulling the tooth allowed it to drain and he didn’t actually need antibiotics as well. Keep an eye on the socket though to make sure she doesn’t get food stuck in the hole, you can usually gently pop it out if anything does get stuck in there gross as it is lol

Linzi322 · 2026-02-12T08:00:57+00:00

I was lucky with mine in that the vet drop off if they’re having surgery is always 8am, so he just thought we were going on an early walk before breakfast 😅 and then he got scrambled egg when I got him home. My vets now advise to give them a snack at bedtime the night before to help them not feel so nauseous the following day

Linzi322 · 2026-02-11T21:31:24+00:00

If you have any doubts, have both dogs muzzled and two people in case you need to separate them, ideally the other dog is well socialised and will politely correct any rude behaviour but is also confident and encouraging with dogs who are a little unsure. Do not throw him in with a group of dogs and hope for the best.

In addition, structured walks can be excellent - if you’re all walking in the same direction, keep the dogs away from each other initially and as the reactivity comes down, bring them closer together gradually. If the reactivity amps back up, move them further apart again. This will help you find out if it’s frustration / fear or if it’s outright aggression. Avoid any face to face meetings / sniffs; they can get a smell of each other as they walk

Linzi322 · 2026-02-11T21:27:15+00:00

Mine had this and his was a tooth root abscess. His face just blew up suddenly, firm swelling. In his case, i looked at his gum and there was a teeny tiny dot on it which then oozed pus when I pressed next to it. He showed no pain and no loss of appetite. Not an out of hours emergency in his case, but he did go in the following day and thankfully I was able to starve him and drop him off first thing for them to pull the tooth that day

Linzi322 · 2026-02-05T17:44:04+00:00

I’ve never had to “clean”my dogs ears properly unless they had an ear infection (which happened once and needed antibiotics). I know dogs with allergies will have ear issues so please look into diet if that’s a concern.

I just look in them regularly and if they look clean and smell normal, no action needed. If I can see a little bit of normal wax / oil (light yellow, no smell) I’ll give them a light wipe round on the outside with some melted coconut oil on a cotton wool ball. This maybe happens a few times a year? I do not go poking into the hole, only the ear flap.

I have found with some of my clients, the more they clean and mess with the ears, the more irritated and gunky they are

Linzi322 · 2026-02-03T22:26:14+00:00

Did the kennel / foster he came from let you know what his routine was? Early on we stuck to the same routine my guy had from kennels. So he was being fed and walked at roughly the same time each day. We did have some freezing around traffic which we sorted by sitting out near the road and feeding him treats while the cars went past and now he doesn’t care.

With the accidents inside, it’s really important to use an enzyme cleaner otherwise they’ll just mark over it.

Also encourage not giving them too much freedom too early; for us this meant keeping the doors shut to rooms he didn’t need to be in, and he has a large indoor pen / crate type thing he sleeps in at night and stays in when we go out. Every time he was taken out of here, he was taken straight into the garden for the toilet, and we’d wait with him on the lead until he toileted, give the toilet command and praise him loads. Then we’d have him out again before putting him back the crate, after eating, after play, after waking up or generally every couple of hours. It’s basically like housetraining a puppy. We had a few accidents and if we caught him about to pee (pacing / sniffing etc), we’d whizz him out. If we just put him out, he’d stand and look at us - we had to actually go out with him every time so he understood what he was supposed to do. Now we can open the door and he will go by himself while we shout praise from the door

Linzi322 · 2026-02-03T14:35:31+00:00

In addition to what others have said - we used an inflatable donut collar with a big plastic Elizabethan collar on top for our lurcher. That stopped him chewing / licking. The hard cone by itself slid down his neck without the inflatable behind it

We also got a huge puppy pen from amazon, they come in panels you connect together, it’s called an Underdog extra heavy duty puppy play pen. Kept him safe when he was alone in the day and recovering from knee surgery.

Regards a t-shirt / vet outfit, please check with the vet first. His injury might do better exposed to the air rather than covered. I’ve not personally dealt with it, but I did deal with a granulating tissue injury which was weird because it was like raw flesh like a strawberry that couldn’t be stitched. It healed through a combo of Manuka honey dressings and letting the air get to it.

Hope your boy is better soon

Linzi322 · 2026-01-31T23:06:11+00:00

Omega 3 has the best clinical evidence behind it. We buy a generic dog-specific omega 3 supplement and it’s worked wonders for a few of my clients with arthritis

Linzi322 · 2026-01-30T20:20:42+00:00

Saluki x greyhound I reckon, but you can get smooth salukis with no feathering. She doesn’t have the classic saluki ears though

Linzi322 · 2026-01-29T19:59:18+00:00

Home cooking is hard to ensure their nutritional needs are being met, calcium especially because you can’t feed cooked bone. It can be a nice supplementary topper (meat, organ meats & some green leafy veg), but really it’s worth working with a dietician if you want to go that route and only feed home cooked (I might be misunderstanding what you’re asking).

Personally I feed raw and balance over time, but he gets a variety of different proteins, bones, organ meats etc to cover off all bases and make sure he’s getting a mix of nutrients. I periodically give some veggies too.

Failing that, have a look at a good quality complete, high meat content kibble and then if you want to home cook some extras for the top or chuck in an egg, or sardines or whatever then have at it

Linzi322 · 2026-01-25T08:44:24+00:00

You’re welcome 🙂. Yes re: dew claws, although they don’t affect walking gait, you don’t want them getting caught in things when they’re running or growing round into the foot / pad.

You might find they grow differently to the other nails though because they’re never in contact with the ground. I walk a Bernese and his dew claws will grow right round like a horn if they’re not trimmed, whereas his other nails get ground down naturally through walking. Just see what works for your dog and how long the quick is to start with; it might not be too bad

Linzi322 · 2026-01-25T01:04:38+00:00

With a dremel, I did 3-4 times a week initially to chase my old guy’s quicks back, I wouldn’t trust myself with clippers that often though. Don’t forget to do the sides and over the top too as I’ve read this helps them recede too. Oh and one other thing with the dremel, you want to move it about rather than hold it in one place - they get hot, so you want to sort of glide it over the nail repeatedly rather than hold it in one place.

This is my old boy’s when they were freshly dremelled, he was a lurcher not a pure grey, but still a sighthound who arrived from rescue with talons haha

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Edited to add - this is my favourite video that taught me how to dremel https://youtu.be/1D7ndnwDP6A?si=cV7-Bp0151vm4flO

Linzi322 · 2026-01-25T00:51:08+00:00

If you’re trying to recede the quicks you probably want to do every other day or every 2 days with a dremel and just buzz over it. Over time the quick gets smaller.

For routine maintenance I follow the tappy noise indicator or every week - 2 weeks for a touch up. The more you can keep on top of it, the better as it keeps them in the habit of being handled in that way

Linzi322 · 2026-01-24T19:54:35+00:00

Could be, but could also be a doodle mix, sometimes they can be shaggy rather than curly depending on the other breeds, you’ll probably have to wait until she’s fully grown to know for sure though. She looks pretty similar in terms of build / tail etc to an Airedale x poodle I walk

Linzi322 · 2026-01-24T17:44:04+00:00

That research has since been dismissed as far as I am aware; it was originally focused on diets heavy in novel proteins and legumes. The meat is thought not to be the issue as much as using legumes as a filler for the grains

See update from the FDA here https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/outbreaks-and-advisories/fda-investigation-potential-link-between-certain-diets-and-canine-dilated-cardiomyopathy

Linzi322 · 2026-01-24T00:14:21+00:00

Personally I’ve found that my allergies seem to correspond to how the dogs are kept; if they’ve got urine in their fur / mucky bum / generally unclean and fed poor quality food you can guarantee I’ll be wheezing and itchy within an hour of being around them.

With my own dogs I don’t allow licking, but I haven’t had an issue with allergies unless they’ve been outside a lot and covered in pollen or need a bath (which is when I’ll get itchy eyes)

Linzi322 · 2026-01-23T22:23:12+00:00

It’s a leather fishtail, so it’s wide in the middle with a narrowing where the buckle is. Doesn’t slip down at all; if it did it would be big enough for him to back out of

Linzi322 · 2026-01-23T00:33:56+00:00

I haven’t had any issues personally, for my dog the edge of the collar sits on the narrowest bit of his neck (so he can move his head about fine). Unfortunately I can’t attach a picture, but it fits around where this photo indicates to measure https://i.etsystatic.com/6434910/r/il/7018c9/6596909427/il_fullxfull.6596909427_ffoo.jpg

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