Friday, July 30, 2010

Checkdown - The Wild One

Well, Checkdown LOVES his morning walks. You don't even have to go far, it is just the fact that he gets to go that make him happy. I had an appt this morning and could not take him, so he has been acting silly all day. Here is a video of him. Well scratch the video. After an hour of waiting, it is still "uploading." Will try later.

He is also sad that we wont be able to make the MG tomorrow at 100 Oaks, and he will miss his best friend Doug!

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Checkdown's First Birtday Party

Checkdown went to his first birthday party this past Saturday for two of his friends who were turning 1 and had a big time.  Lots of fun was had by humans and hounds.  He wanted to be sure we shared some pictures from the celebration:)

Here he is looking mighty handsome in his birthday hat. 

And yes, birthdays are a pretty big deal to greyhound people, especially first birthdays!  

Thursday, June 3, 2010

long past due update

well being the terrible foster parent that I am, I have selfishly spent my time with the awesome CheckDown and have not been posting how awesome he is.

We love this dog. He is all that is great in greyhounds PLUS! He is young, sweet, stoic, and has so many silly looks and antics.

I hope that there is a family out there who is active and with (or planning) children. Check Down will become just another one of the kids. He is of course much easier to disipline and much cheaper (no college fund to worry about)!

I have had a couple of pep talks with him, b/c he has been on two home visits, but not been the "chosen" one. He does not understand that in a home visit, just b/c you are the cutest and sweetest one of the group, you are not always chosen, b/c sometimes the stars align and forces greater than you take over and there are other perfect matches. So, he is pepped up and ready to go on more home visits.

Check Down loves the following: walks, other similar size dogs, cool with indoor cats, brushing, ear scratches, nice soft beds, and hugs

Not too cool with: small dogs - I think that he thinks they are probably stuffed toys to play with and I get a little over excited.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Check Down - First Week

Check Down came to stay with us a week ago today. What a great boy he is! So, so sweet and happy all the time. As the prior post indicates, he is still very young. He is also very trainable and eager to please.

He has not had one accident in the house - not even any close calls. He now does well in his crate. There was a little whining the first couple times and some wake ups in the middle of the night, but a firm NO took care of that. He now goes in quietly and takes a greyhound snooze and sleeps through the night - no whining.

He does well on a leash, which I was a little worried about considering his early departure from the farm, but he does really well. That is one of the great things about greys is that in general, they are great on a leash and such polite walkers - well Check Down fits that bill too. We do walk him in the early evening with our other dogs, and he enjoys it.

The most important thing about Check Down is that he LOVES people. I can't wait for his first M&G this Saturday b/c he will be in heaven! We took him to Earth Day at Centennial Park last Saturday and he just could not believe it when someone would walk by him and not pet or talk to him. We also discovered that he seems to really love kids. At one point he was plum in the middle of 6 kids probably in ages of 5-7 and he was eating it up.

He has had a couple of chasing episodes with our cats that a firm NO ends, but will continue to watch that. And, he gets a little excited at the site of small dogs. In either case no agressive reactions, just prancing and whining. Will have more to report on that after the meet and greet as I am sure we will see many small dogs.

Check Down is full of joy, love, and happiness every waking moment, and would love to be able to share that love with a family of his very own.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Greyhound Pups

It is amazing how Greyhound Adoption has changed for us over the past 9 years of doing placements in Nashville. Used to be that at Meet and Greet we would say that the usual retirement age for the hounds that we were placing was between 3 and 4 years old. Nowadays we are seeing much younger hounds coming in for placement. Bayou Checkdown and his sister Bayou Bengal are the perfect example. 19 months old! Not yet 2 years and still pups... REALLY still pups.

They did not spend much time at the racetrack, so have had little or no crate training, and likely, very little time an a leash. This is why we have them in foster care - so they can learn all the traits that are desired in a great companion animal. These two will just need a bit more work than some of our older, and more settled retirees.

Many applicants ask for younger dogs, and for anyone that has had puppies of any other large breed, they will likely find that Bengal and Checkdown are positively sedate. For those of us that have ONLY had greyhounds, they seem a bit unruly. It is important to remember that we all have our own "place" that we are coming from.

We are sure that this pair are going to be WONDERFUL additions to the right family!

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

First week 2











Well we have officially past the first full week. It has been some what rough. He looks to have separation issues or serious crate issues. He will be moving to a new foster home with people who are home during the day. When he is out, he is a very sweet boy. Love to go out and play. He doesn't bother much and only looks at the kitties out of curiosity. When he is ready he will be a greyt addition to a family.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

First week.











Checkdown has been with me for almost a week. Things got off to a bit of a rough start. A small accident in his crate on his first day and an attempt to mark my sofa, I caught him and corrected it. He doesn't like to be in his crate if I am not in the room. He is a lovin boy tho. He is full of character. He has a definite zeal to explore retirement.