Stress

Hi Mark,

This is where this whole situation is so damn difficult because unless the greyhound was in my personal care where I could see him every day and personally assess his behaviour both prior to a trial, immediately after a trial as well as recovery time, including checking the first urine after the run, and observing the changes in the greyhounds condition from day to day and week to week, it is impossible to provide worthwhile focused advice pertinent to your individual greyhound.

There are so many things that may appear minor, and yet they can dramatically affect a greyhound both in the short and long term.

One of the most critical items to affect a greyhound is its diet, and when you mention Science Diet and meat in the same meal as the food the greyhound is currently receiving, all I can say is that you really need to re-assess the balance of the protein and carbohydrates in the diet.

Diet has a major affect on the stress levels the greyhounds body is placed in, and not surprisingly this also has a major affect on the dogs mental state.

Even the balance of the food in regard to the portion size fed morning and night has an affect, as well as the digestibility of the food and what state it is in when it is presented to the dog can affect the value of the meal and thereby the health of the greyhound.

Yet food is only a part of what affects the well being of the greyhound,just as important is what stress levels are placed on it on a daily basis, such as the location, size, temperature, and state of the kennel facilities, as well as any interaction with other dogs and the human that look after the dog.

So the list goes on and on.

Mate you are just going to have to take your time with the dog, learn as much as you can about what affects that particular dog, and regardless of the fact that you may think the dog is getting bored, don’t run the dog behind the lure unless it shows by its physical condition that its health is good ........... and when you do take the dog for a trial if the wait is too long or the dog gets too stressed out, take him home without running him.

If anyone wants to find out just how stressful it is for a dog to bark and jump around constantly for 20 minutes should try jumping up and down while yelling at the top of their voice and see if they are in any state to go for a jog after only 2 minutes of this.

Cheers,
Tom

Hi Mark,

I recently trained a very excitable greyhound as my first dog. And while ultimately nothing proved to really fix the problem, there were certain things which helped.

Firstly, I found that it was very important to get the dog as fit as possible before his first run behind the lure by free running / hand slipping etc. At the start of each racing campaign I would give him at least 4 weeks of handslips/free running over 300m every second day. I did this because I found that an excitable hard chaser won't ease off when they start to get tired behind the lure. They will just run themself into the ground and it caues heaps of problems. By having the dog as fit as possible before that first run over 250-275m you minimise the chances of stress.

Secondly, if the dog doesn't travel well, i.e. unless it just sits down and goes to sleep in the back of the car, take into account travel time and if there is a suitable distance available, trial the dog at the track closest to you. 2 hour car trips with a bad traveller are destined to end badly.

Thirdly, book your trials to avoid waiting unnecessarily.

A drink of 40ml vytrate to 500ml water after each trial did to aid recovery. Just make sure you are around a couple of hours later to let the dog out for a pee!

Get regular blood tests to check red and white cell counts. In an easily stressed animal these can fluctuate quite a bit.

Don't buy any products which claim to calm your dog down. I tried them all. They don't work!

Look for signs of excessive feet licking, difficulty swallowing / lickling lips, shaking head, excessive stretching out (bowing). These are all signs there is something wrong in my experience.

Have a good look at your dog's droppings. They should be firm and compact. Big, loose or watery stools are a sign that something is not right. Could be diet but it could also be stress.

In regard's to the coat and flaky skin, a good grooming always helps as does a bit more fat content in the diet, but bad skin and coat in combination with bad droppings could be a sign of wheat sensitivity. If you can get your hand's on the Alex Hauler DVD he goes into a bit of detail about it.

If your dog is aggressive or adgitated by other dogs, change his schedule to walk him at a time when you won't bump into anyone.

Try and find a good muscle man / checker to look over your dog regularly and give you advice. Very hard to find since Tom has been out of action!

In terms of diet and quantities, I found that if you follow Tom's general diet and then cross reference this with the quantities outlined on page 4 of this article:

www.greyhoundvets.co.uk/pdf/conf%202012/Feeding%20the%20Racing%20Greyhound%20for%20Performance%20John%20Kohnke%20%20SGV%20Conference%202012.pdf

then you will probably only need to make minor adjustments to suit the needs of your individual dog.


Thats all I can think of for now. Best of luck with it. It is a great feeling when you have put in the hard yards and you win a race. It can also be a very frustrating experience at times too - but I guess that is what makes the good times all the better.

Thanks for that Anthony, some more usefull tips, the trouble is, I've been reading a lot of conflicting information, I guess it's time to focus and base my methods of conditioning on toms techniques.