{"id":341,"date":"2011-05-02T13:00:43","date_gmt":"2011-05-02T18:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greyhoundinfo.org\/?page_id=341"},"modified":"2011-05-02T13:00:43","modified_gmt":"2011-05-02T18:00:43","slug":"thoughts-of-a-greyhound","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.greyhoundinfo.org\/?page_id=341","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts of a Greyhound"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"“Thoughts of a Greyhound”<\/strong><\/h2>\n

By Kathleen Gilley – From A Seminar In 1998<\/strong><\/h2>\n

This breed has never been asked to do anything for itself, make any decisions or answer any questions.\u00a0 It has been waited on, paw and tail.\u00a0 The only prohibition in a racing Greyhound’s life is not to get into a fight, or eat certain stuff in the turn out pen.<\/p>\n

Let us review a little.\u00a0 From weaning until you go away for schooling, at probably a year and a half, you eat, grow, and run around with your siblings.\u00a0 When you go away to begin your racing career, you get your own “apartment,” in a large housing development.\u00a0 No one is allowed in your bed but you, and when you are in there, no one can touch you, without plenty of warning.<\/p>\n

Someone hears a vehicle drive up, or the kennel door being unlocked.\u00a0 The light switches are flipped on.\u00a0 The loud mouths in residence, and there always are some, begin to bark or howl.\u00a0 You are wide awake by the time the human opens your door to turn you out.\u00a0 A Greyhound has never been touched while he was asleep.<\/p>\n

You eat when you are fed, usually on a strict schedule.\u00a0 No one asks if you are hungry or what you want to eat.\u00a0 You are never told not to eat any food within your reach.\u00a0 No one ever touches your bowl while you are eating.\u00a0 You are not to be disturbed because it is important you clean your plate.<\/p>\n

You are not asked if you have to “go outside”.\u00a0 You are placed in a turn out pen and it isn’t long before you get the idea of what you are supposed to do while you are out there.\u00a0 Unless you really get out of hand, you may chase, rough house and put your feet on everyone and everything else.\u00a0 The only humans you know are the “waiters” who feed you, and the “restroom attendants” who turn you out to go to the bathroom.\u00a0 Respect people? Surely you jest.<\/p>\n

No one comes into or goes out of your kennel without your knowledge.\u00a0 You are all seeing; all knowing.\u00a0 There are no surprises, day in and day out.\u00a0 The only thing it is ever hoped you will do is win, place or show, and that you don’t have much control over.\u00a0 It is in your blood, it is in your heart, it is in your fate–or it is not.<\/p>\n

And when it is not, then suddenly you are expected to be a civilized person in a fur coat.\u00a0 But people don’t realize you may not even speak English.\u00a0 Some of you don’t even know your names, because you didn’t need to.\u00a0 You were not asked or told to do anything as an individual; you were always part of the “condo association”; the sorority or fraternity and everyone did everything together, as a group or pack. The only time you did anything as an individual is when you schooled or raced, and even then, You Were Not Alone.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, he is expected to behave himself in places he’s never been taught how to act.\u00a0 He is expected to take responsibility for saying when he needs to go outside, to come when he is called, not to get on some or all of the furniture, and to not eat food off counters and tables.\u00a0 He is dropped in a world that is not his, and totally without warning, at that.<\/p>\n

Almost everything he does is wrong.\u00a0 Suddenly he is a minority.\u00a0 Now he is just a pet.\u00a0 He is unemployed, in a place where people expect him to know the rules and the schedule, even when there aren’t any. (How many times have you heard someone say, “He won’t tell me when he has to go out.” What kind of schedule is that?).\u00a0 Have you heard the joke about the dog who says, “My name is No-No Bad Dog.\u00a0 What’s yours?”\u00a0 To me that is not even funny.\u00a0 All protective barriers are gone.\u00a0 There is no warning before something happens.\u00a0 There is no more strength in numbers.\u00a0 He wakes up with a monster human face two inches from his. (With some people’s breath, this could scare Godzilla).\u00a0 Why should he not, bbelieve that this “someone”, who has crept up on him, isn’t going to eat him for lunch? (I really do have to ask you ladies to consider how you would react if someone you barely knew crawled up on you while you were asleep?). No, I will not ask for any male input.<\/p>\n

Now he is left alone, for the first time in his life, in a strange place, with no idea of what will happen or how long it will be before someone comes to him again.\u00a0 If he is not crated, he may go through walls, windows or over fences, desperately seeking something familiar, something with which to reconnect his life.\u00a0 If he does get free, he will find the familiarity, within himself: the adrenaline high, the wind in his ears, the blood pulsing and racing through his heart once again – until he crashes into a car.<\/p>\n

Often, the first contact with his new family is punishment, something he’s never had before, something he doesn’t understand now, especially in the middle of the rest of the chaos.\u00a0 And worst of all, what are the most common human reactions to misbehavior?\u00a0 We live in a violent society, where the answer to any irritation is a slap, punch, kick, whip, or rub your nose in it.\u00a0 Under these circumstances, sometimes I think any successful adoption is a miracle.<\/p>\n

He is, in effect, expected to have all the manners of at least a six-year old child.\u00a0 But, how many of you would leave an unfamiliar six-year old human alone and loose in your home for hours at a time and not expect to find who knows what when you got back?\u00a0 Consider that if you did, you could be brought up on charges of child abuse, neglect and endangerment.\u00a0 Yet, people do this to Greyhounds and this is often the reason for so many returns.<\/p>\n

How many dogs have been returned because they did not know how to tell the adopter when they had to go out?\u00a0 How many for jumping on people, getting on furniture, counter surfing, separation anxiety, or defensive actions due to being startled or hurt (aka growling or biting)?\u00a0 So, let’s understand: Sometimes it is the dog’s “fault” he cannot fit in.\u00a0 He is not equipped with the social skills of a six-year old human.\u00a0 But you can help him.<\/p>\n

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“Thoughts of a Greyhound” By Kathleen Gilley – From A Seminar In 1998 This breed has never been asked to do anything for itself, make any decisions or answer any questions.\u00a0 It has been waited on, paw and tail.\u00a0 The … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":13,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-341","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greyhoundinfo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greyhoundinfo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greyhoundinfo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greyhoundinfo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greyhoundinfo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=341"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.greyhoundinfo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":342,"href":"https:\/\/www.greyhoundinfo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/341\/revisions\/342"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greyhoundinfo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greyhoundinfo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}