Greyhound Suddenly Having Accidents

[webmistress0609]

Hi everyone. This is my 1st post on this board - I'm hoping you guys can help. Sorry that this is long.

We have an almost 10 year old retired Greyhound - Rite is his name. He's always had some anxiety about thunderstorms, & fireworks. Pretty typical for a Greyhound. Usually a dose of Valium or something similar will cut his symptoms to a negligible level as long as one of us is home. These are the really the only 2 triggers that have caused him to pee or poop in the house. He also gets a little anxious around louder and/or more aggressive dogs, but he's never around other dogs like this enough for it to be an issue. We really only had an issue with it when we fostered a few other Greyhounds, so we just stopped fostering.

Well, we've been having serious issues with inappropriate elimination for a few months now. I think our neighbors dog may be setting off some anxiety & causing it, but I'm not sure what to do about it.

Quick back story - neighbor has a German Shepard that's about 6 mo old. It lives outside all the time. We live in a small subdivision with postage stamp size lots. Their backyard is fenced at least. I have not seen the neighbors outside with the dog ever. As in not. freaking. ever. I'm a SAHM, so I'm home enough to know the dog is pretty much ignored. This is the 2nd Shepard in a year & half. The first they booted outside after a week or so of adopting, tried obedience classes & occasional walks at least but the dog still was left out, not socialized, ignored, etc. It ended up getting pretty aggressive (like totally tore up the siding on their house) & barked constantly, & after numerous neighbors complained, the dog was gone. Current Shepard is pretty much a repeat but never lived inside, I've never seen them walk the dog or do any sort of training like the previous one, etc. It lunges & barks at MH, me, & my 3 yo if we dare open the back door or do something shocking like turn on a light on the side of the house that faces theirs, & basically terrorizes Rite while he's out in the yard. I feel bad for this dog, its really a shame.

We do 2 walks per day for Rite, plus he generally "asks" to go out at some point in the afternoon. That outing is a quick trip in our fenced backyard. If we're gone all day or he's just extra lazy, that afternoon trip could be skipped w/o issue. Past tense, that is.

At 1st we thought the issue was that MH had dropped the a.m. walk & was just letting him out for a bit (don't ask ) & I was gone slightly longer in the late a.m. We added back a.m. walk & that at least cut the elimination issue from a daily occurrence. Problem is that he's asking to go out 2-5 times per afternoon on top of the walks, but he often won't leave the deck w/o serious coaxing. And he's having an accident or chewing up on something (which is a totally new thing w/in the last 2 mos) at least 2x per week. Plus his normal thunder/fireworks anxiety is out of control.

Today for example, he's been just on edge almost all day. There's no storm except rain, but neighbors dog has been barking more than usual today. Rite has been for a longer than normal a.m. walk, plus 3 trips to the yard. Yet he just jumped up & started pissing on his bed tonight. Neighbors dog had started barking again, other than that nothing out of the ordinary. Rite had been outside w/in the last 2 hours.

So what do I do here? I've been hesitant to say something to neighbor b/c we are hoping to move within the next 3 months tops & I don't want to start shit when we won't be here soon. Plus how do you say "Your asshole dog makes my poor little pooch nervous?" What if this other dog isn't even the problem? Rite had his annual checkup in July & everything was great. The vet was not at all helpful for this issue but did say nothing seemed to be causing it from a medical perspective. Help!

[rosiedozie]

Have you considered anxiety medication? Since his anxiety is now daily rather than isolated it might be worth looking into in conjunction with a behaviorist for behavioral modification training.

[katietornado]

We foster retired racers and one of ours had some success with a DAP collar. She had unbelievable separation anxiety including some ridiculous amounts of inappropriate elimination, and it helped take the edge off a bit.

Thanks for not giving up on him. We have had two 10-year-old dogs returned to our rescue in the past two weeks. The first (racing name: Top Hat) hadn't seen a vet in over 3 years...he needed 29 teeth pulled and he had a cancerous tumor removed from his leg (hemangiosarcoma). The second (racing name: Kay Kiowa Rhea) just had 21 teeth pulled yesterday and tips the scales at 49 pounds...she raced at 57. She was found as a stray and her family wanted her back. When told she needed extensive dental work, they asked why a dog would ever need its teeth cleaned. OMG.

Anyway...sorry to rant. I hope you're able to find a way to help his anxiety level. Greys are such sensitive pups!