Newest member of the family

[KJoFan]

I just thought I would introduce the newest member of the family. He just joined us yesterday. He is a two month old Italian Greyhound and his name is Schroeder. I am sure we will have our hands full for a long time to come! :)

Some pictures:

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c285/KJoFan/Schroeder/DSC08633.jpg

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c285/KJoFan/Schroeder/DSC08663.jpg

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c285/KJoFan/Schroeder/DSC08644.jpg

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c285/KJoFan/Schroeder/DSC08641.jpg

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c285/KJoFan/Schroeder/DSC08639.jpg

[2075turner]

Awww, how cute! :);)

[Diamond Discus]

He's adorable!!!! We have something besides Discus in common. ;) I have an italian greyhound too. He is 3 years old and his name is Gino.

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k25/DiamondDiscus/Dogs/GinoJazzyGinger001-1.jpg

He likes to sleep with his 2 yorkshire terrier sisters. :D Better get a blanket for him, they love to sleep under a blanket.
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k25/DiamondDiscus/Dogs/GinoJazzyGinger-1.jpg

[KJoFan]

Sue, maybe you can give me some insight into how to go about dealing with him. Crate training is good so far, the housebreaking not so much. Then again it is only the first day, but man that little buggar is quick to pop a squat on the carpet! We're trying to train him to go outside, it would be the preferred method anyway.

Gino is a very handsome fellow. :)

[Diamond Discus]

I don't know if you've looked at the Italian Greyhound Club of America's web site
http://www.italiangreyhound.org/pages/200about_igs.html

But an IG is difficult to impossible to completly housebreak. They hate to get cold or wet, so going outside is their last choice in those conditions. Mine has a spot in his kennel room where I lay down piddle pads then surround them with a cardboard box to make walls. They like privacy and because he is a boy, hikes from time to time. It keeps the pee pee contained. He will go out with the girls and do his jobs every time they do (morning noon and night) but he needs to pee pee at least 4 to 6 more times a day than they do so he goes to his pads. For some reason he poos more too, but then he eats a ton. (hummingbird metabolism :D)

I get my piddle pads from Dr.s Foster and Smith. They have spray to get them started on the pads and some pads come with a scent to encourage them to go there.

He is worth every bit of the extra effort. I adore mine, he walks 3 miles a day with me and every time I sit down he want to snuggle on my lap. He came from an abusive home. I've only had him for a year on this last May 15th. (a few days ago) He had a broken leg and cigarette burns on his chest, many scars too. He knows he has found his heaven on earth with us.

Be careful for mosquito bites and bee stings, IG's are alergic to them. Use repellent when you have them outside. Mine got a mosquito bite right after I got him and it took 3 weeks to heal and left a bald spot the size of a quarter. He got stung by a bee last summer on his tummy and it swelled up immediately like a water balloon around his "deal" and I had to rush him to the vet for a shot.

I will always have an IG from now on....sorry Yorkies.....:D

I love the color of your IG!!

[two utes]

[QUOTE=KJoFan;455133]I just thought I would introduce the newest member of the family. He just joined us yesterday. He is a two month old Italian Greyhound and his name is Schroeder. I am sure we will have our hands full for a long time to come! :)

Love the addition to you family Karren. Schroeder has a really lovely colour.........buy maybe 'Luigi' would have been a good name for him.:D
I am sure he will bring you much happiness.

[KJoFan]

His color is what really "sold" us on him. We first thought we wanted the seal color but this was just too pretty and cute to pass up. :)

I'll tell you the reasoning behind his name.....We also have two cats, whom were named when we got them from the shelter. Their names were part of the reason we got them. They are Linus and Sally. They came from a litter named after the Peanuts characters.

So...we figured we'd keep with the theme and our choices were:

Charlie Brown (charlie would have been ok too)
Snoopy (nah)
Woodstock (neat but...no)
Franklin (didn't really like that one)
Rerun (is that a name??)
Schroeder

And so...Schroeder it was. :)

Sue - We're trying to stick to a really strict schedule, as recommended by the IGCA. I thought I'd had a small victory earlier because after his nap I waited a few minutes then took him out to pee and he did right away! I was happy. We came back in and it was "free time". 10 minutes into free time he peed again, on the carpet. :(

Where I think I went wrong was that apparently boys take a couple shots at the peeing instead of just one. Darn.

So, after free time he had crate/nap time again, then water, then out and free time. He peed while out, then we walked him around a couple blocks and into the backyard to play for his free time, where he went #2 and #1 again! Now, it's in for another nap. So we've had a pretty decent afternoon stretch here. :)

[Darren's Discus]

Karen,
great looking dog ! thank's for sharing.


cheers

[BSW]

He is just to cute !
The color is very unusual. I've never had a IG but I was a vet tech for 14 years and everyone I ran across, was the same story, VERY hard to house break. And fragile dogs, allergies and stuff. Including food allergies. Also somewhat shy dogs. But they are adorable. And so is Schroeder !:D
B

[Diamond Discus]

Where I think I went wrong was that apparently boys take a couple shots at the peeing instead of just one. Darn.

So, after free time he had crate/nap time again, then water, then out and free time. He peed while out, then we walked him around a couple blocks and into the backyard to play for his free time, where he went #2 and #1 again! Now, it's in for another nap. So we've had a pretty decent afternoon stretch here. :)

Sounds like he is catching on. LOL I was fortunate mine was pad broke when I got him. That and having 2 female dogs to follow around gave him a picture of what was expected of him as well. He loves his girls. But if it's cold out he just sits by the door shivering and wants to come in. :D He has a light day shirt, a raincoat and a fleece jacket.

[KJoFan]

He is just to cute !
The color is very unusual.

I think the color is unusual too B, at least from what I've seen around the net of other IG's.

I think I need to stop reading forums and stuff about them online though, because it makes the whole housebreaking thing and other issues they can have kind of depressing/disheartening. It seems there's so many different scenarios out there, some people's IG's are hard to house train and/or never completely are. Others have had great success. I'm going to hope I'm in the latter group. :)

He's doing awesome with his crate, hardly, if at all fusses when he's put in it. Last night he was in from 10:30-1:30 where he started to whine so I took him out and he did his business. Then he was in and not a peep from him until 8 this morning. He had to pee when he went out right away but waited patiently for us to take him out as opposed to whining or just going in his crate.

I want to try to get him broke to outside if I can rather than the pee pads, just because I'd be afraid he'd rely on them more than going outside. Plus, it is summer so he should be ok with going out right now, we'll see when winter comes though.

[Diamond Discus]

Karen, I read the forums and IGCA information after the dog was already in my home too. It was kind of overwhelming. But knowing about the breed will help you understand him better. They are not typical dogs.

So go enjoy the precious little sweetie and stop worrying about him.

http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/36/36_22_14.gif (http://www.smileycentral.com/?partner=ZSzeb001_ZNxmk762LZUS)




http://www.smileycentral.com/sig.jsp?pc=ZSzeb097&pp=ZNxmk762LZUS (http://smiley.smileycentral.com/download/index.jhtml?partner=ZSzeb097_ZNxmk762LZUS&utm_id=7925)

ps, love his blue eyes!

[KJoFan]

I just wanted to update this since our "family" has expanded in the past few weeks.

We decided that Schroeder needed a buddy and were lucky enough to be able to adopt a 7 month old pup from our local IG Rescue.

He's a very sweet pup that had some rough times prior to making it to our house, so has some hand shyness and issues with strangers, but he's doing well so far.

Schroeder and Oliver on Oliver's first day with us:

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c285/KJoFan/DSC09567.jpg

Oliver:

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c285/KJoFan/DSC09638.jpg

They've become good friends already:

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c285/KJoFan/DSC09687.jpg

We had also applied to adopt another little 9 week old IG from another rescue in South Dakota, unfortunately (or still fortunately for him) he was adopted out to another family. But, his littermate was also in rescue and we were given the opportunity to adopt him as well. We couldn't decide and felt we couldn't say no to either one so we ended up adopting him as well. He came to live with us just a few days after Oliver and is 3, almost 4 months old now.

Carlile:

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c285/KJoFan/DSC09696.jpg

An Iggy pile:

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c285/KJoFan/DSC09642.jpg

Needless to say we are very busy and have our hands full with an 8 month old, a 5 month old and a 4 month old in the house! (Hence the reason I had to sell down my discus collection, I'm running out of time!)

Thanks for looking. :)

[seanyuki]

Hi Karen,

Thanks for sharing....now you have both show quality discus and dogs:p
For me one dog at home is enough now :D
Show us your more of your American Contest discus since your last update.
Waiting for a Canadian Contest:p

Cheers
Francis:)

[greyhoundfan]

Sniff..sniff..sniff..

Seeing your pics makes me miss my greyhound, she was an ex-racer.

I like all greyhounds; big, medium and small.. He's a cutie!!

[April]

wow karen..youve really gone to the dogs..your about one up on me...well not really..we have 4 toy poodles and a dalmation. they are very cute..and they should all be good friends seeming all young. we got all ours within a few months of each other. got 3 within two months..then got one more 6 months later.

[KJoFan]

I have gone to the dogs April. It's amazing how time consuming and needy they can be at this age! But it's fun...well most of the time anyway. :)

We really only intended to end up with two total, but when we were faced with the decision between the two rescues we just couldn't say no, knowing we could give them both a good loving home.

We don't regret our decision....yet. :D

Francis, I do need to post pics of my challengers, I've been lax with that lately. I'll see what I can do! :)