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Step 1
Establish pack leadership. Greyhounds are pack animals. They need to know which member of the pack is alpha dog. When you first bring a racing greyhound home he will spend a lot of time following you around and looking at you. He is looking for signs from you, as his alpha dog, to tell him what is expected of him in the new pack. If you do not take leadership, he will.
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Step 2
Be consistent when you train. A greyhound wants to please the alpha dog, but in order to please you, he needs to understand what you want. If the rules are changing all of the time he will get confused and frustrated.
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Step 3
Socialize your greyhound with other animals. Racing greyhounds have usually been well socialized with people but they have never seen animals other then other greyhounds.
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Step 4
Show affection to your greyhound. Racing greyhounds are typically not abused by their handlers, but their life to this point has been pretty much without affection. Retired racing greyhounds have a lot of love to give and will respond to shows of affection.
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Step 5
Control the environment while training your greyhound. If your greyhound is doing something wrong, it is because he is being rewarded for it in some way. It is important to remove the reward for the bad behavior. For example if he steals food from the counter, the food is the reward. Keep the counter clear of all food until you have your greyhound trained.
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Step 6
Reward good behavior quickly. You have about one second to give the reward when good behavior is displayed. The reward can be a treat or it can be a show of love and affection. If it takes longer than a second for the reward to be given, the connection to the behavior is not made.
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Step 7
Focus on what you want your new dog to do instead of what you want him to stop doing. By rewarding good behavior you will train your dog what is required of him from his new pack and the bad behavior will stop on its own.
Comments
mgmjj said
on 1/5/2009 I had my greyhound for 5 months and he is growling when you touch him with your feet. I was laying on the floor he came and lay right beside me and then I just moved to move my arm and he growl and snap at me what can I do to change this behavior.
mgmjj said
on 1/5/2009 my greyhound is a great dog but if he is laying next to and you move he will snap and growl at you and if you rub him with you feet he will all so growl and snap at you do I stop the behavior. I had him for five months now. I just got him a muzzle I hoping I can stop him for growling with out the muzzle.
lacefullone said
on 4/14/2008 It is a very accurate article in training methods, greyhounds are comfortable knowing where they stand in the pack order (you,as the human definately want to be the alpha!)If you have more than one, they will work out where they stand among themselves.The female usually wins in my experience as top dog, below humans.
They make wonderful pets! A retired racer has many years of love to give and is an ideal choice for a pet. Many racers are put up for adoption, many end up in mass graves in the desert or sold to labs where they die. It would be wonderful if EVERYone get adopted! Here's a national website- but you can adopt them all over the country!
http://www.greyhoundpets.org/
Poetry2go said
on 11/22/2007 This is helpful to me as a writer since a character in my novel has adopted a greyhound. The part about 1 second to give reward is very useful, as is the alpha dog determination. In an unexpected way it helps me define more of the character of the woman who owns the dog, not just the dog. Thank you.