Your newly adopted greyhound may never have lived in a house before. Everything will be new and strange. Imagine you have just landed from the moon and seen televisions, vacuum cleaners, glass doors and mirrors for the first time. Naturally, it will take your dog some time to settle down.
The best way to help is to be calm and give him time to explore without making any demands on him. Please never get cross with him if he does something you don’t like. The set of Fact Sheets will help you to understand how best to deal with those situations. He is not being naughty; he is just coping with huge change the best way he knows how.
When you first arrive home, take your dog on the lead into the garden to the place you want him to use for a toilet and wait with him (for however long it takes) until he performs. Praise him immediately (a treat would be nice) and then take him to explore the garden boundaries before going indoors.
Before he arrives, you should have designated a safe, quiet, warm place to put a soft, thick bed down for your dog. Having a chew or a pig’s ear waiting for him on the bed is a good idea so that he naturally goes there for comfort. However, if you already have another dog, this is not safe to do. Most spats between dogs happen over food.
Respect his space when he is in his bed and make it a ‘no go’ area for children. He needs somewhere to chill out when it all gets too much for him. Resist the urge to keep calling him and especially ask children to leave him in peace on his first day.
Keep a close watch on your dog so that you can start toilet training straight away. Dogs will not foul in their bed area unless they are very stressed. In kennels, they will naturally use the outdoor run. But in your house, they have no idea where to go. So:
every 3 hours;
or if you see your dog mooching around restlessly;
or if you have just fed your dog;
or if he has just woken up,
Put him on the lead, take him into the garden to the designated toilet place and stay with him (however long it takes) until he has performed. Praise/reward him and take him for a little walk around as a reward, too, before you go back inside. The better you are at doing this, the quicker a dog will learn. It is all down to you. It can be done in 48 hours if you work hard enough at it, though some dogs take longer to learn than others.
NEVER scold or punish your dog for going to the toilet in the house. He is not being naughty; he simply does not understand what you want yet. He will respond by learning to do it when you are not looking, which also means that he may stop doing it when you are outside with him.
