kokopelli, It's interesting how so many of the Japanese breeds have curled tails. I guess that's to keep things ON the coffee table. Good looking dog, I had never heard of one before.
I heard the same thing about Greyhounds, too. About being trained not to sit and not knowing common house behavior. I think a mojor part of placing these dogs is just getting them used to stairs, house noises and such. It seems like all sighthounds are couch potatos at heart, once they have had their daily requirement of exercise. My ridgeback will walk the room I am in looking for where the sun is hitting the carpet just right and curl up. If I go to another room he will follow and do the same thing. This isn't saying that he isn't "wound" at times, but he definitely enjoys his basking time.
Here's he is with my Presa shortly after I moved into my new house last Feb. Notice the close proximity to the heat register [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
all of the spitz type or ancient breeds have the double curled tail. that would be the shikoku, the shiba, the akita, the kia, and the hokaido dogs. so i guess thats five. there are four more japanes breeds that are considered national shrines....let me think...the tosa inu, the japansese spaniel, um i cant think of the rest but i will look them up as soon as possible and try to translate them again.
my dog is most def. a couch potato! in fact she has 3 beds that she puts directly in the sun and lounges!
We adopted a retired Greyhound 2 years ago. Absolutely the best dog I ever owned. He is very freindly to everyone and is incredibly low maintainence. One good 5 minute run a day and it's the couch for the rest of the day. He's not a very good watch dog though. Oh well, you can't have it all.
I am not anti-racing, but in favor of more regulation to insure placement of dogs. The hounds love to run, so I say let 'em. As long as they are treated well and placed when they are retired from racing. These dogs are so wonderful I'm sure the breeders will have no problem finding them all homes, especially if they are required to to stay in business. There are certainly many orginizations out there to help them too.
<font color="blue">She has nice teeth </font color>
That's mostly because she is still young, not quite three years old yet. She only raced one season (2002) a total of 15 races before they decided she wasn't fast enough, plus she got hit hard a couple of times.
It is interesting lots of things the racing greyhounds are just not used to, because they have not been a part of their racing environment; things like doors, windows, and esp stairs. They are a real spaz around those things until they get used to them.
They are very well crate-trained and dog-socialized.
I've heard you should not try to teach them to sit or down, either, because they use cattle prods on them while they are in the starting gate if they try to sit or down there.
<font color="red">things like doors, windows, and esp stairs. They are a real spaz around those things until they get used to them.
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[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Sounds like one of my dogs. Only he was not a racer. Must just be a spaz. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
Ours has just learned stairs after 2 years. We were trying for a while and progressing slowly. Then we were babysitting for another greyhound that could do stairs and it suddenly became much more important to our guy when everyone was upstairs but him. Then he figured it out for himself in about a day. Still have to lift his hind end up into the car though.
I agree about them being very well socialized w/ other dogs. I do notice that they are more interested in other greyhounds than other dogs.
My fiance has three greyhounds and a Rotty (she was brought in last, as a 6 month old). It was several months before the hounds decided to 'see her' and play with her. Before that they just ignored her. That rotty never gave up though; kept trying to play with them and tussle with them. Good thing because the rotty is now number one. But the hounds are nice, easy going dogs. Her two oldest are from a track in CT, they are going on 14 years.
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