Merlin is a very sweet, smart, and gentle doggy. He settled in really quickly, learned the house rules pretty much immediately and since then has been steadily becoming more affectionate and playful every week. When we first got him he was pretty laid back and happy to go along with whatever was happening but over time we have noticed that some of his personality quirks are coming out and he has bonded to the two of us quite strongly. I think it takes him a little time to become comfortable before he is willing to show his silly side and his affectionate side.
Merlin's absolutely favourite activity is tearing apart squeaky toys, but only until they stop squeaking. Once they lose their squeak he mostly loses interest. Unfortunately for our dog toy budget the time between getting the toy and having all the stuffing out and the squeaker broken has gone from 2 or 3 days down to 5 min! We are suckers though, so we keep buying him new ones because it is so fun to see his ears go up when he gets a new toy. He has a small animal farm of deflated stuffed toys littering his bed now.
He is now getting very excited about evening walks, he does bouncy greyhound circles in the living room when we get the leash out (there really is not quite room for this sort of carry on in the living room but it's so funny we can't help but laugh and hurry him out the door). We did a lot of recall practice so now we can really enjoy letting him off leash in the dog park and letting him zoom around easily outpacing the other dogs. The best playmates are the fast dogs who will fetch a tennis ball, and Merlin will go fetch the other dog. When we call he comes sprinting back at top speed for a pat and a bit of shredded chicken (this has been our secret to recall training, very tasty treats every single time he comes back) he gets a little treat for checking in with us regularly too. It is really nice for us that he has picked this up so well because we can take him on all sorts of adventures and let him have a good time running around knowing that he will come back when we need him to.
He loves his clicker training, we have mastered down, up, on your bed and "three-two-one-go€ (which is for doing sprints back and forth together). Merlin seems to think clicker training is a great way to get a lot of treats for doing easy stuff, he stares at me and wags his tail waiting for the next command so he can get his treat. Rob wants to teach him a few silly tricks next so we may do some less useful things like play dead or dance just for fun.
You can see the picture of Merlin on the Muriwai beach playing with his friend Tess (Tess's owners are our good friends and we do a lot together). When we first got him he did not really know what to make of small dogs but Tess has insisted that they be friends and they now run around and play with toys together.
During the day Merlin relaxes by snoozing on the porch on a nice soft dog bed. He has a few beds and a dog house around the yard but his favourite is an elevated spot where he can look out over the neighbour's yard and watch the construction activity going on next door.
We very much enjoy Merlins company, he is charming and sweet presences at our side when we are puttering around the house and he politely insists that we get out for a walk every evening which is good for everyone's health and happiness. We strongly advocate for greyhound adoption to everyone we meet who asks us about him. We have been stopped on the street a couple times with people asking us about the program and we always tell them how happy we have been with our dog and the whole experience.
Gwen and Rob