Settling In

Our expectations on pet dogs is huge and when you take your greyhound home, they have a lot of new things to learn just in your house. New people, new sights, smells and sounds and often other pets. This is a lot for a dog to learn about and often when they first arrive, they will be feeling very stressed and anxious so our first steps must be allowing them to settle in the home. It will take at least three days for your new greyhound’s stress levels to come back into normal ranges where they are able to process new things rather than just react to them. 

 

First Steps

The first steps when bringing a new dog home are to build a secure and strong attachment and integrate them slowly into their new surroundings. Any fear or anxiety related behaviour while the dog settles in is completely normal and a degree of stress is to be expected. Almost all hounds have lived rurally in kennel environment for their whole life and there will be so many ‘firsts’ they’ll need guiding through.  

Initially, just being present and available to guide your greyhound is invaluable as they navigate this strange new world, however it takes more than that to build a rock-solid friendship. 

 

Settling In

Our expectations on pet dogs is huge and when you take your greyhound home, they have a lot of new things to learn just in your house. New people, new sights, smells and sounds and often other pets. This is a lot for a dog to learn about and often when they first arrive, they will be feeling very stressed and anxious so our first steps must be allowing them to settle in the home. It will take at least three days for your new greyhound’s stress levels to come back into normal ranges where they are able to process new things rather than just react to them.  

If we start adding new things and the dog is already in a stressed state, then they are far more likely to cause issues like freezing on walks and leash reactivity. These are preventable if we take it very slow and don’t rush into adding new things to process when the dog is not relaxed enough to do so. 

Here are our top 10 steps for success setting you up to have the best relationship with your new greyhound: 

  • Be proactive in helping your greyhound make the right choices by using a crate, playpen, or baby-gate when you can’t supervise them.  
  • Make sure your greyhound has somewhere quiet to rest undisturbed
  • Leave them alone when they are on their bed, sleeping, or resting
  • Spend time building a relationship through play, enrichment activities, and fun training games 
  • All interactions with children are supervised and at the greyhound’s pace  
  • Leave them alone when they are eating and separate them from other animals at meal times 
  • Keep them off the furniture for at least three weeks while they are learning the house rules
  • No walks for at least 3 days, then only in an area that is quieter away from traffic, lots of people, and other dogs.
  • Keep them on lead – especially in unfenced areas. Instead use a harness and a longline to give them more freedom to sniff and explore.
  • Use a muzzle when introducing new dogs or other animals.

What to expect when you are expecting - a great guide for the first few weeks of your greyhounds new pet life.

Please watch our Settling in 30 day Video Diary for tips on settling in a new greyhound and check out our behavior guides below:

Settling At Night

 

Research has shown - like us - that during the first few nights in a new place dogs don't sleep well. This highlights the need to do a little bit extra to set your greyhound up for success. Remember this may very well be their first night sleeping without another greyhound or dog around.   

3 Step Bedtime Routine - This routine should take around 20 minutes, which is a small amount of time considering it should help to save you from a sleepless night.  

1.       Train - Learning will help to tire your hound out, so get the treats and do a short 5 minute training session.  This could be practicing a hand touch, eye contact, or a ‘down’, choose to train exercises that don't require much movement so it’s not too exciting. Alternatively, you could try massage, careful, light circular motions in the direction of the fur may help them to relax around bedtime. 

2.       Toilet - Take your hound outside in the garden on the lead (to prevent zoomies and accidents en route) to go to the toilet. Say your cue e.g. “busy” and wait with them while they go to the toilet.   

3.       Chew - Set your hound up in their crate to go to sleep. Chewing is a stress relieving behaviour so providing them with something to chew on can help them to settle down. Alternatively, you could smear some peanut butter on a Kong or a piece of Tupperware for them to lick off. Essentially, we want to give the dog something to do independently for 5-10 minutes rather than focusing on you.  

The First Week Plan - The aim is that over the first week your hound starts sleeping well in places they are comfortable while a relationship between the two of you develops and they become familiar with their surroundings.  

Note: If you have another dog, your hound may happily settle down in a crate in the same room as them or loose in the same room, as sleeping near other dogs is what is familiar to them, in which case there may be no need to follow this plan.  

Night 1-3 - For the first three nights where distress and vocalisations are more common, we advise the hound sleeps in the same room as you, even if they are sleeping well. 

If you are uncomfortable with the dog sleeping in the same room as you, you can try them just outside the door or somewhere you can hear and reach them quickly if they become distressed. Alternatively, you could sleep in the lounge beside the dog in the crate, and then over several days move further away from their crate in the lounge and then finally back in your bed.  

Night 4-6 -On the next three nights, or when the hound is sleeping through the night, move their crate further away from your bed. This may be to the other side of the room, or to just outside of the bedroom doorway.  

Night 7 - On night seven, we suggest trying the hound out in the room you wish to have them sleep in the future.  

When the plan doesn’t go to plan  

Sometimes the plan doesn’t go to plan. If we allow the dog to continue being distressed, their body’s flight or fight response kicks in and provides them with energy – which is the last thing we want when trying to get them to go to sleep! With that in mind, we do want to give them a little time as on occasion a dog might vocalise and then return to sleep, but if they begin to escalate (increased movement, louder, longer, and higher pitched vocalisation) we need to intervene. 

Without talking or making a fuss, clip their lead on and walk them outside as they may need to go to the toilet. Ideally choose the place where they have been to the loo before bed. Allow at least 5 full minutes before you come back in and pop them back in their crate with something to do for 5-10 minutes.  

If your hound isn’t settling, then you need to take some steps back in the plan to give them more time to get used to sleeping on their own. Remember they are experiencing a complete change of routine, are in an unfamiliar place, and have likely never slept on their own before now.  

Important note: some greyhounds exhibit a “sleep startle” response and if disturbed by touch when sleeping can snap when awoken. Greyhounds can sleep with their eyes open which can make it difficult to tell if they are awake, speaking to them and allowing them to wake up and orient themselves rather than touching them is a safer way to wake any dog while sleeping. It is likely greyhounds are prone to sleep startle due to having had their own individual kennel area to sleep in undisturbed and aren’t used to the interruptions of domestic living. For this reason, we recommend for safety that greyhounds do not sleep on human furniture and have somewhere away from children that they can sleep.  

Further Advice

For more training advice see our training section full of useful articles and videos to help you and your hound.