Dogless

When we brought Dognose home, we weren't certain that having a child was at all plausible.

I had wanted a greyhound since I met my first one. I heard they traveled well, they were good with kids, they didn't shed and that they were primarily very lazy and also very loving.

And when he ran, it was a site to see. He made the sound of a horse galloping and he looked equally as lovely. Sleek.

He was agile to the point of being absurd, how he would hop around in circles.

The kids would chase him and laugh when he ran.



They would also want to pet him, and that is where the problems came in.

Dognose came to us very tense, nervous, insecure and highly strung. He never really relaxed enough for us to be very comfortable with kids near him. He never bit a child, but he had smacked his head and yelped so that he generated a substantial amount of fear. He bared his teeth as well. We encouraged kids to only pet his body and stay away from his head.

This was pretty much impossible to do with a little baby girl who looked him eye to eye and was enchanted by him.

Dognose was not enchanted with her. He was mortally afraid of her. If she just pet his body, he would tolerate more or less. But she wanted to pat, and she wanted to get close to his face.

For awhile, we sat on this idea of letting him go. He would try to sleep in her room. He would mark his territory (grrr). I made sure he got the daily walks and the daily pets. Still his demeanor of being scared, insecure, unhappy never seemed to recede.

Greys are working dogs, so when they come to homes, they don't know stairs, they don't know sliding glass windows and they often have experienced a life of abuse, or at least rough treatment. I thought he would learn that we were good, safe, loving. He never seemed ever relax, though he did sleep alot and eventually he went to seek pets from others. He never travelled well as he was so nervous at other peoples houses, they became nervous too.

So I called the lady at GPA and explained that we were thinking that in the long term, Mister Dognose was no match for our daughter. He had some threatening behavior in his past, and we didn't want to wait to find out if it would be okay. He is not an "alpha" dog, he is a fearful dog.

Yesterday she came and blip, like that, he was gone. His muzzle, his bed, his food, his toys, his rawhide bone...everything.

I think he will be happier elsewhere. He is a handsome guy, and in excellent health so maybe he can find a place with another friend to snuggle with. Still sad to do such a thing, he was my first dog.

Bye bye dognose.

On a sidenote though, I went through and scooped all his doodoo in the backyard and that made me feel better about the choice. Bleah!