Big Goof

Caleb has been with us for a few weeks now and his personality is REALLY starting to show. He is a big, happy-go-lucky goofball. He discovered the "secret" location of the dog toys recently, and every day before I get out of bed he is up and playing with all the toys he can get his paws on! His tail is wagging all the time and he loves to check out everything that is going on. He is one happy pup.

He gets very excited when I come home and occasionally barks to be let out when I walk through the door, so I have been working on alone training with him. Essentially, I ignore him until he stops making noise and calms down. When I walk over to his crate, I'll wait until he is lying down to open the cage and I give him a firm "wait" until I decide he can come out. He is catching on quickly and now has no problems walking into the crate before I leave for work. He sometimes tries to go into the crate with my other grey, but if that happens she'll march right out and go into his. I stand there and just give them a look and they'll switch crates again to get their treat. They are both so eager to please!

Caleb has earned my trust and sleeps outside of his crate now. The longest he has been unsupervised and uncrated while I am out running errands is about 2 hours. So far, no problems!

This past weekend we went on a couple long walks and Caleb was wonderful on each of them. The first walk was about 4.5 miles and he walked like the perfect gentleman. I even passed him off to the people I was walking with and his obedience remained steady. For the second walk, we ventured off to a dog park. I kept him leashed at the beginning to see how he would react to everything. When I let him off, he cruised around the park by himself and checked out every nook and cranny there was. He barely bat an eye at the other dogs and they hardly tried to come up to him (probably because he's so big!). I live in a building where Caleb is constantly faced with small dogs (<25lbs). He has never pulled towards them or caused any trouble, but this could be a different story if one was running away from him. 

Caleb would make a fantastic addition to any home. He's mellow 99% percent of the time, with the other 1% being simply a joyful, playful pup. As with any greyhound, if you give them too much leeway they will end up ruling the house! It's important for his new adopter to keep the same disciplines that he is learning now for a smooth transition and a happy life with this stellar dog!