The Difference Between a Cat and a Dog

A Cause of Seizures With My Greyhounds

Two of my greyhounds, Cole and Rowdy, suffer from seizures.

From the beginning I have been tracking all seizures, medicines, dosages and blood tests in journals for each dog.

I also have been charting the seizures since I noticed that Cole was having seizures when I took him on I-75. You can read about it here.

Rowdy has had so many seizures this year that I began to notice something unusual in his chart.

First, to describe this chart. The vertical axis represents the number of seizures and the horizontal axis is counting down the number of hours until the next administration of his medicine that he get every 12 hours.

You can see that most of Rowdy's seizures happen either right before or right after the time of his next dose because there may not be enough medicine in his system to control the seizures. The previous dose is running out and the new dose has not been absorbed by his system.

Now for the interesting discovery. You will notice that there is also a "blip" in the graph at the point that is 4 hours until the next dosage.

I realized that this "blip' was one to two hours after I fed Rowdy his daily meal.

Cole also has this "blip" in his chart, but Cole has seizures less frequently than Rowdy so it was not as noticeable.

Now I have to determine if there is something in the food that is triggering seizures or if the act of digesting food changes something in theirs blood chemistry that reduces the amount of medicine available to control seizures.

Friends of Greyhounds' Collar Chain

This is a video from Friends of Greyhounds celebration of the 1,000th dog adopted which took place on October 10, 2010 (10/10/10, 10*10*10=1,000).

By the time Friends of Greyhounds was evicted from the kennels that were being provided by the dog tracks of South Florida, over 1,900 ex-racer greyhounds had been adopted out.

Since then Friends of Greyhounds has had to down-size because of the lack of kennel space, but their rescue and adoption of these wonderful dogs continues.

When a greyhound is adopted, its kennel collar is added to the chain, in chronological order. On special occasions the chains are hung for all to admire.

This chain of 1,000 collars represents the 1,000 dogs that had been adopted out up to October 10, 2010.

Some of the original collars were lost or dogs came in with no collar at all and we use a wooden bone with the dog's name on it. 

Most of the collars hang open but a few are buckled closed.  Those are the dogs who have passed away and are waiting for us at the Rainbow Bridge.

 

Words That My Dogs Know

• out - Let's go out to the yard.
• potty - Time to relieve yourself.
• water - Drink some water.
• yummy - Eat some food.
• cookie - A dog biscuit.
• chewie - A rawhide chew stick.
• bed - It's 3 AM! Return to your bed.
• walk - Would you like to go for a walk?
• car - Would you like to go for a ride in the car? (and this time I'll drive)
• let's go - Opposite of stay.
• this way - Change your direction to the way that I am indicating.
• stay - Don't move.
• come - Come to me.
• hug - Come here and get a hug. (This was Roger's favorite word.)
• run - Run.
• up - Jump up.
• off - Jump down.
• ramp - Walk up or down on the ramp (Roger could not jump).
• move - Get out of my way.
• no - Cease and desist.
• leave it - Cease and desist.
• done - Cease and desist.
• all done - Cease and desist.
• no more - Cease and desist.
• more - Do that again.
• two-fee - Time to brush your teeth.
• brushy - Time to be groomed.
• pill - Let me give you your pill.
• home - Let's go home (turn up the driveway).
• PetCo - Let's go shopping.
• garage door - I convinced some of the kids in the neighborhood that all of the dogs have swallowed garage door remotes and they can open the garage door whenever they want to. (The remote is in my pocket, but don't tell the kids.)

How to Train a Dog

Here are some steps on training a dog.

When the dog does something you like then reward the dog with praise. Just like with people you are telling your dog to keep up the good work. If you add a word while the dog is doing the action then dog will soon learn that the word is a command to do the action.

Try to ignore any bad behavior. Dogs love attention. If bad behavior gets them noticed they will continue with that action, too. Of course it there is the chance that someone or something will be hurt by all means speak up, but use a harsh voice, not a gentle comforting voice. Dogs may not know what the words are but they do learn what the tone of your voice means.

How to Walk Your Dog Five Miles Everyday

DNA Testing for Dog Breeds is a Waste of Money For Greyhounds

My friends at Friends of Greyhounds recently rescued a dog that was only part greyhound. With a well meaning desire to determine its breeding to help get it adopted, they submitted its DNA to a company that for a fee of $80 will tell you what breed or breeds your dog contains. In addition to this unknown part-greyhound the DNA for an ex-racing greyhound was submitted as a control to verify the accuracy of the DNA analysis. This greyhound is named Yahtzee and his racing name was Cry Yahtzee.

You can see in the Direct Sire Line table that Yahtzee has greyhound ancestry going back for over 30 generations. When Yahtzee's DNA analysis results were received we were surprised. According to Yahtzee's DNA report, he and all of his ancestors are pure bred whippets!

Feel free to make you own conclusion. The title is what I think.