Quelle: FB "Isle of Wight Greyhound Owners Group"To all new houndie owners,
This may come as a shock, but when I first arrived in Mummys home we had a bit of a communication problem.
Sure we had emotionally bonded at our very first meeting. The love was there.
But the communication wasn't. It was a shock to both of us that the strong bond and unconditional love wasn't enough.
I had only known kennels, other greyhounds, humans who saw to my needs within a strict routine and a structured, institutionalised life behind bars.
I'd never seen a sofa before, or a human bed, or a tv, or a cooker, or a washing machine, or a hair dryer, any of the things Mummy had in her massive kennel without bars.
I'd never even walked on carpet before! Yet there I was.
All by myself, with all these new things and I didn't know what to do.
So I elected to do nothing for a while. I knew Mummy loved me and I loved her but she wasn't yet in my head and I couldn't quite get into hers.
I got very frustrated.
I must admit I acted out a bit.
I decided to refuse to eat my food. Mummy was serving me the same stuff I'd had in kennels.
I never did like it. It was bland, grey coloured and boring.
Then I decided to play up on our walks. I hated the stiff wide leather collar around my neck. I couldn't put my head down to sniff anything without it tugging a bit which was annoying. So I started to pull.
Which made the tugging around my neck worse. Which made me pull more to get away from it.
And when I saw another dog ..... well I didn't know what these alien creatures were did I? I'd only ever known other greyhounds.
So I reared up like a stallion, screamed at the top of my voice, and lunged at these awful aliens to get them to keep away from me. Mummy would just hold me still, stroke me, tell me I was safe and wait till I'd calmed down before walking on, but I still had this nasty suffocating collar around my neck and if I saw another alien dog thing I'd do the screaming stallion thing all over again.
I mean, these alien dogs were everywhere! It was like an invasion! One day, Mummy just sat down on the lounge floor and cried. She completely broke down. I felt awful.
I'd done this to her. I went over to her and put my head next to hers.
She asked me to help her understand. So I thought about my collar feeling like it was choking me, I thought about how boring my food was, and I thought about the alien dog invasion.
Something changed in that moment.
We had both been wanting the same thing, but had had different ideas of how to get there. First thing Mummy did was change my food. She threw out the bland muck and bought a new tasty kibble with some even tastier tinned food to mix in with it.
It was amazing!
I ate all of it! Then a few days later a parcel arrived for me. It was my harness. I stood very still for Mummy while she adjusted it to make sure it was tight enough for me to not be able to wriggle out of, but not so tight as to hurt me. She put the stiff, unyielding collar in a cupboard - I've never seen it again.
Then when we went out for a walk, the harness had another effect.
It made me feel safe. Like I was wearing a protective shield. It felt like Mummys arms around me.
So when I saw one of those alien dog things, I just stood still and watched it.
And as I watched it, I realised they weren't so scary after all.
So you see, even Mummy and I had problems in the beginning.
The bond was there, but the communication wasn't. It took time, and a lot of hard work to get where we are today but there was one thing Mummy had been determined about from the outset.
She wasn't going to give up. So if you are struggling with your newly adopted hound, remember .... for us it is like someone kidnapping you, taking you to a foreign country where nobody spoke your language, you didn't understand theirs and yet you are expected to be perfectly fine from the get-go.
You couldn't do it.
Neither can we. But we still develop Stokholm Syndrome a lot quicker than you would.
Just because we are quiet and gentle doesn't mean we are coping. It took me a whole year to fully settle with Mummy and for us to find our frequency.
But look at us now! 6 years together and we are two halves of the same soul.
It was hard work, but it's been worth it.
So just give us hounds, and yourselves some time.
We want your adoption of us to succeed as much as you do.
Lots of love, Prince Arik
Auto: Sara Mortimer