Going up in the world

Its been a month and a bit since  Lottie, our new greyhound, arrived -  what a difference time makes! In just 6 weeks she's really settled in and started to come out of her shell.  

Her personality is really beginning to shine through as she becomes less reserved and increasingly confident with all the alien things that make up our home.

Strangest of all for Lottie has been the staircase. As an ex-racing greyhound, she'd never seen one before and as far as she was concerned, they were a strange scary thing that humans used. We'd go upstairs and Lottie would wait below pitifully whining until we came back down.

Dealing with a sad greyhound is never fun. Looking into her big dark eyes as we went upstairs was almost unbearable. 

That said, coming back downstairs we were usually greeted with frantic tail wags as she nearly exploded with happiness that her humans had not abandoned her after all.

Such was Lottie’s distress that we finally decided to educate her on our stairs. Anything was better than seeing her in such a pitiful state.

Learning the stairs

Things got off to a bad start. We decided to put the lead on Lottie so we could lead her up the stairs, unfortunately her tail started wagging furiously and she thought we were taking her for a walk. 

Funnily enough It stopped pretty quickly once we made it to the foot of the stairs and she realised what was afoot (she was a-pawled).

Several hours later, lots of praise and a pocket full of treats (regardless of what the books say - the way to a greyhound's heart and brain is through its stomach) something finally clicked.

Smartie dog

Just when we'd given up trying to teach her the way of the stair, she decided to wander up by herself.

We're both flabbergasted and pleasantly surprised. Now the lady Lottie of the manor acts as if she invented stairs, and regularly bolts up and down them just to show us how clever she is.

How about you?

Our experiences with Lottie and stairs are just one example of the ways in which the world can seem pretty alien to an ex racing greyhound. How did your pets cope with new experiences in their new home?