# Help with a Lurcher cross



## nhaide1 (Jun 16, 2011)

Hi all

I am new to this site and i joined to get abit of advise about my dog miley 
She is a 10 month old Lab/ Lurcher cross.

We got Miley when she was a baby from a rescue shelter in my town. 
At the time we were looking for a dog that wouldn't grow to big and possible had a bit of a Labrador in her as we have ad Labradors in the past so we were delight when we were shown Miley. 
She was this tiny golden Labrador and we fell in love with her straight away and we took her home that day, we were also told we didnt no what she was crossed with.

As time went on Miley started to get bigger and her tail started to get Longer and her nose got longer and one day it clicked with me, "My dog looks like a greyhound"

So i got onto the internet and done some research and the more i looked into it the more she was like a lurcher and only had the colour of a ladrador. 
I have to admit i taught to myself what have i let myself in for because we wouldn't be a family that would give her the freedom that she needs to burn off a lot of her energy and i don't know a thing about Lurchers/ greyhounds etc.

I have a few problems with miley that i would like some advise on from people that have experience with lurchers/greyhounds.

1. Food - I have swapped and changed that many food with miley i could set up my own food shop for dogs. 
any food that i have fed her always made her have runny poos, but the strange this is one minute her poos are normal and fine and the next i wont explain because it just gross. 
I now have her on this dog food and she is getting fed 350g of it a day and its broken down into 3 meals, 3 times daily. 
Natural Dog Food from Harringtons - Natural Wholesome Nutrition for Healthy Dogs 
Her poos are fine one day and the next day its back to runny poos and also she is farting non stop and is stinking the house out of it.

So i am now at a stage where i dont know what else to try her on or if im feeding her the wrong food and how to stop the runny poos and farting. if anyone has any advise i would be grateful.

2. Jumping - Miley is a dog that gets very excited very easily and she will jump all over you for about 20 minutes and nutting will calm her down. 
The problem is because she is so big, shes jumping on guests that come into the house, on small children, om me and my partner and she actually hurts you and i don't know how may of my tops have holes in them from her nails ripping them. 
We have tried bringing her out of the house on a lead for 5 or 10 minutes to get her to calm down but she will choke herself and almost make herself sick to just jump all over you. 
If anyone has any advise on how to stop this i would be grateful.

3. Barking- Miley barks at almost everything, People walking by the house, when some one calls to the house, if she hears a noise like the door bell or a knock on the door, she starts and its a real loud treating bark, we have gave out to her every time she does it and let he know its wrong but she still does it. 
We are considering a bark collar for her but im not to keen on then 
We have to do something to get her to stop because the neighbors are complaining a bit her barking non stop. 
So can some please help me with this

4. Obedience- I have done the basic training with miley, sit,stay, down etc and she can do these very well but she will not come back to me or my partner if we call her she will just keep running until she is ready to pass out so because of this we can not let her out the back garden on her own because we live out the country and there is a lot of farm animals around and rabbits etc ans when she see ones shes goes for them and will not come back and i am afraid if she gets loose a farmer will just shoot her for going after his stock. so miley is attached to a 50feet chain in the garden so she can not get loose, i do not get please out of doing this but this is the only way i can keep her out of trouble 
so some advise on training would be greatly appreciated

As you can see i do not have the best of knowledge on mileys breed type and i am very inexperienced, 
We have considered trying to re home her but i don't want to give up on her yet as we do love her very much and she is so affectionate and despite all the problems she is a great pet and i cant put all the blame on her it is also my fault as i have no knowledge on her breed

So any help would be greatly appropriated and thankyou for reading my story


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## Cleo38 (Jan 22, 2010)

Hello, welcome to the forum 

I'm no expert at all but hopefully will bump your theread up so someone else can also comment!

Food wise that's not a great list of ingredients I'm afraid. I know alot of people who have dogs with sensitive tums do really well on a raw diet (I currently do this for my two) but this does involve a bit of planning, a big freezer & a supplier - not always easy.

Have a look at ingredients on the different brands & look for one with a high meat content & no maize as this can cause problems. My friend now has her dogs on Symply & they are doing much better.

As for the jumping up both my two used to do this - how do you currently react to this? We used to turn & face the other way & completely ignore the dogs until they were calm then give them a gentle stroke. You could also teahc her top go to her mat when you have guests - see Kikopup training clips on Youtube (these are great for all sorts of 'problems')

As for the chasing  - this is my biggest problem (or one of them!) See my thread http://www.petforums.co.uk/dog-training-behaviour/176658-controlling-predatory-chasing-anyone-been-course.html where lots of m,emebers gave me some brilliant advice.

You are right to worry about this & if there is any livestock around then keep her on a leash as it really isn't worth taking a risk. If she starts to chase livestock then she could be shot by a farnmer or seriously injured by one of the animals - there has been quite a few stories of dog owners being killed by cows when trying to rescuce their dogs.

If you are worruied that she may not have enough freedom then get a longline (these can be as long as you like!) & a harness for her (dont' attach these to a collar)

Don't worry I am an inexperienced dog owner but have learnt alot from this forum - this has been invaluable to me at times


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## hazel pritchard (Jun 28, 2009)

Hi , i have a Lurcher hes fed on Autarky, dry food, hes doing great on it,i feed alot less amount than you are feeding, that maybe the cause of loose poos with your dog, a good site for help and info is Lurcher Link, they are very helpfull on there , they deal with all aspects of rescue lurchers,
Good luck hope things work out ok for you


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## SLB (Apr 25, 2011)

nhaide1 said:


> Hi all
> 
> I am new to this site and i joined to get abit of advise about my dog miley
> She is a 10 month old Lab/ Lurcher cross.
> ...


Sorry if any of what I have said is harsh and it might be a little all over the place but feel free to ask me to elaborate on points.. I've been out for 4 hours with my dog and I'm knackered atm :lol:


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## nhaide1 (Jun 16, 2011)

Thank you for the great advise 
I have done some of the basic training with her, like the sit command and stay and she does this very well but it only when shes off the lead she makes a burst for it and wont come back when she is called,

I have tried the baby gate and keeping her in one room but once you leave that room and she cant see you she will howl and howl till you come back.

Also i never added that she is crate trained and she adapted to this very well and loves the crate and almost prefers it than her dog bed.
and she in nurtured and that did quiet her down a small bit

I do give her a kong full of frozen yogurt when we are going into and she is left alone so it will take her some time to eat it.

As for me changing the food i have never just changed from one to the other i have always introduced it slowly over 6 to 7 days, mixing it with the food she is currently on at the time and he poos are always the same, its even the same when i give her boiled chicken and rice.

As for her jumping up on everyone, i don't think i have approached the discipline correctly are reading everyone's advise.
When she jumps up i always just push her away and tell her stop but and just let her keep doing it. so i have to thank you for the advise and i have taken it on board and i will be trying it out 

I was thinking for getting a dog trainer in to teach me where im going wrong and what needs to be improved but i have to do a bit more research on it to find the best one out there as they are expensive.
I no myself that i have to start increasing her activities to tire her out more and to get her out of the house more and hopefully this will make a difference on her behavior

Here is a picture of Miley for mayone that wants to see her

Miley the week we got her 









Miley at 5 months 

















Miley now at 10 months


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## SLB (Apr 25, 2011)

Tbh I think she looks Grey x Saluki (Longdog) *IMO* of course - she did look very lab-ish as a pup though I agree.

As long as you find a positive training class not all are expensive - working in a group will give her added distraction too..

Good Luck and I hope I have helped in some small way..


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## L/C (Aug 9, 2010)

Can I just add that if you are going to continue tieing her out make sure she is on harness and not a collar. The acceleration of a lurcher/long dog means that she could easily reach a dangerous speed before she reaches the end of the line and really hurt herself, she could even break her neck if she is going fast enough. You need to make sure she has a rock solid wait command so that if she does start to sprint you can stop her straight away.


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## DogTrainer01 (Apr 13, 2011)

Terrier has a very sensitive stomach. He is now fed Burns dry kibble and NaturesDiet wet food (heated). His stools used to be really inconsistant but since changing to this, they have been beautiful  (as beautiful as a poo can be...)

Agree with advice that has already been put on here. Have a look on;

Local Dog Trainers - Association of Pet Dog Trainers UK

CAPBT - COAPE Association of Pet Behaviourists and Trainers

To find a good trainer near you. I think she could really excel from it .

Keep us updated and remember to have fun when training! :thumbup:


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