We welcomed these two beautiful creatures, Rudy and Wyatt to our family on March 21.

They are helping our hearts heal after losing Truman, Campy and Tiger all in the last 18 months. 

Rudy and Wyatt are only 2-years old and came to Greyhound Pets, Inc. in a shipment from Florida on January 21. Greyhound racing in Florida concluded on January 31, 2020. Very few greyhound racing tracks in the U.S. remain open now. With the number of open tracks continuing to dwindle, the dogs that arrived in January are likely one of the last loads of NGA retired racers that will come to GPI. This wonderful organization will continue to work with other sources to bring in sighthounds from overseas once the pandemic travel restrictions ease up.

We chose Rudy and Wyatt, in large part, because they seemed to get along well with each other and they were more engaged with us than some of the other dogs we met at GPI.

We’ve only had them for a little more than a week now, so we are all still very much in the ‘getting to know you’ phase. They are sweet, intelligent, affectionate boys and are quickly learning the house rules. 

The goal in these early days is to set a regular schedule for them and stick to it. I’ve been doing a lot of leash work on our daily walks and their leash manners are already dramatically improved. Each boy has had a couple of accidents in the house, but they are very correctable and are catching on about where it is acceptable to go to the bathroom. They’re also learning about what “toys” are appropriate to chew on.

The biggest challenge so far has been with Wyatt barking at night. Loudly. All night. We made a rookie mistake by trying to “comfort” him the first few nights. I ended up falling asleep on the floor next to him, which Wyatt absolutely loved. Well, I ended up creating a monster in just a few days. Reading up on anxiety barking, I learned that ignoring the dog is the way to correct it. We spent two miserable, sleepless nights of ignoring Wyatt’s incessant barking until 3:00AM.

Going cold turkey is never easy. I got some Trazodone from our local vet. It is an anti-anxiety drug that I have used in the past on our dogs that were scared of the July 4, fireworks. I also ordered a CBD product that is supposed to help with anxiety. It just arrived today. So more on that later. The Trazodone was a success last night. Wyatt slept and so we all slept. Better living through chemistry…like the old pharmaceutical company ad said.

We are absolutely in love with our new boys and look forward to sharing their lives for a long, long time.