Dog becoming unhappy and timid

Noodles is a neutered 4 (almost 5) year old retired greyhound. Up until recently everything was going really well but for the past couple of days, he has urinated when I have left him - even if I am only gone for 5 minutes (just went out to the shed to get something). He has also started crying outside my bedroom door (he is not allowed in there as I have rats and guinea pigs in there and he is not safe with them). I am a bit worried that I am making him neurotic. I am quite a timid, shy person and I find the world quite difficult to deal with, so perhaps that is rubbing off on him.

When I first got him, he was very bold, he had a couple of accidents (urination) in the house, but that stopped quickly. Recently he has been getting more withdrawn, he cries outside my bedroom door when I am in there (he can not go in there as my rats and guinea pigs are there and he is not safe with them) I ignore him when he does this.

He was attacked by another dog at the beginning of June, he had a nasty leg injury which healed well, and he did not seem too bothered by it at the time, but I am wondering if that has make him a bit cautious. I am not sure why, but there are a few dogs in the area who are fine with other dogs, but take a dislike to Noodles, someone said it was because he was a large black dog. So he get growled and barked at quite a bit, he tends to ignore the small yappy dogs (who all hate him!), but the larger ones seem to scare him.

I am not sure, but I think he is also a bit isolated from other friendly dogs, He has a reasonable recall but it is not 100% and a couple of times he has spotted a dog and gone to play (he knows the difference between a dog and rabbit, so there was no danger) People seem to be happy for other dogs to approach theirs, but not Noodles. So to save being told off, he is kept on a lead unless we are the only ones in the park. Then he had kennel cough, so he had to be kept away from other dogs for quite a while. Now he seems to be scared of other dogs, he will let them approach and sniff, but he will never make the first move, and quite often freezes, sometimes when they have exchanged sniffs, he makes the play posture (crouching down and bouncing) but people assume that I have him on the lead because he is dangerous and tend to pull their dogs away.

Sorry, this has turned into a ramble, I was wanting to ask if anyone had any ideas about:
1. Things to help with separation / urination
2. Ways of building his confidence
3. Any other thoughts on what I could be doing to help him

I have booked an appointment with the vet tomorrow to check there is nothing medical going on.

just question, how long have you had him?

I have had him 1 year and 2 months. (long enough for me to mess him up )

Please don't blame yourself!! Greyhounds are renowned for being clingy and very attached to their owners. My grey Guinness is the same, so were my 2 lurchers.
When he cries for you it is important not to respond to it. If you do he will associate crying with getting your attention.
Don't greet him in the morning (hard I know). Just ignore him and make a cuppa, sit down and greet him 5-10 mins after he sees you.
Don't make a fuss of him when you come in from being out. Do the same as above.
Greys love to be with dogs of their own kind and thrive on being part of a pack. Guinness is an ex-racer and he's not at all interested in our lab/collie and collie but he adores our lurchers. He cries if he's separated from them!
Have you tried keeping to a routine? I found that letting them out at night followed by chill time followed by lights dimmed and saying "sleep now" got them into a routine. They also sleep downstairs all together. I know it will be harder with an only dog.
What about putting his bed on the landing and moving it slowly away from your bedroom door? A familiar smell may comfort him.
Is he destructive at all when you leave him?
The other option is to get another grey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's interesting as I have a WSD who I think must have some lurcher in him (he's very tall and leggy) and only really responds to other lurchers. I've often wondered why but that must confirm that he definitely is a lurcher cross!

Hi, it sounds as if his behaviour has started happening fairly suddenly, and if so there may well be a cause. By that I mean, it may be something medical (well done for taking him to the vet) or something that is going on.

A Story: my dogs lived very happily at home for 8 or so years, until one day my male dog only started to show that he did not want to go into my room when I went out. This only occurred during nighttime.
A few times I thought he was being a bit silly and just made him go in so I could shut him in safely. However, when he continued this behaviour, I decided to listen to him (as after all, they can't speak our language but he was saying plain as day "I don't want to go in there mum" and it was up to me to work out what was happening).

It turned out that the people upstairs had taken up their carpets and were spending a lot more time inthe kitchen, hence a lot of banging and thudding above my boy's head, which clearly had unnerved him. My female, kept with him in the same circumstances, did not mind at all

So I learnt a big lesson from that, and I always urge people to listen to their dogs. Yes, it may be something and nothing, or it may be a genuine fear, timidity or nervousness arising from some enviromental orother situaiton you are not aware of

I'd continue to greet him and be normal with him, but perhaps see if you can find any dog frieinds for him, even to walk near to each other on lead to start. If he whines outside your dog, I'd imagine it's not for the guinea pigs or rats (unless he's done this all the time) but for your company, so he may need something like a stuffed kong or a marrow bone to occupy him. The idea is to try to make time away from you actually enjoyable or at least bearable.

A few ideas:

Try http://www.apdt.co.uk/ some of these may hold some good dog classes which may be useful to go to. I'd suggest going along just to check you like their methods first, but they should be good, kind, etc.

Also, it may be an idea to get a reputable behaviourist in to assess the situation and do a kind of "Sherlock Holmes" on what is going on and why, they are good at putting the jigsaw together
http://www.apbc.org.uk/

You may enjoy reading the book by Marie Miller and Sarah Fisher http://www.amazon.co.uk/100-Ways-Tra.../dp/0715329413 as it is good at looking at the whole relationship side of things which might be useful

Wys
x

Thank you for all your ideas I dont know what is causing it, but I want to sort it out now before it gets any worse. I am starting a job after christmas so he will be on his own for longer (going to sort out a dog walker so he is not on his own for too long) We are also going to stay with my parents over christmas and they have carpets, so I really want to stop the urination before it gets worse.

Last night was a bit better, I usually give him a pigs ear or something then turn off the lights and go to bed, but he generally eats really quickly, so last night I stuffed some treats into a kong for him which kept him busy for longer, so there was not any crying until this morning

He knows the rats and guineas are in my room, it was a problem for about 24 hours when he first discovered them, but then he realised I was not going to let him near them and has accepted it. He does not even try to get onto my room now.

Thinking about it, I may have made things a worse by making a big fuss of him when I return home etc, it is when he seems most happy to see me and I may be encouraging him to think that it is bad that we were separated, I generally dont make a fuss in the mornings as he crys as soon as he hears me move and continues until I come down - I try ignoring it, but I have to get up at some point. I generally wait until he has settled down on his bed, then say hello, I will try doing that when I go out as well.

He best friends are 2 collies who have enough energy and speed to give him a god run! Unfortunately we have not seen them for a few weeks.

I do have a friend who has a young staffy, she lives across the city so they (Noodels and her dog) have never met, but we are hoping to take them for an on lead walk in one of the big parks after christmas.

I am thinking of finding a training class for is to go to, that way we might be able to make some more doggy friends for him - when I first got him we went to one but he was still very much a racing dog and the idea of sit and heel meant nothing to him! The other dogs there were much more trainable breeds and it was held in a little, bright yellow room that was too much for me, they did split the group for me, so there was just me and a man with a lab which was lovely of them, but when the group got back together, I could not cope. Noodles did not really like it either, he did not translate what was happening to real life.

I have done some training with him at his own speed so he now walks nicely on a lead, sits, stays, recall (when there is nothing too interesting!) we are working on 'down' at the moment.

If the vet says he is ok physically, I will see look for a behaviorist

I just thought, has anyone had any success using DAP for this type of thing?

Thank you again for your thoughts, it helps to get some feedback.

I used Zylkene for Jenny when she was at her worst and I'm using it for Guinness at the moment. It worked well for Jen but still waiting to see results for Guinness.
It doesn't work for all dogs though and it's very expensive.

Noodles seems a bit happier today We did not make it to the vet - the trains were off due to the snow and so I had planned to walk there but did not realise that the route google maps had suggested included walking across a bridge with no pavement and the cars were not going to slow down to let us cross. I tried two taxis, but both would not allow dogs (my feet were dirtier than Noodles' but never mind!) I will try again tomorrow as the trains seem to be running now.

I was not sure whether to start a new topic to ask this or not, but I just ordered a dap collar for him, then had a thought - are they safe to be left on unsupervised? will it snap if it gets caught? I would hate to leave it on him while I am out and have him hang himself.

hi

my auntie used dap diffuser and collar on her nervous rescue GSD, so would definetly try it, certainly wont do any harm

you certainly sound very dedicated spo am sure you will sort it for noodles