3 Fatal Errors: How To Avoid Them With Your Greyhound

The things you will read here might kill other dogs, too; but one must take particular care with greyhounds.

Since a greyhound is lightning fast, trouble can happen equally quickly. For this reason, those who own them as pets must be very proactive in their care.

This article will reveal three situations you must avoid, for the safety and well-being of your greyhound. Taking the time to read through them may save your dog’s life. For the sake of our dogs, I am pushing back against articles and posts that tout these things as just fine, or even cute.

Drinking from Birdbath can Poison Dog Immediately

Never forget that part of the word “birdbath” is “bath.” Because it is a place where birds bathe themselves, the water in it is not sanitary for your dog to drink.

This water is, in fact, so dangerous to your greyhound, that I ended up writing an entire, separate article with details on eight of the most hazardous diseases that your dog can contract from drinking out of the birdbath! Who would have thought that would be a whole article? Not only do I cover the sicknesses; I also provide a helpful plan for avoiding this tragedy, without giving up your birdbath.

Letting Greyhound Off-Leash: Not Worth It

To allow a greyhound to go off-leash in an unenclosed area is, quite simply, to risk his life. Greyhounds are bred to chase. Once a greyhound sets his mind to go after something, he becomes hyper-focused on that goal. He can be hit by a car, run off a ledge, or be hopelessly lost before you’ve even had a chance to react. So many owners have learned that hard way that their greyhound is not the exception to this rule.

“Greysmom [screen name]” from the Greytalk forum put it best:

“Prey drive isn’t like a lot of other behaviors in dogs – it’s mostly instinct and DNA – not something born out of their upbringing or nurturing environment. That is, prey drive isn’t learned, so it’s not something that can be unlearned. You can mitigate it with distraction training and desensitization, but you never know when it will kick in and override all your hard work. If a trainer tells you s/he can permanently change your dog’s prey drive, keep looking for another trainer.”
Greysmom, Greytalk forum

Know Where his Treats are Made

In the US, manufacturers of dog treats are required to state, clearly on the packaging, where the product is made. Canada, however, did not have that law.

Pet owners there were puzzled and distraught when their healthy dogs died, after being fed natural chicken treats, which contained only two ingredients. I won’t mention what country made these treats, except to say that it rhymes with Dinah.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corp., intrigued by the mystery, filmed a documentary, for which they contracted an independent investigation (you can watch this video right here, in its entirety, from the bottom of this page).

The lab found no problems with the chicken. That left the glycerin, which they suspected was tainted or contaminated, somehow.

The story goes back about ten years, but do not discount it because of its age. After watching it for several years now, I finally found more recent information. It turns out that the USFDA did its own investigation. They were able to confirm the following:

Dog treats from that certain country were responsible for the deaths of a significant number of dogs.

It was not only the chicken jerky treats that were hurting dogs. They also found toxic treats in sweet potato, yam, and other poultry varieties.

The illness caused by the tainted treats is called “Fanconi-like syndrome” or FLS.

This certainly matches up with the findings of the Canadian lab, as you will see when you view the video. Most interesting is what the FDA says about the illness caused by the treats:

“A hallmark of FDA’s jerky pet treat investigation has been the unexpected occurrence of cases of acquired Fanconi syndrome (also called Fanconi-like syndrome, FLS), a normally rare kidney disease typically seen primarily in certain breeds as a hereditary condition. Part of the normal function of the kidney is to filter out waste while keeping in the body nutrients such as glucose, bicarbonate, and amino acids. In FLS, a part of the kidney called the proximal tubule doesn’t work properly, and these nutrients are lost into the urine instead of being reabsorbed.”
United States Food & Drug Administration

The FDA’s report links to several more good pieces of research they did on the subject. Oddly, they stop short of pinpointing the actual cause. The Canadians felt sure that it had something to do with the glycerine in the treats. The FDA says they’re looking into that, but their tone regarding this does not match the enthusiasm they had for the rest of the research.

I have seen it speculated that this has to do with the possibility that the treats being irradiated may have caused the glycerine to become tainted in a way that caused the dogs’ illness….and this may be where further research became problematic for the FDA. Governments and big business love food irradiation, claiming that it makes food safer and increases shelf life. Consumer advocates have a differing opinion, that irradiation causes changes in food that end up making it less healthy, exchanging one problem for another. According to an old article from the Orlando Sentinal, this debate has been raging since 1963, when the FDA first approved using the x-ray based process on food.

Given the sensitivity of greyhounds, you might save his life by being very selective about his dog treats. You’d have a tough time keeping all foreign and irradiated ingredients out of his diet, but you can certainly improve it with a few simple precautions:

Buy treats that are made in your country only.

Break treats into pieces, so he is eating less of them.

Make homemade treats.

A lovely way to create safer treats for your hound is with a food dehydrator. I find that this one is quiet, an important feature that is easily overlooked. After all, one has to run the dehydrator for several hours. This stainless steel design looks better in my kitchen; so many of them are just plastic. Bigger is better, when it comes to food dehydrators. Learn from my experience: I ended up giving away my first one, because it was too small. I was surprised at how much tray-space that meat was taking up, once I started slicing it into thin jerky strips.