greyhound behaviors

Question
I have 2: We have 2 wonderful adopted greyhounds. The youngest, just turned 2, never raced, wasn't "trainable," very sensitive at first, just quirky now. She BARKS, alot. It can bother us, and we love her, but probably irks the neighbors. How to reduce this behavior? She's a happy pet, just noisy. Question 2: We have another grey. He's a very big male (87 lbs.) 4 years old, an ex-racer. He collects "stuffies" from around the house, basically anything soft, and brings to his nest. It sometimes holds 7-8 lost things at once. Sometimes he gets frantic if he thinks he's left one outside. Cries by the door, pants until he's allowed to go look for it. He has his own personal stuffies, but he regularly steals anything he can pinch. Is this typical behavior??? The little female has no interest in feathering her nest this way...Any help with the barking and frantic collecting would be appreciated.  

Answer
Hi Ingrid, your dogs have probably been raised in a kennel situation. The two year old never raced, but it sounds like she was in racing training. Barking is a pack behavior and if you yell at him, he thinks you are responding by barking with him. Give him the benefit of the doubt, check out what it is he is barking about to find out if it is legitimate or not. If not, calmly turn his attention loud and different "enough to get his attention. A soda can filled with a few rocks and sealed with duct tape is good as the noise is loud and surprises dogs. Shake it, drop it, roll it...and once his attention is redirected toward you praise him, "good quiet" and a treat. Some of these dogs bark because of monotony, so give him a job. Take him places with you, go swimming, take obedience or agility classes. Greyhounds are high energy dogs that are used to working. Your big male can also use some jobs. His behavior is probably because he was never given all the usual things we spoil our housepets with at home. So he is collecting them as a reassurance that none of his personal "stuff" is going to be taken away.  Give him his own crate, if he does not have one already, line it with a nice bed, and give him some fluffy and chew toys which are all his. Give the other one some toys of her own as well.  Name the toys. Learn about the recall command and get them both to "take the _____", "bring or hold the _____", and "give or drop the _____" into your lap. Give them loads of good dog praise at each stage and then teach them to return their items back to their kennels or toy boxes.  It is a reverse recall, such as take the toy, bring "toy" to kennel or box", drop in kennel or box.  You are not only teaching them commands that can be used in many ways, you are giving them jobs to do.  From there they can be expanded to help give you the laundry to fold, pick up items you dropped, get items at a far distance... But be careful, I read about a great service dog in training who brought his mommy a full watering can while she was sleeping, dripping water all over her head. They are amazing animals and can learn so much more than we give them credit.  So use their talents for their and your benefit.  I would love to hear feedback from you and feel free to write if you need further advice.  There are a couple of great books out there called Teamwork I and Teamwork II, you can shop them cheap on amazon. Start with the first one and work up to the second one.  But please take them to obedience classes, agility trials, dog parks and they are great at fly ball also.  Warm Regards, Susan