I don't think anyone will remember Finley and I because it's been over a year since we have posted and a lot has happened and I want to catch up.  Finley is about 1 year and 10 months now and we got him when he was about 16 weeks old from a rescue.  Another party had rescued him first and kept him for a month and then gave him back and I feel he was abused by them.  When he came to us he was a Husky with a lot of issues and attitude.  Some days he wanted attention 24 hours a day and he would bark and bark and bite and bite (play biting) but my arms were scarred for a long time.  I walked him everyday and we never gave up on him as he had his good moments.  He found everything in our yard that our old dog never touched and destroyed it.  He ate the tail off his stuffed monkey and four hours later he threw it up and i went to grab it and he aggressively swallowed it again!!  A few hour laters I got it back for good.  I bought him a ball that came with a bag of treats that were packaged in tin foil about 4" by 4"  and he swallowed that whole!  I got those back too.  We kept him away from the cat because he would go flying after her.  I would come in the door from a walk and he would see the cat and go nuts after her so we kept them apart.  But like I say, we loved him and he had his good moments.  He was great at walking.  He rarely pulled at all and we walked about 4 miles a day.  Everyone that saw him loved him and always commented on him.  Always.  It was kind of nice.  So I retired and we sold our home and moved from California to Nevada but we had to live in a Holiday Inn for 18 days because the new home had not closed yet.  So the drive to Nevada was 5 hours from where we were in California.  All of our stuff was in storage except for what we could stuff in the car.  We knew Riley the cat would have to be in a cat carrier in the back seat and Finley would be in the back seat with her but not in a carrier. We were nervous about this.  Well the whole trip Finley was great and never even looked at her!  He was very good.  It was shocking how good he was.  But now we had to live in a little Holiday Inn Room (pet friendly) for 18 days with a cat and a dog who had never been in  same room together free.  Fortunately for everyone, they got along.  Yes Finley would jump off the bed a few times and chase her but always stop short.  I have numerous pictures where they are laying side by side on the bed.  We were nervous a lot but they got along.  I was always afraid to fall asleep at night fearing the worse but nothing happened.  I walked him regularly 2-3 times a day while we were there for our 18 days and we survived it.  The lady at the front desk had a dog and wanted to set up a playmate and since Finley had no other dog experience we did it although again we were nervous about how he would act.  The other dog is a good part Greyhound and a female and a mid size dog but not the size of Finley.  Well we did it several times and Finley was a gentleman.  He loved playing and running and chasing but there was no biting and no being mean.  In fact the female part Greyhould was a little growly    at him quite a few times and he just acted great.  A few times a 6 month old Rottweiller pup joined in and Finley was great with her.  It was nice to see and fun.  So we got to our new place and its rural and we have 2 acres and Finley is very happy.  He must be  a low energy Husky because he sleeps in the sun for a good part of the day.  He comes in to eat a few times and then he goes back out.  He likes to roam his property but its nicely fenced and he is not chewing up stuff like he used to do.  He sleeps with us at night and it's been going good.  Sometimes in the evening he may bark at me for a bit and want to wrestle or play or just be Finley but nothing like before.  So here is a picture of Finley now.



Here is Finley and Riley on the bed at the Holiday Inn.  Thankfully we had two beds.



Now one more thing has changed for us and that is where we need some advice on training.  We adopted a puppy up here in Nevada so Finley would not be alone.  Her name is Chloe and her mother was a Blue Healer type of dog and no one knows what the father was.  We did see her mother and she indeed looked like a cattle dog.  When we got her home at 8 weeks both my wife and i started to see some Pit Bull in her face or so we thought.  We had asked for a non Pit Bull dog as we have no experience with them.  I do not feel Pit Bull are bad dogs but a lot of them have bad owners.  A lot of people here have multiple Pit Bulls and on both sides of us and across the road from us are Pit Bulls and they are very nice dogs.  Anyway, some days we think we see it and some days we dont.  Where I think I see it is in her body type.  Anyway, here is Chloe.



She is the most sweetest puppy.  She is just great.  Full of energy but always wants to be by your feet and really has no really bad habits.  She is 5 months now and is very protective of us and she loves to play with Finley and he loves to play with her but that is where we are having an issue.  First here is a picture of the two of them.



They really love to play but the problem is that Finley is very rough with her and he was not like that with the other dogs that he used to play with.  He plays with her with an open mouth and many times will knock her down to the ground and almost pin her down.  He puts his teeth on the back of her neck and also her neck and on her back.  Sometimes you can see him hold back when i yell at him but I cant get him to stop doing it.  She loves to chase a ball and when she goes flying by him he will wait for her and when she is close enough he will just knock her down.  And she just gets back up and keeps on going.  In the house its the same thing.  No knocking down but both of them are playing with their mouths.  I think she picked it up from him.  She is nowhere near to his size and I don't him to hurt her with his rough play.  I really don't know where to start to try and train him with this.  I have thought of a vibration collor for him but I dont know if that is a good idea.  These dogs are like kids to us.  He never ever plays like this with the Greyhound mix.  A week ago she came to visit him and he was very good with her.  I just wish he would treat Chloe the same way as she really loves to play with him, he loves it too but he is rough, almost trying to be dominant.

So that about catches us up and Im hoping to get some training advice or input on how to deal with the play situation. All in all Finley is a great dog and we love him dearly and he has come a long long way and believe me, he was not easy!

Thanks everyone.

Tom and Sharon

I'm not going to be even a bit of help!  First, I agree that Chloe (is that klo or klo-ee, curiosity) might have a bit of bull in her but as you've said, it's more the owner than the breed.

As far as play goes, I'd first ask one question - does Chloe object to Finley's rough play?  If she doesn't or if she plays just as rough, then I'd say they're a good match for each other and let them play.  The fact that Finley was "more polite" with the greyhound may simply be that the greyhound didn't play as rough so he didn't.  Dogs who are properly socialized can read another dog pretty well. If Chloe does object - or it gets out of hand for you then it's time to teach them "enough" or something similar.  
I have an Alaskan Husky, Avalanche, who's my perpetual "rowdy teen-ager", he'd play 24/7 if my Sibe, Sasha, (or I) would put up with it.  They're both good about not destroying my house but there are times where it's obvious she's had her fill of him.  All I have to do now is turn to them and say "enough" and (generally) within 30 seconds they've gotten a drink and crashed.
Now, it wasn't always that way, it took a while for him to realize that "enough" meant that it was time to stop the foolishness!  If he didn't stop, he got put into time out (his lead on the porch); if he did stop then they'd both get a treat ... but it took forever, it seemed, to get to that point.

We have Ami, a 2 yr old adopted at age 1. His best friend in the whole wide world is my son's dog Archer, a 1 yr old husky mix. They play like there's no tomorrow, look like wolves fighting to the death It is not for the faint of heart! I lots of mouth, teeth, take downs. And they are devoted soul mates.

Im wondering if it has more to do with Finley and Chloe living together, whereas the greyhound is only around once in awhile? My Kohdi and Mishka play pretty rough, but with other dogs its totally different.

Dogs are pretty good at letting each other know when they have had enough. Gabby was very good at making lots of yelping noises when she was a small puppy. If Chloe had issues with the play that Finley is instigating she would most likely be making lots of noise. One of Gabby's best dog pals is a Pit and if you were to watch them play you would think they were trying to kill each other. The only time it makes us nervous is when they start biting each other's faces. I think they might accidentally catch a tooth in one of their eyes.

Thanks for the replies everyone. It makes me feel better and yes Chloe really loves to play with him and sometimes she is the initiator of the fun and games. Her favorite trick is to go flying out the back door and make a quick right turn where she knows that she will find Finley laying peacefully and just jump on him. Then it's game on. Thanks again. Now that we have got past the stressful times of selling, trying to find and then buy a new house I have a lot more free time.

There is one thing I wanted to add about our journey up here to Nevada. When we were at the Holiday Inn it's in a small Nevada town and when I walked him I found a place that was owned by the city and it was protected marsh land and they had walking trails in there along with duck and geese ponds. It was a very nice walk and way up there was a bunch of open fields and the fields had a ton of mouse holes in them. Finley was always trying to stick his nose in those holes and one evening I let him do it. So he has his nose in a mouse hole as far as he can with his butt stuck up in the air and about two inches from that hole is another mouse hole and while he is doing that a family of 8 mice one by one came running out of the hole right in front of his nose and he didn't have a clue! Maybe you had to be there but it was pretty funny. So when we got back to the Holiday Inn we were about 10 feet from the door and Finley shoves his head under a small bush and I pull him back but he comes out with a cube of that green rat poison in his mouth and he swallowed half of it. It was almost 8pm but we called a Vet that was about a half of mile away and he met us at the clinic. So they induced vomiting and he had actually swallowed quite a bit, it was surprising. He did not need charcoal but he was put on Vitamin K for a month and he did fine but it was scary. The Holiday Inn is pet friendly and they do not use the product on the grounds for that reason and I looked under a lot more bushes and never found another cube so Im inclined to believe them. No one knows how it got there but my guess and it's just a guess but I think maybe a guest is not so pet friendly and it was planted. I guess we will never know but I was just happy it turned out ok.

Welcome back! everything sounds like it is going well now. Finley is playing like a husky and as long as Chole is down for it let it go. jack is a total neck grabber during play but does not bite down on them

Welcome back! I actually see more Boxer in Chloe than Pittie. Either way, she's adorable. Ditto everyone else on the play.

That's scary about the rat poison! People like to leave chicken wing bones around our apartment complex for some reason and Bode has gotten them a couple times. Luckily I've always been able to pry them from him before he swallows. These dogs will just eat anything!

The only thing that's good about the current round of chemicals being used in rat poison is that, if caught in the first couple of days, it's almost completely treatable with vitamin K.
When I went up to visit my brother, he had rat/mouse poison all over the place. I know Sasha got into some but the question was "how much". I made a hasty exit from my brothers (for other reasons) and got her to the vet here. You'd never know she'd gotten into any ...

aljones wrote:

The only thing that's good about the current round of chemicals being used in rat poison is that, if caught in the first couple of days, it's almost completely treatable with vitamin K.
When I went up to visit my brother, he had rat/mouse poison all over the place.  I know Sasha got into some but the question was "how much".  I made a hasty exit from my brothers (for other reasons) and got her to the vet here.  You'd never know she'd gotten into any ...

When the vet was talking to me that night he said that since rodents tend to develop a immunity to products that every few years it's been getting more and more dangerous to pets and the time frame for treatment is getting less and less. That is scary to me. I could have easily that night not seen Finley ingest it and that may have been trouble.