This is the third and last article about the Greyhound pup's first 18 months as told by Ok breeders Sam and Shawnie Burdette. It is so interesting to me to learn what life is like for these dogs during their first months! Like I have said before, the Burdette's are very special breeders, and any dog coming from their farm is a lucky Greyhound!!
Picking up from last week--"At 12 to 14 months we move the ghs inside an 18'x36' kennel room to simulate the lifestyle at a racetrack. The litter is back together again, but with two or three other litter groups. Each gh is housed in a wire crate that is 33" wide, 43" deep, and 32" high. The wire crates are stacked one row above the other. Females are taught to jump into the upper crates. A greyhound's crate is its kingdom; it is their retreat to safety and security. They want inside their crate. The ghs sleep on shredded computer paper that contains no staples or other objects. (We tried shredded newspaper but the ink stained their coats.) Each gh has its name taped above the crate door and on its muzzle, the muzzles hang from snaps on the crate doors. The kennel room is air conditioned. A radio plays around the clock (it is always tuned to country music--some breeders swear that greyhounds run better when the radio is tuned to country music). The ghs are fed once per day at about 9AM, and they get a dry milk bone in the evening (if one is more than 10 minutes off schedule they will start barking and howling for you to hurry up). The ghs sleep in several different positions; some sleep stretched out, some sleep curled up, some sleep in the back of the crate, some sleep in the front of the crate, some sleep upside down with all fours pointed up, some sleep with their heads buried under the shredded paper (it's funny to see a gh raise its head from under shredded paper--looks like they have a bridal veil with the paper hanging off their head and nose). The ghs are "turned out" four times per day for 45-60 minutes per turn-out We have two turn-out pens. Each pen is 30'x 30'. The ghs are muzzled as they are turned-out. During turn-out, we fluff or change the paper in the crates, clean as necessary, and sweep the floor. If only one person is working turn-out, they constantly listen for any disturbance from the dogs. If two people are working turn-out, one person stays in the pen with the dogs. Life in the turn-out pen can be boring at times, or it can be extremely active. We must scoop the poop, change the water buckets, observe the dogs, and keep order. We pay particular attention to the condition of a dog's stool; the stool will usually tell us whether the food is proper, whether a dog is sick, whether a dog has worms, or just generally whether something is wrong.
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