Lily and Dizzy's first proper day

The greys have been with us less than 24 hours. Already they have sorted out that Lily gets the special furry bed and Dizzy gets the old duvet. They know where everything is that they need and had a quiet night.

We had problems with Lily bolting when off the lead but we took the decision to ignore this and whenever she is near we grab her cuddle her and give her the biccies so that she learns that being near us is no bad thing. When she is on the lead, she is the complete opposite and turns into a shy but tame little girl walking by my side on a loose lead.

We went out for a mid morning walk, they loved it. Lily showed signs of nerves every time we were near strangers but I made an effort not to avoid them and to just carry on walking normally.

After an enjoyable walk, I did notice that Lily has not been relaxed enough to do a proper wee and a number 2, far too nervous but stimulated as well. Neither one of them were interested in treats oudoors there was so much for them to think about.

Then, we went to the pub for lunch and the two were quite happy being tied to the table legs. Dizzy whined a bit, mainly because of the smell of our sausages. Lily was very well behaved and kept coming to je for a cuddle. I have developed a particular mannerism which is her hand signal for coming to me now. She prefers that at the moment to her name being called for some reason so I can just tap my thigh or hip twice and she is there in a few seconds.

I am just aout to take her on a little walk now past the school so she will hear children's voices and then we are going to walk into the vets, register her, weigh her then walk out again. Just as a little bit of training.

I think with her temperament, she responds well to be handling gently but consistently and looks to us for signals of whether or not she should be behaving fearfully, if we pretend we haven't noticed and behave as if everything is completely normal, then she tends to settle. I don't look at her or face her and try to pull the lead when she does the backing off and flipping her head from side to side like a horse. I just slowly but steadily walk forward and then she starts to trot by my side.

I love these dogs to bits. In 24 hours they have learnt where their food and water is or coming from, where to poo and wee, where to sleep, commands like NO and wait and come here, their names and all sorts of other things difficult to describe.

I can honestly say, greyhounds make wonderful pets, I can see no reason why these two won;t just get better and better. We have yet to leave them in the house on their own, that could cause a bit of challenge, they may get frustrated quickly and chew something or they could just climb on the sofas and snooze. I will be trying out some separation training on Wed, for the moment they are just having their acclimatisation days where we do a normal routine for those days and they join in. I work from home, so will only be going out for short breaks anyway.