Weekend walks

Saw some interesting things this weekend. I saw how the NYPD put their horses in their carraiges. I saw the machine that paints the road lines and crosswalks. I can't believe they put a bike lane on Eighth Avenue! We walked past David Blaine's "Drowned Alive" stunt being set up at Lincoln Center.

On Saturday, we went to the dog run at 87th and Riverside Park. He was so exhausted when we got home. He was panting or breathing hard for at least a half hour afterwards. On Sunday, we went to Central Park, met another greyhound named Wes, and then went to the dog run at 81st Street and Central Park West in Theodore Roosevelt Park. Seems like at both of these dog runs, Hawk loves to be in the center of the action. If there are 2 dogs play-fighting, Hawk either referees closely or sometimes jumps in the melee. Rachel doesn't like it when Hawk play-bites other dogs, and she pulls him out of the ruckus.

Sleeping on his back

We woke up this morning and found Hawk sleeping on his back, with his arms and legs up in the air. How cute!

Interesting walks

I see some strange things on my dogwalks. This morning I saw an older woman on one of those motorized scooter/wheelchair devices zooming down the sidewalk, but was stopped by an oil filler tube. An oil filler tube connect the heating oil delivery truck parked on the street, to the oil filler intake which is often located in the middle of the sidewalk or on the building. It looks like a swimming pool vacuum tube, but wider and sturdier. This woman couldn't get by on the sidewalk because this oil filler tube was perpendicular across the sidewalk. I heard her repeatedly say, "Excuse me, excuse me" until I guess someone came to help her. I don't know how she got through. Perhaps someone lifted up the oil filler tube and she zoomed under it. But nonetheless, I saw her zooming past me soon thereafter.

I few days ago a group of 6 French-speaking people came over to me, in awe of Hawk. The lady started asking me something in French, and I just laughed and said "Parlez vous Anglais?" She is in New York, why would she just expect that I speak French?

Baby sitter

Rachel's sister came over yesterday, slept over Saturday night, and hung out the rest of Sunday afternoon and petsat while we went to Atlantic City. It was nice of her to watch Hawk and Pharaoh. Too bad it was pouring rain the whole time, she probably didn't enjoy their dogwalks very much.

Woof woof

Right before I left the apartment at 7 am for work, I opened the bedroom door. The door was shut so that Rachel could sleep better without hearing my morning commotion. I always open it right before I leave, so that the animals don't start banging on it trying to get in. Apparently after I left, Hawk went right into the bedroom next to sleeping Rachel in bed, and barked. She woke up thinking "what the heck?" and then went back to bed.

Prostitute aggression

So last night Hawk only peed once, which we didn't think was enough, and which frustrated us. Of course this morning: gallons of pee and two large poops. He must have been saving it up all night. Last night he did make some funny noises while we slept. Maybe these were moans of pent-up, pre-bowel movement frustration.

As I turned east from 9th Avenue onto 46th Street, I saw what looked like a prostitute walking down 9th Avenue towards me. When she reached the northwest corner of that intersection, and I was already several restaurants deep on restaurant row, I heard her scream. I looked back towards her and saw a man hit her in the back of the head, and then her wig fell off. She then stumbled out into the middle of 9th Avenue traffic, and yelled that she hoped the police came. She eventually walked west on 46th Street away from 9th Avenue, leaving her wig and that man behinid. Hawk didn't notice any of this. He was probably too concerned with his BMs.

Later this morning, on my way to work, I saw two more prostitutes walking west on 45th Street. On the radio I heard that the City just installed the first of 500 new wireless security cameras, part of a $9 million project. Supposedly London has cameras on every street corner and it helps deter crime. NYC can't install enough of these cameras fast enough... especially after this morning's incident.

Chelsea dog run and Met Akiba & Staci

In the afternoon, we went to the Chelsea dog run at Thomas Smith Park at 23rd Street and 11th Avenue. We drove there because if we walked him there, he'd be too tired to have fun when we arrived. The dog run was a small, paved park with rock, log, and mound features. Hawk got to run around and up and down, but didn't really get a chance to run too fast. He chased some dogs, especially one that had a tennis ball in its mouth. He play-bit (we think) a dog's neck, but didn't get a firm grasp. He may have even growled. Rachel did intervene a few times when she thought he was getting out of hand. I was trying to read law school cases and not be distracted by the dogs.

Later in the evening, Akiba and Staci came over for dinner and to watch Sopranos. Of course they came over to meet Hawk too. After the initial excitement of new visitors, he quickly passed out on the floor and slept the rest of the time.

On our late night walk, Hawk only peed once. We thought this was due to the fact that we did our usual loop in reverse (so we could walk Akiba and Staci to the corner of 45th and 8th), and that he was unfamiliar or uncomfortable. As we came back to the building, I pretended to bring him back inside, then took him "out" for a walk again, but going the usual direction. He still wasn't interested in peeing. Rachel tried taking him, and he still was unresponsive.

Rubber ducky, you make bathtime so much fun

We lifted Hawk into the bathtub. We rinsed and shampooed and then rinsed again. He sat down in the tub after a few minutes. We towel dried him. He shook off a few times. We took him outside to stand in the sun and air dry. When we were all done, he smelled less doggy and his fur felt so soft. We even clipped his toenails without any fuss.

Met Dave & Jessica / Riverside Park dog run

Today Hawk met Uncle Dave and Aunt Jessica. They came over to the apartment, commented on how big he was, and then we all got in the car and drove up to Riverside Park. The drive was interesting. Hawk jumped into the front passenger seat, where he uncomfortably fumbled around the whole ride. He much prefers the backseat, but Rachel, Dave, and Jessica were all in the backseat. I was the chauffeur.

We went to the dog run at 71st Street and Riverside Drive. It was covered in mulch and underneath the West Side Highway. The odd thing was that there were no other dogs there. Hawk did his usual thing; he wandered around the perimeter smelling and peeing. We soon left, and walked up, hoping to find the next dog run at 72nd Street. We couldn't find it, but kept walking up the paved path on the west side. The weather was beautiful, and the breeze off the Hudson River provided perfect cooling. We eventually wandered past the house boats and up to the next dog run at 87th Street.

Hawk played there in spurts. Sometimes he'd chase, sometimes he'd wander around the perimeter sniffing and peeing. We have figured out Hawk's modus operandi at the dog runs. Hawk is not as interested in the object of the chase, as he is in every other dog chasing the object. For example, there was a dog with a smooshed water bottle in its mouth. Hawk chased the dog around for awhile, but didn't actually care about getting the water bottle. The other dogs that were involved in the chase, were trying to grab the bottle out of the dog's mouth, but Hawk wasn't interested in that. He just wanted to run around with that dog. If that dog dropped the bottle, Hawk didn't bend down to pick it up like the other dogs would. Hawk just lost interest. He wasn't really chasing the object, but he was chasing the dog that had the object.

Dave walked the dog for some time. And we all enjoyed watching Hawk play. Boy, was Hawk panting heavily. Eventually, Dave and Jessica had to leave to catch a movie. Rachel and I wandered down to the park back towards our car, and stumbled upon the 72nd Street dog run that we were looking (however unsuccessfully) for before. We let him play a little while longer, though he was obviously exhausted and was moving slowly.

Hawk nearly totally fell asleep in the short car ride home, despite the stop-and-go Lincoln Tunnel traffic. He definitely enjoyed Uncle Dave's and Aunt Jessica's company. He also strangely managed to squeeze out a poop in each of the three dog runs that we went to this afternoon.

Food: no more problems

We decided on a food routine. We give Hawk 2 cups in the morning, 2 cups in the evening. He eventually eats, but not usually when we aren't home. We don't add water to the hard food mix, because then the food gets so soggy. If we give Hawk a treat, or I try to feed him his hard food by hand, then he usually gets the urge to eat. Strange, huh? We give him a treat for being good, he brings it over to his blanket, drops it, assumes the sphinx pose, then eats it. When he's done, he sometimes goes over to his food bowl and eats his regular food.

Invisible

When I don't have Hawk with me, I'm invisible in public... no one notices me. Actually, I'm invisible even when he is with me, because everyone gawks at him.

Today we walked around the block, and we stopped in front of the Army/Navy store to watch the world race by. I want Hawk to get more comfortable with the craziness of New York City. So I had a plan that we just grab a spot on the sidewalk, and just relax. He relaxed enough, where after a few minutes of standing, watching people walk by whispering "Greyhound", he assumed the sphinx pose where he lied down on his stomach.

Visit with Dog-Ma and Dog-Dad

We went to my parent's house in New Jersey for the holiday. There was much debate about bringing Hawk. My mom just got her hardwood floors stained, so she didn't want Hawk scratching them. She did say that he could come and sit on the deck or in the kitchen. I even tried putting my socks on Hawk, but then he slipped too much. We put him on the deck at first, but as it got cooler outside, we didn't think it was fair to leave him out there all night while we ate. We brought him inside and gated him in the kitchen.

Cheryl told us that we should keep the dog away from her mother because her mother was afraid of dogs. In turns out that Cheryl was the one most afraid of Hawk.

While we ate in the adjacent dining room, he could see us and he started to whine. We let him out of the kitchen to sit with us in the dining room, but he wasn't interested in sitting in the dining room. He started wandering all over the family room and living room, checking things out (it was his first time in these rooms, so he had to check them out first). He became too much of a distraction, and Cheryl got a little flustered, so back to the kitchen we brought him. I never wanted to let him out to begin with, but because we did when he whined, he knew that whining would work. As he went back to the kitchen, he started whining again, several times, but this time we all ignored him and continued our seder.

I took him for a walk with Bruce. It was a little difficult because there weren't lots of lampposts, trees, and bushes adjacent to the road. Most of the trees were set back from the road. So to find good trees to pee on, we had to walk into neighbors' yards. Hawk did poop on a tree in my parents' yard, but it was so dark out, even with the full moon, that I couldn't see where it was. I had to feel around for the warm, squishy mass. (I guess I could have sniffed around instead, but that would have been too gross.) The interesting thing is that Hawk was not nervous and shaky on this walk at all. When we walk in the city, his skin around his ribs shakes and his nose drips. But out in the country, he wasn't doing either of those things; he was breathing very normally. He must prefer the country.

As the evening progressed, Hawk had free reign of my parents' house. My mom stopped worrying about him scratching the floors, and he just wandered around. He even went up and down the basement stairs on his own, saying hi to people in different rooms. Such a good boy. And he got along so well with my parents, which makes me happy. They will be good babysitters in the future.

Pet intermingling

We both walked in the door together and were surprised to be welcomed home by Hawk! Why were we surprised, you ask? Because Rachel gated Hawk into the back bedroom before she left for work! Apparently, he knocked down the gate in our absence. But Pharaoh was still in one piece, and was standing right next to Hawk when we came home.

We decided that we could trust them home alone together, without needing the gate.

Tuckered Out

We were exhausted and Hawk slept well the rest of the day, even in the car ride home.

We met Bailey & Chewy.

No problems getting Hawk into the car this afternoon. He willing went in and sat right down. Of course he knew he was getting a treat to do that. But there's nothing wrong with a little bribery encouragement. We drove to PetSMart and bought the biggest bag of food ever. The cashier tried giving Hawk treats, but he dropped them on the floor and wasn't interested. We took them with us as we left the store, and he ate them soon thereafter.

We drove out to Lyndhurst to meet Bailey and Chewy. We arived before Chewy got there, and spent some time with the mini-Schnauzer Bailey and Jimmy's sister's American bulldog Titan. Titan was humonguos, and Mike warned me to watch out for him, but Titan was harmless to Hawk. Titan did however, jump all over the people. Just as the three boy-dogs were getting comfortable with each other, Mike's female Chewy arrived. The three boy-dogs just went after her. They endlessly chased her around Jimmy's backyard. We heard two more Hawk barks, and saw some play-biting. We were very happy that they got along and didn't play too roughly. Poor Chewy though, couldn't catch a break.

We went inside Jimmy's house for lunch. Hawk passed out on the floor next to where we were eating, while the rest of the dogs continued to play inside. Jimmy showed us the "can of coins" trick. He filled a can full of coins. When the dogs get out of hand, he shakes it, and they all snap out of it.

We all walked over to the dog run. It was a fenced-in, mulch oasis within the larger Riverside Park. There must have been 30 other dogs there playing. Most of the owners stood or sat near the entrance, so though the dogs had lots of room to run around, they mostly played near the front entrance too. Bailey was the barker, Titan didn't leave our side, Chewy played a lot, and Hawk played a little. Hawk was so independent, he spent a lot of the time just wandering around, especially the fence perimeter, sniffing things, and meeting some dogs along the way. Every so often, he'd get a little fiesty and play. We didn't get to see him break out into a full sprint, nor was he interested in playing fetch with me (and oh, did I try). Apparently and unfortunately, we arrived at the park just after some greyhounds left. We did meet a beautiful and soft, long-haired and white Borzoi (cousin to greyhounds). The Borzoi was playing around the park, and wasn't much interested in Hawk. Oh well.

We met Spike and Foster. And got a bark!

Before we drove out to Great Neck, we had to get Hawk in the car. He hesitated going in, possibly thinking that we were getting rid of him. When he stands in the backseat, we get more stares than when Rachel drove her Mini Cooper. He does wobble around on his long legs. It can't be easy to stand when I'm driving around in Manhattan traffic. But we gave him some treats in the car as he eventually sat down and got comfy.

We went to Great Neck tonight to visit some friends. We met Spike, who is usually pretty attention-hungry (and food hungry). But with Hawk's calming demeanor, Spike was very quiet and well behaved. They smelled each other, and then just enjoyed each other's company. Spike was very curious about Hawk, especially when Hawk got comfortable and lied down for a nap. I'm happy they got along so well.

After Spike, we took Hawk for a suburban walk. He enjoyed the grass and trees, and not having the vehicular distractions. We met Jason and his 3 month old puppy that he rescued from the North Shore Animal League.

We went back inside to celebrate Dave's 31st birthday, and met Foster. At this point, Hawk, Foster, and the puppy were running around Heather's apartment having fun. We heard Hawk bark for the first time. It was a playful bark, directed at the puppy. It was a deep, "Ahh Woof!" Not an annoying yippy-dog woof. We were like, "Oh my god, did Hawk just bark?" Not long thereafter, Hawk passed out and the other two dogs continued chasing each other around. Hawk must not have the endurance most little dogs have. It was cute seeing Hawk lie on the floor, with the other two dogs running around him, sometimes sniffing him.

The overall consensus is that our friends approve of Hawk! They thought he was great, and so well behaved. The only thing Hawk could have done to impress more, is to catch the Volkswagen headlight thief. The police caught the wrong guy tonight!

Pee on Foot

When Hawk pees, he usually lifts his leg up, begins peeing, then gets lazy and puts his leg down, all the time still peeing. Needless to say, he often pees right on his front feet. We have a process now where when we come home, before we let him inside, we grab 2 paper towels, one wet and one dry, and clean his feet.

Any suggestions to get him to stop peeing on his feet?

Food problems + Stuffie fun

Hawk ate his food last at 3 pm yesterday. Then he snacked on a little bit of last night. We were worried when he didn't eat all of his food last night and this morning. I dumped the extra food. He didn't eat again until the evening. We were worried because he went 24 hours between eating yesterday and today. But we were happy that he did eat. After he ate this evening, Rachel filled his bowl with food again, and he ate the rest of it tonight. So he essentially ate 2 portions today, just only a few hours apart. How strange.

Because I was worried about him not eating, and I wanted to give him some fun and exercise (and I needed some exercise myself), we went for a little 20 minute jog. Hawk didn't look like he was more than walking fast, while I was the one panting like a tired dog! I thought that by running him, he'd work up an appetite. But when we got home, he just passed out on the floor.

We were wondering why everyone told us that Hawk loved his stuffies (stuffed animals), especially his pink flamingo, because he never touches them. We even hold them up and dangle them, and he shows no interest. Hawk's previous foster parent said that with her, he played with it the most while horsing around in her yard. Well maybe he doesn't play with the stuffies with us because we don't play with him in a yard. So... we scheduled a play date with Jimmy's Bailey for this weekend, so we can run around his yard and his nearby dogrun. I've also been thinking about asking our building to allow us to let our dogs run around the rear courtyard.

I don't think I've mentioned this yet. When we're home, Hawk either follows us around, or lays right in the middle of the apartment rotating his head to follow us with his eyes. Kind of cute, but kind of "needy needy".

Check out the photo of Hawk in his warm fleece. It was cold today so we had to put this on him. He doesn't fuss about wearing coats at all! Such a good boy.

Street poop

So Rachel awoke to Pharaoh moaning and screaming at Hawk who was whimpering. They aren't ready to be left alone together yet.

She then walked Hawk and he pooped in the middle of the intersection. Thankfully, the light didn't change while he was taking care of business. She tried to pull him away, but when a man poops, you can't stop that.

It rained today. Hawk got to wear his raincoat, which he had no problem putting on. On our walk however, he sure was walking briskly. He wanted to get home to the warm and dry apartment.

Tonight, Pharaoh tested his boundaries a few times. He has been getting more adventurous sneaking around Hawk. He even tiptoed towards Hawk while he was sleeping, then Hawk awoke and stood up, Pharaoh hissed and moaned, and Hawk whimpered away wagging his tail.

Pharaoh's progress

Pharaoh (cat) has been doing better. The first day Hawk was here, I don't think Pharaoh ate or slept, because he was too distracted staring at the dog. Yesterday, while Hawk was sleeping on the floor, Pharaoh tried to quietly sneak around him. We're glad Pharaoh's getting more comfortable, and willing to sleep soundly with Hawk around.

Pharaoh doesn't seem to eat his hard food anymore. He (until 2 minutes ago) only used the litter box when Hawk was out walking or gated in the bedroom at bedtime. He just now used the litterbox and ate, with Rachel's encouragement, with Hawk watching him from six feet away.

Glad to say the cat's doing better. We're hoping that he'll get less scared about eating, drinking, and using the litterbox in Hawk's presence. When we see some progress, we may stop gating Hawk in the bedroom at night. Sometime after that, we won't have to gate at all!

Central Park - first visit

Hawk's grandpackleaders (Rachel's parents) came to visit today. After lunch, we went for a walk to and through Central Park. We saw 3 greyhounds leaving the park as we entered, but we didn't have a chance to meet them. In the park, we stopped at a nice shaded bench for a rest. I thought Hawk would have been so exhausted that he'd lay down. He was too interested in seeing the mass of life circling around him. The park was a zoo of human animals today. Everyone was out enjoying the beautiful weather.

I took Hawk over to a group of calm dogs lounging with their owners. He met two bloodhounds (Fred and ?), a white dog with gorgeous eyes (Daisy), and a black dog (Bailey). They sniffed each other and enjoyed each other's company. One of the owner's told me that they were all calm because they all knew each other, from hanging out most weekday mornings before 9 am. I guess before 9 am at the park, dogs are allowed off their leash. The owner told me she sees a greyhound out off his leash sometimes too, but I told her we weren't going to do that with Hawk.

We met some kids who were afraid to touch him, but we insisted that they pet Hawk. They did and giggled a lot and enjoyed Hawk.

Hawk eventually layed down on the pavement by our bench, and relaxed a little. We tried to give him water out of a bottle, and then poured into my hand, but he wasn't interested. Next time, we'll bring a better container for him.

When we got closer to home, Hawk turned right into our building. He knows where his home is! But we didn't want him to go home yet, so encouraged him to continue down the street a little more, to meet Helly and Lucy, two dogs from our building. Maybe we'll make a play date with some of them in the future. When we got home, Hawk passed out. We exhausted him again.

As far as his eating is concerned, we're trying to get Hawk to eat in the morning, and then at dinner time. He seems to want to eat at lunch time, and then again around bedtime. I don't know if we'll try to change his eating times or not. We think that if he eats too close to bedtime, he'll have to poop in the middle of night. We're not sure if this true or not, so we'll see. If we want to train him to eat when we want him too, we know what to do. But right now, we're more concerned with him getting more comfortable about everything else first.

Wound photo

Dog Run, First Trip

Today we took Hawk for a walk to DeWitt Clinton Park, a dog run. We were nervous about letting him off the leash and seeing how he would interact with the other dogs, especially because the other dogs there were acting crazy, barking and attacking each other. We let him off the leash, and he trotted around the perimeter, ignoring the other dogs. Some of the dogs followed him to check him out. He responded well to them, letting them sniff him, and he sniffed some of them back.

Some of the dogs were crazy, though. For example, Oscar wouldn't stop barking. There was a beagle that was attacking the other dogs. We finally saw a burst of energy from Hawk! Some dog came up to him, and tried to play with him, and he played back! It was strange seeing him run and bounce around and play, especially because he is so calm most of the time. Then a huge boxer showed up. I guess boxers play pretty aggressively. Well this one jumped up on Hawk. We were afraid for Hawk's wound, so we took Hawk out of the park. We didn't want his wound to split open.

When we got home, he was so exhausted he almost fell asleep on the lobby floor waiting for the elevator.

Racing History

I looked up Hawk's history on www.rosnet2000.com. His racing name is WZ Hockey. He was born September 1, 2000, he had 8 littermates. They all had sports names, like WZ Baseball. His sire's name was Oshkosh Slammer and his dam's name was Dutch Folly.

He started racing on April 24, 2002 and ran his last race on October 12, 2002. In those 6 months, he ran a total of 25 races and won 1st place in 2 of them. He placed in his last two races in October 2002. I think he ran most of his races at Shorline Star in Bridgeport, Connecticut.