Note to self

Having sex in the living-room freaks out the dog.

Our Dog:
We have a greyhound who is about 5 years old. We rescued him from my in-laws, who rescued him from a vet, who, I think, rescued him from his original owner. The story is a bit sketchy, but from what I understand... Our dog used to race, until he broke his ankle. The vet took him in, but kept him caged, taking him out only to give blood to other dogs. My sister-in-law worked at this vet and found out what was going on. She asked her parents to take the dog in.

He was never like other pet dogs. He didn't play, he wouldn't eat in front of people, was hesistant to accept any treats. He adjusted reasonably well over time. After about a year though, he started developing some odd tendencies and became somehwhat high-maintenance. He snapped at the other dogs, he would hide whenever people came over to the house, he started obsessively licking his paws. My in-laws decided it was time for him to go. We offered to take him in, but were living across the country at the time and didn't feel it would be good for the dog to travel that far, especially when we knew we'd be moving back to the other side of the country within a year. My in-laws agreed to keep the dog until we got back to their coast.

As soon as we got into our new home, my in-laws drove the 6 hours to our house to deliver our dog to us.
He's happy now. He acts like a pet. He still doesn't know what to do with a ball, but he plays in other ways. He smiles. He's no longer neurotic, will eat no matter who is around, and LOVES company. He's probably the most low-maintenance dog I've ever encountered. We all agree that it was probably the insane stress level, tension and yelling at my in-laws that caused his previous issues.

What is it with in-laws?

I can totally relate to our poor dog, but that's for another post.