April Newsletter

NEWS & NOTES

A monthly newsletter to keep you informed.

Rescue Results for March

In March, there were 11 new arrivals. Of the arrivals, 5 came off the track in West Virginia, 1 came from Florida, 2 Galgos came from Spain, and 3 retired racers that needed to be re-homed we brought in. We also had 7 adoptions.

That makes our year-to-date totals 27 adoptions and 50 rescues (37 to AG and 13 to other groups).

Greyhound Race Practice

One of my favorite activities to enjoy with my Grey crew is race practice! The first race practice of the year is scheduled for Saturday April 4th at noon! Race practices are hosted in Gardner (near Dwight) IL on a beautiful, serene, quiet, country property. Imagine a scene of dogs and their people spending several hours enjoying the countryside, and an opportunity for their dogs to turn their jets on! It is a great time of camaraderie with other dogs (primarily sighthounds but really, any breed can have a good time!), enthusiasts, and a fun occasion for the dogs and their people to bond - and for only $2 per dog.

Additionally, it offers a chance for training for some competitive dog sport participants with Large Gazehound Racing Association (LGRA) meets scheduled throughout the year. As an additional bonus, if you enjoy photography, it is a wonderful opportunity to try to capture some action photos of dogs of various breeds having an awesome time straight race practicing!

If you are a Facebook fan, search on GCWC Greater Chicago Whippet Club for more details and the full race practice schedule (which goes into November). May 9th is the next scheduled practice! Feel free to contact

Tamara at [email protected] too! If you would like to learn more about LGRA, check out www.lgra.org . I will let the pictures attest to the wonderful, fun time it can be! I would love to see you and your hound out there! (photos by Tamara Foss)

Fosters Needed

The Greyhound Inmate Experience (TGIE) is a wonderful program that enriches the lives of inmate handlers and hounds, as well as potential adoptive families. Fostering a TGIE hound is a rewarding experience that is guaranteed to introduce you to a fast friend for life! A group of TGIE hounds are currently enrolled in training in Coldwater, Michigan, and will be ready for their forever homes on April 23. They have one very important stop before they find their forever families: Foster care! Speaking from experience, I can tell you that you will not regret helping a hound and being the one that introduces your foster hound to their forever family. TGIE 'graduates' come with a detailed journal kept by their inmate handlers. This allows you to have a peek at how they spent their time in training before coming to you. Notes are made about how they handle certain situations (stairs, floors, unusual sounds, grooming, etc.) and even a feeding schedule is outlined! These details are a helpful aide when transitioning a hound to your schedule.

The most exciting part about being involved with fostering a TGIE dog is seeing all the progress made in the program! TGIE hounds have learned both verbal and non-verbal (hand) commands for all of their tricks. Peanut is a TGIE hound that my family adopted in October of last year. In addition to making us laugh out loud on a daily basis, she has many tricks/commands that she has learned in the program. She loves to show off! She will "give kisses" on command as well as "cover" her face when you ask her. These are in addition to the common basic obedience commands (sit, stay, down, shake, etc.). By far, my daughter's favorite trick is "bang!". If you "shoot" Peanut, she will do the infamous greyhound roach on her back and stay there until you tell her "up". As a foster home, YOU will have the pleasure of making sure your hound stays sharp with their fun commands until they find their forever home.

What do you say? Do you have some room in your heart to help a hound on their way to their happily ever after? I would be happy to answer and questions or address any concerns you may have. Feel free to give me a call or shoot me an email. You can reach me at [email protected] or 219-395-4432. Let's help some hounds!

New in April

April has lots of great things in store for American Greyhound! Look at all that's happening:

Indiana Pet Expo: On April 18th and 19th, AG will be at the Northern Indiana Pet Expo from 11-4 EST. The event will be held at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, IN. For more info, check out http://www.northernindianapetexpo.org/
Orland Park: On Sunday, April 19th from 12-3 CST, AG will have it's first adoption event in Orland Park! This will be happening at the Pet Supplies Plus located at 9430 W 159th St.
New Store Items: New in the store this month are two new shirts: tie dye paw print ad code five camo! be sure to check them out!

Great Ways to Support American Greyhound

This month we want to highlight 2 greyt ways to support American greyhound. First up is the dog wash at the Orland Park Pet Supplies Plus. For the month of April, they will donate $2 of every dog was to AG! How great is that?

Orland Park a no go for you? How about a way to support AG without even leaving your house?

How many of you regularly shop on Amazon? Did you know that there is an easy way to make money for American Greyhound while you shop their website and it requires no effort on your part after the initial set-up?

The program is called AmazonSmile and it is a simple and automatic way for you to support American Greyhound every time you shop. There is no cost to you or to American Greyhound to participate in this program. When you shop at smile.amazon.com, you'll find the exact same low prices, vast selection and convenient

shopping experience as Amazon.com, with the added bonus that Amazon will donate a portion of the purchase price to American Greyhound.

To shop at AmazonSmile simply go to smile.amazon.com from the web browser on your

computer or mobile device. You may also want to add a bookmark to smile.amazon.com to make it even easier to return and start your shopping at AmazonSmile. There are tens of millions of products on AmazonSmile are eligible for donations. You will see eligible products marked "Eligible for AmazonSmile donation" on their product detail pages.

Already have an Amazon account? No problem!!! You use the same account on Amazon.com and AmazonSmile. Your shopping cart, Wish List, wedding or baby registry, and other account settings are also the same. On your first visit to AmazonSmile (smile.amazon.com), you need to select a charitable organization (American Greyhound, of course) to receive donations from eligible purchases before you begin shopping. Amazon will remember your selection, and then every eligible purchase you make at smile.amazon.com will result in a donation to American Greyhound. Are you an Amazon Prime member? Not an issue . . . smile.amazon.com still works for Prime members too.

It can't get any easier than this to assist American Greyhound in their efforts to help out the hounds we all love. Be sure you get your smile.amazon.com account set up today to make your future purchases count.

Do You Have a Story or Photo?

Do you have a story to share about your own experiences with greyhounds? Do you have something you want to see in an upcoming newsletter? Do you have a picture to share? Please feel free to contact me at [email protected]!

I'd be happy to include pictures of your dog and share your adoption story. American Greyhound is YOUR group and I'd love to feature your story.

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