Well, there seems to be several people here who own rescue greyhounds, so as suggested in this thread, please tell me all about your adorable needle-nosed doggies! Pics are definitely appreciated.
I would actually like to know all about owning these dogs, as my parents have mentioned how they may want to get one. We recently lost our dalmatian of 15 years and I know they want to have another dog soon and rescue greyhounds have come up in the conversations. I have read that they are very low key, sweet & gentle dogs that need only a small bit of exercise and then spend the rest of their time sleeping. True? Since we had a dalmatian, we are familiar with dogs that like to run so that shouldn’t be a problem. Are there any particular things we need to pay attention to or look out for? What are the pros & cons?
Thanks.
A good friend of mine babysat a retired racer and quickly became sucked into owning and fostering greyhounds for this group. I’m sure there’s a rescue that is much closer.
Greyhounds can have a high prey drive, a good rescue will have the opportunity to ‘test’ the dogs in order to warn you of this in advance. They like to sleep a lot but other than a good hard run once a week in an enclosed area, their exercise needs are minimal.
Racing greyhounds usually aren’t familiar with stairs or glass doors and will need a bit of patience there. Also, they may seem aloof at first but when a greyhound bonds with you it’s a very intense bond. Be prepared to share your couch/bed as they like to be comfortable when they sleep. I believe that they’re housebroken by the kennels but on a schedule so they’d have to learn to tell you when they want to ‘go’.
That’s really a mishmash of info. I’ve yet to meet a ‘bad’ greyhound. My husband used to think they were ugly until he met his first one. Within the hour they were both curled up on a couch together. I did cat rescue at the time and didn’t want to risk having a sighthound in the house but things have changed so hubby may get his greyhound after all.
They are absolute characters. Oh, and you can’t stop at one! All the greyhound owners I know have at least two of them in the house.
My brother had three for a while. It’s true, you can’t stop at just one. Once they understand that they are pets now, and not working dogs, they are extremely grateful. In my brother’s case, the rescue organization socialized the dogs and got them used to things like steps and other household features.
Greyhounds need to be mostly indoor dogs. Their coats are so fine and thin that they have just about no protection from heat or cold. They do enjoy outside romps, but someone needs to watch over them, to see that they don’t get too hot or cold or sunburned. My brother walked his once or twice a day, can’t remember which. The dogs did go potty outside, and were very good about it, but they usually came in right away. Recently retired racers will be underweight. The foster family may or may not have enough time to put a bit of healthy flesh on the dogs.
My brother’s dogs spent most of their time lounging on the sleeping bag that he’d set out on the living room hearth. They’re first class loungers.
I don’t think that they’re very photogenic at all, but they have a lot of charm in person.
I don’t have one, but my brother is involved in GreytRescue. He has a few of his own, and there’s always a few around that he’s fostering until they’re adopted. There are always more dogs than adopters, but they manage to rescue more than half of all the greys. So, there are always dogs available to go home with you. They’re all spayed or neutered.
There’s nearly no fat on a greyhound, and the coat is short. That means you’ll need a dog sweater to take your pooch for a long walk in cold weather. They’re affectionate and very mellow. Not high strung at all. They’re tall enough to sniff around on your kitchen counter, so you’ll need a little extra caution.
All greyhounds are eventually retired, and most of them don’t make the grade in training camp. Like any athletes, some get to go pro. They’ll be raced as long as they’re competitive, and the best are kept a little longer for breeding. The way the racing world works, most rescue dogs are young, the slow ones. There are fewer successful stars.
Rarer still are puppies. Normally, all pups are given a chance to grow up and try out. Once in a while, a litter is born, and the owners aren’t sure which male did the mating. Such pups can’t be registered; the bloodlines must be known. They’ll go straight to adoption, and greyhound puppies are supernaturally cute.
I’m another one who doesn’t own a greyhound, but has a brother (in law) who does. He has two, actually. One is sweet as can be. He rests his head on your lap while you’re watching television, and curls up next to the couch to rest a lot. He’s quite strong, but he does EVERYTHING very gently, from going through the dog door, to walking along the tile, to meeting new people like my infant son. I have never met a more peaceful dog.
The other has lots of energy, and wants to play all the time. He hasn’t figured out just how big he is yet, because he’ll brush things aside while trying to get a better angle to insist that you pet him. He’s not aggressive at all, but he’s the kind of dog who demands much more interaction than normal. He’s totally impolite and unshy when he meets new people, and he scared my son a bit with all the sniffing and rubbing and carrying on.
Greyhounds seem to be just like any other dog. They have a breed reputation that individuals may or may not live up to, so it’s important to meet and interact with them before making a decision about adopting one.
I fostered a dog for several weeks through a greyhound rescue program. The dogs that get fostered have passed an initial temperament test, and the fostering process is to get them used to everyday things and to get a better idea of what kind of home they need. Some dogs have a higher level of prey drive, some don’t get along with other dogs, some have a high activity level, some are strong on the lead, some are more food aggressive, etc. But the organisation should be able to match your parents with a dog that would suit them. The greyhounds for adoption were generally from 2-4 years old and came toilet-trained and with basic socialisation. As far as I could tell the in-demand traits were cat-friendly, child-friendly, apartment-friendly, female, and blue.
In terms of cons, there’s the prey drive which sometimes means they can’t be off-lead. Many have trouble with stairs because of their long legs and because they’re not used to them.
I found the foster greyhound easy to live with. Exercise-wise he was fine with a 30 minute walk a day. He was very gentle (my cat hit him in the nose at one point and he just went to the corner and looked upset), very loving, and low-maintenance. If I was sitting on the couch he would always find a way to nudge his paw into my hand or rest with his chin on my knee. When we had to give him up I cried like a baby.
Another one with a family member (BIL) who has had many rescued greyhounds. The only other con I can think of is that most of his haven’t been terribly long lived once he’s gotten them. Maybe five years - often less.
I’ve met a number of rescue greyhounds. They were invariably sweet, well socialized, and pleasant dogs to be around.
To address Mosier’s point about dogs within a breed varying from breed norms, that’s certainly true. But in my experience, and AIUI, it just doesn’t matter when dealing with rescue greyhounds. The racing industry uses a huge number of these dogs. Thousands of them end up ‘retired’ every year, with no real prospects except for those lucky few who get picked up by the rescue organizations. The discrepancy between the supply of the animals, and the spaces that the rescue organizations can handle, or even the demand for these dogs, is such that almost any dog with questionable traits is going to be rejected at the get-go.
This isn’t to say that one shouldn’t be concerned about making a match between your personality and that of your specific rescue greyhound. Just that I believe that’s the only thing you really have to worry about - any dogs with more serious abberations from the ideal of the rescue greyhound will likely have been dropped from the program, to make room for a more suitable dog.
This is not, by the way, a condemnation of the rescue organizations: They’re trying to save as many of these dogs as possible. And as such one of their biggest selling points is that they do offer up very good family dogs. If they lose the trust of the public for providing that, the numbers of dogs they’ll be able to save will plummet.
I have two retired racers, one who arrived just a few days ago.
One of the many unique things about the breed is that there is an extensive database that lists breeding information and racing statistics. Once a greyhound is born, the litter is reported to the National Greyhound Association (NGA). Both ears are tattoed to identify the dog. The right ear tattoo is a two or three digit number followed by a letter, which describes the greyhound’s date of birth and litter order. The left ear tattoo is a five digit number describing the greyhound’s registration number, which is maintained by the NGA. If a dog makes the cut to be a racer, it is given a racing name and very detailed records are kept on its race statistics and any offspring it has.
These records are available online on the Greyhound Data web site. For example, my first greyhound raced under the name Kansas Grit (pictures available on the site - I took the closeup, the other two were taken at the kennel). We adopted him through a rescue group, who picked him up in Kansas after he retired and socialized him.
All in all, we could not ask for a better dog. We were so happy with him, in fact, that we decided to try and track down his littermates, on the off chance one of them might also be available. After many phone calls, emails and letters, we located his last remaining littermate, Kansas Stinger, in Alabama. He had stopped racing in 2006, and his trainer was hiding him out in an attempt to avoid sending him back to “the farm”, apparently a euphemism for going back to his owner to be put down. One bad thing about the track where Stinger was is that the adoption group affiliated with the track really wasn’t motivated to adopt the dogs out, and most ended up being shuffled through the system and eventually euthanized.
We paid the trainer $70 to put Stinger on a load of greyhounds coming from another track, which was destined for Indiana. Our local rescue group then drove from Ohio to get him, and gave him to us on Saturday. Getting a dog straight from the track is worlds different that getting one from a rescue that has socialized their dogs. Everything is a challenge - Stinger will not use stairs, is petrified of hardwood and tile and we assume he’s been abused due to the way he reacts to loud noises and quick movement. While abuse may not be the norm in the racing industry, apparently it was in Stinger’s case. I’m sure it’s quite comical for our neighbors to see us carrying a 75-pound dog in and out of our house so he can pee. We’re being patient with him, but it will take a while for him to come out of his shell.
My friend obtained one a while back- my friend called her (the dog) ‘the world’s fastest couch potato’. The dog was beautiful, well behaved and very mellow. She was low maintenance for such a large dog, but did chase cats and squirrels.
While I haven’t owned a greyhound, I worked in an assisted living facility that adopted one to be the “pet” of the facility. Missy was the sweetest dog, but even years after being retired and adopted, she was still very skittish and shy. It was obvious that she had been abused quite a bit. As I understand it, abuse is common for racing greyhounds–hitting them with metal bars makes them run faster, apparently. She was as gentle as can be, though. She did sleep a lot, so I would make sure your dog has a comfy doggie bed. Missy did fine running through the courtyard, she never seemed to mind that it was an enclosed space, and I don’t remember her ever running away. It was a treat for the elderly residents if she came up to them for a pet, but usually she danced quickly away.
Grit, now named Maxx, is a little ambivalent about his little brother (because of the tattoos on their ears, we know that Maxx was born first and Stinger was born fourth). He loves running in the yard with Stinger, but in the house its a different story. He’s not particularly willing to share attention, or even beds. We have three large beds for them, and invariably Maxx just has to have the one Stinger wants. Really though, if that’s the most negative thing I can say about their interaction, then we’re doing pretty well.
I should also add that we’ve got three cats (anyone remember Gracie?) and two 4-pound Maltese dogs in our household. Incorporating a new dog, especially a large one, is always a challenge. However, it’s been seamless so far. The dumb as a box of hair female Maltese does not seem to even realize there is a second big dog in our house. I have to wonder if it’s partly because the greyhounds look nearly identical.
Which reminds me… we still don’t have a name for Stinger. I think I’ll put the question up to the Dope. New thread forthcoming.
I have a very sweet Greyhound named Patrick. He used to race and then was a blood donor at the vet school where I did my residency. (Greyhounds make excellent blood donors.) He was 7 when I adopted him from the vet school, and he’s 12 now. He’s very playful around other dogs and even gets along with cats. I don’t have a yard for him, so I take him out on a leash and occasionally take him to a fenced-in dog park. He’s never been good with stairs–especially now, because of his age. My family and I have also had several other Greyhounds before I adopted Patrick, and they’re all so sweet.
Seems to me that there are enough dogs in need of adoption that you don’t need to take a chance on a (possibly) inbred dog that has been poorly socialized during its formative years around other dogs & people. Not just poorly socialized, but negatively socialized.
I knew one pretty well once, and been acquainted with a couple more. They’re not bad dogs, but I don’t think they’re good dogs either. . .not really affectionate, or “bondy”. I’m sure there are exceptions, but I think your odds are better with your average pound dog.
Greyhounds are NOT hit with metal bars to make them run faster!
We’ve owned retired greyhounds for many years and my husband has also owned a couple racers. We’ve been to race tracks, been in race kennels and seen many races. While there are certainly cases of abuse that have taken place in the industry, there is no way on Earth that abusing a dog is going to make it run faster in a race.
Greyhounds have varying levels of desire to chase, and just like a human athlete, different levels of ability. They either want to chase and are fast enough to be competitive in a race or they are not.
Shyness and skittishness are also not signs of abuse. Some greyhounds come from bloodlines that have shyness as a genetic trait. Some breeders do a better job of socializing the dogs when they are pups than others. A genetically shy dog that is raised by a breeder that doesn’t expose that dog to different kinds of people or give it sufficient handling during the critical 8-12 week developmental stage is going to be a shy dog.
Some of these type of rumors I’ve heard over the years are just bizarre and I have to wonder how in the world they get started.
Unfortunately it’s also come to pass that some greyhounds who were treated well as racers have been abused by the people who adopted them, and those cases (as in all cases of abuse toward any living creature) are just sickening. So much for being ‘rescued,’ huh? :mad:
If you look at the AKC breed standard, greyhounds are supposed to be aloof, so technically that sort of personality is the ‘correct’ one for a greyhound to have.
Since racing greyhounds are bred for their performance over personality or looks, the personalities can vary quite a bit. The dogs we’ve had have always bonded with us, but whether they’d be friendly toward or bond quickly with others really depended on their individual personalities.
Racing Greyhounds are considerably less inbred than many AKC breeds (including AKC greyhounds, which make up a very small percentage of American greyhounds). They are actually quite well-socialized toward other dogs, though they can be ‘breed snobs’ and prefer the company of other greyhounds over other breeds. Racing greyhounds spend much more time with their littermates than a typical pet dog. After weaning, they are kept together with their littermates until they are about a year old. They are much more used to being around other dogs because of this, and it’s good thing, because as racers they will be in kennels that generally keep about 60 dogs.
I’ve been in a racing kennel at turn-out time (boys and girls are turned out separately for obvious reasons). It’s a massive, seething mob of dogs and they ALL want your attention RIGHT NOW! It’s hilarious but you also have to be careful not to get hurt. Since the typical racing kennel only employs 2 or 3 people to handle all the dogs, they don’t get a lot of personal attention and aren’t used to it at first. Ours have become very spoiled very quickly though.
You do need to be careful about small fuzzy dogs when you take a greyhound as a pet though - if you have a hound with a high prey drive, they can see small fuzzies as prey too. Many greyhounds live well with cats and small dogs - some will never be able to do that.
OK - now I’ll address the OP.
Greyhounds do make great pets for the right person.
You should have a fenced in yard and a padlock for the gate, to prevent escapes. It’s certainly possible to have a greyhound in an apartment, but it’s also a pain in the neck to walk a dog 4 or 5 times a day in all weather, so most adoption groups will be want you to have a fenced-in area for your dog to go out in. If you’ve already lived with a dog in an apartment for a good while, though, then the group knows you are used to the walking requirements and may not require a yard. They most likely will require proof from your landlord that you can have a large dog, though.
Greyhounds must always be leashed when walked. Besides the fact that most places have leash laws, teaching a dog that has been bred and trained to chase to have reliable recall is an uphill battle at best and often impossible.
Most greyhounds are gentle and quiet, but as Mosier and Kayeby have already pointed out, there are definite individual variations. Our pup, Idol, loved to bark. Of our current hounds, Pumpkin is quiet as a church mouse, and I’ve not heard Tough bark yet either, though howling and whining are definitely in his repertoire.
Neither Pumpkin nor Tough is shy - Pumpkin was raised in a suburban back yard by a guy that only raised a litter or two of racing pups a year. Tough was raised by someone we know personally who does an excellent job of raising her puppies. He is very curious and follows me everywhere. Idol, who died last year, was a bit neurotic - he was raised on a large farm where I suspect he didn’t get as much handling as he should have as a young 'un. He was a stunningly beautiful dog though, and very smart. We had a great-uncle of his, Roman, who had a beautiful temperament and he came from the same farm - the folks who raised them are older now and I expect that means they just can’t do as much as they used to with the pups.
Our very first greyhound, JC, came from a line of shy dogs and from a farm that I don’t have a very good opinion of - and he was the most work when it came to adjusting to life as a pet, but he did become a very good pet indeed.
A good resource to look at is the Greyhound Pets of America web site - they are one of the oldest, and the largest, adoption groups in the country. Some of the chapters of GPA have kennel space right at their local racetrack, so they know quite a bit about where these dogs come from and how they should be handled. If you click on the Adoption tab, there’s a link to articles and those outline a number of issues regarding greyhounds, behavior and health.
I also have a small web site here, aimed at people who are new to or thinking about adopting a hound.
You can expect a lifespan of 10 to 14 years - our Pumpkin is currently 12-1/2 and still going strong. Cancer can be a problem - racing greyhounds are especially susceptible to bone cancer, and it kills a lot of dogs before their time - that’s what we lost Idol to just before his 10th birthday. JC got it at age 9, but his was treatable and he made it to 12-1/2 before dying of something else.
Thanks for all the information. And romansperson, your dogs are gorgeous!
Just to clear up a few things I should have mentioned in the OP, while I live in Manhattan, my parents have a house on Long Island so they have plenty of room. They do have a fenced in yard, but it is very small. We don’t have any other pets (well, a few turtles, but they stay in a tank) so there wouldn’t be an issue with them chasing after small animals. Is anyone familiar with L.I.G.H.T. (Long Island Greyhound Transfer?
Cool that people are rescuing and socialising these dogs!
What with the capital G on ‘greyhound’ in the title, I started off thinking about buses. I’m glad I was wrong, because I had a vision of a stranded motor coach on the side of the Interstate in Florida.
Don’t have such a dog myself (I’m more a cat person), but there’s a big greyhound-rescue operation in Keene, N.H. Just about every summer we’re in Brattleboro, Vt. (just across the river) for the Independence Day parade, and there’s often a contingent of greyhounds and their owners marching. Very encouraging to see.
