A small breed, like a Pappilon (sp?) would be OK. But no, not a greyhound.
The OP is discussing an Italian Greyhound. The AKC gives an Italian Greyhound’s ideal height at 13 to 15 inches. A Papillon by comparison is 8 to 11 inches. (Check the AKC page).
The Italian Greyhound’s weight is 8 to 12 pounds. Papillons are between 3 to 9 pounds.
So the two breeds are of comparable size and weight. Papillons are a smidge smaller, but tt’s not like we’re talking about Saint Bernards here. An Italian greyhound would be fine, sizewise, for an apartment.
Ignorance fought?
I have an Italian Greyhound (Clifford) and I live in an apartment. I got him through a rescue group when he was about 6 months old. He was not very hard to potty train and has never been destructive. He doesn’t bark very much at all and is very tolerant of my toddlers.
In terms of excercise, he is happy after being walked a short way to do his business if he is allowed to run back to the door - the situation of my apartment allows this without putting him in danger. He’d rather not hang outside much at all, especially when it is chilly (they are practically bald on the belly).
I will say if he sees a rabbit - he’s GONE. He even caught a baby rabbit once (rabbit escaped free from harm).
Mostly what Clifford wants to do is sit on the couch near me or on me, tucked up with his blankie. He has been the ideal pet for my family and I doubt I’d ever choose another breed after my extremely positive experience with him. I can’t think of a dog I’d recommend more for an apartment dweller.
I know that I’m pretty ignorant about dogs at the moment, but rest assured that I probably won’t be in the dog market for at least 5-10 years. Our cat is only 4, and we only want one pet at a time. I just want to get an idea of whether an apartment dog is feasible and how much exercise I’m looking at, plus any other hurdles along the way. I’d like to do my research early, especially since we should probably start saving for dog-related bills.
Part of my reason for starting this thread was to get an idea of how realistic my proposed exercise regimen was. Since 30-60 minutes isn’t enough I could bump that up.
I thought that dogs did well on weekend trips? That was part of the reason we were interested in getting a dog. My fiance’s parents have a beach house which would be great for a dog - big house, decent backyard, pool, beaches and walking trails close by. Normally we’d like to go once or twice a month but we can’t leave our cat - so we end up going a couple of times a year when we can arrange for a friend to house-sit.
I’m not particularly fussed with the housebreaking, as long as he gets there in the end. Cat urine is far, far more noxious! It does seem like having the Pet Loo on the balcony would be a better idea than walking him down 3 floors.
I’ve been told that Italian Greyhounds aren’t naturally yappy dogs, so will it be a non-issue as long as he isn’t bored and is given enough exercise?
And I definitely plan on picking up after my dog. We sometimes take my sister’s boyfriend’s whippet out so I’m already used to the texture and … warmth. :dubious:
A quick question for those of you who have said to never let an Italian Greyhound loose - is this until they’ve been trained to reliably recall? Or ever? I was going to keep him on leash at our parks which are bordered by main roads (do you need to buy extra long leashes for this purpose?), but when we took him down to the holiday house I was going to let him run free on the beach. Is that a bad idea?
Thanks for all the replies so far - they’ve all been very useful, especially the ones who have had firsthand experience with Italian Greyhounds. I really do want to do the best I can by my future dog, so thanks to everyone who has helped to challenge or confirm my assumptions about dog ownership. Please keep them coming if you can! 
My dog is ‘fairly’ well trained but I’d never have her off leash in front of my house just because there are so many cars and if she saw a rabbit or squirell she’d take off.
On the days she doesn’t go to the dog park which is enclosed, I take her to a park in my area which is very open and I let her run around off-leash. She runs buy she keeps her eye on me the whole time and if I call her she’ll come.
Same with the beach. We go to the beach ever summer and she’s great on the beach.
Almost all dogs, even pretty active dogs do calm down after the first or second year. It’s just when they’re puppies and young dogs that they can be a handfull. Dogs love to please and with a little training the dog will be fine. Italian greyhounds aren’t yappy dogs and my friends dogs rarely bark. They give you great tips in puppy school for what to do about barking. Puppies do bark a lot at first because everything is so new! My dog barked non-stop when she was a puppy but rarely does now. Just when she sees a dog on TV or someone is at the door.
I seriously don’t think you’ll have a problem. A few walks, a couple little play sessions and you’ll be fine. Dogs can get into routines very quickly.
I don’t know why everyone’s so hung up on “SMALL SPACE! DOGS MUST RUN!”
A healthy dog sleeps 12-16 hours a day. While exercise is important for every living thing and two, twenty-minute walks a day will be beneficial for both dog and owner, many people seem to discount mental exercise. A tennis ball will keep any of the retriver breeds happy for hours while you’re watching television. Dogs with brains love puzzles. An hour-long obedience/trick-training session - teach a sit, teach a sit-stay, teach a “show me” - will put all but the most rambunctious dogs into a coma. A crate will not only aid in housetraining but also prevent a dog from destroying your home.
Yes, absolutely, a dog is a commitment, and they take time and energy and an owner smarter than the animal. They don’t need yards.
I’d like to see my dog do an hour-long obedience/trick-training session. Never happen.
I can see a few 10 or 15 minute blocks of time.
You might consider wanting to teach her an emergency recall command. It’s not really that hard to train and it could save your dog’s life.
I always start training this in the kitchen while I’m cooking. Dogs are generally pretty alert when people are cooking (especially sloppy people like me) because a bit of food may fall. Hold something really yummy in your hand and shout your emergency recall words. (Mine is “Back here!”)
And when I say shout, I mean really yell it like you would if you saw your dog running in front of a car. The reason for this is in an emergency, you’re not going to call his name in your normal “Come here, puppy!” voice. You’re going to be shouting and your panic might look like anger and make him hesitate to come to you. We want to desensetize the dog to that.
Likely, the yell will scare your dog, but if he’s been watching the food, and he’s a pretty obedient dog anyway, he should come to you, especially if you don’t look angry. Give him the food when he comes and praise lavishly. Make sure it’s a really awesome treat-- not a biscuit or something else he gets on a regular basis. Give him a piece of meat or something else you know he’ll go nuts over.
Do it two or three times an evening until you’re really sure he’s got the gist of it: “If I come when the human is shouting like that, I get a really awesome treat! She’s not really angry! I’m not in trouble! I’m getting something really tasty!” Well, that’s a bit complicated-- it’s probably more along the lines of: “Yelling for me? Sounds mad. Mad? No. Food? Yes!”
Then, comes the testing phase. Use the word while he’s barking at the squirrel in the tree in the backyard or right after you’ve put his bowl down for dinner. Keep working on it until he’ll ignore any situation in the house and come to you immediately when you yell your recall words. Later, set him up outdoors in a safe situation and test the same things. (A large, fenced-in area and a remote-controlled car do well for this.)
Well, no. Yes, I thought an Italian Greyhound was close to the size of the regular racing greyhound, and so that’s news. But it ain’t just the size. I owned a sighthound once, a Saluki, and it had to run a lot. It could not be contained indoors. OTOH, my freind bred Papillons, and they were quite happy with nothing but a small patio. They don’t run much. The two dogs may have wieght within the same range but they are entirely different temperments-assuming that the Italian Greyhound has a typical sighthound temperment. However, although I have been around racing greyhound rescues and salukis, I have never been around an Italian Greyhound, so maybe they don’t need to run. Since dudes who own them say it work for them, Ok by me, but why not a dog breed that is bred to be a lapdog?
Check out this photo: http://www.italiangreyhound.org/pow/NOV06/Picture%20058.jpg
I want one!
I have no experience with this breed, but we used to have weimaraners. We had a large back yard (about half an acre) and a dog door. One of the dogs was quite high energy, but I never saw them running around in the yard by themselves. I really think that dogs adapt very well to small spaces, and that mostly they just need a lot of attention and love from their people. You don’t have to have a perfect environment for a dog to have a happy, well-adjusted dog.
Dogs do great on weekend trips, and I think the best thing about the really small breeds is their portability. I’m a big-dog person myself, but small dogs are much easier to take with you everywhere.
Dogs are so much fun and worth the small sacrifices you have to make for them. I can’t imagine not having one or two in my life.
My Jack Russel Terrier* loves* to go on trips with us. we’ve never flown with him, so I’m not sure how he’d do with that, but he’s great on car trips. We stop every few hours to let him eliminate and walk a bit.
You’ve gotta start 'em young with travelling though. My eldest dog didn’t travel much as a puppy and so she gets extremely nervous in new environments.
I guess that would be OK. I mentioned trips as a potential problem because not many hotels, rental cabins and vacation destinations allow pets.
Thanks Lissa
I’m really going to work on this. Think I’ll print this out.
I’ve really tried since she was a puppy. She seems to do well, but if she is off leash and I call her it’s not 100% that’s she’ll come immediately and I know that’s what she has to do.
It’s a real worry for me.
She great with everything else, she does sit, down, stay, drop it, leave it, etc.
I know it’s something that I’m not doing right.
I’m actually feeling a lot better about it today - my fiance and I went to one of the parks close to us (a 15 minute walk or < 5 minute drive) and at 446 acres it’s a whole lot bigger than we had anticipated. Check out the arial view. The part we explored was the yellow-green patch centre left, and although it looks tiny on the map, in person it was so big we thought it was the entire park. There are two off-leash areas for dogs, one which to my untrained eye looks slightly smaller than a football field and is completely fenced off.
I’m going to take Shadow the whippet there to see if the off-leash area is big enough for a sighthound to really stretch his legs, but I’m feeling pretty optimistic.
What a lovely animal! He looks like a real sweetie.
I started a thread a while back on whether it was safe to let hounds off leash. People with both sighthounds and scenthounds had done it, but the consensus was that you’re taking a chance each time. You can spend lots of time training, but a lot of breeds are meant to chase things, and filter out any distractions (including you calling him back). If your dog’s instincts are very strong they could put him in danger. As for leashes, lots of cities have rules about maximum length.
There is a training method you can use to try to combat this.
Pick a word like “look!” or “see!” (I actually use “Achtung!” with mine, because it’s a word I’m not likely to use much in casual conversation). Give the command to the dog. Snap your fingers or something to really get his attention. When his eyes meet yours, praise lavishly and give him a really yummy treat. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Just like with the emergency recall word, practice this whenever the dog is distracted. Give him something really delicious to chew on and then call his attention away from it. Issue the command while he’s barking at someone knocking on the door, or when he wants to chase that cat.
Again, you want this word to equate in the dog’s mind with a really awesome reward. Whenever they hear it, there’s something incredibly yummy in the human’s hand.
A hand signal is great to use in conjunction with either the emergency recall word or the “attention on me” command. Some dogs aren’t very verbally attuned and it can be frustrating for those training them because they can think the dog is stubborn or refusing to obey. That may not be the case-- the dog may just have trouble distinguishing the words.
My Polaris is one of these dogs. She’s eager to please, but English doesn’t make much sense to her. (Her default response to a verbal command is to sit until she figures out what the human actually wants.) I added hand signals to her training and bingo! one obedient dog. You can use whatever signals you want to use-- just make sure they’re consistent and they’re something that you’ll remember.
With the emergency recall and “attention on me” commands, I suggest cupping your hands out in front of you like you have a food offering you want to give to the dog. “Come” is obvious: use a hand to gesture toward yourself just like you would with a human. With “sit” I lift two fingers in the air. “Stay” is a flat, palm-out sign like you would use to stop traffic. “Down” is a flat hand lowered toward the ground.
Really? I have a Saluki and I live in an apartment. We go to the dog park twice a day, where he runs his yayas out for about a half an hour each. Most of the other twenty three hours of the day is is lying in comatose state on our bed (in fact that’s where he is right now). We take him for an extra walk maybe four days out of seven. He isn’t overwieght and is a very happy dog. He NEVER barks and has done no damage to our apartment. As long as you are willing to spend some time with your dog, I don’t think it matters where you live.
unrelated to the OP, but I am very curious as to how you managed to train this behavior.