Can you run with them? Or are they more “run all out or nothing”? Because even if I did run a lot faster I couldn’t make 30 mph. 
Running with a greyhound is contraindicated, believe me. Even their lazy trot will leave you gasping. One of ours got away in a park once and even at a complete all out run we couldn’t keep up with her even when it was clear she wasn’t trying at all.
Lady Chance and I have rescured Greyhounds for over 15 years now, I think. All around great dogs for a couple who likes to lay around the house playing computer games most of the day. They are surpremely concerned with their own comfort and will love your couch, your bed, a large pillow, whatever.
You want to feed them up off the tracks as their running weight is too low for everyday life. But they don’t exactly show any reluctance to eat in my experience. They’ll fatten up past the age of 10 if you let them.
I heartily recommend rescuing a greyhound if you want a pet that’s likely to be even tempered, good with kids, and affectionate. Just don’t run with them off lead. We’ve rescued four so far and we’ll keep doing it as we can.
I’m really happy to see this thread because my partner and my dog and I are actively looking for another pooch for our pack, and I called the retired greyhound place yesterday (left a message). I would have got one last time I adopted a dog, but the place I lived in at the time was wholly inappropriate (nothing but stairs and shiny linoleum) so I got Jimbo instead.
Currently I live in a house and I walk Jimbo three times a day (he isn’t allowed off leash either so I think they’ll be fine). The concern is this:
Our favourite thing to do in the summer is hang out on the front porch. There s a 3’ fence around the front porch (it’s about 5’ off the ground on the other side). Jimbo could easily leap over this fence and out into the street, but he hasn’t, and I am confident he won’t, because he has very little prey drive, and he’d rather sit on my lap than do anything else. Sometimes a cat comes around and tests this limit: at most he will bark at the cat, but doesn’t jump the fence.
The question: Could I have the same confidence in a greyhound? (And, does a greyhound fit on a lap? We have big chairs and big laps, the 70lb pit bull has no problems in that respect.)
I will ask the guy when he calls me back but I would appreciate your insight as well.
Thanks for all the help, everyone!
This chapter of my life is a couple of years off, at least. I want to get out of my trailer and into a house before I commit to another pet. Mrs. Homie and I don’t have kids, so that’s not a concern. We do have cats, so I’ll probably wait until they’re gone to consider a greyhound. Not so much for the cats’ safety, but for the dog’s: my cats are mean as hell.
I’ve never had a greyhound, but I did have an Afghan hound. Siddhartha was the ideal dog, except for his coat care. Great with kids, unless he was under the kitchen table. That was his “safe zone” and the kids weren’t supposed to bother him when he was there. He’d let the babies graze in his food bowls, and poke his eyes and pull his tail. He even held off a german shepherd who was going to attack my nephew. He didn’t win the fight, but he kept the dog off Robert.
I would take him to a large (thousands of acres) park and let him run. He would dash and chase, but would come back when I jingled my keys. He was very much my dog, and if I was going to be away from home, I’d tape my voice and the family would hide the tape recorder in rooms, so the dog thought I was always just on the other side of the door. Otherwise he’d bark and whine the whole time I was gone. He had a mind like a lawyer. Eating food off the counter was a Bad Thing, but if you put the plate from the counter to the floor, well then it was floor food, and fair game. Sid was great with cats and let the squirrels eat out of his outside food dish. He loved to be chased, do the play bow and then lording over you how fast he was. He was a great dog.
Cowgirl - I’m almost positive a 3’ fence wouldn’t keep a greyhound in. My afghan hound used to jump 4’ from a sit, and a friend of mine had an afghan that would clear a 6’ fence just for fun. Jump out, jump in. Jump out, jump in. I taught Sid to climb a 6’ ladder for a slide and then go down the slide.
StG
Not a greyhound guardian myself, but our neighbor keeps one and rotates a different foster through her house every few months. She lives in a small condo/apartment and her dogs are always peaceful and shy and sweet.
I have also met greyhounds at the local dog park. I have learned there is a hierarchy of speed in the dog world. At first I thought that, at seven months, my little American Pit Bull Terrier, Simone, was the fastest thing in the dog park, perhaps tied with some really committed Australian Shepherds. She could really pour it on and outpace the dogs she enticed into chasing her. But then someone brought Hungarian Viszlas. Those things run like hell, all the time, fast and apparently tirelessly, and Simone was clearly no match for them. I’d never seen Viszlas before, and was deeply impressed.
Then one day a Viszla was leading a pack of various dogs in a long series of loops up and down the dog park, outrunning all of them and doubling back to taunt them, apparently out of the sheer joy of speed. A normally quite placid greyhound suddenly took an interest in the proceedings. The greyhound overtook the pack, and the Viszla, and traveled alongside him for a while, back and forth. The Viszla was going flat-out, banging his feet in a staccato sprint, and really eating ground…the greyhound overtook him in a long easy lope, and then paced beside him, cocking his head to observe the other dog, clearly not anywhere near maximum effort. It was an awesome demonstration.
If you have a greyhound and he or she slips away, you will not be overtaking him.
cowgirl:
My non-dog-aggressive Simone likes my neighbor’s greyhounds, and is careful to show proper dog manners when she meets them on her walks. I’d think that the right pairing would work fine – but – I have two cautions. Firstly, the pit bull boards universally recommend that you NEVER leave a pit bull unattended with another pet. There are occasional horror stories. As hard as it is for me to imagine dog-loving Simone intending harm, we obey this principle and she is crated when no human is home. In your case, given the prey drive of greyhounds, I’d think there’s always a possibility of them playing too roughly together and it turning into something bad.
Secondly, I’m sure you know, pit bulls are prone to “zoomies” in which they get wild-eyed and tear around at high speed somewhat incautiously. I wonder how that would interact with a greyhound – I can imagine you’d have your hands full, and possibly your house destroyed, in seconds. 
Our greyhound was a co-pet with an 80lb black mouthed cur. (think medium height, stocky, broad chest, definite pit influence) an 11lb Italian Greyhound and a Himalayan cat. Ours couldn’t care less about the cat and as far as the other creatures was concerned, they had two possible states, on his couch or not. If the other dogs got on his couch, he would literally just stand there. And stand there, and stand there, and stand there.
I was rather surprised that the other, bulkier dog seemed to be so easy on him. Of course, he was a large greyhound, retired at 75lbs and got up to about 85lbs but was easily twice the height of the other dog. I guess even to other dogs, they look fragile. 
Greys do zoomies too. If one is running at you, you’re not supposed to dodge - they get a charge out of shaving past you at top speed, and if you move they could collide. Not easy to keep still!
I have no doubt that there are dopey hounds out there. But as sighthounds, they’re not wired the same as more cooperatively working breeds. As coursers and racers, they operate independently and make decisions on the fly, without looking to a handler for instruction, guidance, or permission. Compare them to racehorses - but without jockeys. So they are delighted to be your buddy, but are not motivated to slavishly follow a command, unless you can convince them that it’s a good idea. It’s one of the reasons people call them catlike, I think; they don’t take commands so much as suggestions.
What about vet bills? A friend of mine married into a family with three greyhounds, and it seemed like the vet bills were higher than with other types of dogs–a combination of the dogs being rather more heedless of their own safety than your average dog and that super-thin skin and heavy bleeding mentioned above. They’d run full-tilt into something and their skin would *tear[i/] and then it was off to the vet where stitches really didn’t work very well and often had to go back 2-3 times to get infection-free healing. They would also eat anything they could reach (like bags of coffee beans) and there weren’t many places they couldn’t reach. They could be trained out of some of these things, of course, but that took time and wasn’t always perfect.
Obviously, anyone adopting a dog has to be prepared for unexpected vet bills, but does it seem to anyone else that greyhounds end up at the emergency vet with disproportionate frequency? It may just have been her dogs.
There’s not much I can add to what’s already been said, other than in Illinois you have some great adoption groups to choose from. I personally donate to Midwest Greyhound Adoption because they do marvelous work and have an excellent support network for their owners.
I also wouldn’t call greyhounds dumb - not at all. It’s just that they haven’t been bred to work in collaboration with people, like a Lab or Border Collie, so it can take more work to train them. It can be done if you wish to put the work in, though - my Idol did very well in obedience training, and I think my Tough would do well too, if I’d just get off my butt and take him over there. The one thing that is almost impossible to do, though, is to train them to stay with you off-lead - they’ve been bred for thousands of years to chase and catch small prey independently. Add to that the fact that a racing or coursing dog is trained to encourage that trait, and the chances of overcoming that are about fat, slim and none. That’s why adoption groups tell you to never ever let them off lead outside a fenced area.
I have a little web site that’s dedicated to providing info to prospective and new greyhound owners, so you might want to bookmark that for later when you get closer to deciding on a dog.
Yup. I’m not worried about my pit bull either, but even a tiny risk is enough for me. Altho, if I left them unsupervised together I’d be less worried about a tragic ending than I would be about …
No question.
That’s exactly what Jimbo does: the only time he’s ever hurt me is when I moved at the last moment when he was doing this, and he whacked my knee with his enormous head at top speed.
No, we have it all planned out: one dog upstairs, one dog downstairs.
Let me rephrase my concern about my porch in a more general way.
I know that greys can seriously hurt themselves by bolting after something while on their leash. How do you deal with this? What if you see a squirrel while you’re walking? Can you spend time sitting outdoors with your dog at all if there’s no fence to keep him in?
Aha! I’ve been waiting to tell this story on this board for years!
I had a retired racer. Good dog (in general). Great with kids (I had a new born at the time), and very laid back. She had a racing name (which I forget at the moment), and was VERY retired – slept most of the day.
Occasionally you have to take them to someplace with enough room for them to run their hearts out, but they’re fairly good around the house. Mine hardly ever barked.
But…
She had something called “Happy Tail”. She’d get so excited to see me she would just wag her tail frantically, hitting everything along the way. She wagged her tail so hard against things that she broke a blood vessel on the end of her tail.
Imagine that for a second. A frantically-waving tail spurting blood all over the place.
My house looked like a CSI scene.
I tried everything, from bandages, to bandages with duct tape, to those little vials that roses come in (with duct tape). Nothing worked, so I had to give her back to the adoption agency.
That was the last dog I’ve ever owned and will be the last dog I’ll ever own.
There’s probably a combination of factors with your friend’s dogs.
Some dogs are simply less mindful of where their bodies are in space - this is true for all breeds, I think.
Some people don’t do a very good job of assessing hazards in their environment and removing them, resulting in more injuries (to both people and dogs, actually).
Greyhounds do have what I call ‘zipper skin.’ A small cut just opens right up because there’s very little fat there, and the thin skin, speed and lack of fur on a greyhound means cuts are more likely to happen. However, I’ve had greyhounds for 15 years now and I can count in the fingers of one hand the times I’ve been to the vet for a skin tear. You learn to assess the situation and and whether or not you can handle it yourself or if the thing really does need stitching. I have a first aid kit at home just for the dogs, which includes things like tube socks which can be used to cover a leg or foot cut and an excellent styptic gel for clotting cuts. Most of my dogs have been remarkably tolerant and will leave a light bandage alone until the cut is healed enough to go without.
You use a 6-foot leash to walk a greyhound. Not one of those retractable things - those are a disaster waiting to happen with a greyhound. I personally use a 6-foot leash and a harness to walk my hounds - better for their necks, I think.
And no, sitting outside with your dog in an unfenced area is another disaster waiting to happen. It’s really not a big deal, though, at least to me. I wouldn’t let any other breed of dog just wander around in an unfenced space, either - I know far too many dogs of all breeds who have been killed by cars, other dogs, etc. to do that.
This story about a rescued greyhound made me cry when I read it in the paper.
A few years later, I got to meet Elvis the greyhound at a dog festival in Walnut Creek.
There was a recent article on how Elvis is doing now that he’s getting older.
I’ll add to the pleasure of owning a greyhound. Willow was THE BEST dog I’ve ever owned. The people at the shelter told us, that she may not be friendly right away and would like her own space.
The first night in, we go understairs to bed and the dogs come up. Before I had turned off the light, she was in the bed and my wife decided to let her stay.
I wake up the next morning and the dog had wrapped itself around me. Her head was on my throat, her front paws around my shoulders and back legs on my legs. From that night, whenever she was near me, she had a part of her body touching me. She was a pleasure to be around and was all the things you get a family dog for.
As noted, their prey instincts can kick in. We had a cat and Willow was great with her for several years, but one day we came home and found the cat dead and Willow’s face covered in deep gashes; she had killed the cat. Even though she was cat safe.
The best thing we could figured is that one of the other dogs chased the cat and Willow’s instinct kicked in and finished it off; because the door gate had been smashed and Willow wasn’t strong enough to do it, but the other dogs could.
That was the only issue we had with her.
A seconding (thirding?) of remembering that these are not dogs bred to be good working dogs. Oh Zane is trainable. He even sits well! (Not natural to the breed.) And he’s learned “leave it” and “drop it”, etc … But the brightest dogs … uh … no. And that’s okay with me. A smart dog needs a job to do and will create “work” if there isn’t any - patrolling the borders (ie barking at the windows), herding the children, etc. I’d rather use my spare time working with my kids on their homework, not on the dog’s. A loving couch potato is just fine in my dog.
As to running. They are sprinters not distance animals. A greyhound race is measured in seconds. No endurance; they are not built for it. Not the dog for you if want company training for a marathon.
Vet bills … we haven’t had it bad but I do hear of bones breaking hitting a hole while running and those cuts. They do almost all come with bad gingivitis (soft food at the track) and will need more frequent dental care (at least regular brushing - which we never did with our whippets - one still with us). And some do get osteosarcoma which can be costly to treat.
cowgirl, maybe a low prey drive greyhound would be okay but probably I’d keep him on long lead anyway.
Don’t understand jjimm’s friend letting the dog off leash at the beach and not tightening up to very short leash when other little dogs are around … you really do need to deal with the nature of your dog and some greyhounds have very strong prey drives.
Do we seem to have a lot of greyhound families here?
Gah—made me cry too!
My own dog, although not a Greyhound (he’s got shepherd and beagle and basenji in him, if you can imagine that mix), is very much like most of the Greyhounds mentioned here (couch potato/athletic, quiet, very skittish, very cat-like), and I always imagined I’d like to adopt a Greyhound as my next dog when my own Joey goes to the rescue shelter in the sky.
This thread has convinced me that a Greyhound adoption will be my next move. 