Does anyone have a greyhound?

[choosyfloosy]

dh and I are thinking about taking on a dog, in particular a retired greyhound. we have one ds aged almost 4. does anyone have any experience of this? thanks

Do it! Do it!

I currently have a lurcher (greyhound x) but am familiar with greyhounds and will hopefully get another. They are wonderful, loving, gorgeous, gentle, wise, amazing animals.

Not always great with small furry things, though, so not good with guinea pigs, etc. and many (though not all) can't really be trusted with cats.

Plus:

They really demand so little exercise and just love hanging around snoozing (ideal for town, bad weather and so on)

They are non-yappy but don't do huge big dog poos or eat ten tonnes of food

Over short distances, they are the second fastest land mammal after the cheater.

They are an ancient and noble breed.

My friend has one. She's a lovely gentle animal but takes up quite a bit of room! She is very easy to look after, lays quietly in the house, walks nicely on the lead without pulling and doesn't get silly or destructive if my friend only has time to give her a quick 20 min walk. I never thought a greyhound would be my sort of dog but I must say my views have changed and if our landlord ever allows us to get a dog I would be tempted to have one.
The only thing you might want to think about is what sort of relationship you think your ds wants to have with the dog. My friend's greyhound has never put a foot wrong with her son (they already had the dog when he was born) but now that he's older he wants a dog that will be more playful and fetch a ball etc so they've just bought a cross-bred labrador puppy who is much more of a 'playmate' than a 'companion' iyswim.

Yes, that's true. They don't do the bounding-around-with-a-ball thing. They are quite sedate.

Ooh that 's very interesting. (thanks for so many useful responses btw.) given that i tend to be nervous around dogs and have transmitted this to ds, i think a breed with fairly reliable temperament is a good start for us, also we do both have occupations so a dog that needs more constant exercise would probably not be happy with us (though we are all home a lot one way and another so the dog shouldn't get too lonely). many thanks again.

I have a greyhound and an 11 month old dd. The dog is excellent with her, I can easily walk the dog and push dd's pushchair. They make excellent pets (I have only ever heard ours bark about twice!!). She does take over the sofa though!!