Retired Grey Hounds from rescue centres….anyone with any experience with this please 🙏

[Elizabeth0712]

Hi there,
we’ve found a retired racing grey hound (4 years 10 months old) we’re thinking of homing and having as our first family dog.
Our children age 8 & 6 have met him and he seems gentle and friendly.
My husband and I both grew up with big dogs and feel confident with them however we’ve never had grey hounds and have a few questions if anyone has any experience with rescuing grey hounds.
Do you need to keep them on the lead when out the house all the time?
Do you muzzle them when out everytime?
Can you leave a back door open in the summer? Thinking of the prey drive, we do have high fence 6ft

And most importantly are they good family dogs?

thanks so much,

I had an ex racer and he was the biggest softie who ever lived.

I never needed to have him muzzled, he was fine off lead but wasn’t interested in long distance walks anyway, made the mistake of taking him too far when I’d not had him long and he just lay down in protest 🤣

He did have a prey drive but couldn’t jump a fence, the neighbours car would sit on the back wall and taunt him but he just watched them strut up and down the garden wall.

Theyre beautiful dogs, very lazy!

I never muzzled mine. Could leave the back door open fine with a dog proof garden. I used to walk her off lead in the fields and she was fine until she saw a rabbit/hare and then she was off. One second she’d be by my feet and then she was two fields away and running fast, little dot disappearing into the distance. She always came back. I just used to have to wait for her to arrive back. Could be 10-20 mins.

Depends on the dog.
Some can see smaller dogs as prey, in which case they need a muzzle out and about.

Generally they shouldn’t be off lead, particularly if a retired racer, as they have the drive to have been a decent racer.
Failed racers can sometimes be let off if they have little drive. Depends on the dog.

Often they have never been in a house before. Everyday noises can be very scary for them, so bear this in mind. Also, going from kennels, separation anxiety can be a thing.

A family member has had an elderly rescue retired racing greyhound for about 10 years. She was initially very underweight so lots of dirty looks and pointed comments in the street about her weight for the many months it took to built her up. She was very wary of men, obviously because of her previous bad experiences.
They had another rescue dog that taught her how to ‘be a dog’ but her prey drive was strong and even now she’s still able catch a squirrel… There have been a couple of near misses with cats and for many years they’d muzzle her in parks. As @HighStreetOtter says, they’re fine off lead until they spot something to chase and there have been a few stressful times where they have been calling her for 15 minutes before she comes back.
All that being said, she’s a beloved member of the family, great with their DCs and happily hogs the couch under a blanket with her head on someone’s lap for many hours when she’s not outside.

thanks for your responses. For those that have had retired racing dogs how did you find toilet training them to be used to living in a house after the kennel environment?
From what I’ve been told by the foster carer there’s been a few accidents

Ime she picked the toilet training up quickly. Couple of weeks max. But yes expect some accidents

Got to treat them like a puppy for toilet training. Outside every couple of hours and praise when they wee

I’ve had a few. Lovely dogs. No issues with toilet training, they literally picked it up within a week. VERY lazy, like nothing more than snoozing on the couch. That said, they need a good run, every day. All mine were ex racers, so I muzzled at first and kept on a long line. It took a couple of months to get really good recall but after that, they could be let off, no worries and they never caught any small furries.
Back door open is fine, after a while. One of mine jumped a 6ft fence (effortlessly, from a standing start, I watched it back on camera!) within the first week, because she fancied seeing what was happening on the other side! After about 6 weeks, they get the hang of “this is where I live” and don’t bother anymore.
If I got one now, I’d exercise in a totally secure field whilst I taught recall. That way they can run their legs off (which they do need to do. Usually only for around 30 mins, then they are pooped!) and you won’t worry about them naffing off.

My friend has had 2 rescue greyhounds, the first girl was lovely, friendly to other dogs, but took an attachment to my friend and as the days went on, her adult son couldn’t get past her, she would growl at him, so unfortunately they took her back as things didn’t improve. They then got another girl, who they’ve had now for 3 years, she’s cost them a huge amount in vet bills, so make sure you get good insurance, she’s had feet problems, teeth problems. She doesn’t do rain, she won’t go out, she doesn’t need a muzzle on at all, all other dogs seem to like her, the only time she’s off lead is in a secure dog field where she does absolutely nuts running around and she will chase anything moving, birds, squirrels, foxes and deer.

A lot of the answers will be specific to the dog you adopt, but it's always best to err on the side of caution until you've lived with the dog for a while and know it's personality.

An ex racer is likely to already be used to wearing a muzzle, so it's a good idea to use one on walks as a precaution. Both my greyhounds have a high prey drive and would catch small furry animals given the chance. You'll likely need to do a lot of recall training, unless you have a fast learner and the rescue have managed to nail it. Some mixes of greyhound don't have the best recall, both mine have had saluki in them (selective hearing), so only go off lead in a secure area. With my first, I made the mistake of letting him off lead in a nature reserve and he disappeared for hours after going after a rabbit.

My first greyhound was a houdini and if he could see into a neighbour's garden he would jump the wall. He never managed to clear a 6ft fence but he did jump a 4ft wall once when he could see over into my neighbour's garden. I did put some 6ft screening up, but my neighbour decided to cut it down one night and he was over before I realised what she'd done. Theoretically, if your garden is secure, I don't see why you couldn't leave the door open. I prefer to supervise time in the garden, but I'm probably overly paranoid about my dogs escaping after the incident with my neighbour. Cats etc will soon learn not to go into the garden where the big pointy dog chases them ime!

Toilet training again will depend on the dog. My first one used to protest poop every time we left him for about the first year. My current girl has always been clean in the house from day one. Worth getting in a bottle of Dr Beckman carpet cleaner as a precaution.

I had an ex racing greyhound whilst my children was little. She was perfect family dog. I did let mine off the lead if we was on a big field ect so she could have a run but it's really dependant on the dog. She didn't have a big prey drive and I also had a house rabbit which she never tried to hurt. She would eat everything she shouldn't though, chocolate ect, even the wrappers so always had to make sure food was out of sight. But apart from that she was the loveliest family dog

Sorry to add. I never had to toilet train mine she soon got used to living in a house. She was also extremely lazy xx

We had a couple of accidents but he got it really quickly.

Rescue dogs often have a bit of regression around house training with a new environment anyway, but ours soon got the hang of it, it didn’t become a big issue.