Greyhound/lurcher rescues in S London or surrounding area

[miacis]

Hi all

We have decided to adopt a rescue Grey/lurcher (needs to be cat/child/dog friendly) and were looking for rescues near us. I have found a couple - SOS lurcher and Kent greyhounds rescue.

Just wondering if people have any experience and recommendations of others. We're in S London and willing to drive.

Both seem quite small and don't often have suitable cat friendly ones - what's the score about registering/getting homechecked with more than one rescue? I appreciate these people are volunteers doing a heoric job so don't want to mess them about. Is there a sort of clearing system? I have applied to one rescue and they said they'd be in touch - sounds like there may be a long wait.

Any tips/suggestions very welcome.

Many thanks

Hersham Hounds in Surrey is a good one, I'm told. They homecheck, offer lifetime support and assess dogs and owners before matching them up, all of which is something you should seek in any rescue.

Pro Dogs Direct currently have this little baby in rescue. Pro Dogs are a decent lot, try to speak to Gladys if you're interested, she's lovely. :)

Kent Greyhound Rescue. Lord Whiskey at Stelling Minnis near Canterbury, not specifically sighthounds but always appear to have a few, we have had dogs from both of these rescues! Oh and Battersea of course, have had a cracking lurcher from there who passed away 5 years ago.

Sorry, got distracted by insomniac DD!

You can express an interest with as many rescues as you like. In fact, not only is it a good thing for you, giving you more chance of finding the perfect dog, rescue would prefer that you kept an open mind and your options open than insisted that you wanted Rover even if they felt he wasn't quite right for you.

With all rescues, ensure that you accept no less than this:

One which homechecks - this is for YOUR sake as well as the dog, they want to ensure that they can iron out potential problems before they become an issue and find you the perfect dog.

Which neuters, vaccinates and chips as standard.

Which offers lifetime support.

Which insists by contract that the dog will return to them if ever you can't keep him, even in 10 years time. Heaven forbid that this should happen but if it did you would struggle like feck to find a rescue place for an unwanted Sighthound - even I do and this is what I have been doing for years and I have country-wide contacts.

One which assesses its dogs thoroughly. Don't stress that the dog has come from racing kennels or a pound and not a home, that's not a problem. What you need to know is that the rescue has worked with him and can tell you what his prey drive is like, what his recall is like, whether he's suited to a family life and so on, whether he's housetrained or not.

Remember that some Sighthounds aren't housetrained having lived a life so far in kennels, but that is far from an insurmountable problem, it just depends on whether you are willing and able to train him. I would - I have solid floors and older DC but if you have, say, carpets and a crawling babe you may like to consider one of the many dogs which are housetrained.

Battersea are fine as rehomers although bastards from the POV of no-kill rescuers, lanky, but in my some years past experience and, I recently read, that of another MNer, more recently too, they've been found to be very wary about rehoming to those with young children. Depends on the ages of the OP's DC, if she has any, I'd imagine.

Thanks - what a cute puppy. We are out during some days. Have sorted lunchtime cover but not around enough for puppy.

Now only question is can I resist two?

Also, have a look on the LurcherLink website and forum. Kaye, the owner, is very passionate and clued up about her sighthounds and there are heaps of rescue contacts on the forum. She's very... erm... brief if you email her but speak on the phone and you discover that she's super!

One of these I know, she's Cambs based, so if you want me to ask her for suggestions, please say.

Thanks so much DBF for all your words of wisdom. Really, really helpful. Our DD is 8 and we only have carpets upstairs. But useful to hear advice re housetraining.

We will need to 'top up' some of our fences to get them to six foot. Don't know whether to do that now before the homecheck or do it after. Would seem daft to spend lots of money if we were to fail on something else.

Funnily enough our DD is adopted so we went through a rigorous check as part of that process. [simile]

Thefirst rescue we approached has said they won't do a homecheck now as they have no cat friendly dogs available. Is it the case that they only check once you're matched?