What things do I need to think about before we get a dog ?

[CMOTDibbler]

That title makes me sound stupider than I am tbh - dh and I both grew up with dogs, are v animal focussed, and have spent the last 12 years thinking about a dog. Ds is 6 now, so old enough for us to add a dog.

We have a largish house and garden, plenty of access to open space, a pretty compatible lifestyle, and I work from home. We would like a rescue greyhound, prob aged 5.

But what things might we not have considered ? Are there any common pitfalls ?

There are no pitfalls as such.

But, be sure you are content with the knowledge that you are inviting into your home another living, breathing creature which has a set of needs which can't be ignored, behaviours which are likely to be undesirable for at least some of the time and which will, no matter what you hope for have a massive impact on your life and how you live it.

If that is what you expect, dog ownership will be brilliant for you. It's brilliant for us.

Daisy - we already have 3 cats (yes, I know that not all greyhounds are good with cats) and a horse, so are fully aware that we may not like behaviours all the time, and that their needs come first

It might be better to get a younger dog. A 5yo dog will already have a lot of ingrained behaviours. Check with your local greyhound rescue. They often have greyhound pups they are looking to rehome.

The thing we found to be the hardest adjustment is that you can't spontaneously head out for a day at the zoo for example, you need a dog sitter or as a minimum walker. Oh and you can't always tell what you're going to get - our rescue lab is fantastic in every way other than he hates not being with us. Just got him a rescue puppy friend though so hopefully that might help (although at the moment they are far from being friends!)

We found the toilet training painful. My mum had always had dogs and I'd expected training to be a piece of cake, as it was for my mum. WRONG! We spent months and months of watching her like a hawk, walking her 10 times a day, doing all the wrong things to some degree. I like to think we were textbook 'how to get it wrong', but now, at 10 months, dd (darling dog) is much better. We still have odd accidents but they are few and far between. And I'm getting a dog behaviourist in next week to help me sort out her Tigger-type bounciness.

If you and your partner are both on board with it, it should be much easier than it was for me. DH was not amused at us getting a dog when we did, so for a long time I was sole carer. Now, however, she's just won him over and is part of the family.

Like having a baby again sometime though with the discussions about poo quality and the establishment of routines (something we were always rubbish at)!

Biggest issue for me has been what to do if we are going away or even for a long day out to somewhere not dog-friendly. I have found a good dogsitter for holidays, but she is expensive and gets booked up very early.

I had thought about holidays before getting the dog, but hadn't really thought about, for example, weekends when we might want to be out from 9am to late at night - obviously you can't leave a dog alone that long, so you have to have some alternative plan.

We already have a walker/ late plan as my cleaner has said before that she would be more than willing to do that, and lives round the corner with her dogs. We also have several neighbours who would help out too.

We will be talking to the rehoming charity, but their website shows mostly 5 yr olds as the greyhounds retire from racing then. We don't really want a puppy

Sounds as though you know exactly what you're getting into then - enjoy your dog!

For us (our puppy has not arrived yet), it has been thinking about what we do spontaneously - so if we go out for lunch, not being able to stay all afternoon into the evening...unless the dog is with us. Going to weddings, away for the weekend etc. (the latter we do fairly frequently) so we'll have to arrange for the dog to stay with someone, or we'll have to only go to places where dogs are accepted.

OP, delighted you are considering a greyhound - they are wonderful. Please come over to the thread "A New Cushion for Pointies" - you'll find a gathering of besotted sighthound owners there who will be thrilled to welcome another one, and share all we know.

Typically, greyhounds come off the track in several age bands. If they are tried for racing and found not to suit at all (no prey drive, or more interested in stopping or fighting) then they come off at around 18 months. You then tend to get a few more around three ish once they've tried a bit of racing but are not reallly doing very well. For moderately successful racers they will retire at around five or six though sometimes can go on a bit longer. Very, very rare to see pups, unless the rescue also does lurchers. Most racing greyhound bitches take season suppressants while working and are neutered by rescues prior to adoption.

There are many benefits to taking on a young adult dog. Greyhounds are already trained to walk beautifully on the lead, and are used to car transport. Most are already "semi" housetrained and ours picked it up in a weekend - and believe me, these are not dogs noted for their brains!

In general, they are a very long lived, healthy breed. Lifespan into early/mid teens is common, and they are generally pretty healthy. I know several aged around 14 or 15, and our 12 year old is still running like a lunatic.

Forgot to mention the only pitfall - one is never enough...