Rescue greyhound - realistic for our situation?

[VBisme]

Hi all,

I hope that you can help me with this, (and apologies in advance for the really stupid questions).

After renting for 5 years DH and I are finally buying a house. We have both had dogs previously, he a ridgeback, me 2 collies, and we can't imagine not having a dog.

I travel with work, but DH does a lot of working from home. We don't have the time to do the huge walks that both ridgeback and collies require (I used to be out 3 hours a day with mine and then play in the garden). But can certainly spare an hour in the morning and evening to do a decent walk.
A friend suggested a rescue greyhound (his wife works for a greyhound charity), but I'd just like to know a couple of things.
Is house training a rescue greyhound difficult? (I assume they need house training if they are ex racers).
Should I plan to take a week or more off work to settle the dog into its environment?
I am correct with the less walking assumption?
(And here's for the really stupid question), do they smell? My aunt if convinced that they have poor digestive tracts and fart a lot. (She is however not a dog lover, and could be making the whole thing up).
Thanks in advance to anyone who can give me advice.

Congratulations on thinking of adopting a greyhound.

A few points - firstly, come over to the pointy cushion where there's a gang of us who are into/are owned by a selection of greyhounds, lurchers and whippets so can fill you in on all the fine details.

House training - some come already housetrained, as they may already have lived in foster care, or even previously lived in a home. Even dogs who are straight from kennels usually pick up the idea pretty quickly - our large male was straight from kennels and it took him a weekend. Of course you will get the odd accident - that's to be expected.

A week off is nice, but again depending on your dog's background, too much fuss straight away can be a bit overwhelming, especially if htey are adjusting to first time house living. I'd take it very gently and the most important thing (and this will help with housetraining too) is to establish a routine (they like routines).

Farty bottoms - your aunt is partially correct. Yes, some greyhounds have very toxic bottoms (but then so do other dogs too). However, it is often affected by diet and you may find that changing diet reduces or eliminates the problem. And some greyhounds just don't seem to have smelly farts at all.

Thanks scuttle, our local greyhound rescue seems keen for people to go and "meet" the dogs and take them for walks etc before a match is made, so we might need to see if we can find a match with a decent digestive system
I'm seriously excited, as far as I'm concerned a house isn't a home without a dog.

A greyhound sounds perfect, they really are the most good natured dogs. Of course you will have to take care out on walks if it is an ex racer as it will have a high prey instinct but it is managable. They are pretty lazy so would be more than happy with an hour a day.

Good luck on your search. I'm rather . Love greyhounds!

We got a retired racer last summer and she has settled into our family wonderfully.

She had a spate of accidents a few months after we got her. Strangely she had been fine initially, but I think she just got into a strange habit of weeing in the house for a while. No accidents for some time now, fingers crossed.

Smell wise, her farts utterly honk, but as Scuttlebutter says they are often linked with diet (Note: do NOT give a greyhound scrambled egg).

I am a SAHM so the hound has company on and off during the day, but to be honest she doesn't move far from the sofa and is happy with a couple of short walks a day. When we go out for longer on the weekends, she comes home utterly exhausted and retires to snore for the remainder of the day

In a nutshell:

PROS: walks like an angel on the lead, fantastic with kids and othgerr dogs, very little hair loss, rarely barks, not at all high maintenance, grill with strangers, vets, at groomers etc

CONS: can't let off the lead, steals food if we're foolish enough to leave on kitchen bench, a bit whiffy!

We went to the RGT, told them about our life and what we specifically wanted (basically bombproof, good with lots of people dropping by, other children and family dogs etc) and more or less asked them to choose us a dog. We walked a few over about 4 visits, then two came on home visits and we ended up with our lovely black girl.

Lovely, lovely dogs! Good luck!

grill!! Er, great