Just bought a house - can finally get a dog (greyhound), do I need to wait until after my small furry has gone?

[VBisme]

DH and I have finally bought a house. It was agreed that as soon as we stopped renting I could get a dog.

After research I reckon the only dog that we could manage would be a rescue greyhound (we both work days and greyhounds appear to be the only dogs that will be okay on their own for 8 hours at a time - please feel free to let me know if this isn't correct, I'd rather not have a dog than have a dog that was unhappy).

However we have a hamster, she is a lovely, friendly, adventurous little furry and comes out every night for time in her ball and then a run on the sofa with us.

Is it completely impossible for us to get a greyhound whilst the hamster is still with us? (I have a horrible feeling it is). She's been fine in a house with my parents dog, but we kept them seperate (different rooms when the hamster was out and about).

I love my hamster just as much as I would love a dog, she really has a lovely personality so I'm happy to wait if we need to (as in, I'm not about to get rid of the hamster just to get a dog).

Sorry for the long post, I want both, I don't think it's possible, I'm hoping against hope for great stories about greyhounds living happily with hamsters, gerbils, ferrets, rats and cats.......

They seemed happy with it and I didn't question it as the books I got before I got her said they were used to being left for many hours at a time. She went from that to having a constant stream of people in the house every day!

Cinnamon - my housetraining issues were about my lurcher. However, my great aunt (who was the first UK professional female greyhound trainer apparently, and very soft on her dogs - and found them homes...) used to strip off her double bed in her cottage and put on a waterproof sheet so that the dog had somewhere to lie as the rest of the cottage was too small to accommodate her (this was her last remaining dog that she kept when she retired - I think they were in their 80s when we saw them and the dog). The dog went into a kennel at night. Anyway - my lurcher needed more than 2 weeks to be able to get the hang of housetraining, as she had got used to 'in' being the place that you were meant to do things....

I was referring to another poster, mistlethrush, who had said that ex-racers are not fully housetrained.

Ah, sorry, I knew I'd mentioned it and I didn't want people to get my experience muddled as she's not an ex-racer.

It was me that mentioned housetraining...

Some ex-racers have never lived in a house until theyre retired, some are fine and some like any other dog might react to being rehomed or have spent a bit of time in kennels which knocks them for 6 a bit as far as housetraining goes - that was why I mentioned it.

Racers are crate trained, so they don't mess their beds. Most have never lived in a house but it's usually a quick transition to getting them to see the whole house as their 'crate'. This is helped by a strong routine and regular trips to wherever you want them to toilet (and massive treating when they do it where you want them to do it)! We had literally one or two 'accidents' with our first ex racer and none with our second. Neither had lived in a home before.

DH and I both work and our dogs are left for 4 hours at a time. Very occasionally, if there's a problem at work or I need to meet a teacher at the DCs school it's 5. We have a dog walker for when our lives are too complicated to figure out a way to walk them... 8 hours is too long imho. The kennels we adopted from does spot checks on its adopters and they recently took a dog back after it transpired it was being left for whole days. When we were home checked our bonkers, untidy noisy house full of children and visitors was acceptable - what they really wanted to know was how much time we'd be spending with our dog.

Lots of RGT kennels are happy to have volunteers come and walk the dogs at the weekends. It's a lovely way to have a nice dog walk and do something good.

My rescue Staffie has a strong bladder and is happy with his own company - he was "advertised" by his rescue on this basis and we were frank about our working hours when we took him. Sometimes he goes for his 6pm walk, refuses to go out later on when we go to bed and looks put out to be asked to go out again at 8.30am! When he knows he is going for a longish walk he "fills his tank" by drinking lots before we set out so he has good reserves for marking. A mature Staffie is a great companion.