Help us to get it right this time please?

[taptonaria27]

Can you please give me your honest opinions on whether a whippet, whippet cross or lurcher would be the right dog for us? I love them but have just had a terrible experience of having to rehome our first ever dog, a fox terrier, at 6 months as he was continually and often randomly aggressive. We had him from a good breeder at 8 weeks, followed all the socialisation advice, training and subsequent advice from a great behaviourist but still we couldn't stop the aggression. In the end we had to accept that he was not the right dog for our home and vice versa. He is now living happily with lots of dogs to keep him in his place. We loved having a dog except for that factor and rehoming him has been simply heartbreaking so I am desperately keen and possibly over anxious to ensure that we don't make the same mistake again.
We are:
A busy family with kids 8&11, I am home most of the day, would leave the dog for up to three hours once per day only. I want to be able to walk dog on school run (25mins) once or twice per day (every morning) and then also take on an hour or so walk off leash in the beautiful countryside near our home every day.
We have an elderly cat who hated the terrier, but was able to stay separate to him by virtually living upstairs.
One of the main areas the terrier seemed to struggle was when we are all about, we're not particularly raucous but there are a lot of comings and goings and babysitters (who love dogs). I don't want this to unnerve the dog.
Spaniels keep being recommended as ideal but they don't tug the heartstrings like a long legged dog!
Please give your honest opinions (if you've managed to read this far!) or recommendations.
Many thanks
PS we're in the South Yorks area, I am keeping an eye on the rescue places, but haven't made contact yet as we should wait until later this year really.

I'd say a lurcher (whippety or otherwise) would be great in your family - whippets can be a bit more sensitive, so a busy house might not be so good though of course it all depends on the dog.

Dogmatix is lovely, and as he's being rehomed through no fault of his own, his current owners would be able to give you a lot of information about whether he'd be happy in the bustle

this is very like my own story - ddog only gone 3 weeks, still in mourning. We are going to wait for at least a year, til kids are older (currently 4 and 7) and I can be at home more. But watching with interest

Hello Rhetorician, it's been four weeks here - I'm no longer crying every day but God, I could never have imagined it would be this bad.
The kids are OK as they were quite relieved as well as sad when he went ( as were we all) but I'm home most of the time so I feel his loss so keenly.
Logically, I should wait until after our two week holiday in the summer, but I'm not sure I can wait that long, I'm so very sad.

I would get an older dog not a puppy if I were you.

George, I think I will probably look to get a lurcher that has been fostered with kids and cats and been ok, a puppy is too much of an unknown quantity for me now as the last one was not the clean slate I naively thought.
I'm planning to start by volunteering at a rescue place soon and I'll take it from there

Sounds like a good plan, hope it works out for you.

I think you need to be flexible when getting a dog - it is impossible to know exactly what they need and require. eg walking a dog on the school run, one of mine would never be able to cope with all the kids at the school but my other dogs would.

So if you have set in stone needs then no a dog is not right for you just now but if you are able to juggle things in your household then yes a dog may be happy with you.

If your DC decide in a few years they would like a rabbit or small furry this may not be possible with some lurcher pointy types so again flexibility is the key. You will have to change things to live with a dog if that is ok go for it:)

Oops, forgot to mention, we do also have a Guinea pig. He is never out of his cage or garden run and even in there he rarely ventures out from hidey hole

Hello, I just want to say that guinea pigs are herd animals and really shouldn't be living on their own. You say that he very rarely ventures out of his hidey; that is not normal guinea pig behavior at all, it actually sounds like a very anxious and depressed piggy. If you could get him a friend I bet you would see them both venturing out much more because they would feel more confident together. I have two gorgeous little boy pigs and I'm sorry to criticise you but the thought of a tiny little piggy living all on its lonesome is really upsetting

With regards to dogs, some lurchers and greyhounds have no or very low prey drive and even ones that have a higher one can be taught to behave reasonably around small furries within the home, you would have to talk to the rescue about it as it depends on the individual dog but it's not a definite barrier.