I'vw just emailed the greyhound rescue

[Haint]

Eeek
We've been considering it for some time and I think the time has come

I've been reading all the threads on here and I know it might take a while to find us a suitable match (cats & kids) but oooo I'm excited

A few (probably) premature questions

We raw fed our old dog. Is this advisable for greyhounds?

Do they need a bowl on a stand?

Harness or collar?

Do they wear a harness in the car that attaches to a seatbelt? Our old dog was in a crate tethered in the boot but she was much smaller

in places our garden fence is only about 4ft high. We have dogs either side and those and our own never showed any inclination to wander into each other's gardens but would this be a problem in the home check?

not an expert but could answer a few of your queries
fences should be 6ft - some large hounds can leap a 4ft fence
I always use water and food bowls on top of plastic boxes to raise them off the ground
I use a harness attached to a seatbelt for my lurcher - but make sure it is a recommended one
others more knowledgeable will be along soon

Raw is absolutely fine for greyhounds if that's what you want to feed.

There's still some debate about raised food bowls and whether they increase or decrease the risk of bloat. Personally if the dog is comfortable eating from the floor I'd stick with that and use something like a slow feeder if they eat too quickly.

I'm not keen on using collars at all (for all the reasons outlined in this article) but particularly for sighthounds. I use harnesses with an extra belly strap for my whippets (specifically the Indi-Dog Houdini Ultra) so they can't slip them, either accidentally or intentionally.

I prefer to have my dogs in a decent crate in the boot of the car but if that's not an option a proper seatbelt harness is fine. You do need to be careful when buying one as many are only designed to stop the dog moving around, not offer any kind of protection (for either the dog or the other vehicle occupants) in the event of a crash. The Sleepypod Clickit Utility is the gold standard for car harnesses, it's performed very well in a number of independent crash tests.

Fence height requirements will be down to the rescue, they may have a blanket policy or look at each dog individually. If you can increase the fence height I'd probably consider doing it as 4' is easily jumpable depending on the dog in question.

Many greyhounds do very well on raw and we've fed ours on it over the years, though we are currently back on kibble (Fish4Dogs). You may find your individual hound has sensitivities/allergies in which case raw is brilliant, or (more likely) they're a gannetty food thief who'll pinch anything in sight with joyous abandon.

Bowl on a stand is useful for a dog who's elderly for example and a bit stiff but either is OK (personal preference again).

We personally use martingale collars but have used harnesses in the past and would consider them again. I like the Ruffwear Webmaster. For martingales, Meggie Moo all the way.

Fences - most greyhound rescues will insist on a minimum 6ft fence before they will even look at you (unless you are adopting a super elderly hound or a tripod for instance). I do homechecks for a number of sighthound rescues and would treat this as a serious red flag if you weren't willing to get this fixed. Most greys (and definitely lurchers, galgos and pods) can easily clear 5ft or more from a standing start, especially if there is a cat on the fence.

For your car, consider having the inside of it fitted with a purpose built cage and you can also get fitted boot liners. On top of this add a couple of extra layers of vet bed (many greys find lying directly on hard floors uncomfortable) and vet bed is lovely and soft, easily washable and absorbs plenty of dirt/mud/general oomska.

Thanks all. So helpful. Our garden is big. It's a 6ft length with the lower fence but we could certainly look at replacing that bit, though it's where I chat to our neighbour and swap produce but a small price to pay. Yay. I'm hoping they might call me tomorrow. There's one girl on their website I can't stop looking at. Mustn't get excited. She might hate cats

Which rescue are you going through? We're thinking along the same lines of rescue Grey or lurcher. We had our home visit a couple of weeks ago and passed but haven't been matched with a hound yet. Waaaiiiting patiently.

The retired greyhound trust Flippety.

I spoke to the local branch today, was surprised she works at the actual racing stadium. Not sure why, nothing wrong with that I suppose

She did the gloomy thing to make sure we are sure. Explained their dogs will have never lived in a home etc. We've got a home check on Monday. We'll need to get a taller bit of fence installed before then I think. Exciting / scary!

Trellis is OK to raise the height. One of my lurchers can jump 4' vertically with absolutely no run up, so its for a good reason.

I'm all about the martingale collar. My two have harnesses for when they run with me, and my foster puppies will wear one alongside their collar when they are learning to walk on a collar. Meggie Moo is my fave brand, but I also have a few Slouching Hound and Kitsch collars.

Mine have the boot of the car with a big dog bed in there. They like to spread out, but would curl up on the back seat too.

I foster lurcher puppies and have cats and a kid so mine usually go to cat owning households.

Thanks CMOT it's good to know there are some out there who can live with cats.

I'm just going to google for any other rescues. I've looked on the Evesham (EGLR) website and they only have a handful that could live with cats on of those only one or two who can live with children

We're happy to take it slowly and wait for the right dog

Despite all my research I did get the heebie jeebies slightly when today's lady was outlining the extent of what we're letting ourselves in for. It's cool, we're willing to put in the work but after the initial excitement I'm feeling a bit more trepidatious. That said the home check guy was far more positive and reassuring. I know they have to tell you the reality, and I'm glad they do but yes, I can see that the first weeks / months might be challenging

Def keep looking on the EGLR website, and on their FB page. Often cat friendly dogs never get to the website as they def get rehomed a lot faster.

What age range dog were you thinking of, and how old are your children?

We don't mind what age dog, obvs would prefer youngish - middle aged rather than old. having just gone through the loss of our old dog we don't want to have to repeat that within the next few years, our hearts couldn't take it.

Kids are almost 6 & 8, very calm and sensible children well used to being around dogs including nervous ones so I hope they won't be an issue.

I'll drop EGLR a message later today

Keep us updated - I'm vicariously very excited for you and slightly envious.

I'm not sure I'm ready to take the leap yet. In theory a rescue grey is the perfect dog for our family lifestyle but I wonder would I be sad that I don't have a dog I can yomp across the moors with and let off the lead?

And our children are 6 and 8 too - I shall be watching your progress with interesting Haint!

Any news Haint? not that I'm living your dog journey vicariously or anything

So exciting! We've had our grey a month now and are absolutely smitten

Try not to fret about the home check too much. I literally blitzed our house top to bottom before ours only for the lovely home check lady to not even want to look anywhere but the garden. Speaking of which, we've found 6ft fencing vital (they wouldn't home to us without it anyway) especially when our boy spots the neighbours cat, and even then he can pogo the height of the fence from a standstill!

We set up a crate for our boy on day one so he had a space to call his, although he prefers the sofa these days. House training hasn't been too tough, although we still have the odd accident but that's usually if he's home alone. The hardest part for us has been getting him used to other types of dog as he was quite anxious around them to start with. He's coming on leaps and bounds now though since he started doggy day care and we've actively been working with friends with dogs to get him used to being around others.

We currently use a standard fishtail collar as we were advised not to use a harness until we've got recall as they can sometimes back out of them which is something we didn't want to run the risk of. He travels happily in the boot of the car so we've not looked at doggy seat belts as knowing him he'd just try to make it through to the front seats and us given half the chance!

Wifey, we're seriously considering this option for a dog in our lives. It seems to be the obvious route. So I'm going to have myriad questions I'm afraid.

Sorry for hijacking the thread!

• Are you ever able to let him off the lead?
• Are you working on recall?
• Had your grey been in kennels or in foster?
• Was it hard to get him used to being in a house?

So happy for you that it's working out!

No worries at all Flippetydip I'm sure there'll be far more experienced folks who are further along in owning greys than us (our boy is our first) but our experience has been that he's a pretty quick learner.

At the moment we only let him off lead in secured areas. We're lucky that the rescue centre we got him from are happy for us to visit and use their enclosed paddock and there's a "freedom field" just down the road that we can hire so he can let off steam so it's not been too much of an issue. Recently we've started going to and from the car off lead but I wouldn't chance it out in the open yet as if he spied a rabbit he'd be off!

We've been working on recall from day one and it's definitely coming along. When he arrived he didn't even know his name so we had to start at the beginning. Fortunately he's highly motivated by food so he soon got the hang of it. We got him a long lunge line for when we're off road and will often randomly call him back to us on walks (it's a great workout for the arms getting the lead in quickly so he doesn't trip!). He's usually pretty good but sometimes he'll just completely blank us so we've still got some work to do.

Our boy only finished racing at the start of the year so had always been in kennels until we got him. We were amazed that even from the start he'd stand at the back door when he wanted to go out, but that said we've still had accidents along the way. As mentioned before, it's generally been when we've been out of the house, but there's been a few moments, like the day he got up on our kitchen counter and proceeded to wee on the bills

The main house struggle was that he'd never encountered stairs before, cue him getting stuck several times when coming down (not helped by the fact we have a split landing). We found it easiest if we walked alongside him when coming downstairs with one finger loosely looped under his collar which gave him the confidence to venture down again. He's a pro these days though and happily bounds up and down.

It's only been a month but we honestly wouldn't change him for the world, in fact we're already considering getting him a brother or a sister

That is SO lovely to hear. Who did you get him from and how long did the whole process take? I'm so tempted and so impatient! We've got a week's holiday booked in August so can't do anything before then but ideally would be ready to pick up someone as soon as we get back but I have no idea whether that's feasible or not.

You have to post a picture by the way - it's practically the law so I understand.

That did nothing to put me off the idea of a greyhound Miaow. I'm nearly persuaded - that perfect pointy profile .

Loving the PJs!

Haha ok if you insist! First attempt at posting a pic below.

We're in the SE and got our boy from Celia Cross. They're lovely people and super knowledgeable, which was reassuring given we're newbie grey owners.

We only went along to "look" and fill in the adoption questionnaire, which led to a quick tour of the kennels, which is where we met Daffs. He'd only arrived the day before, so technically we were never meant to meet him, but fate intervened and we were smitten. We hadn't even re-fenced our garden at the time so really weren't ready for a dog. Fortunately, as they like to assess all the dogs before rehoming we got incredibly lucky and were given two weeks to sort our fencing whilst he was under assessment. Cue us rallying our nearest and dearest for a weekend of fencing. I think there was only 3 days between finishing the fencing and our home check, and we picked him up an hour after we passed the home check so it really can be a fairly speedy process if you want it to be

He is ADORABLE! Soooo envious. We've got to do this. My DD just saw the pic and said "I want that type of greyhound" so we're all smitten!

He is absolutely wonderful, although unfortunately he knows it and has us wrapped around his paw!

Totally not trying to enable you at all, but there's one on the Celia Cross website at the moment called Marcus who looks very similar to our boy...in fact I keep trying to convince DP we need a second

You could always put him in kennels whilst you're away