Considering rehoming a dog from a rescue... any tips? Advice?

[Fairylea]

Both dh and I grew up with dogs but have never had one of our own.

We have two dc - dd aged 15 and ds aged 6 and we live semi rurally. I am a stay at home parent and dh works- so apart from an odd hour or so at the gym or doing shopping / chores I am at home all day. We never go out in the evening. Once a year we have a uk based holiday - we could take the dog with us.

So that’s our set up. We are considering all options really but I think I’d like to rehome a slightly older dog rather than a puppy... I’m guessing this might mean we skip through the toilet training stage? Well, apart from maybe a settling in period? (If accidents happen that’s absolutely fine, but if we could shorten some of it that would be great...)

Are there any breeds I should be looking to avoid for health / child reasons? (Sorry if that’s a totally stupid question)!

Is there one sort of pet insurance that’s better than another? What should we be looking for with that?

We are completely open minded about types and size of dog. The main thing is just being child friendly really - which I know is like gold dust from a rescue (!) but we are in no rush whatsoever.

Any tips / thoughts appreciated! Thank you.

Congratulations he is gorgeous. Would love to hear how you go about settling him and some updates on progress

Thank you, it’s so exciting.

Thanks for the tips about the bed. He is an ex racer and has never lived in a home before so I am under no illusions that it’s going to be totally plain sailing....! But I want to give it my all and do everything I can to make things as good as possible for him and the rest of the family as he settles in.

I’ve already worked out a special area of the kitchen which is kind of dog bed shaped in itself and he can have his bed there and it will give him some much needed peace and quiet if he finds things overwhelming. I’ll tell my son not to go near his bed. I think that’s probably the easiest and clearest rule.

I'm so glad you went with a greyhound, he's absolutely beautiful! You'll probably find that he will house train fairly quickly as they are generally kennelled and don't like to mess where they sleep, he will be used to having to wait to be turned out if the kennel to do him business. We knew very little of our greyhound's past when we adopted him but he house trained in just a couple of days, I took him outside after every meal and every hour (just in the garden) and he got a treat every time he weed or did his business. Greyhounds like their food so are usually very motivated by treats!