Greyhound adoption, any tips?

[Itsautumn]

We are actively looking to adopt a greyhound and I would love to hear your experiences, especially the first few weeks / months when the dog settles into home life.
Any tips to make the transition from kennel to home easier would be appreciated.
Thank you!

Much better advice will no doubt come but I just wanted to say, my brother now has four(!) rescue greyhounds, ex racers. They've always been almost like getting a puppy, i.e. learning house training and howling at night for the first week or so.

They are however absolutely gorgeous and the considering how muscular/athletic they are- the laziest dogs in the world

Hello! We rescued our retired greyhound in April so she's been with us six months now. She slept fine from the start, though we did go through a phase of early morning barking. Luckily that passed quite swiftly! Likewise one or two toilet accidents in the first couple of weeks but not more than that. She found stairs difficult to negotiate at first, and is still reluctant to climb in and out of the car (though she travels well if we lift her in). Our greyhound is quite diddy- people often think she's a whippet as she's only around 22 kilos. This is lucky when we have to lift her places!

They feel the cold quickly as they are so skinny, so a range of coats is important. Ours has a raincoat, a proper warm winter coat, and two fleeces which double as pyjamas or loungewear in the colder months. She was shivering the other day in around 12 degrees, so I'm regularly putting her in a fleece for walks now.

They do sleep loads: I often work at home and my dog will have a morning walk then will sleep all morning in our office (on a beanbag which is on a duvet because she is a princess), then have a lunchtime walk and sleep again all afternoon until dinner and a short evening walk. Then sleep all evening and sleep all night! If we are all home and the house is busy, she's more interactive.

She will walk more if you need her to: we went on a walking holiday with her this summer and she managed fine.

She's a really fab dog and we love her to bits. We've never had a dog before and are total newbies to this, but she's made it very easy.

Thank you both!
Shoes - do you keep her muzzled when out and on the lead at all times? I’ve heard recall can be an issue. I work from home mostly so a lazy dog would suit our lifestyle 😬
Also do they really prefer a sofa to a dog bed as everyone seems to be telling me!?

I have had my greyhound for about eight months now and it’s only this month I feel she’s truly relaxed with us. Although they are very gentle, sensitive dogs, everything in a home is new to them and because they are so well behaved it can be a surprise if they do something wrong. My hound is quite shy but she’s very loving. We let her run at an enclosed field owned by a family member. It’s taken a while for her to be relaxed and trusting with the kids but she’s always been very gentle with them, just a bit more wary in the beginning. I think they just need lots of time and kindness. She’s the best dog I could have hoped for.

We do keep her on a lead at all times as we are still working on recall. Our dog is 5 and was a racer for a long time so her prey drive is super strong. I don't think we'd see her again if we let her off lead. She does do zoomies in the garden though.

And we don't let her on the sofa, so she has a dog bed (in fact two for different rooms). It colour coordinates with our sofas though, and we refer to it as her sofa.

She is very gentle with our son who is 10, and other kids that she meets. Someone suggested she could be a therapy dog but I haven't followed that up yet.

Sorry, meant to say, we only muzzled for the first week but there was no need so we don't anymore.

We have had three over the years.The last lad died last year, and I loved him so much I don't know if I can cope with having another although I know how much homes are needed. They have all been different so it you wouldn't want to over generalise. The other posters are right though in saying they are not demanding dogs and fit in well with modern family life.They love sleeping but will enjoy quite long walks especially when younger.They are very gentle especially with children and love human company.They need a bit of time to get used to living in a house, but one of the best parts is seeing their personalities develop as the get used to being a pet rather than a working animal. In all of ours their prey drive decreased over the years,and all were able to be left off the lead,but they have been used to being on a lead and enjoy lead walking. We may have been lucky but all three loved riding in the car.We have literally driven from one end of the country to the other with two of them stretched out comatose on the duvet in the back. Get one and you won't regret it.

I've had 3 greyhounds & despite them spending most of the time like a living rug its not quite the same without a ninja pointynose (excel at stealthy sneaking up and stealing any food items) round the house.

Some dogs may have come back from a home or been in foster. Mine came straight from the trainers & hadn't had any home experience, if treat it like having a puppy with toilet training, being gradually built up to being left, household noises, stairs, socialisation (other dogs -Many won't have seen anything other than greyhounds, strangers, road noises, children, animals etc). Its easier than having a puppy & adult dogs don't need to toilet as frequently but training the basics are same.

They've raised beds in kennels so sofas are appealing but not all will try to get on & can certainly be trained to stay on their own bed. My boy perked up at the sight of all the sofa's in DFS and was sad we had to walk by to Pets at Home .

I think a lot depends on the rescue you get your greyhound from as some put a lot more effort into taking the dogs out into more normal environments and assessing behaviour for kids/dogs/cats. Some stay at fairly rural kennels and may not even pass other dog breeds if walked off site.

One thing which I think should be mentioned more to new adopters as would hopefully then avoid any incidents is whats known as sleep startle/aggression. Its where may air snap a warning if woken suddenly (I.e to kennel mate whose probably just trampled over them) & as they often sleep with eyes open that can confuse people, kids especially who are most likely to be leaning in touch during the air snap & contact becomes a bite.
It's easily managed for those dogs and does tend to decrease as they become accustomed to being woken up, but high risk is early in adoption so leave dog be if laying down and always call to wake first. If you need to move dog off sofa or take something off them, use food as a trade.

Yay, I love it when people are looking to adopt greys - it reminds me of when we went to pick ours up - I was the most excited I have EVER been in my entire life - including before getting married. What I will say, is that excitement diminished when we got home and I was overcome with what I now realise is buyer's remorse. Everyone on here assured me it was completely normal and the stress, anxiety and utter terror passed after about 2 weeks and now we would never, ever be without a greyhound in the house. They are phenomenal pets.

I can only talk about ours but this is what I've found - and whilst all dogs are of course different I have a lot of contact with other grey-owners - (it does all become a little bit cult-like) - and the below points are not unusual for greys.

Pros:

1. Massively lazy - happy with short walks (or none if it's raining - she's a bugger to get out in inclement weather
2. Quiet and docile around the house.
3. They smile - which is a sight to behold
4. Watching them run is like watching poetry in motion
5. Very characterful
6. Generally low-shedding and they really do not smelly "doggy" at all. (However, the tendency that ours has to eat cat shit - or on one memorable occasion fox shit - bleurgh - does not really sell her on the odour front)
7. Seeing a greyhound roach is like nothing else.
8. They walk beautifully on a lead, having been trained to it in racing kennels.
9. We found toilet training very easy - we had 2 accidents in the house but that was it.

10. They are not puppies - that for me was a huge selling point - couldn't possibly imagine having a puppy and all the work that entailed. 11. You don't have to bend down to stroke them.

Cons:

1. They feel the cold quickly and do need coats (if you like shopping that might be a pro I guess).
2. Mine is a bugger for recall. She'll come if she feels like it, otherwise no. That said, I know several greys who are fine off-lead and have limited prey drive. We let ours off in an enclosed field but nowhere else.
3. They are somewhat prone to injuries (well ours is at least). Thin skin and ours has a claw that keeps on coming off and getting infected - sigh.
4. They are not terribly affectionate - although I have heard that dogs are a lot more cuddly than bitches. Ours is becoming a lot more cuddly now but that has taken nearly 3 years. She was fine with us and very happy to be stroked and have an ear scratch but it was very much on her terms.

Right, I'll stop now - I could honestly talk about them all day. Far more than I ever talk about my children - I do realise that is wrong. PM if you want - very happy to "chat".

Oh and last thing - look up Richard Skipworth - there is a whole vocabulary that you'll have to learn and he does beautiful cartoons to illustrate all the greyhound behaviour and terms.

We have had our grey for 9 months and are only now seeing his true character. He is affectionate and loves to stand next to us so we can stroke his ears. He is an ex-racer with a strong prey drive so we will never let him off the lead. We have had a terrible incident where he caught and killed a neighbours cat. We now muzzle him when he is in our back garden and have built him a pen where he can lie in the sun, muzzle free, and watch us in the garden.
He is funny, loves to play - in a small enclosed space a careering grey can be a little daunting!
He came to us from racing kennels and they obviously started their day early. We have spent the past 9 months gradually moving his wake up time from 5am to 6:30am....no one can sleep through a howling greyhound.
I think mine must be an unusual grey:- he doesn't sleep all day, he doesn't climb stairs or sleep on the sofa and I have never seen him roach but he his definitely part of the family.
I think it is quite common for greyhounds to suffer separation anxiety - an anxious greyhound can cause quite a mess! They also have a tendency to digestion sensitivity - we solved this in ours by adding pureed pumpkin to his food.
As previous posters have mentioned, he walks beautifully on a lead (obviously well trained). He initially was quite hand-shy but this has reduced as he has settled.
They are lovely animals - enjoy yours.

Thank you everyone for your great advice and comments. I have seen a 4 year old ex racer twice now and have had our home inspection. They want a 3rd meeting with all the family and then we can rehome him hopefully. I am very excited and slightly nervous but I think they are the most amazing creatures and definitely the breed for us. He has been in a foster home and they said he settled well but does have a strong prey drive which I guess we will have to manage. They told us we should muzzle him when taking him for a walk. Can I ask how long this was necessary for your greys and how do you know you can trust them?
Samandsj- that must have been an awful experience and I would obviously want to avoid any incidents. Our garden is not massive but we do have the odd neighbourhood cat wondering in as well as squirrels.

We've had a retired greyhound for 2 and a half years and we still muzzle him when out and don't let him off the lead in public. He was a racer and has a strong prey drive so I don't think that will ever change, we don't muzzle him in the garden. He also will eat all manner of disgusting things which do nothing for his digestion so the muzzle helps with that. He does try and get into stuff in the house and would love to eat the contents of the bin (kitchen or bathroom) and dirty washing, but they're pretty easy to keep him out of. We would totally recommend!

I muzzle ours off-lead when she doesn't have a ball. She is completely obsessed with balls to the point of tedium though so if there's a ball in the offing, she will not be interested in other dogs/cats/squirrels etc.

I don't keep her muzzled whilst she's on a lead. We did for the first couple of months and then she started showing less and less interest in things. We can now (three years down the line) walk past the neighbourhood cats, and occasionally squirrels, without any pulling, just a small prick of the ears to show she's interested. When we first had her, she broke a lead when she saw a squirrel, so I would say prey-drive does get less (or at least has in our case). All bets would be off if she were off lead though.

I've had 2 ex-racers and never muzzled them for walks, but I always keep on a lead unless I am as sure as I can be that there are no cats/rabbits. Current bitch has a very strong prey drive! Shame, because her recall is excellent until she spots a rabbit!

They are dedicated bin raiders and tend to have sensitive stomachs (might be trial and error before you find a dog food that keeps the poo firm!).

I have them to be exceptionally easy dogs, but maybe I've been lucky. Both were house-trained from day one (a lot of greys are kennel trained which is easy to translate into house trained).

An extensive winter wardrobe is essential and my current dog adores the sofa and any bed she can claim. Most greys walk beautifully on the lead, as that's how ex-racers have been used to being exercised.

They are amazing dogs, and I wish more people would adopt them!