Adopted Greyhound-Settling in

[24hrpottypeople]

After a lot of research trying to find the right breed for our busy family we adopted a beautiful 18month rescue greyhound last week.

She is a delight most of the time but can be very destructive when left alone.
She is walked twice daily- before we leave for work and before bedtime. We leave her with chew toys and bought an Adptil collar to help her settle.

Just hoping for some advice really on how to make the transition from kennel to home life easier for everyone. Has anyone had good results using a crate?

I know people have mixed opinions about crates but I feel that greyhounds really do benefit from the security of having their own guarded space, after all most of them will have been kenneled their whole lives and know no different. I have two rescued greyhounds and we used crates (provided by the greyhound trust) for the first few months until they were more confident and less likely to destroy anything.

The crates are actually recommended as their safe space, if they need to get away from the mayhem of a busy household once in a while.
It’s to stop them feeling overwhelmed, not a place to stick them in for an eight hour stretch when they’re alone in the house anyway.
Eight hours alone is cruel.

I have two greys and agree with the others. She's basically still a puppy so won't be happy being left for 8 hrs. And leaving her alone that long after a week is too soon. I spent a month at home integrating my second greyhound just before Christmas (I git him then as I knew i would be around a lot). He starts to get destructive after a few hours alone (mostly bored and searching for food), so even though our older greyhound could be left most of the day to sleep, we now have walkers in at lunchtime for the days we're working all day.

It sounds like the rescue centre has matched you up badly. I would either put the effort in to integrate the dog properly, and get a walker, or go back and ask for an old lazy dog who will potentially be happy on their own for long periods.

Re dogwalker and how to find one (you need to do it quickly before dog gets too unhappy) - call vet receptionists and ask if they have anyone to recommend. Forget you are British and approach unknown locals walking their dogs and ask them about dogwalkers. Many areas have a dogowners FB group which is public (I don't "do" FB but can read mine and it is full of such recommendations)