Whippets and greyhounds.

[gerbo]

We are starting to think seriously about adopting a rescue dog. I'm here to ask about whippets and greyhounds as from all my reading, they seem good breeds to have with children (mine are 11 and 13). They also look very beautiful, seem calm and like to sleep after walks...?

Can anyone with these dogs tell me if they think they're a good pet to have with children? Any information gratefully received. I have gleaned that they're a cliche 'great pet' on Mumsnet. I guess I'd like to ask for experiences of these breeds.

There seem to be a lot of these breeds and Lurchers too, in rescues I've investigated. Is there a reason for this? If they've been racers, so they want to zoom away on lead?

Any info gratefully received!

Ps we're up for good, short or pretty long walks and play but would prefer a calm dog. Does this sound right?!

Our Lurchers...
Dm and dd. Dd from a dpuppy. Bloody amazing with our dc. And our dcat. Dm arrived with us at 7/8...is intrigued by dcat, very calm and gentle. He is happy to have them both close by.
Both enjoy a bedtime story every night with ds 6...last week we were talking about who he loved best. Declared both the same. And that he had loved the dd since the day he was born. Aah xxx
They both have great recall and are more than happy to meet other ddogs out...
And the dm was previously a working ddog.

If you go down the greyhound route - I'd recommend going to a greyhound specific rescue. They are more likely to be able to match you to a greyhound who is going to be OK with kids (mine tolerates them, but isn't keen on them)

Whether whippet or greyhound - see whether there are enclosed fields near you where they can be let off lead. It's amazing to watch them run, and is a good place to train.

Our girl is pretty independent, which is great, but it's like trying to train a cat. She'll do the thing you're asking... If she thinks it's worth it.

For the first couple of months, we wondered if we'd be given a different breed. She didn't sleep, wanted to walk all the time, boundless energy, and her kennel coat shredded for what seemed forever.
Then something seemed to click, and almost overnight she became a "proper" greyhound (cue vet visit as we thought she might be ill ). Currently sleeping on my feet, having had a hard day of sleeping, eating and refusing to go out for a walk!

We have three greys. They would be perfect with children the age of yours. They need hardly any exercise snd a small garden won't be a problem. Here are our three relaxing.

Greyhound owner here. Lovely calm gentle dogs with lots of love to give once they know you. Bit dippy and not super bright. Ours lives with a cat but is scared of it. Doesn’t bark or jump up or pull on the lead at all. Comes to work with me and sleeps under the desk. Mainly sleeps.

If you want daycare or boarding, you may need to find someone who does sighthound daycare - lots of places near us won't take greyhounds.

Aww @RuthW what beauties!! Btw your camera roll is visible in one of the photos just incase you have anything identifiable on it.

I have 2 greys. Highly recommend them.

We have a long dog, which is 2 sighthound crossed, my dog is a greyhound/saluki shes a rescue.
We also have a toddler who she is brilliant with very patient and gentle.

I would say all sight hounds have zoomies or a mad 10 minutes spinning or running in big circles. Which if your not used to is bloody fast but as long as you stand still they run around you!
My dog happily sleeps in ridiculous positions, they love comfort and a sofa.

We have a greyhound and a 3 year old. We’ve had the greyhound for coming up to 8 years, she’s almost 12 and an old lady. She’s great with kids, despite her relative size (28kg) she’s not at all intimidating and has put many a friend’s child at ease when they’ve otherwise normally been scared of dogs. She is our DDs best friend at meal times, where she waits patiently for toast crusts and other gifts. She is the most gentle dog you could ever meet. She likes a walk, the occasional potter in the garden and sleeping. Doesn’t abound with needy affection like a typical dog, but loves a gentle nudge or to lean against your legs. Trots faithfully by my side on a walk, and very easy to walk with a pushchair or wayward toddler.

I guess there are some downsides - she’s so gentle that she can be timid and can get nervous of loudness and sudden movements, all she does is look sad and move way though, no aggression ever. She hates fireworks and is a trembling wreck on the sofa when they go off.

She is actually very low energy, so not the dog for long rambling walks - she managed them in her youth but really she just likes a 20 minute walk or a brief sprint up and down a beach and then back to sleep. I’m not sure all greyhounds are like this - I’ve definitely met some louder, bouncier ones, but ours is very quiet - barks less than once a day! You can’t really let them go off lead as a general rule.

I love my greyhound but can definitely see how they might not be for everyone.

We have a lurcher, was drawn in with the calm nature promised but he's definitely a sum of his parts - there's plenty of very clever and neurotic collie hidden in that greyhoundy body. He is 100% personality.

Still loves a snooze and a sofa though, no big garden required, healthy so insurance is reasonable, no drool or shedding, avoids water and mud, not smelly, only the odd bark, plus the coats and jumpers are fun. It's lovely meeting other owners too and sharing rescue stories.

Our Lurchers are small enough for dc to walk. We also have a saluki /deerhound cross but way too big for the dc to manage.

My greyhound really dislikes coats. She thinks she's a collie or similar. Will quite happily trudge up hills and go on really long walks which is what we were hoping for. But she isn't super calm. They really do vary.

I have a lurcher
Absolutely not a calm dog. At.all
If anything is happening at all ddog MUST be involved and will be VERY enthusiastic about it
However does love to sleep if everyone’s settled and if it’s a sunny day would happily not go for a walk and just sunbathe the entire time
Not great on the lead but only 18 months old
Will chase anything that moves (I have to keep an eye out for running kids, balls, wildlife..) but recall is very good

very nervous is my main concern

No interest in dog beds or the floor, needs sofa and lots of blankets, and treats

Also doesn’t smell!

I had a rescue greyhound she was an angel. Quite the contrast to my idiot spaniel I have now.
Agree with pp that she wasn't very bright. They are not super playful dogs either - the ex racers are clueless about playing fetch etc
They don't like being left alone much and they need radio 4 on but they adjust to the routine quite well. My girl wasn't as neurotic as my spaniel.

They are very very cuddly and about the least hectic dog breed you could have.

My racer was ropey with small dogs though essentially anything below her nose had to be avoided. We were recommended to muzzle her but she couldn't cope with it so we had to time walks where she would be alone. Bigger dogs were fine and she was friendly with a neighbouring lab.

I really miss my girl but I decided against any other grey whilst my dds were little.

@BadEyeBri

And for the PP who was looking for a cat safe hound, this whippet/grey cross came from a hunting kennels. He spent the first 4 weeks living with us on a harness and short lead because he chased everything. Now look...

Wow that's so sweet. Your dog looks so much like mine, gorgeous! 😍

@SnarkyBag

I have a lurcher. He’s wonderful. Not sure what he was crossed with but he’s not bright so makes for a fairly low maintenance dog. Recall is sketchy but not horrific. He’s a sensitive soldier prone to the occasional attack of the vapours, very nervous of remote controls being placed by his feet or mobile phones coming any closer than 1 meter for a photo . I also dropped and smashed a mug by the kitchen door once and he refused to walk through that door for nearly 2 months. Other than that he’s adorable

😂😂 God love him, the mug story! 😍

@RuthW

We have three greys. They would be perfect with children the age of yours. They need hardly any exercise snd a small garden won't be a problem. Here are our three relaxing.

♥️😍♥️😍

Greyhounds are often in rescues for obvious reasons (ex racers).

Whippets are generally such easy dogs, so they may be in rescues for rarer and perhaps more challenging reasons. So as pps have said, with kids I would just bear that in mind - or go for a breed specific rescue.

I've known a few whippets, mostly delightful, one a bit of a barky git. In general they're really cuddly but also terrible food thieves - turn your back and they're on the table chowing down.

Lurchers are brighter, and can have a lot of prey drive. The ones I have known have always been very keen on people in a quiet, chilled sort of way.

We used to have a greyhound.
She was clever in that she could problem solve ( if food was involved)

As a pp said- she was very cat like. She liked us, but definitely thought things through and decided she would do what SHE wanted to do.
Very calm, loves to laze around on the sofa.

I depended on the gate being closed yo keep her in the front garden. If I had my time again, I would have trained her more carefully to not go past the gate on her own.
If the gate was left open, she would leg it out, and find the nearest pile of fox poo.

Oh, and their pads on their feet are very thin. She split them often when she was young, and was very sensitive with pavement on a hot day

Be careful with lurchers - a family member of mine had one which bit/ "nipped" (euphomism for ragged, tearing bites which were quite nasty and took a long time to heal but were essentially inflicted when the dog was at a run and spotted someone it wanted to "play" with by sinking its teeth into) multiple people (all extended family who were essentially bullied into playing it down).

As someone said a lurcher could effectively be any mix, so the dog being "a lurcher" tells you nothing about their temperament.

I've got a whippet. I love him to bits and he's great with kids, although can be a bit excitable if they are. They are very loving but can get needy.
We are lucky to have a garden big enough for him to tear about doing his 'zoomies' which he'll get the urge to do a few times a day when he's not in his bed or on the sofa dozing. On walks he has to be on the lead, he'd be off after squirrels and birds otherwise and they are very single minded, they can be half a mile away before you (and they) know it. Beaches are great for whippets because you can let them really fly and it's a lovely thing to see.

@UntilYourNextHairBrainedScheme this sounds like a training issue rather than a breed issue. Any dog has this ability if not trained and controlled properly.

There are 2 types of main catagories of lurcher, a bull lurchers which is a sighthound/staffie breed cross or working dog lurchers which are generally a sighthound cross with lab/collie/terrier/spaniel type breeds.

All dogs need training lurchers are easier to train than most other sighthounds as quite a few can be skittish and stubborn (saluki and whippets) or just a bit dippy (greyhound). Many training techniques also don't tend to work as they are sensitive souls so you have to adapt the style to simple and high praise but do in shorter time periods.

We have a retired greyhound. He’s very soft and enjoys being stroked. Sleeps a lot. Enjoys short and long walks and gets a lot of stimulation from sniffing around on them. We worked hard on his recall and he’s offlead on most walks away from roads. And cats - though the only opportunity he’s had to chase a cat, the stupid cat saw him and jumped onto the path he was on, scratched him and escaped. Loves his mad anti-clockwise runs, which are amazing to see. Enjoys jumping ditches.

Very friendly with all sizes of dogs though he was scared of small dogs when we first got him. We have had a few comments from other dog owners that he’s much friendlier than other greyhounds they’ve met, but that may be where they’re muzzled/on lead. He seems to be ok with children, but ours are adults now.

Only downside is they do seem to get scared easily, which can make them freeze on walks. High winds and bird scarers can set ours off.

I agree with the nipping lurcher being a trialing issue. Our first greyhound did this, we told her to stop it!