You came to the right place. *cough*
The red one on the left is my own. The white one is a foster dog. This is their natural state.
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My siggy has been the same for a while now. :lol:
We've had a greyhound for three years and are very active in our adoption group. We have a foster dog right now too.
Generally, greyhounds are okay with kids but young children often have more energy and are more playful than the dog is. Greyhounds are couch potatoes who sleep 16-20 hours a day but they DO need regular walks and exercise. They do not necessarily have to run.
Rule #1, and this is a big drawback for a lot of people, you absolutely positively CANNOT put a greyhound on a chain or run. A race hound will accelerate to 45 mph in about five strides and their DNA tells them to chase things that move. If they hit the end of a chain or run they can break their neck and kill themselves. That said, our own dog and most of the 13 foster dogs we've had all walk very well on a leash, even if they see a cat or squirrel they stop when they feel the end of the leash. You do not have to have a fenced yard as long as you are committed to walking the dog a few times a day, in any weather, to relieve himself. Electronic invisible fences do not work, they will blow over it and be gone before they feel the shock collar. They do make good apartment dogs because they're usually curled up and asleep most of the time, again, as long as you don't mind walking them.
Rule #2, food. Greys do not need special food but you do need to feed them a higher-quality, high-protein dog food without filler. We feed Nutro Ultra, most of the greyhound owners we know either use that or Purina Pro Plan. Basically if you look at the ingredients label on the dog food, if corn or corn meal are listed as any of the first three ingredients, your dog will have diarrhea all the time. Our dog weighs 74 lb and eats 4 cups a day, 2 morning and 2 evening, so it's not like they eat a lot. Greys are supposed to be thin, actually if they get overweight they will have back problems because their spine is so long. You should be able to see the last three ribs on a healthy greyhound.
Yes, it's a lot of fun taking them to a ballfield or dog park as long as they're fully fenced to watch them run.
As a general rule, males are more mellow than females, who can sometimes be a little bossy. Males are also larger. Greys are already kennel-broken so housebreaking is simply a matter of training them that the whole house is their kennel. Our group uses foster homes (like us) so people do not adopt them straight from the track or a kennel, but not all adoption groups do.
One thing, although they are full grown, they've never seen any other kind of dog, or steps, or mirrors, or glass, or children, or some noises and sounds, so everything is new to them at first. It is important especially at first to keep your house as quiet and calm as possible. Our dog had an unexplained fear of people on bicycles at first but now he's fine. Some are very fearful, we call them "spooks", if they've been abused previously but not all of them are like that.
In-ground pools are a bad thing because greyhounds will sink and drown. They do not understand at first that glass is solid and water is not. Put Post-It notes on glass doors at first so they can see it. The tracks and kennels do not have glass, only chain-link fence and that's all they know.
Greyhounds' teeth build up plaque pretty fast so you need to brush their teeth often and still get a dental treatment at the vet once a year for about $300-$400.
Also we get dogs returned who have been in a home already, usually because the owners are moving or getting divorced, so they're already used to home life.
There is a Dummies book called "Retired Racing Greyhounds For Dummies" that is very good. It is required r
