Greyhounds

[quote]
CjKit (29/11/2012)

Yes they are okay with longer walks on leads , but they do need to cut loose now and then and get up to top speed to stretch out the tendons and work the muscles . We lived on a farm so space for us was not an issue . Small dogs will be an issue if they start running and greyhounds have a fail on target identification . If it moves … chase it … bring it down … shake it around . They aint very good at playing fetch , they will chase the thing till it stops , give it a shake then just drop it and look for the next moving thing . They also look stupid when sitting and seem to find it uncomfortable ,so they are really a stand or lie down dog .

What a beautiful dog.

Numnum spot on on the sitting bit :smiley:

[quote]
NumNum (29/11/2012)

Most are fine with small dogs, they will chase a ball but when it stops its dead so of no interest. If you threw the ball you obviously didn’t want so I’m not bringing it back. (We take a Lab for that). Our girls latest was to kill a rat while having a wee, it was dead before she had finished, mad bitch!

Greys work on the basis of if you cant stand, lie and then snooze…

Besotted me, nah.

Well, we’ve arrange to go and visit Whittingham tomorrow morning, for my girlfriend’s birthday :), so I’ll let y’all know how we get on.

Soooooo…went up to the kennels today and took four greyhounds for a walk in the fields. A bit cold and frosty but…

We’ve reserved a very sweet black and white female called Minnie Just waiting on the home check and we can bring her home!!!

She’s adorable and actually quite small for a greyhound, which solves any worries we had about having a large dog in our small flat.

I’ll post pics when she’s home. Can’t wait!

Woohoo! fingers crossed for you.

We had one that was much smaller than the others , Sunrise we called her, due to her golden colour :slight_smile: Unfortunatley she was the one that crashed into a tree .

LOL our whippett at the office crashed into a metal wire chasing rabbits, she now has a star on her nose :smiley:

They have rubbish brakes lol

Well, hopefully she’ll avoid any tree incidents :crying:

Spent the afternoon tidying the flat and making it doggy friendly so we’ll look like model adopters for the home visit :cool:

I’m getting impatient waiting and it’s only been 24hrs - we want to get her out of her cold kennel and home asap…

One of ours hit a small tree hard enough to shake it I thought she would be seriously injured, the squirrel hoped she would be, we were both wrong;)

Just got off the phone with the home checker :smiley: All sounds good and she was happy with everything I had to say but unfortunately she can’t make it round until Saturday afternoon :frowning: But assuming all goes well then, we can pick Minnie up on Sunday!! :w00t:

Hate the neurotic, fragile things. Don’t care if they are loyal, friendly, whatever. I’d rather own almost anything than a Greyhound. (Though not a psycho Chow.)

Well, providing it was more than knee high. Anything below that height is designed to get my toe under it and turfed into the bushes.

Having a grumpy evening are we OG? Feel sorry for that little tortoise when she awakes:w00t:

To CJKit - hope all goes well with the adoption, keep us updated, with pics, when the little darling arrives:)

Jetstream Not at all grumpy. Just hate frigging neurotic, fragile dogs. Shepherds I’m fine with for instance, and the black Lab. that I look after when friends are on holiday.

And leave my tortoise out of this or I’ll set her on Nina. (When she wakes up. That’s the tortoise, not Nina.)

Very sadly Nina may not be here at tortoise wakey time, too many problems to surmount, but while she’s still got a happy life she’s with us for the moment. (Usual Shepherd back/hip things but more than her fair share at once unfortunately):crying:

@ oldguy: I’ve posted on four different forums asking advice about greyhounds, with each thread running to around 3-4 pages long, and you’re the only person who’s had a single bad word to say about them. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion but I feel we’ve made the right decision for us.

Personally I would never own a shepherd. I love the way they look and I like big dogs but I’ve never come across one that hasn’t tried to bite me or the dog I’m with at the time. Plenty of times I’ll be on the other side of the road, stream etc. in our local park and they’re besides themselves with their snarling and barking and trying to get away from their owner. I love dogs and I’ll give any dog a chance, and I’m sure there are some lovely shepherds out there but I’ve never once come across one and I’ve been around plenty of dogs over the years.

And don’t worry Jetstream I’m sure there’ll be pictures a plenty once we’ve picked her up! :smiley:

This evening I spoke to the lady who’ll be doing our home check and she’s coming round on Saturday so we should have Minnie with us by Sunday :smiley: Not quite as soon as we’d hoped but it gives us more time to prepare things for her.

Dogs are an “each to their own” thing and I was possibly wrong to label all greyhounds as neurotic and fragile as it’s a sweeping generalisation. Perhaps it’s just the ones I’ve met. A bit like the shepherds you seem to have met. (I still hate small yappy ones and I’ll stand by that generalisation. Don’t think I’ve ever met a small dog that’s not been a pain. )

Dog behaviour has a lot to do with their owners and training. Good training from a cool, calm, collected owner can turn a real pain in the rump dog into a good sociable animal, though I have to say, having had a couple of rescue dogs, that can take an awful lot of work to get them over past traumas and learn to trust you and listen to you.

Still not keen on trying greyhound ownership though. Good luck.

My 2p, Fragile, well their skin is like paper tears easily, I have photos like a horror film. Bones, pretty tough when you consider how fast they are (3 strides to 30mph, top speed 40+mph, when young of course) Only diseases are Osteosarcoma and a foreskin problem, everything else has been bred out.

As for neurotic, at the age when most dogs are learning about the big wide world they are stuck in a kennel pulled out to race and returned, usually in the country, hardly see anything outside this cloistered life. So when you take one on it takes months for its personality to come out. This is why they need level, considerate owners. I have done homechecks for kennels and some people are just not suited.

As you say Oldguy it can take a lot of work, my boy has taken three years to really come out of his shell. Usually takes three to six months but some never do.

Agree I have only met a very few small dogs I can stand.

Good luck CJ!

This is a pretty interesting thread. I’ve been thinking about getting a dog for a long time, but since i live in a flat thought it would be hard with all the long hours it would need to spend alone.

Furrybiker - it sounds like you know your stuff. How does the grayhound get on with being left alone for 10hrs/day during the week? Any other breeds you can recommend?

CJ - looking forward to your pics!