Living with a Greyhound

We have a retired racing Greyhound. His dog name is "Stormy", his racing name was "Village Luigi".

Even though many Greyhounds are now being adopted, many people still haven't seen them up close. When I have Stormy with me, I get a lot of questions about what it is like to have a Greyhound living in your house. I will attempt to answer some of those questions. Of course there will always be exceptions depending on the individual animal, but these are my experiences.

First Contact:

Almost all Greyhounds that people have in their private homes came from a racing program. Racing is an industry, and the dogs literally drove it. You don't see ads in the local newspaper saying "Greyhound puppies for sale". Greyhounds are pure breed animals and the breeding process is tightly controlled. The ones that people adopt are animals that have left the active racing program. You might get a dog that raced dozens of times, or you might get a dog that only raced a few times, or maybe not at all.

What your new Greyhound will be like will depend upon how recently he came from the racing program. If you get one that was very recently a "racer", then it will be like they were just dropped off onto the planet from a UFO. They are full grown dogs that don't know "anything" about what it is like to be a pet or be part of someone’s family.

When we first got Stormy, he didn't have any experience being inside of a private home. He couldn't even walk up 3 steps. When we finally got him into our house he didn't understand how to walk on hard floors. He would try to walk by putting his nails down, but just ended up slipping and getting even more scared. The first night he would only stand on the floor mat inside our front door but he wouldn't walk on our hard wood floors. He slept on a sleeping bag I laid next to the floor mat. I slept next to him in another sleeping bag on that first night. It took him a coupe of weeks to finally make it around our entire house. The first few days we laid out a bunch of towels and blankets on the floor so he could walk around.

Greyhounds don't sit.

I've been around a lot of Greys that have been trained to sit, but by nature they don't sit in order to rest. They either stand, or they squat down on all four legs. If you go to a Greyhound meeting, there will be a bunch of dogs just "standing" looking around. They don't figit. They will stand still in one place until they have to move.

Greyhounds don't bark.

Though there might be someone who will say theirs does bark, the very "large" majority do not bark. If you go to a local Greyhound meet-up in your area, there will be 20 Greys all "standing" in tight group. The dogs will be totally silent. They will mostly just stand looking around at each other. The only time Stormy barks is when he is sleeping and you happen to startle him while he is asleep. Even then he will emit only one single "bark". Greys are also not naturally aggressive so they won’t instigate fights with other dogs.

You don't need a racetrack in order to exercise one.

My dog Stormy likes to "stretch his legs" every other day. If you have any type of fenced area that they can trot around in, they seem to be happy with that. They do love to run, if you have an area where you can safely let them go, it is an awesome experience to see one running near full speed. We take Stormy to a beach by our house and let him off his leash. He will run 30+ MPH going right next your leg. When you measure the length of his footprints in the sand, the distance between them is over 12+ feet. We worked our way up to letting him off the leash only after making sure he understood his dog name and he understood we were in charge. Some people that I've met report that their dog will take off and just keep running if they get off the leash. This is an important consideration. A dog running at 30+ MPH will be over 100 yards away from you in just a few seconds. A recent racer does not understand cars, streets or other dangers of the real world.

I also have a 50 foot dog rope that I use when I take Stormy into a large open field. He has figured out that he can run in circles with me standing in the middle. I usually use this in a grass field where there isn't anything for the rope to get hooked on.

Greyhounds are also “sprinters” and not endurance runners. If you go on a long hike he might be an energy ball when you start off, but coming back he will be content to just walk along with you.

If you get a younger dog, they might have a lot of energy and so you will have to find a way to let them work it off. If you can find some way to let them safely run, then it is really an awesome experience to watch. We have a fenced area behind our house. It isn't huge, but it is large enough that Stormy can run "laps" around it. He will run about 6 laps at about 3/4 speed, then he is happy to just relax the rest of the day.

A retired Greyhound might not have ever seen any other "type" of dog before.

They have grown up only around other Greys, so an ex-racer will have zero experience being with other types dogs. The first time we took Stormy to a dog park, he didn't know what to do. He just stood there frozen while other dogs came up to sniff him. It took several trips before he got the hang of it. Now when we take him, he runs around and enjoys meeting new friends.

Greyhounds need to be tested for cat compatibility.

Stormy doesn't even acknowledge our cat. He will walk right by it and not even pause. Other dogs might have a different reaction, so you should test them before you bring them into a house with a cat. A big dog running at 20 MPH down your hallway will not create a good outcome.

Greyhounds are pacifists.

By that I mean that almost every one of them that I have seen and spent time with pretty much all have the same personality. They are not aggressive, they are not nervous. They are very calm, low key, and trusting. They won't lash out at you or others standing around you. They don't have a mean bone in their bodies. Being aggressive is not part of their nature.

Greyhounds are not slobbery, licking machines.

They love affection like most house animals, but they can also be a little reserved. They typically won't jump up in your lap and start licking you. An interesting thing they do is "lean" on you. If you are standing next to one, they will often lean their weight against your leg with noticeable pressure. I haven't researched why they do this, but it is a unique Greyhound "thing" that they do.

Greyhounds love to sleep.

Though they have the bodies of athletes, their favorite past-time is sleeping or snoozing. They will sleep a lot if you let them. Because they typically have very little fat on their bodies, they need a really soft bed. We have 3 separate sleeping spots set up for Stormy. He typically doesn't like it when a lot of unknown people are in our house, so he will seek out some quiet place to go when there is a lot of activity going on. He has a bed in our living room and will lay there when we are there. He has a bed in our bedroom, and will sleep there when we go to bed, and he has a bed in our lower house level that he can go to when he doesn't want to be around anyone. Dogs do dream and Stormy will often "run" in his sleep. He will be lying on his side, but all four legs are moving in a running motion. The old saying "leave a sleeping dog alone" applies to Greys, don't bother them while they are sleeping.

Many Greys probably spent most of their early lives in a dog kennel, which is the size of a box not much bigger than their bodies. Stormy is a big Greyhound, near 90 pounds, but when he sleeps he will initially try to curl up into a small ball. When we first got him, we placed a large sized portable dog kennel in the corner of our living room. It has a front door made of a mesh grid, but the sides are closed off except for a little vent/window on each side. He would want to go into that kennel and not want to come out. The kennel was something he understood and was his safety zone. The first few weeks in our house he would curl up his big body into the back of the kennel to sleep. That is probably how he lived and slept for the first few years of his life. Even today when he sleeps he tries to go into a corner and roll up into a ball.

Greyhounds are used to being in their single-dog kennels. When you first get a Grey, if you have to leave them alone in the house, consider putting them in their kennel and locking the door. They will be totally happy in there. We left the big portable kennel in our house for over a year when we first got Stormy. He would want to go into it to sleep almost every night. Eventually we removed it and he would start to sleep on a padded mat in our bedroom. We placed his permanent sleeping spot in a corner where there was a dresser. The corner and the side of the dresser made up a 3 sided box about the size of the kennel. He crawls into that corner and tucks himself in just as if he was in the kennel. Now that he has been in our house for several years, he will flop down just about anywhere that at least has a rug on the floor, but he still favors his “corner-kennel” for sleeping at night.

Potty Training.

If you get a recent racer, he will be a full grown dog, but he probably won't be house broken. Stormy picked it up right away with no problems. Greyhounds have lean bodies and it seems like he needs to go out for a quickie every 3 or 4 hours. When we first got him we would take away his water round 10PM so he wouldn't need to go out in the middle of the night.

Teeth and diet.

Greyhounds that have been in the racing program a long time will often have very bad teeth. I believe this is due to the fact that they are given a high protein, soft meat diet, so they didn't have a lot of crunchy stuff to chew on. On top of that, they probably didn't get many chew bones or other treats to keep their teeth clean. Our Stormy like all dogs loves different types of human food, but he seems to get the runs if we give him anything more than a "taste" of something. It is best to stick to a high quality dog food and resist giving them table scraps. If you look at a active racer, their ribs are clearly visible on their sides. A healthy retired Grey should still have a little hint of ribs showing.

Ear Tattoos.

All Greyhounds that have raced will have tattoos in both of their ears. One has their "litter" number which can be researched at: http://www.greyhound-data.com/. Stormy's is 16364. That number is unique to his brothers and sisters born in the same liter. At this site you can see your dogs entire family tree and previous race performance. You can search by their "race" name. So for Stormy if you enter "Village Luigi" you can see that he only ran 2 races before he was pulled. The tattoo in the other ear has their birth date and delivery order. Like:

110C - 11=Nov, 0=2000, C= 3rd pup tattooed
42A - 4=April, 2=2002, A=1st pup tattooed

Dog Collar.

A special dog collar is recommended for Greyhounds. Their windpipe sticks out right in front of their neck so a traditional thin dog collar can cause damage if they pull against it. Most adopted Greys you see have an extra-wide padded collar that protects their neck area. Most retails pet stores won't have these. Hopefully your new friend will already have one.

Learning to be a “dog”.

It took Stormy months before he really understood things like toys, and how to play. When we first got Stormy, we gave him a dog toy and he would just look at it. Even a chew stick seems to be confusing. During the first week, he didn’t understand how to take something out of my hand. For example, I tried to give him a small piece of cheese. I held it up to his mouth, but he would just stand with his mouth salivating because he didn’t understand how to be hand fed. These are all great experiences that you can share with a retired Greyhound. Many things that dogs learn in puppy life have to be taught to these full grown animals. You can help give him back his puppy years.

Stairs.

Greyhounds have long legs and going down stairs can be problematic. The back of their legs can easily hit the edge of the stairs going down. Also for a recent racer, the whole concept of what stairs are for will be totally foreign to them. In all likelihood they have probably never gone up or down a flight of stairs. Even after several years of exposure, Stormy will still hesitate going down stairs that he is not used to. “Up” is easier, but down can be a problem.

Stretching and leg protection.

Greyhounds are all muscle. If you let one go to run, they might first need to warm up. A couple of times when we first got Stormy he would pull a muscle because we would let him off his rope in a dog park and he would take off at near full speed, but he was not stretched out. We would come limping back and would be sore for a couple of days. Now we trot him around on his rope until he is warmed up before we let him go. Stormy also seems to have a built in mechanism to protect his legs from getting caught up in anything. He won’t jump over even the lowest of obstacles if he thinks his legs will get caught. He will almost always walk around something rather than step over it.

Why get a Greyhound?

There are many sad stories on the internet that detail what happens to many Greyhounds once their racing life if over. Several states now have laws requiring Greys to be given to adoption agencies rather than meet their historical hate. In many ways they where historically treated like livestock with the same outcome.

Greys are graceful, good natured animals, and in many way are like a retired athlete. Many of them make an easy transition into retired life and they just want some love, and a safe place to sleep.

Disclaimer:

These are just my experiences with a Greyhound being an “owner”. We attend Greyhound meet-ups in our area so we have spoken to other owners and have seen many other dogs. It could be that someone who reads this might have had a different experience with their Grey, but in general, the things I’ve written about seem to be consistent with what we have learned from others who have adopted a retired dog.

Contact me at: oregon_tony@yahoo.com or on twitter under “oregon_tony”