Why a greyhound?
Two years ago if you had told us we'd have two 70-pound racing dogs asleep on our
couch, upside down, with their feet in the air, we'd have laughed. We were "small
dog people." Then Karen's cousin adopted a retired racer named Pippin, we met him at
Thanksgiving 1997, and that was that. He leaned on Phil's leg for an hour and Phil
was done for.
Here's the thing most people don't know: a racing greyhound's career is over by the
time it's two to five years old. Some are retired because they're too slow, some
because of an injury, some just because a younger dog came up. After that, they need
somewhere to go. That's where the adoption groups come in, and there are a lot of
them now, all over the country, mostly run by volunteers who got one dog and then
couldn't stop.
So this page is for anybody who is thinking about it. We are not experts. We are two
people with two greyhounds and a lot of dog hair on our black clothes, and we'd like
to talk you into it.
How we got ours
We went through Second Chance Greyhound Adoption, a volunteer group about an
hour from us. (They don't have a web page yet. We've offered.) The process went
like this:
- We filled out an application. It was long. They wanted to know about our yard,
our fence, our work hours, whether we had cats, whether we had kids, whether we'd
ever given up a dog before. They called our vet. They called us twice. We didn't
mind; these people have already seen the dogs let down once.
- A volunteer came out to the house to look at the fence and talk to us. She
brought her own greyhound, which we think is a sales technique, and it worked.
- They matched us with a dog. You don't just pick the prettiest one off a list,
they think about which dog fits which home. Comet came first, in March 1998.
He was three, brindle, and had raced at a track in Florida for about a year and a
half before he "didn't grade" anymore, which means he wasn't winning enough.
- Lulu came in May 1999, because we caught what everyone in the group calls
"the two-dog disease." She's a small black female, four years old, retired after a
hock injury that healed fine but ended her racing.
Both of them came already neutered/spayed, with their teeth cleaned, up to date on
shots, and with the group's adoption fee that covers a lot less than it should. Both
have the tattoos in their ears that every registered racing greyhound gets as a pup,
which is how you look up their racing records. Comet's was not impressive. We love
him anyway.
The first week (both times)
A retired racer has never lived in a house. Think about that. They've lived in
kennels, in crates, with a set routine and a lot of other greyhounds. So the first
week is about a dog learning what a house even is.
Stairs. Comet had never seen stairs. He stood at the bottom of ours and looked
at them like they were a math problem. Phil sat on the third step with a piece of
cheese and we did one step at a time. Took two days going up and about a week
coming down (down is scarier). Lulu figured them out in an afternoon by watching him.
Glass doors and mirrors. He walked into the sliding door once and after that
we put a strip of masking tape across it at nose height. He also barked at the dog in
the bedroom mirror for about a day, then decided that dog was boring.
The crate. They're used to crates and actually like them, so the crate was
home base. Comet slept in his for a month with the door open before he decided the
couch was better. The group tells you to leave the crate up, and they're right.
Housebreaking. Easier than you'd think, because they're used to going out on
a schedule. We took him out every couple of hours the first few days and he had
exactly one accident, on the one rug we cared about, naturally.
Food. They eat a lot at the track and they've been fed by the clock. Comet
would stand by his bowl at 6:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. exactly. He still does.
Noise. Vacuum cleaner: terrifying. Dishwasher: suspicious. Thunder: sleeps
right through it. Go figure.
What they're really like at home
Everything below is stuff the adoption group told us and we found out to be true.
| They are couch potatoes. |
Everyone assumes a racing dog needs to run for hours. Nope. A greyhound is a sprinter. They go flat out for
30 or 40 seconds and then they're done. At home, ours sleep something like 18 hours a day. A couple of walks and a
chance to tear around the yard now and then, and they are the laziest dogs on the block. This is not an exaggeration.
They are known in the greyhound world as "40-mph couch potatoes." |
| They can never, ever be off leash outside a fenced area. |
Greyhounds are sighthounds. They hunt by sight, not smell, and they were bred for thousands of years to chase
things that move. If Comet sees a squirrel across a road, there is no training in the world that will stop him,
and he'll be doing 40 miles an hour before you finish yelling his name. So it's a leash or a fence. Period. Our group
requires a fenced yard or a real commitment to walking on leash every single time. No invisible fences; they'll blow
right through them at that speed. |
| Thin skin, no fat, no undercoat. |
Their skin tears easily, so a scrape that would be nothing on a Lab can mean stitches on a greyhound. And they have
almost no body fat and very short fur, so they get cold fast. Both of ours wear coats from about November through
March, and yes, people point and laugh, and no, we don't care. They also need a soft bed; there's no padding on those
hips and elbows, and they'll get sores lying on a hard floor. |
| The muzzle at the park. |
Racing greyhounds wear muzzles at the track and they're completely used to them. When ours run with other
greyhounds at the group's fenced play days, they wear them, because when a bunch of sighthounds get running and
excited, one can nip another, and remember the thin skin. It's not because they're mean. It's the opposite: they're
so used to it that they don't even notice the muzzle, and it keeps everyone in one piece. |
| Cats and small dogs. |
Some greyhounds are fine with cats, some are not, and the groups test for this ("cat-safe" vs. not). Ours were
tested and we have no cat, so we've never pushed it. Ask, and be honest about what's in your house. |
| Tell your vet. |
Greyhounds are more sensitive to some anesthetics than other breeds and their normal blood work looks a little
different. A good vet knows this; ours did, but it's worth asking before they ever go under for anything. |
| They're quiet. |
Comet has barked maybe a dozen times in eighteen months. Lulu is a little more talkative. They do "roo" at each other
when they're happy. They do not guard the house; a burglar would be greeted and then leaned on. |
| The lean, the roach, and the collecting. |
They lean their whole weight on your legs to say hello. They sleep on their backs with all four feet in the air,
which greyhound people call "roaching." And Lulu steals one shoe at a time and puts it on her bed. Never chews it.
Just collects. |
Fall 1999 Meet & Greet schedule 
The best way to find out if a greyhound is for you is to meet a few. Second Chance
sets up in front of pet stores most weekends and brings a few dogs and a lot of
volunteers, and we'll be at the ones marked with a star with Comet and Lulu. Come put
your hand on a greyhound and see what happens.
| Date |
Where |
Time |
| Sat., Oct. 2 * | Pet Pantry, in the plaza on Route 20 | 11 to 2 |
| Sat., Oct. 9 | Feed & Seed, Main Street, Millbrook | 10 to 1 |
| Sun., Oct. 17 * | Harvest Festival, the town green (look for the tent with the tall skinny dogs) | noon to 4 |
| Sat., Oct. 30 * | Pet Pantry, Route 20 - Halloween! Comet will be a bumblebee. He does not know this yet. | 11 to 2 |
| Sat., Nov. 13 | Feed & Seed, Millbrook | 10 to 1 |
| Sun., Nov. 21 * | Group play day at the fenced field behind the Grange hall - adopters and their dogs, plus anyone who wants to watch them run. Muzzles required. | 1 to 3 |
* = we'll be there. Dates can change if the weather is bad; e-mail us to check.
Other pages worth a look
The Dog Park Regulars - Sam and Biscuit. We'd love to bring ours, but see "muzzle" and "leash" above.
Walking the Dog, Losing the Weight - Bill's page. Two walks a day with a greyhound will do it.
Mr. Whiskers' Cat Emporium - Homepage of the Month. Donna's cats would not be impressed by our dogs.
Back to the Petsburgh neighborhood
Photos: we have a whole roll of Comet asleep in various positions, and the scanner at Phil's office is
"being fixed." As soon as it is, they'll be here.
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