Someone remarked to me, groping for the right word and then finding it, that greyhounds seem to be so tolerant.  That is an accurate description and a point well made.  We were outside a local supermarket at the time, collecting money and raising awareness for Kerry Greyhound Connection, the charity which takes ex-racers from Ireland to a better life in the UK and other parts of Europe.   My dog was standing patiently with me, accepting all the strokes and cuddles offered to him by complete strangers.  One child really got him in a headlock and was kissing him, which I would usually advise against on first meeting a dog, but Pingu is used to cuddles and kisses so took it in his stride.

Only I could tell that he was actually getting a little restless and fed up.  It's not that much fun for a dog being asked to stand still for an hour and a half, having strangers come up to him all the time, especially as he is half blind with PRA.  However, he has always done this - ever since we got our two wonderful pets from Kerry Greyhounds, we have been keen to give something back, and we and the dogs have regularly given our time to collections and fundraising events to help yet more lovely greyhounds find their forever homes.

My dog was pulling a little on the leash, telling  me that he would rather be over the road scavenging for lost chips (french fries).  It's his eyesight, they were actually cigarette butts, but he never believes me unless he checks them out for himself.  Thankfully he is not such a scavenger that cigarette butts will do...it has to be chips, pie crusts, dropped sausages or ice cream cones to float his boat!  Yes I am well aware all this junk is not really good for him, but he is almost blind apart from the tunnell distance vision now, and if he enjoys his walks more because a few bits of fried potato are involved then I can't deny him.  The rest of his diet is pretty healthy, so I don't worry about it.

Mind you, as soon as someone approached to put money in my collection box and pet him, he was back on parade.  Tolerant, greyhounds are, and will more or less do anything you ask of them.   The more they are socialized and taken out and allowed to meet people and other dogs, the better.  Some dogs who are only taken out purely for exercise, to fields, paddocks or wild places, will not be so accommodating when you want to take them somewhere busy and bustling.

Although there are definite generalizations one can make about the temperament and preferences of greyhounds it is quite interesting how different they can be.  The usual story is that they are 40 mile per hour couch potatoes,

Greyhound Couch Potato

who love to spend most of their lives lying on beds or sofas, but have the odd mad five minutes when they tear up the ground and spin like tops and shake cuddly toys (stuffies) and play the fool.  This is true, but it is amazing what variations there can be amongst the community we call greyhound.  Anyone with a multi-greyhound family will tell you they are all different.

Of course much of this difference is down to their previous nurture (or lack of it).  One of our hounds, Pingu, was rejected for racing and handed over to a rescue charity, so he has no experience of racing life, nor of anything much but a loving pet home.  He came to us an outgoing, well-balanced dog, quite demanding of affection, very active and hardy (for a greyhound) and without guile or cunning.

Conversely our other greyhound Slinky had had a much more chequered past.  He had nine races, came third about three times, mostly fifth out of six, so was not the greatest of racers.  Handed over to travellers after this, he was presumably used for coursing.  He still has a strong powerful prey drive even though he is not at all interested in running for its own sake.  When he came to us he showed obvious signs of abuse, and was almost starved to death and terrified of sticks.  So it is obvious all of this will have affected his temperament.  He is still very frightened of bangs and explosions, and is not at all sure of horses (his traveller past?)  But I imagine he has had to live on his wits much more than Pingu, so he is quite cunning and clever in his way.  At home he is very much the more intelligent dog, but lazy, kooky and cute.

So although there is a sort of template for the greyhound, and they all spend a lot of time in bed, when they are awake there are many different personalities.  How much this is down to innate nature and how much is to do with previous treatment is of course down to nature or nurture.

The bravery of greyhounds never ceases to amaze me.  We do laugh at them (or sympathize with them) for being such wimps.  Tread on a greyhound's foot or subject him to the tiniest injection at the vets and you are often astounded at the way they scream like stuck pigs.  Still, vets say that if they are really really hurt, they are very quiet, and amongst, if not the, most compliant and easy dogs to treat.  Of course this may mean that when they are really hurt they go into a form of shock, which is not funny at all, but at least it makes it easier for a vet to handle them.

But the abuse that some of them have gone through is just unthinkable for us pet greyhound owners.  We have a greyhound, Slinky, who came to us with lots of fears and scars, terrified of anyone with anything resembling a stick, almost starved to death, and with a dent in his skull that the vet has confirmed must have come from a blow to the head.  He is not alone in this.  It is not a legend that many greyhounds are found with their ear flaps cut off, so that the cruel swines who abandoned them cannot be traced from the ear tattoos.  This really happens, and sometimes even worse.

Yet these poor damaged dogs manage most of the time to learn, albeit slowly sometimes, to love people.  They come to know the difference between the abusers who hurt them and the loving people involved in their rescue and adoption.  Their bravery and resilience is truly humbling.

The Social Aspect of Greyhound Ownership

An improved social life may seem a selfish reason to adopt a pet greyhound, but let's not get into an argument about utilitarianism. Anyway, nobody would have a pet greyhound if they hated dogs, ultimately adoption is about getting yourself a beautiful and lovely pet whom you are proud to have as a family member.  Fortunately greyhounds almost always fit the bill there, and most of us who take on greyhounds would never again have another breed of dog.  We never look back!  Although it is altruistic in some ways to rescue a dog who needs a home, that is not the primary reason why so many of us enjoy sharing our daily lives with retired greyhounds.

It is a good and fulfilling thing to raise funds for greyhound charities like Kerry Greyhound Connection in Norfolk, England.  We enjoy the face that our fundraising efforts will enable more greyhounds to be rescued and rehomed with loving humans in their forever homes.  We look at our own dogs with love and affection and realise how much their lives were saved and improved by our care, and we want it for others.  So that creates a warm glow.  Also, getting involved in various fundraising events like collections, special events, carnivals, sponsored walks and the like, enables us to make human and doggy friends, and often have great fun along with the serious business of raising money and awareness.  Thus adopting or fostering an ex-racer is a win-win situation which enhances life in so many ways.

Greyhound Puppies

A whimsical thought: one of the slightly sad things about adopting a retired racer is that you don't have knowledge or pics of them as puppies.  Same applies to anyone who rescues a dog I suppose, unless the previous owner is kind enough to supply them.

At Kerry Greyhound Connection, our local greyhound rescue charity, occasionally we do get a litter of puppies.  These are usually lurcher, presumably produced by a female greyhound who has been cast out into the world who has been tupped by another non-greyhound dog.  She would then have been found by some kind individual and handed over to the charity already pregnant.  She would be allowed to have her pups and then spayed and made ready to become a rescue dog afterwards.  These pups attract an inordinate amount of affection and attention from the volunteers and adopters.  One reason is because everyone goes "aaah" when they see a puppy, but also there is the rarity value in the rescued greyhound community.

One thing is for sure in many cases: greyhounds go through a second puppyhood when they come into a home for the first time.  Our two, both males, did little but play-fight for the first 5 months or so they were with us.  These were no doubt establishing the pecking order between our two boys, but in a comical and non-threatening way.  It got quite boisterous at times, but always funny.  We did wonder where the couch potatoes we had been told of were, they were so active!  Fortunately we did capture some of this puppyish behaviour on video - because it suddenly stopped, and, touch wood, they both know exactly their place with each other and what the perameters are for acceptable behaviour.

The other funny stuff was playing with stuffies, and thieving.  They had a wonderful time collecting things and amassing them on their beds or sofas.  At one stage we had an empty wine bottle from the recycling and a plastic watering can on the garden, both adorning the sofa!  They gave us hours of amusement with their total excitement at being in a home and garden with lots of lovely things to find and do.  This behaviour does not last, and they soon calm down, although sometimes brief flashes of their old puppyish selves appear to delight us.

Slinky the retired rescued greyhound seems to have taken a step back today, although there may still be signs of progress on the thyroid meds.  He insisted on licking the wound on his leg and making it sore again so I had to vetwrap it again.  That meant he was pretty miserable on his walk, hopping along with every step a sulk.  It's like he is saying to the world: "look at this horrible bandage they made me wear"  His friend and housemate Pingu also has a wound on his leg (oh what fun we are having!) and he lulled me into a false sense of security by leaving it alone - until he licked it all red and sore again, so now he has a bandage on too!  He is equally disgusted with the whole idea.

It has to be said that this is one of the tiny downsides greyhound adoption: they get cuts and wounds so easily as their skin is like tissue paper, and it can be a bit of a job keeping them off the wound and preventing them from turning a drama-ette into a real crisis!  It's a good job they are so totally adorable though so these chores don't seem so bad.  A kiss on the nose after the job is done, and everyone is happy.

As far as Slinky's demeanour is concerned, it didn't seem that he was shaking as much as usual when he got out of the car for his walk.  Vet says his TSH is "normal" whatever that means, so we will keep trying the pills for a month and see if there really is any effect on his spookiness and thermoregulation.

These dogs were rescued from a Mexican Racetrack by Greyhound Pets of America/fastfriends.....Every semester the RVT students at Mount San Antonio College play a part in the rehabilitation process so they can be fostered and hopefully adopted. We only get about 16 per semester to save. These animals you are seeing would most certainly have been killed.

Cherrybrook Pet Supplies in Bedminster New Jersey was the scene of a Meet and Greet with the Greyhound Friends of New Jersey. These greyhounds are rescued racing dogs looking for permanent homes. Cherrybrook Premium Pet Supplies - The Natural Choice for Healthy and Happy Pets - has all your nutritional, dog show and grooming needs.