Do Greyhounds Make Good Pets?

Sometimes things from the show will be edited for time, and this happened with my interview. Alex ended up asking me three questions about greyhounds total, and the middle one, "Do they make good pets?" was omitted with my response. I may have taken too long to answer (I tried to be concise), or it may just be that I equivocated, so I want to give the full answer here.

You see, I have a theory of dogs. I notice that most people end up sticking with the same breed, and I believe this is because dogs are wonderful, and you grow to love them and will think that is the best dog ever. We were a collie family before we became a greyhound family. However, just because you can fall in love with a dog of any breed does not mean that there are not actually breeds that would work better for you, so a little research is reasonable before getting a dog.
When a movie comes out with a specific breed, adoption groups usually do a good job of getting out information on the breed, so that not everyone ends up with huskies or Dalmatians without knowing what to do with them. Until there is a movie about retired greyhounds, I will try to fill in.

First of all, here are some of the things that are great about greyhounds, and why they work for us. As a result of their racing life, they generally come leash-trained and housebroken. Those two things are important, and we are not great disciplinarians, so having that already covered is awesome for us.

Greyhounds tend to have very sweet dispositions. Even at times when you can tell that one has been badly treated during their training or racing days (not nearly as bad now as it used to be, but it can still happen), it rarely makes them aggressive, just sometimes extra shy.

It was the personalities that we fell in love with, but there are other things that work well. They do shed, so don't let anyone tell you they don't, but the short hair does not get matted like it did with the collies. Maintenance is easier and it does not hold in odor the way our golden retriever friend's hair does. (He is an adorable boy, and I love him, but sometimes I come away from him and I can barely stand to wear my own coat because his smell has transferred to me.)

Greyhounds are also good "medium" dogs. I am a sucker for dogs, so I will even think a Chihuahua is cute and want to pet it, but at the same time, I kind of think small dogs are ridiculous, and they're usually too high-strung for me anyway. Really big dogs are cool, but they eat a lot and they tend to have short life spans (maybe 5-8 years). Greyhounds are mid-range on size and lifespan. The life expectancy is fourteen years, and we have had a few go to fifteen. If you are wondering how we ended up having fifteen dogs over the course of about twenty years when they do live reasonably long, that's partly because we took a lot of old ones who needed homes, and partly because at various times we had up to five at a time (though whenever we had a fifth one it was always one with health problems, so I was usually not walking more than four at a time).

When some breeds are not recommended, it is often because they are working breeds, and they get destructive without stimulation. Greyhounds are referred to as 45 MPH couch potatoes. They like to run fast, but they will do this for a few minutes a couple of times a day, and then take long naps.

So, what might make a greyhound not the right dog for you? They are really needy. I know our collie, Laddie, was happy with any attention he got, but he never came around begging for love the way these dogs do. I guess he was just more self-assured, and the greys need frequent reassurance that you really do love them. Granted, that's part of their charm; if you want a pet that doesn't care how you feel about it you should get a cat. (Just kidding, kind of, and we have had as many as five cats at a time too, though we are currently down to one.)

If you are going to be gone a lot, or have a demanding job, or have small children who need a lot of attention, then you may be breaking your greyhound's heart when you keep having to do things other than petting it. Retired couples and childless couples often do great with greyhounds, because the dogs can be their jobs and their babies.

That alone makes it less of an issue of whether they are good with children, but that is mixed bag. We have known owners with children where it was fine, and we have seen other dogs be kind of nervous around children, but there are other breeds that are meant for it. It is probably good that we had collies when we were younger. We got Laddie when I was around six, but my mother has told me of coming in and finding my brother, Lance, as a toddler, standing on a different collie (Orlando, I think), to look out the window. This probably did not feel good for the dog, but he took it patiently.

If you want a dog to run with, you can make that work, but you need to build up to it. Remember, they are sprinters--not endurance runners.

If you want a dog to play with, well, their play is kind of different. I think because they spend so much time kenneled, but they often have soft toys, that chewing on a toy is something that they like, but interactive play does not come naturally to them. We never taught Laddie how to fetch, but it was something he always wanted to do. It didn't matter whether I was throwing a Frisbee, stick, or ball, it was the most exciting thing ever! The greyhounds have no concept of fetch. They could probably be trained on it, but really, what they want to do is cuddle, and we support that. A lot of people will do lure-coursing or agility training with them, so that's another option.

It is common sense with any dog to either keep them in a fenced yard, inside, or on a leash, but this is especially important with greyhounds. They are sight hounds, meaning they navigate by sight rather than scent. So, they can easily get distracted by something shiny (Squirrel!), take off after it at high speed, and have no idea how to get back to you.

Health-wise they do pretty well. They do have a tendency towards bad teeth, and cataracts as they get older are really common. We have had some cancers and some seizure dogs, though that is less common. We used to see a lot with low thyroid so they would take pills, but I haven’t seen that for a while. With thin skin and no fat, they do bleed easily. That's not saying it's a reason not to get them. Laddie had bad skin, and then his hips started getting bad--that is common with collies. Both of the golden retrievers I have sat for have had hot spots, and one has digestion issues. It just makes sense to know what is common.

On that note, I will give one more word of advice. This will sound weird, but start with a brindle. If you think about it, their coloring is hereditary, as are many other traits, and certain things seems to come along with different colors. Both of our seizure dogs were fawn and white. Of the two we sat for who had seizures, one was fawn and one was champagne (pretty close to fawn). Our more aggressive dogs have been fawns. Our worst separation anxiety has been fawn and white.

Okay, so maybe that just sounds like a reason to avoid fawn or fawn and white. Actually, the only trait I have noticed with blacks is that they seem to be really protective of their families, and a couple of them have been button-pushers with other dogs, looking for ways to annoy. The point is, brindles are really solid dogs, tending to be healthy physically and mentally. There are always exceptions, but they tend to work well, and it makes sense to start with an easy dog. If afterwards you get addicted and keep getting more, and you start taking in old ones and injured ones, well, that is a path you can take, but start with just looking for one good pet. Or two. Some of them really need to have other dogs around.