Greyhounds and a more 'rural' lifestyle

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kittykatcat

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Hi all - first time posting on dogs, hello!

We recently lost our lab and although we didnt think we would be ready for another dog for a long time, the gap in our lives is just too big, especially for my partner who has the dog with him most of the day...

Sooooo...we've decided to adopt a greyhound and have actually found one called Troy from the Kent Greyhound Rescue (google him so gorgeous!).

I just wanted to ask if anyone on here has experience of greyhounds adapting to a more rural lifestyle, i.e. one that does not have a 6 ft fence round the garden and is let off the lead to potter round the yard?

Most of the rescue centres i talk to are very wary about the fact our whole farm does not have a fence round it, but I think it could work - we've always had dogs and they have all been bought up without being enclosed, i guess the only difference is that this one is a sighthound!

I'm fully aware that a lot of training will be needed before we can let him off the lead on his own, but just wanted any thoughts or tips or success stories really :)

Thanks

xx
 
You might find they won't let you have him unless you can show them a well fenced enclosure. Greyhounds, like whippets like to chase stuff. A dog that has actually raced will be even more keen to chase. As they get older, they do settle and ultimately you may well have a dog that you can let wander around. However you may end up with one that turns himself inside out to chase bunnies/deer/cats/squirrels, the list is endless.
 
Hi, I've got 2 rescued sighthounds - a lurcher and a whippet - and we live on a farm. The dogs are "free-range" and cope just fine but you do need to take a bit of time to stock train them. I sadly didn't do this well enough with my lurcher and he started chasing sheep and in the end we had to use an e-collar to stop him (it only took one correction and he can now walk through a field of sheep off lead and totally ignoring them). My whippet i was more prepared for and kept him on a long line for the first couple of weeks which was a pain, I admit, but definitely worth it because I was able to stop him dead if he tried anything naughty and do a controlled introduction to our ram who thoroughly intimidated him lol.

I do encourage them to hunt rabbits and squirrels etc and they have no problem differentiating between legal small furries and illegal sheep, piglets, calves etc. In fact my biggest problem at the moment is hikers - I will post more about this on another thread.......

Good luck with Troy, I'm off to google him now :)

ETA: he's gorgeous :D and if he's already good with cats you are over half way there with the training to start with
 
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Well, i've been very upfront with the rescue organisation and they think it would be a shame to pass up a good home just because we dont have a garden fence :)

Troy has never raced and has lived quite happily with cats and smaller dogs apprently so hoping his chase instinct isnt too finely tuned, but of course it will always be there!

Nice to hear your success story BM :)
 
I have never had a problem with my lurchers and have never fenced them in. We have about 30 acres and they are allowed round that. They tend to run and run but don't leave the boundaries. We also take them up on the moors when we ride and they are totally sheep proof. But we had to work with them to do that. We walked them on leads around the boundaries. We walked them off lead around the boundaries. We walked them on the moors once we had established recall - easy cos they love food. Then we would walk them loose but call them back every 10 yards or so and getting very annoyed if they so much as looked at sheep. As a result we can now ride through cows/sheep/herds of ponies on the moors and the lurchers just ignore them.


they are fab with our cat, but will not allow anyone elses on teh place - never attack - just chase off. And they are happy to go inside teh chicken run and rat - but totally ignore the chickens.

Lovely lovely dogs, and fantastic on the farm.

I have had 2 rescue lurchers - at 6 months and 9 months each and a 7 week old puppy. The 9 month old was rescued from travellers and had been used for lamping but she soon became totally trustworthy.
 
We got a retired greyhound just over a year ago, went for a look round Sheffield RGT kennels (was hoping my OH couldnt say no!) She has been really good, never runs off, goes for a sprint round the field then comes back and jogs along beside, however they are sight hounds and she will chase a rabbit (as will most dogs) but is that bit quicker and gets from A-B in the blink of an eyelid. For that reason would never let her run around unattended unless there was fence stopping her from getting on a road etc. Just be careful!! Apart from that she is such a lovely dog, totally unagressive and lets our jrt terrorize her, follows me round everywhere and loves sleeping most of the time (when she is not out shoeing with OH who is a farrier, or out sj with me!) She is also a right character - watch out when bbq ing (not much chance of that given current weather) she will snuffle sausages etc and look totally innocent...
 
Thanks guys - so glad to hear your success stories! Having a home check tonight, quite nervous actually - did the hoovering and dusting and everything last night!! If everything goes well i think we can pick him up at the weekend! Eeek so excited! :)
 
Ahh he is lovely! So glad there are people like you that adopt these lovely dogs! I don't know much about dogs so no advice, but wish you the best of luck with Troy, he is gorgeous :) :)

Oh how about adopting two, that way they will keep each other entertained rather than running off. Mind you they might just do that together :confused: I have no idea :D

Good luck, plenty of piccies please when you get him :)
 
Can't help as my Italian greyhounds are totally instinct-free, their recall is fantastic, they *never* chase anything not even if the two other big dogs shoot off; but they are IGs so maybe they don't quite have the same instinct in the first place.
However, I also wanted to say that Troy is gorgeous! So cute, he looks like he dipped his muzzle in snow :D
 
I have 4 Greyhounds.
Two i do let off the lead & play around as there recall is marvellous.
However the other 2 were racers & have one thing on there mind run run run & won't come back.
So i take them into one of my horse fields let them off the lead so they can have a good run around.
With Troy never being a racer i'm sure he will be ok.

I hope the home check went well.

XxX
 
Quick update on Troy if anyone's interested :)

Picked him up yesterday and all I can say is....he is SUCH a good boy :)

Jumped straight in to the car, settled down on the journey, didnt mind being left in the car whilst we nipped to do his shopping at Pets at Home. Stayed in the car whilst the equine dentist was visiting. Met 4 other family dogs, was an absolute angel. Met the horses, didnt mind them at all although they were pretty confused by him...too small to be horse...too big to be a dog??! Took him for a walk, walk beautifully on lead, let him off lead in a secure area, played with mother in law's collie and was getting the hang of 'fetch', not the best recall but it will come, he's very foody so hopefully that will help.

To top it all off, he met the cats, and by the end of the evening me, OH, two cats and Troy were snuggled up in the lounge in front of a roaring fire, ok, Troy did have a muzzle on (which incidently he HATES despite the greyhound people saying greyhounds dont mind them at all!) but thought it's better safe than sorry!!

This morning, no accidents in the kitchen and didnt hear a peep out of him until this morning when he heard us getting up :)

I am SOOOOOOOO pleased with him you couldnt imagine. He's been walked this morning and is now going to work with the OH. I hope he likes us as much as we like him!!

No pics yet as such a horrid day and he had a muzzle on when inside, but hopefully soon xxx
 
You are going to LOVE him! Pointies are ace! Half an hour mad run around and then they sleep until the next walk ;)

They are fantastic dogs but can be tricky if they have a strong prey drive.

A six foot fence wont keep them in ;) Just concentrate on making home the best place to be :) :) :) Mine can jump 1m20 from a standstill and it took a while to stop him vaulting the a frame at agility ;)

If you want some support from a doggy forum that aren't a bunch of patronising *instert your own choice of word*, you can't go wrong with www.lurcherlink.org. They have their own behaviourist and offer fantastic support! Cayla on here is good too :)

One piece of advice I would give you is if you do have problems, traditional behaviourists can make things worse - pointies do not respond the same as pet dogs. Jim Greenwood is a good place to start :)
 
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