would you recommend a rescue lurcher?

[Marquire]

Over the last 4 months I have had to have both my 18 year old cats put to sleep and this has left my Lab Holly without company. She loved both cats and although she is okay on her own I'd rather she had company when I'm at work. I can't face the thought of getting another cat yet but have been pondering a second dog. I like the idea of a rescue lurcher/small greyhound but wondered if my life style would be suitable. My OH and I work fulltime so we wouldn't consider getting a puppy.


We live in a detacted house with a third of an acre enclosed garden and have access to miles and miles of fields and bridleways on the doorstep.

The current routine for Holly is a short 30 minute walk at 6.30am,we leave for work at 7.45am and she spends the morning sleeping upside down on the sofa/bed, she has an hour's walk at 12.30 with the dog walker, has more snoozes in the afternoon until I get home around 4.45 and then she has another 1h walk around 5pm. At the weekends we tend to still do three walks but only 20 minutes in the morning and evening with a bigger 1.5-2h walk at the beach or in the woods over lunch.

Does this sound like the lifestyle a lurcher would enjoy?

Marquire

 

[BigRed]

I am sure any lurcher or running dog would be happy with that, but remember that lurchers like to chase and kill stuff, so a rescue dog might have some bad habits. You need to make sure your garden is really well fenced. I have a whippet that jumps a 6 foot panel fence like a cat - they are very athletic dogs.

 

[CAYLA]

I think you def have the criteia to take a retired greyhound, as sight hounds they are likely to chase but they are easy to train when you put the work in, I have half a pack of luchers/whippets/deerhound/bull lucher x, and they all have pefect recall (all second hand rescues) and will not chase, but and they have all been used for hunting, some took no work at all, one took a good bit of work
Keeping a grey on a lead for walks is not such a bad thing.
A retired grey would be less likely to jump/scale a fence than a lucher type also. Only one of mine can scale a large fence (my whippet boy)
By retired I'm talking 3-4 years, hardly old but sadly this is retirement age for greys.

 

[CAYLA]

Oh, I see you are in Morpeth, we had a small grey bitch in, looks moe like a whip x grey (well the geyhound rescue) we work alongside did, and she was adorable (super friendly) and ok to be left for periods and from what I saw of her she would have good recall as very people orientated and she was in a foster home with cats too

 

[Marquire]

Oh, I see you are in Morpeth, we had a small grey bitch in, looks moe like a whip x grey (well the geyhound rescue) we work alongside did, and she was adorable (super friendly) and ok to be left for periods and from what I saw of her she would have good recall as very people orientated and she was in a foster home with cats too

Well just outside Morpeth in Longhirst- all the best people are in the North East

Would definitely consider a small greyhound if there was something suitable and more than willing to work with recall. Thankfully Holly has super recall and would hopefully be a good influence on any addition to the family.

 

[GinaGem]

Go for it, lurchers are fab; although i'm biased!! There are so many mixes it's hard to generalise, we have 3 (2 are mine, 1 foster) and they are all different. They do all like to sleep lots though so would have no probs with your routine!

Have a look here too:
http://www.lurcher.org/llink/forum/viewforum.php?f=4&sid=17e6b4e42f0090dc9a0239c066f53dfb

 

[Maisie2]

I love lurchers, I have a small one at the moment but have had 2 others in the past. My daughter has two greys, and in my opinion of the two breeds the greys are probably better for your lifestyle, very happy to lie in bed for long periods not that it sounds as if yours are alone all that long, although never walked off the lead so I don't know if that would be a problem for you. Cayla's little grey sounds perfect