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My name is Patty and my husband Josh and I adopted our first greyhound Barney about 2 months ago.
I am originally from Germany. We now live in Centennial, Colorado.
I have been reading a lot of interesting and helpful posts on this forum, it is very reassuring especially for new greyhound parents like us, to have this resource!
Barney is a 4 1/2 year old retired racer and seems to have done pretty well according to the greyhound data website.
However, the foster family said that he was so underfed, they didnt even know how he made it to Colorado.
He apparently almost died on his way from Arizona, where he raced.
The foster family kept him for 2 months, because he was in no condition to get adopted when he arrived. They pretty much saved his life.
Josh and I were looking into adopting a greyhound for quite a while and went to several meet'n greets.
We wanted every single one that we saw! But I never had a dog before, just cats, so even though I was excited about getting a greyhound, I was very nervous at the same time.
Meeting Barney was kind of like a blind date, because the foster family didn't put his picture on the adoption website.
They were worried that he was still too rough looking.
We still went to meet him, and when I saw him, all anxiety was gone. It definitely was love at first sight! We brought him home the very next day.
Barney had a couple of health problems at first. We spend quite some time and money at the vet! Everytime we went he had something else!
Diarrhea, ear infection, an infection in his GI tract, tapeworm... then after a blood test, we found out that he is hypo-thyroid which probably explains all the other health problems.
He is taking his supplements now and is so much better.
He is probably still in the process of getting used to us, but he has been very good so far. He is such a smart and sweet dog, he cuddles with us, makes us laugh with his goofy ways and plays like a puppy.
We taught him "sit", "wait" and "lay down", however, he doesn't always want to listen.
He doesn't do our stairs - and we wonder whether he ever will. We know he knows how to go upstairs, because he goes up concrete stairs outside in front of a school.
Our stairs are normal, carpeted stairs. At first we were worried, because our bedroom is upstairs, and we wanted him to sleep there with us.
And he definitely didn't like to be alone downstairs the first two nights.
We tried a lot of things, including carrying him up. But he just doesnt seem to like it there. And... he walked DOWN the stairs by himself!
Now, he is very content sleeping on his bed or in his crate downstairs. Maybe one day he will decide he wants to be with us upstairs too.
I am so happy we got him, I can't believe how much we love him already!
Anyway, here he is.
Thank you for reading this long post!
Patty
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Hello from New York. Your Barney is a handsome guy. I'm sure you'll become addicted to this site 
Rusty, Beanie & Buddy. 
