pixiesusan

Wow thanks for the replies, very exciting! I love a barker I live alone so it spices up my life! woof!

Thanks for getting back to me, Ok good on the walking. I can really only judge the breed by my one dog, Max. He was SO food driven that I bet he would have been easy to train. I didn't really work on training him, he could sit and lay down and that's all I needed then.

First, let me say I had an ex-racing Greyhound in the early 1980s, I got him from Wonderland in Revere, MA. I went down there at 1 am (his trainer said that was the only time I could come) to get him. I lived in an old beach house that had a long open stairway to get up to it and no one mentioned that they can't do stairs right off the bat, so I spent an hour getting him up to my cottage. But that's another story. I was young then and now after reading about Greyhounds online, I'm not sure how good of a dog owner I was back then. I had a flower store and he came to work with me almost every day (and snoozed). And in the evenings we walked - a lot. I just read online that Greyhounds do best with a 20-minute walk. Heck, we would walk the beach for a couple of hours! (with rest stops) So I'm feeling bad now that maybe I overexerted him (he never acted like he wasn't interested other than in rain). Anyhow, in the ensuing years, my breed has been an Airedale Terrier. I love them so much, but they stay puppies forever (my most recent two were puppies until well after 10 years old). And I'm thinking since I'm somewhat older now that I might be a better doggie mom to a less demanding dog. That being said... I still walk a lot. I walk on the beach and in the woods on trails. I live on Cape Cod so we aren't talking about mountains here. Just flat wide trails and some up and down hills. Can a Greyhound do this and more importantly, would he want too? Here is my other question and it's not a deal breaker. I know that many Greyhounds are not usually barkers. Can they be taught to bark? I don't have another dog for them to learn from. Here is why I'd love a barker. I'm hearing impaired and I've trained all my Airedales to bark to alert me to certain sounds. They are not "legal" service dogs and I don't take them out as a service dog. Here is an example. The Airedale I just lost I trained to bark when my teapot boiled. I can hear the bark but not the teapot (and the answer isn't a louder teapot because I go into the living room and I can't hear any teapot). He barked for running water, my iphone text ding, people at the door (that was easy!) and a bunch of others. It's just handy and helpful for me but again, it's not a deal breaker. (Since my Airedale passed just over a month ago I've got thru 3 teapots but who's counting) So I guess I'm looking for some comments from people. I know Greyhounds have been used as service dogs, I've seen videos of them doing agility! So what do you think and thanks for your help. Susan