MarkRo

Terrific information. Thanks so much for everyone being so generous with their time.

Hi Teri and thanks! I love the name Dash and Happy Birthday! Given what you know so far, would you expect that Dash will have pretty much a "greyhound temperament" where after exercise, he's ready for a nice nap? Pretty laid back and maybe a bit standoffish with new people and situations? Do you have an expectation of how different Dash will be from a greyhound when he grows up? Ours were never particularly dog social and it took months before Tex enjoyed a dog park. One day he thought "I wonder what happens if I raise my tail instead of tucking it?" and kind of became an instant social butterfly. He rarely ran at dog parks because a dog race always broke out. Our others were somewhat more gregarious. Would you expect that Dash will be more "just a dog" at the dog park because he's more trusting and doesn't carry any baggage from his prior life or "it's just more of the way the breed is"? Our greys were affectionate but not golden lab affectionate. Is that what you're expecting? Where did you find Dash and what did you pay? If you went through a breeder, was that a reasonable experience for you? It sounds like training is typical and we'd probably go the same route just to have some structure to the training. It's really hard to know the difference between our greyhounds because we got them as adults and all they knew was how to walk on a leash and run fast. I'm hoping that a puppy would give us the opportunity to instill some respect and trust earlier rather than later. Related, what's your expectation for the "sight hunting" concerns if and when he's off leash? I suspect it's somewhere between "he'll lock on target and ignore me completely" and "huh, that's a cute bunny. Is it nap time yet?" It sounds like we're looking at going down the same path for similar reasons -- lack of availability of dogs, not wanting to inherit issues from previous owners, and size of the greyhound versus a whippet. Is that right? I realize that you just have a puppy so don't really know some of this stuff but you may have some expectations at this point based on looking at the breed and what you've seen in Dash so far. Thanks much, Mark

The Greyhounds Just Too Big for Me Now thread had some great information but I was hoping for a little more specific information from folks who've owned both a greyhound and a whippet. We just lost our third ex-racing greyhound (this one to cancer) and I'm starting to think about what's next. Greyhound availability is now virtually nil and particularly so where I live in Idaho. We're also at the age where a smaller dog might be better so a whippet might be a better choice in any instance. Which leads us to the possibility to a whippet puppy which might be fun since we've had adult dogs for quite a while and not having to untrain bad behaviors and various neuroses might be fun. Anyone care to share their experience transitioning to a whippet? Are there any useful websites/forums you've found? Thanks much, Mark Twin Falls, ID

I'm so very sorry. The photo of Tex was taken just a week or so before we decided to euthanize him. I suppose I should be content he got in one last run. As someone said to me recently "this is our responsibility as pet owners." It doesn't make things any easier but seemed to help a bit.

I'm so sorry. We just went through all of this ourselves. There's nothing really to say here other than Tex went downhill very quickly after the diagnosis and even though I tried to prepare myself for inevitable, it was . . . you know. As a practical matter, if you're likely to have the vet euthanize your Su, it's worth a call to understand the protocol particularly as it relates to Covid. We had a few tense minutes when they said only my wife or I could be with Tex. This was resolved fairly quickly, fortunately. There were a couple decisions that I would have preferred not to have to think about. They offered three different ways of handling remains and also offered a mold of his paw. I just would have rather sorted this out beforehand. They did bring the credit card machine into the room which was good although I would have preferred to have had the payment out of the way if I could have. Our previous vet was a Vietnam War fighter pilot and had a very structured approach to such thing. When our greyhound Trey had a stroke, I was in and out in 15 minutes. With Tex, it was a solid hour. My wife appreciated the "spending the last few minutes." Me -- not so much.

We took Tex everywhere in our Roadtrek 21 foot camper van. I'd open the door and say "get in your spot" and he'd jump into bed and usually go to sleep. Of course, some mornings I'd wake up with a greyhound leg in my face but that's the risk you run. Feeding was a bit of a challenge only because he took up the aisle and I probably stepped on and dumped his water bowl a few dozen times. You need to be a bit more organized for the inevitable midnight dog walk just because there's not a lot of room to get dressed and you want the leash on and everything organized before you open the door lest you find yourself less than fully clothed running after a greyhound in the dark. Another issue was the Roadtrek wasn't great for leaving Tex alone for a long while simply because it didn't have an air conditioner that could be left on. I installed two fans which were adequate for an hour or so as long as the temperature was less than 85F. If we would be longer or the temperature was going to be higher, we simply didn't do the activity.