What To Look For/avoid When Looking For A Second Greyhound

[inaandmax]

Hi all! We have been discussing possibly adding another greyhound to our home and are in the process of vetting a few candidates. Today, we met a little black and white spotted girl, who Max seemed to like, but she would relentlessly snark at him whenever they were close enough to sniff. (She whipped her head around to snap at him twice during mutual butt sniffs). I'm assuming this reaction is NOT a great sign of compatibility. We also met a brindle boy that sniffed Max politely, but didn't seem terribly interested one way or the other. Is it too much to hope for more of a visible reaction than this? I really want a companion for Max - someone who will want to engage with him.

[smurfette]

She is a girl. It is quite normal to react like this. The boys don't mind their princesses being a little snarky. But she will rule over him.

Maybe look for another girl, if you feel insecure.

Edited February 20, 2017 by smurfette

[WalterWallerson]

When Walter met Ernie it was pretty similar to what you described with your boy meeting another boy. I actually viewed this as a good thing because they are pretty great buddies now. They can share a water bowl and occasionally snuggle with each other. It worked out just fine for us.

[inaandmax]

When Walter met Ernie it was pretty similar to what you described with your boy meeting another boy. I actually viewed this as a good thing because they are pretty great buddies now. They can share a water bowl and occasionally snuggle with each other. It worked out just fine for us.

That's encouraging! After those two meetings I am definitely leaning more towards another boy,

but we still have a ways to go before formally adopting our 2nd and we hope to look at quite a few more greyhounds.

[Rascal21]

If you are able to, i'd suggest fostering, that way you can get a good idea of what the long term picture will be.

[GeorgeofNE]

Two boys will almost always end up best of friends. I personally don't care for female dogs as pets--there is a reason the term "bitch" means what it does!

[txsbbtc]

I don't put a lot of stock in the initial greeting. When Allie and I were picking out a second dog, I was much more interested in how they walked together on leash (no fence in the back yard). Davis got "snarked" on the butt sniff, but Allie settled quickly and I had no problem handling both of them on leash. Yes, Allie made sure Davis knew the boundaries of her personal space, but after the first couple weeks, it was all fine. In fact, now Allie sometimes uses Davis as a pillow.

[turbotaina]

I think more important than sex, you should look for a dog that has similar energy and play drives to your existing dog. The female you met might have been generally snappy, or she may have been nervous or have had bad experiences meeting other dogs in the past. There are plenty of super sweet females out there. FWIW, I have two males and they don't particularly care for each other, but do live together well enough. They rarely or never play, run, or sleep together (except when they want the same sunbeam on the human's bed ), nor do they seek each other out. They don't even particularly like going on walks together since they go at different speeds. When Crow has his "puppy" moments, Heyokha may show teeth and growl to try to get Crow to stop his annoying shriek-y "puppy" barking (never mind Crow is 5 ), but it typically doesn't escalate to anything more than that. So yeah, energy level = very important

[Sundrop]

I would say to definitely engage the adoption group and ask them what they think as these interactions occur, as they see these types of meetings on a daily basis and they have the added benefit of knowing each of the greyhounds up for adoption.

 

I'm always jealous when I see people here on GreyTalk who have houndies that cuddle together - we've never had hounds that would cuddle with each other! Our 3 girls have all been "people" cuddlers, and probably would've done so with our boys, but none of the boys would allow it, lol. BUT - we've never had 2 that didn't get along and we've never had any fights. A couple of warning barks here and there, but never an altercation in 13 years.

 

Honestly, I tend to like it when the two hounds somewhat ignore one another when they meet. They sniff each other and then kind of go their own way - I dunno if that's the best approach, but since I've never seen two that will start playing immediately or follow each other around (especially in the 10-15 minute window we typically have when choosing one). Normally it seems that the hound you are meeting is more interested in sniffing the yard, peeing on stuff, etc. since they have likely been kenneled that day. They don't particularly care about meeting you or your other greyhound, they just want to explore and stretch their legs. I also wouldn't really worry too much if there is some snippiness - again, they just want to be out of the kennel. A full-on fight would be a red flag, but snipping when another dog gets too personal isn't a fight.

 

If you can go back and spend longer, that would be ideal. We live about 2 hours away from the group we have used for the last 3 hounds, so it's not very feasible - but we spend as much time as possible and meet as many different hounds as we can - and we ask as many people there as we can what they think about the reactions they see.