Help needed. Dealing with peoples negative perception of greyhounds

[GreyhoundMoose]

Help needed. Finding it hard to deal with peoples negative perception of greyhounds and being told off that our greyhound strikes or lunges at their dog?

Our greyhound spends time with with herding Aussie Shepards. He never displayed herding behaviour until them. He is doing it with other dogs now sometimes and his is being accused of striking at other dogs or lunging at them. He passed all the tests and he is not an aggressive dog he passed the greenhound training but you know with having a greyhound comes a stigma. I am finding it hard that people judge us and that our dog has to have 100% perfect behaviour and other dogs can do the same thing and not get told off. Does anyone else deal with this negative stigma and how can I deal with it. It is very upsetting being told our greyhound who has passed all the tests is called a savage. What can I say to people who are rude and mean and judge him and us? Also, how do we train this herding behaviour out of him?

Any support would be appreciated. 

[greysmom]

Welcome to Greytalk and the Cult of the Greyhound!

First, I'd like to ask what country you and your greyhound are living in??  It sounds like you might be from Australia?  And *where* is tyhis behavior occurring, and under what circumstances?

Thx!

[MerseyGrey]

Wow...how would you attempt to change people’s negative perception in other areas of life? Usually it takes time, patience and education and then there are some people who are happily ignorant and don’t want to change. So it’s probably an investment of your time, and gently persuading them to allow their dog to spend time with your dog.

We’ve had our greyhound for two and half years. When we first had him, I met a lady on our walks who had two collies who she walked off lead. Buddy was a lot more nervous when we first had him, so when her dogs ran at him (on lead and under control) he snapped at them in fear. And I heard her telling other people that it was my dog with the problem. Gradually over the two years we have started chatting a bit more, I’ve told her a bit about his personality and now she’s much more accepting and has asked about his past as well as how he’s getting on now. But it’s taken that long. You can only educate people who want to be educated and you can’t worry about the rest.

[HeyRunDog]

Welcome to the Grey side

21 hours ago, GreyhoundMoose said:

Our greyhound spends time with with herding Aussie Shepards. He never displayed herding behaviour until them.

Sounds like he's tried to fit in with his pack and picked up their "bad" habits. Is it possible for him not to spend time with them so the herding behaviour can be trained out?

You could try keeping him on his lead and when he lunges a firm NO and a quick tug on the lead. Be ready with praise and or a treat when he doesn't. This worked with Grace when she saw the neighbours cats but not so successful with squirrels.

As for educating other owners that greyhounds aren't the perceived monster they think they are takes time and patience which is not helped by them being required to be muzzled in public until recently in Australia.

[Feefee147]

It's hard! I had foster dogs (Jack Russells, Staffys, Bulldogs ...etc) and people were so much friendlier with them! Even people I used to see and say hello to give me and this boy a wide birth now. I had a small snappy Yorkshire terrier with a *lot* of issues (snappy, shouty, fear reactive) and yet people were friendlier with her than my big, gentle giant. I guess a small cranky dog is much less scary than a big 38kg muzzled dog!

Mine has snapped a few times at little dogs (muzzle on, no problems) so I appreciate they may think he needs to be avoided,  but as for everyone else ... *shrugs*

It makes me sad, particularly when my grey sees another dog and wants to go over and say hello (it's taken a long time to build up his confidence so he's comfortable doing this), but before we get a chance they've whisked their dog away rapidly and strutted off with not even a smile. I beam, chat, make us look as friendly and cheery as possible but unless the other person has had involvement with greys (in which case they make a point of going out of their way to come over and chat) it's fruitless.

Then the people who do interact tend to either do the whole "track number 4 please...haha" (sighs) or just quiz me on if he ever gets off lead time (yes!) and look disapproving about how he's always on lead (in the small park by my house with busy roads all around it). 

I do think where I am (UK) there aren't many greyhounds and it's mainly the muzzle - people don't really use them unless they have aggressive dogs. Shame.