Sad greyhounds.

I’ve never seen one wag it’s tail or look remotely happy.
Yesterday labrador on the beach barking at stones and running around.
Greyhounds on the prom not even remotely interested in barking back or seeing what’s going on.
Tail down and looking glum.
Please tell me they are happy sometimes.

Agree that they are a shit dog. Skinny. Boney. Miserable looking things.

My cousin takes in old grey hounds. They need about 30 minutes “exercise” then just lay around all day. Fits in nicely with her work.

Hundreds of videos like this kicking about.  We are currently dogless and strongly considering a greyhound rescue.  My wife walked one for the Cinnamon Trust for a while and she was a lovely natured, happy and affectionate dog.  They are chill, don’t need much exercise (contrary to popular belief) and mostly great pets.

They are. usually when they see other greyhounds. Or snow. Or squirrels. Or treats.

Also, when mine is very happy her jaw chitters, she’s doing it right now as she knows she’s getting some peanut butter on toast.

They look happy when they’re racing, but from a quick google looks like they are trying to ban this… what about horse racing? Bet they won’t ban that!

I met a rescue greyhound while walking my dog the other day. It was absolutely stunning, lots of tail wagging going on.

We are currently dogless and strongly considering a greyhound rescue.

Yup, same here, our next dog will very probably be a greyhound rescue

don’t need much exercise (contrary to popular belief)

There’s also a belief that they can’t take much exercise, i.e. half an hour a day is all they can do. That’s not true either, most will walk for hours if they’re given the chance/time to work up to it.

There’s also a belief that they can’t take much exercise

Ours is quite the accomplished hiker. Big fan of the outdoors.

Agree that they are a shit dog.

Good to see you’re consistent with your ill-informed and utterly pointless hot takes.

Value added as always.

Greyhounds are awesome.

Some do have a slightly haunted look about them, that much is correct and they’re often quite a nervous breed too. Mine finds his happiness in running around an empty beach or meeting other long dogs. No real interest in other breeds, but greyhounds, lurchers, whippets, etc. he loves.

I guess everyone wants something different from a dog. The idea of a spaniel who is constantly on the go and needs loads of exercise and attention doesn’t appeal to me. But our greyhound who’s needs are a 30 mins walk per day and a soft bed works perfectly for us.

That he’s quiet and friendly also means we can take him to pubs and not worry about him making loads of noise and annoying people.

The comment about them looking happy racing is an odd one. I think most do like the running part, it’s the way their treated before after their races that causes concerns. The reason they’ll more likely ban dog racing than horse racing is that dog racing is a generally working class sport where horses is upper class. Personally, I’d ban them both but that wont happen.

Ours is quite the accomplished hiker. Big fan of the outdoors.

Tiny though, eh?

There’s also a belief that they can’t take much exercise

They need time to build endurance. Ours was knackered after a 1 mile walk when we got him, but will now do 5 or 6 miles if pushed. Hell then spend the next 23 hours asleep…

Tiny though, eh?

Haha. She is, not withstanding the badly framed picture. For a grey she’s on the small side.

A greyhound running around with a stick (twig at best) is adorable.

I can’t think of a greyhound that we meet on our walks that isn’t super chilled or a bundle of twig carrying joy.

Lola **** hates them though. Probably jealous they can run faster than her.

I like them- really chill dog but fast as **** when they run…what’s not to like?

Our friend has one and he does have a very low-key demeanour but if she brings him to the pub he’ll be really nosey and keen to be with the group but literally just quietly hang with us all afternoon. Its almost like having a very small quiet horse accompany you in the beer garden.

One of the things I really like about our hound is she isn’t a **** nuisance when we’re out. She’s happy to chill in pubs/cafes/restaurants, doesn’t bark at every single thing (just cats) and doesn’t jump up at people or generally make a nuisance of herself.

As is often said about them, owning a greyhound is like owning a cat with the brains of a chicken and the body of a horse.

Is it true that they are sight dogs – so can actually watch telly?

@lunge, how old is yours? Ours was an early retiree so we got her young (just under 3) with almost no track time which has been a real positive.

Is it true that they are sight dogs – so can actually watch telly?

Mine prefers BBC R2.

Greyhounds are awesome.

#Username checks out 😉

We’ve had several rescue greyhounds and lurchers. Gorgeous happy, friendly dogs. Ours loved racing on the beach and exploring the hills and woods. They also love the sofa and anything food related is fair game, including a sack of chicken manure pellets apparently 🤮

Been resisting the urge for another since our last lady went on her long sleep a good while ago.

IME they’re just chilled out dogs, mainly operating in standby mode. They can be right devious cheeky sods in packs though. A mate of mine had two on a farm in the fens. They seemed to egg each other on to do bigger, naughtier things. They let themselves out of the house and eviscerated all the wildlife in about a half mile radius. There were no: birds, squirrels, cats, other dogs, foxes, rodents of any kind. Everything was gone. A duodogcopalypse.

Then they worked out how to do bad things in the kitchen, so they opened all the cupboards, found anything in a jar, opened the jars and ate the contents. You could put stuff in the bottom cupboard or the top shelf of a top cupboard, it didn’t matter, Archie & Ted would get to it – you can’t put things out of reach of a greyhound that’s 6′ tall on its back legs. Jam, peanut butter, olives, chillies all gone.

They also once ate all the solid fuel pellets from the wood burning boiler, straight out of the hopper like it was a cattle feeder. Bonkers.

Lovely dogs, but glad they weren’t mine (though they were funny).

@relapsed_mandalorian, ours is 6 now, had him from when he was 4. He’d done a fair amount of racing and had time in kennels before coming to us.

Yeh one of ours , Fern, did the most amazing job of cleaning the oven one day when we were out! The oven, oven trays and racks were all gleaming like new! 🤣

We also still keep our bin in a cupboard after years of having to secure it away from them.

As for never wagging their tales. They do. And they’re bloody lethal painful things to get hit with. Even worse when they get hyper excited to go out , wack their tale on the radiator edge and proceed to splash blood all over freshly painted walls like you’d see in some slasher movie!

Our first dog as an adult couple was a rescue Doberman/lab cross called Bruno. Gorgeous big brute, tail like a strong man’s thigh. Bruno could get the zoomies with the best of them, tuck his bum in and absolutely fly round fields etc. He thought he was the king of the zoomies amongst local dogs.

One day we met the local Greyhound rescue, Lilly, in the field by the river. Bruno looked at Lilly and said “Watch this!” and took off. The owner laughed, slowly took the lead off Lilly, and let her go. In about 3 strides she had overtaken Bruno and covered what seemed like 300yds. Utterly glorious sight.

Bruno, bless him, tried to catch up but he did that thing that humans also do when he started running too fast for his legs and ended up as a big bumfled mess of legs and flesh in a heap in the field. He looked most put out. Lilly then came hurling past on a return close-pass, utter glee in her eyes, egging Bruno on.

Was hilarious. I think Bruno slept for 2 days recovering from trying to keep up.

I think our next will be a rescue greyhound, lovely beasts.

Tail down and looking glum.

Don’t they really suffer with the cold?

Please tell me they are happy sometimes.

I know the ones i see around here are always happy. Loads of space to run and things to sniff. (But no dog racing here).

They don’t much like it when it’s -20 though.

Good to see you’re consistent with your ill-informed and utterly pointless hot takes.

💪

Don’t want to disappoint…. 😘

Agree that they are a shit dog. Skinny. Boney. Miserable looking things.

Rubbish opinion.

Great dogs.

Ours wag their tails a whole lot. They also seem pretty happy a lot of the time.

They’ve got a long face… Cue horse jokes.

As stated above, get the right dog for you. A Spaniel or a small annoying yappy type thing would be my idea of dog hell.

I was walking our dog (not a greyhound, a wee cockapoo) across the somerset levels a few years back, crossed a stile and was sighted by a greyhound about 400 yards away the other side of the field, which instantly spotted a prey opportunity. It covered those 400 yards in about 15 strides and then would have mauled ours apart from the fact it was muzzled, and I managed to separate it from pinning Bonnie-the-dog down and then sat astride it until the owner came over.

That was humorous enough, as soon as the greyhound took off she was after it. The 400m is an unforgiving distance for the pro athlete – virtually a full sprint but then as the lactic comes in many pros still get jelly legs in the last 30m. To a middle aged lady in a Barbour and Hunter wellies across a ploughed field, I think the lactic set in about 300m earlier, but give her her due she pushed on. Shouting the whole time probably also didn’t help with the oxygen debt. I could have timed it with a calendar.

When she got there she was so apologetic, it was a rescue ex-racer, and a lovely dog apart from the prey drive, and a hare sized dog running away across a field was just too enticing. The greyhound had actually bitten itself inside the muzzle so there was a fair bit of blood but none we could find on BTD although she was insistent she’d pay any vet bill. I couldn’t really be cross, she had walked miles to allow it off the lead, it was unlucky that I’d done the same to get away from the MiL!!

Once back on the lead it seemed to just go into standby mode as others have said. BTD was less enamoured and to this day really cowers when a dog she doesn’t know runs up to it.

TL;DR – nice dogs but can be prone to prey drive and you won’t be catching them up easily if they do.

Don’t they really suffer with the cold?

Nothing a jumper can’t sort. She bloody loves snow for some reason.

As a youngster (many years ago) I worked in the dog section of an animal sanctuary, and we had quite a few Greyhounds (and Whippets) come in that needed rehoming (or would spend the rest of their lives at the sanctuary). From my experience they are amongst the most gentle, affectionate and happy breeds of dogs I have come across.

I am a big fan of woozles (whippet, lurcher, greyhound types). You know when they are not happy or slightly stressed as the tail is right under their body. Most of the time they are just content and ready to go. They are superb human companions and see themselves as part of the people family more than having a bond with other dogs. There is a quiet mutual respect between owner and dog. Top dogs.

Below is our old dog who was supposed to be a whippet but was lurcher sized. She was as mad as a box of frogs especially on a beach. She loved the chase but did not have a kill instinct, touching a rabbit with her nose was her reward. She passed away over 11 years ago but lives long in the memory.

Agree that they are a shit dog. Skinny. Boney. Miserable looking things.

I think Mando summed up my feelings on this one.

Mine isn’t interested in people (especially miserable sods that have no time for him) but likes other dogs, especially his own kind. Also good at pubs but tends to get in the way due to his size if you don’t find an out the way seat.

X2 on the bull whip tail, he stretches and likes to give it a good swish about the place like Zorro, after the first cockshot you learn to keep well out the way.

Disagree about chicken brain. He’s a smart bugger, they only appear stupid because they can be so disobedient.

Saw a whippet on a beach once…. WOW !! … when it hit it’s turbo boost it was incredible.

I would love to witness a grey hound a full chat in a local park/beach.

Thing about sight hounds is they don’t crave human attention like say a lab but if you know what to look for you can see if they are happy or not.

I would love to witness a grey hound a full chat in a local park/beach.

We generally won’t let ours off the lead at the park as he has almost zero recall. No real prey drive, he’s uninterested in my parents guinea pigs and quite likes my aunts terriers so it’s not that, but once he’s running there’s no stopping him. We do let him off on empty beaches and he loves it, Harlech beach on a sunny day is his favourite place on earth, and the space (combined with a trepidation of water) means he can bounce and run there until he’s worn out (15 minutes approximately…).

I thought we were talking about Kate Middleton again?!?

I thought we were talking about Kate Middleton again?!?

Stay classy

space (combined with a trepidation of water)

Mine got over it the first time he chased my mates dog into the water and didn’t realise what was happening until he was up to his neck!

He now enjoys paddling at ankle depth until he takes a zoomie and will run through the deeper stuff. Has even been known to lie in the pools on warm days.

Oh wow jp-t853 she’s the absolute spit of Fern, my oldest and last lurcher 😍😥

Long dogs are awesome!  Greyhounds, whippets, lurchers,  all brilliant dogs. They’re the best,  but I’m biased.

Our lurcher inspecting my handiwork, having fun is her favourite thing. Mischievous but aloof I think is the best description, and clever!  Mrs F does agility with her to re adult tree set her mind and body,  she loves it.