Question about trusting your dog to run free for exercise ...

[Canis-Lupess]

I'm in the UK and many greyhound owners here, mostly racing greyhound owners, don't let their dogs off lead for fear of them injuring themselves mainly but also because they are often really aggressive towards other dogs that might pass by with their owners.

My dad owns and races greyhounds although I have very little to do with it all. I don't like what happens to many of them once their racing careers are over.
I know he sometimes lets his off, mainly when he wants them to have a run and one person holds them and he walks off over the field and then he shouts them and the other person lets the dogs go. They always run straight to him and then he puts them back on lead again.
He'd only allow them to run free on a nice level flat field though or up a slope that doesn't have humps and potholes etc.... Anywhere with humps and bumps would be off limits for running around and he has to get them on lead if any other dogs come into view. He also keeps them on lead if the ground is too hard...say in the middle of summer when there has been no rain for a while and the ground is all hard and dry.

On occasion, he does take them to this really large flat beach. Race horses are trained there etc......it's a couple of miles from the sand dunes to the sea when the tide is out. He lets the dogs off there. I went with him on one occasion.

[borzoimom]

Its highly unusual for a sighthound to be aggressive towards other dogs- they will chase a small animal, but not aggression. However- I have heard many times that retired racers, having been around nothing BUT other greys, have a hard time accepting that a dog can look so different from them. Usually however- this is manifest in shyness not aggression.

[GreyhoundGirl]

Its highly unusual for a sighthound to be aggressive towards other dogs- they will chase a small animal, but not aggression. However- I have heard many times that retired racers, having been around nothing BUT other greys, have a hard time accepting that a dog can look so different from them. Usually however- this is manifest in shyness not aggression.

Ditto. Greyhounds are around other greys their whole lives, they are anything but dog aggresive.

[Alysser]

My dog is perfect offlead. She knows recall if anything, but she would NEVER leave my side outside. She doesn't chase other animals, she does have SOME interest in them if she sees them, but most of the time she doesn't. I always keep the leash on her no matter what of course. I once left her outside in the yard for 10 mins, in a stay postion. She stayed there for 9 minutes. I swear, I was watching her the entire time. She only got out of it to look in the door to see if I was coming.

This proves some dogs can be off lead, others like sighthounds, its not a good idea. I hope to get a rescue retired grey in the near future, or distant future and I already know he/she will never be offleash in an unfenced area.

Someone told me, when I e-mailed a greyhound rescue this question, that retractable leashes are not good for greys at all and if he/she started to run it would snap. Is this true?

And do they have long 30 foot nylon leashes?

[borzoimom]

The longest flexi/lead I have found, other than a check cord, is 26 feet.. Check cords can be alot longer but risk having legs tied up..

[applesmom]

Anything beyond 25 feet doesn't really give enough control in sticky situations. With a longer lead, even a 40 pound dog can pull a human down when they hit the end of the lead at a run.

We made our own check cords with 1/2 and sometimes even 1 inch cotton rope. It's not as flexible as the retractable leashes and there's much less chance of the dog becoming tangled. We've never had one of those break even when a 65 pound dog hit the end at an all out run. With the rope check cords--wearing gloves is highly recommended!

Wouldn't recommend it for the smaller breeds though!

[shais_mom]

Someone told me, when I e-mailed a greyhound rescue this question, that retractable leashes are not good for greys at all and if he/she started to run it would snap. Is this true?

And do they have long 30 foot nylon leashes?

pretty much - I used a flexi on my greyhound but it was only 15 feet. I often said if I had one longer I would have to anchor myself b/c she'd knock me off my feet (no easy feat) since they top out at about 30 feet. That is why greys are not supposed to be tied out - they can top out their speed and break their necks. I did tie mine out on a tie out (15 feet) and she clotheslined herself once and from then on never tried it again - but what she DID do was run around and around and around - and unscrew the tie out from the ground! She did that once and started on her merry way but got caught by a tree stump! And there she stayed until I rescued her!

[CathyBogart]

Jasper (19 lbs) knocked me down at the end of a 16 foot flexi once. Just be careful!

[Canis-Lupess]

Ask my dad and he'll tell you how nasty racing greyhounds can be with other dogs.

He's had one of his own dogs rushed to the vets a few years ago when his brother attacked him and made a real mess of him and the sister decided to join in too and some of them go completely potty whenever they see another dog when out being walked.
Not far from where I live, there was an incident where a dog walker had his dog attacked and killed by two greyhounds and the owner of them just walked past and did nothing.

I've also seen other greyhound owners walking their dogs on lead on the fields where I walk mine and they would go totally potty whenever another dog came into view.
Even on the dog track, fights between the dogs aren't uncommon, especially when the race is finished thats why they wear the cage muzzles and many of them wear box muzzles when not racing to stop them going for each other. My dads dogs often wear them.
He used to have dogs at a proffessional greyhound kennels and I painted one of the kennel owners retired greyhounds and, when I was looking round the place, many of those dogs were wearing box muzzles when they were in their kennels.

Yes, when hyped up on high protien diets, racing greyhounds are often neurotic but they calm right down once retired.

My dad says his dogs see other small dogs they don't know as prey rather than other dogs. He says they'd kill little dogs if they got hold of them.

I suppose it is partly how they are reared and always in kennels and walked only on lead and not socialized with other dogs outside etc...

Even at the track, they are often kept muzzled...they don't let the greyhounds play together and get to know each other, put it that way.

I have personally seen lots of racing greyhound show aggression so I know they can be that way. I'm sure the ones I saw being walked on our local fields would have run straight over and gone for my dogs had they not been on the lead. He'd walk about 5 at once, you could tell they were racers.

[borzoimom]

THAT IS HIGHLY BIZARRE!!!! HIGHLY! And not like a sighthound at all.. I know several people that work with active racing greys and adoptees- NONE HAVE EVER ACTED like that.. Very strange for sure! I emailed this to one of the directors, and her response was not positive.. Where is do these dogs race?

[lizbud]

None of my dogs have been dog or people aggressive, but I would never
trust them on recall so they are never let run off lead.They can run their
little feet off within a fenced yard, and a dog park, but never without
boundaries.

[Canis-Lupess]

Nah, this is in general. Not just dogs at a certain track or owned by certain people. Even though I don't have that much to do with it all myself, I have met quite a few other greyhoud people via my dad and when they talk and such, the general jist is that racing greyhounds can be dangerous with other dogs, cats...etc...

My dad had a greyhound which was neurotic and aggressive and, when she was a racer, she'd kill cats or small dogs etc if she had ever gotten a chance...but when she retired and was rehomed, my dad heard about her further down the line. The new owners had a cat which she was now scared of, lol, and she was totally different, as placid as can be. A different dog totally.

All of the said greyhounds have been fine with other people and dogs they know most of the time. My dad has two border collies as well and the greyhounds are ok with them because they know them. Still, one of my dads border collies has a chunk missing out of one of her ears...that one of the greys did.

He's had some that had dominance issues and were aggressive for that reason.

I know high protien diets that racers are fed on are enough to make any dog hyper and can affect behaviour too so I think thats what a lot of it boils down to as well especially as many of them seem to change into a totally different dog shortly after retirement and their diet is changed and training stopped etc.... In my dog behaviour books, it says that diet can have very big influences on behaviour. I know that Border collies aren't supposed to be on too high protien because it sends them neurotic as well. Mine were always on 18%.

Still, at the same time, my dad has had some more placid greyhounds who wouldn't attack other dogs.

The dog I mentioned in the previous post who was attacked by his siblings was photographed in the vets surgery when he first arrived and I saw the photos. Sheesh, he was a total mess, just laying on the floor covered in severe wounds and bleeding. I saw him a few days afterwards with all little pipes sticking out of him. He was a placid dog himself. He didn't even try to fight back when he was attacked.