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Cray - my retired greyhound
All about adopting an ex-racing dog

I am by no means an expert! I adopted Cray on 3rd May 2004 after lots of research. I can only talk about my own dog and things I've found useful. If you have experience to share, please email me and when I have sufficient comments, I'll add them here.

Sadly Cray died from cancer on 4 October 2012, 6 weeks after I first found a small lump on his ribs. He was aged 12.5 years and is missed every day. I am still willing to answer any questions about rehoming a greyhound or to direct you to my local homefinding service, Whittingham Kennels.

Research

1. DEFRA guide to responsible dog ownership, including legal requirements [External site]
2. Requirements of a greyhound
3. Why choose a greyhound?
4. What a greyhound is not
5. Where to find a greyhound
6. Costs of adopting and owning a greyhound
7. Questions to ask

Adopting your dog

1. Home check
2. Care guides
3. Health and first aid
4. Food and snacks
5. Insurance
6. Housetraining
7. General training
8. Leaving him at home
9. Neutering
10. Playtime
11. Digging
12. Children
13. Other dogs and other animals
14. Holiday kennels

Cray

• Commands Cray knows - updated every year
• Mishap #1 - 9 days after adoption - Cray discovers the upstairs
• Mishap #2 - 3 weeks after adoption - Cray steals loads of choccy coffeebeans
• Mishap #3 - 8 years after adoption - Cray steals a half kilo of raisins
• Cray's racing history
• Photos
• Journal entries about the first month of ownership

Other owners / Support
These are reasonable sources of support however they are US-centric where crate training (caging in a box a little bigger than the dog) is encouraged in various circumstances. If you are unwilling to crate your dog, responses range from ambivalent to offensive, so tread carefully! If anyone finds a UK-centric source of support, please tell me!

• Discussion site: Grey Talk [External site]
• Mailing list: Greyhound-L [External site]
• Newsgroup: rec.pets.dogs.rescue [External site]

This page last updated: 01 September 2022

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