retired greyhound q's??

My sister really wants to get a dog once they move from Hawaii (very soon!).
She was looking into retired greyhounds but has heard conflicting information on how they are as family dogs.

I am assuming that the rescue/owner would be able to give her information about each specific dog?

She has an 18 month year old (who looooooooooves dogs) & is planning on having another baby, so she just really wanted to make sure a retired greyhound would be a good choice!


What do you guys think?

Unfortunately, I think your sister may not have much luck.

Strange you should ask this question!! Cousin and her hubby tried to adopt a retired greyhound just a few months ago. They have three children, two school-aged and a baby not quite 2 yrs. old. All the children are very well behaved and respectful toward all animals, including the toddler. Still, they were turned down because of the age of the youngest child.

Even though adoptions are down in this economy, it's still very common for rescues to have quite strict age limits for children of prospective adoptive families. Your sister may have better luck getting a dog, any dog, directly from a shelter or from a private owner rather than a rescue.

Another example: Eldest sis called me last night about her friends who just last week approached a Golden Retriever breed rescue. The family already has one Golden and is looking to add a second. They were turned down because their youngest child is 5 yrs. old and not 6 yrs. old.
(This despite the fact that they already have a Golden that their 5 yr. old is perfectly fine with!)

Yeah, two greyhound rescues turned us down because I was pregnant, though someone on the board of directors almost convinced them to let us have a dog if she could mentor me as she had her two children born about 5 years after she got her current dogs. They deliberated, but said, "it's not a good situation for the dog." Yeah....neither was being euthanized for the dog that didn't get pulled off the track because they turned us down.

Anyway, from what the one board member told me it depends on the dog. They need to have a space away from kids that they can get to if kids are harassing them. Also, most track dogs are not used to be touched while sleeping, and a few have startle reflexes that involve snapping at whatever touches them awake. So you would want to desensitize them to being woken. She said that one of the dogs worshiped her kids, and the other just kind of ignored them.

ETA: I get so irritated at how inflexible some of these rescues are. We tried adopting a german shepherd from a breed rescue, and wouldn't adopt to us because Robert was under 25. Never mind that we owned a house, were married, and I was over 25. Their reasoning was "people under 25 don't have stable living situations." Ugh.

My DD's best friend has had a total of 5 retired greyhounds. Right now they have one. Their first two were adopted when they got married. They now have two preschoolers, the youngest being about 18 months when they adopted the present greyhound. I think it depends on the rescue.

They love the greyhounds. They feel good about rescuing, of course, and that the dogs have been fostered previous to being adopted out. All of the dogs have been sweet natured and good with children. Some dogs are gaga over kids, others are very hands/paws off. Your friend needs to know that, due to their racing structure, greyhounds may have trouble sitting.