Dog allergies:  Fortunately, many people who are allergic to dogs, seem to be able to tolerate greyhounds.  Short coat and lack of or low dander are cited as possible reasons for tolerance.  Potential adopters who have dog allergies should plan to spend time at the kennel to see if their symptoms occur.  Unless you take an allergy medicine regularly and will continue to do so once the dog is in your home, do not take one before you visit the kennel.  If you do, it could temporarily mask symptoms.  It is not fair to the dog to take it home, and return the dog a day or two later because allergy symptoms re-appear once medication is stopped.  Potential adopters should alert Marilyn to any allergy problems.  The time to determine if you are allergic to greyhounds is before you adopt.

Returned dogs and children:  An analysis of the situations which lead to the return of dogs to the kennel has been interesting.  Although there are several categories of reasons why people return dogs, one of the biggest is conflict between young children (6 years and under) and the dogs.  Many canine adoption agencies simply do not adopt to families with young children.  Greyhound Adoption Service has established a policy which states that we reserve the right to refuse adoptions to families with young children if we feel that there is possible cause for conflict.  Everyone looses when a dog is returned.  It is emotionally difficult for the family and the dog.  Red flags are families with children that have not had a dog before and children who do not listen well to parental instructions.  Greyhounds are not the type of dogs who appreciate or easily tolerate being dressed up in clothes or overly handled by the inexperienced hands of a young child.  Sight hounds, and many other breeds, need to have adequate space to retreat if they feel threatened.  If a child jumps atop a sleeping greyhound, the dog feels trapped, and may strike out.  It is a survival tactic, and the dog will act
first, before realizing that the "threat" is a family member.  This type of response does not mean that the dog is aggressive.  It is a result of centuries of breeding far-sighted dogs.  It does mean that we need to be responsible and cautious when placing dogs in families with children.

Condo restrictions:  In the past few months, several situations have arisen with regard to greyhounds and condos.  The worst case was an adoption which took place in January.  The woman checked her lease, and dogs were permitted by her condo association.  She adopted one of our greyhounds and was quickly falling in love with the darling dog.  A week later, she was visited by a member of her condo association.  Apparently, the woman did not read the fine print.  Only dogs 20 lbs. or under were allowed.  She had to give up the dog and was heartbroken.  Luckily we found another home for the dog right away.  We also had a situation where someone saw a person in their condo building who had a large dog, and made the assumption that he could have a large dog.  We stressed that he double check.  It turned out that the owner of the large dog had the dog prior to the building turning into a condo and the dog was grandfathered in.  If you are in  a condo and are interested in adopting a greyhound, please double check before you even make that first call. An ounce of prevention is worth a lot of heartbreak!
 
 
 
 
 

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