Bringing Your Greyhound Home

Preparing for your new arrival

Greyhounds adopted through us come home with a new green collar, a leash, a fleece coat, a muzzle fit to size.

Your shopping list should include:

• A nice soft bed for inside
• A durable bed for outside
• Food

Getting your greyhound into your home

Keeping calm

It is important to keep your initial arrival home as calm as possible and try not to overwhelm your greyhound. Ensure that you and your family give your greyhound some space to begin with.

Allow them to come you when they are ready and don't shower them with attention or try and cuddle them.

Time for a look around!

When you first arrive home, allow your greyhound time to explore their new surroundings. Keeping the greyhound on leash, visit all of the areas that the greyhound will have access to and introduce them to their safe space and bedding.

Those greyhounds that come from mostly indoor kennel environments, are usually trained to only go the toilet outside; so it is a good idea to show your greyhound your back yard and where you want them to toilet, before bringing them inside the house. Give them some time to explore their new backyard with you close by. When you think the greyhound is nearly ready to go, physically take the greyhound to the area that you expect them to use and then reinforce successful toileting in that place with lots of praise and/or some treats.

Once they have toileted and seem relatively relaxed, you can begin to introduce them to the inside of their new home.

Your greyhound will be unsettled and unsure of its new surroundings, so 'accidents' in the first couple of weeks may happen. If this occurs, you should not punish the greyhound (i.e. do not shout or rub his/her nose in it), this may make the problem worse.

Instead, clean the area thoroughly and immediately take the greyhound outside to its toileting area. Praise the greyhound when he does the right thing.

We need to remember that coming into a new home can expose the greyhound to many new experiences that can sometimes lead to an information overload. We want to introduce them to one space at a time to avoid them becoming overwhelmed.

Inside or outside?

We recommend that as long as there is shelter, that your greyhound spends more time each day outside than inside during the first two weeks. This reduces the likelihood of the dog developing separation anxiety, and helps them understand that your backyard is a safe place for them to be. We recommend keeping the dog outside during the day, and bringing him inside at night to sleep. Once he has settled in you can bring him inside much more often.

What about meeting friends and family?

Avoid inviting too many people over to meet your greyhound in the first week or so. Let them settle in and begin to know their family before they are required to learn about other new people.

If your greyhound appears anxious or stressed, keep their world small. Don't take him for big walks around the neighbourhood or outings in the car - allow them the time to slowly get used to your own home before introducing them to new experiences and people.

A whole new world

When your greyhound first comes home they can find trivial home life and traffic noise very scary as they have not experienced them before.

Most greyhounds grow up and live in rural areas where life is much quieter. Many greyhounds have also not spent much time inside households to get used to these noises. For example, trains, trams, cars, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, dishwashers etc. If your greyhound is showing signs of distress when they hear unfamiliar household and city noises or other loud noises, there are some great tips in our loud noises resource.

Keep their world small in the first few weeks – just focus on allowing your new dog time to get used to you and your home before taking him on big walks or to meet lots of new people etc.