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I have an Italian Greyhound. I love, love, love my little doggie to death, but I’ll be the first to admit, he’s not the perfect dog. Italian Greyhounds have a lot of wonderful qualities and some annoying ones too. My Italian Greyhound is the most cuddly thing you’ll ever meet and great with the kids. He’s also got potty training issues
Finding an Italian Greyhound to Buy or Adopt
When I first started asking around about Italian Greyhounds a lot of people told me to look into getting one from a shelter. It turns out this breed ends up in a shelter a lot for a couple of different reasons:
1. Leg injuries – Italian Greyhounds have very thin legs, which one pet store owner told me could break from something as gentle as jumping off a chair.
2. Potty training problems – small dog = small bladder
If that doesn’t scare you away, then you can probably find a shelter fairly close to home. I found one with an available Italian Greyhound about two hours away. However, the first thing they asked me was whether or not I had small children. Apparently many shelters will not place a rescued Italian Greyhound in a home with young kids. They are supposedly too rough on the dogs’ fragile legs.
Out of luck with the shelter, I started to make some calls to the local pet stores. Everyone there tried to talk me out of an Italian Greyhound and into a Chihuahua. (This was 2006 and apparently there was a big inventory of Chihuahuas.) Next, I took to the want ads. I finally found a small breeder who had one for sale. (And this is a whole other topic that is much bigger than this post.)
Finding an Italian Greyhound to Buy or Adopt
When I first started asking around about Italian Greyhounds a lot of people told me to look into getting one from a shelter. It turns out this breed ends up in a shelter a lot for a couple of different reasons:
1. Leg injuries – Italian Greyhounds have very thin legs, which one pet store owner told me could break from something as gentle as jumping off a chair.
2. Potty training problems – small dog = small bladder
If that doesn’t scare you away, then you can probably find a shelter fairly close to home. I found one with an available Italian Greyhound about two hours away. However, the first thing they asked me was whether or not I had small children. Apparently many shelters will not place a rescued Italian Greyhound in a home with young kids. They are supposedly too rough on the dogs’ fragile legs.
Out of luck with the shelter, I started to make some calls to the local pet stores. Everyone there tried to talk me out of an Italian Greyhound and into a Chihuahua. (This was 2006 and apparently there was a big inventory of Chihuahuas.) Next, I took to the want ads. I finally found a small breeder who had one for sale. (And this is a whole other topic that is much bigger than this post.)
