Raising a Greyhound in the Suburbs?
 

hey everyone,

just looking for some opinions about raising a greyhound pup from 3 months of age from people that have raised there dogs from a smallish property in the suburbs.

this would be my situation to give you some idea.

i have a large (empty) single car garage (enclosed)
would have to keep the pup outside of the house to sleep etc
have a large park across the road
small (U) shaped backyard
no children

work full time as does my wife so would be able to feed the pup morning and night however if needed can organise a family member to feed more regularly with the pups early developement if needed.

can walk extensively before and after work.
would also be able to invest in a walking machine if needed.
would also be happy to invest in other things as my dog's well being is my TOP priority.


the reason i'm asking is i have my first pup which is with his trainer and after 6 months of asking questions and observing thought i would really like to train 1 or 2 dogs from home myself.

just wondering if this is at all possible before i start getting all the required paperwork and find out that my situation wouldn't be suitable.
if you need more details from me to answer my question please let me know.


i welcome all feedback and advice.

thank you in advance.

kind regards,

ghlover86

Ghlover, I expect there will be others on the site coming forward with more expansive responses but in essence, I think you are with your circumstances, going to find it very difficult to realise the full potential of any pup(s) you purchase and you are likely to strike problems. Can you depend on the family member to continue to provide that necessary 3rd feed a day, what is the pup going to be doing during the day when you and your wife are at work and maybe there is good reason for there to be 2 pups not one, are you worried about your backyard being destroyed, is your backyard completely secure whilst you are at work and is the park across the road really suitable for providing your pup(s) with the all important galloping. For more reasons than one I doubt the latter point very much. Many decades ago what you are contemplating may have been feasible and many would have done it but with modern day regulations and the propensity of the public to complain to authorities, particularly where a greyhound is involved, I do feel pessimistic about your proposal. Sorry, it sounds in many ways, a lot of fun to me but I am not optimistic about success nor the absensce of major problems, maybe even divorce is your wife was not "fully on board". Whatever you do I really hope it works very well.

Thanks for the reply,

the park would not be ideal for galloping as the council laws are fairly strict. That's kind of why I was thinking maybe a dog walking machine, however I'm not sure how good/bad they actually are. I don't have anything in my yard that I would be concerned about the pup destroying as it's pretty much empty. My family would be able to feed them the third time a day as they're only a 10 minute drive away. The neighbours I don't think will be a problem as a couple of them have dogs themselves. The backyard itself is well enclosed with 6 foot wooden fences.

A couple more questions I have would be how long from 3 months of age would the pup need to be fed more than twice daily?

Also what would be a good fitness option for the pup considering I would be able to walk the pup twice daily, provide a walking machine and would be happy to drive him on weekends somewhere for a gallop.

Thanks for the last post and for all the feedback :)

First of all, if you are getting a young pup, the main thing would be plenty of exercise playing with another puppy, as it would just wreck your backyard and sit howling all day, upsetting your neighbours.
A walking machine is only designed for adult greyhounds in training, not for young pups, you don't want them developing physical problems from being walked to much solely for their exercise.

If you want to start training your own dogs, you would be much better off starting with an adult dog to learn on, as they are easy to train from a suburban backyard and don't require constant attention like a young pup.

Would you consider that option instead of the hassles of looking after a young pup? My best advice, considering your circumstances, would be to leave the pup on a rearing farm or with someone that has an acreage and could provide the time and company for the pup. Then when the pup reaches 10 months or so, you can bring it home and begin its early education by plenty of handling (walking etc, taking to trial tracks to watch the action, getting the pup keen) so by the time it's 12-13 months old you can then send it away for breaking in, fully able to break in without too much drama.


A pup doesn't need to be fed more than twice a day from 4 mths onwards, so it is ok to feed in the morning and afternoon, as long as the pup gets plenty of bones, or has a snack midday like a small bowl of kibble chucked in. But company is a must, as well as a safe, warm kennel within a small enclosure. NEVER leave the pup in the backyard all day and night to roam. Even on bigger properties, pups are locked up every night in small yards, then let out in the mornings into bigger yards to play all day.


regards

Hi Lily,

that sounds like a great idea. That may be the best option considering my circumstances. It does seem like I don't have the facilities to care for a pup or two however a juvenile may be a good option. Does anyone know a website or a book that I can purchase that covers feeding and excercise regimes for a greyhound through their various stages?

Thank you very much for your post Lily.

Kind regards,

ghlover86

You can check out this website, it is very handy.

The Health of the racing Greyhound - The Health of the Racing Greyhound

hey Lily,

had a quick look and it looks pretty good. i'll have a good look hopefully in the next couple of days.

thanks Lily,

ghlover86 =]

home pups
 

mate if you can get the dogs plenty of excercise and obviously fed well i cant see a problem.dogs need plenty of galloping especially pups (every day)from about 5 to 6 months.even as a learning factor to yourself,give it a go.in my experiance rearers can stuff dogs up or make a dog.i sent dogs out and then i was totally dissapointed in them and they were never galloped properly.aswell they need to be handled by people ,ive bread nice dogs that werent handled and turned out spooks and turns out to be untrainable.cheers jimdog

hey Jim,

thanks for your post. the galloping room is ultimately the big downfall. it's just something i dont have at my current house. i may have to have a chat with my trainer and see if we can strike a deal when i get my next pup to use his facilities for rearing and let me do the breaking in and training from his property etc. his currently looking after my first pup and his nearly 10 months old now and he is looking really well looked after.
i'm going to the grv workshop in a months time so i'll learn a lot from that and go from there i think.

thanks again for your post.

kind regards,

ghlover86 =]

home pups
 

yes mate see if you can ,maybe give him a pup or a share.

Jimdog obviously has had some bad experience with poor rearing farms, however don't let that deter you from sending your pup to a rearing farm as ultimately this will lead to the pup gaining the best of life experience in handling fields on a racetrack.
All you need to do is do your homework re selecting the best rearing facility to place your pup in. Good rearing farms will do all the work required to turn your pup out lead broken, well handled and muscled up from being galloped with other dogs.

Also, breaking in should only be done by experienced people so if you intend to go that way yourself, make sure you follow the guidance/advice of a top breaker and don't ever rush the dog with too much trialing early, as it is so easy to stuff up a dog permanently if a mistake is made.

Don't be tempted by well meaning folks who have limited experience themselves in rearing, training or breaking in, offering you advice ;-) so if you know a good trainer already, then pick their brains out. Don't be afraid to ask them questions however silly you may think it is.

Good luck with whatever you do,

cheers
lilly

thanks guys,

sooo many options. i think i'm going to have a good think about this, do a bit of reading, have a chat to my trainer and see how to go about it. it's funny how having sooo many options can make the situation a little bit harder to figure out. my pup's nearly 10 months old and i'm going to try and watch his pre training when the time comes. his a big daddy cool/dave's babe pup and is looking pretty good at the moment.

everybody on here is sooo kind and helpfull.

again i thank you all for your comments.

they're all oh so much appreciated.

take care.

ghlover86

ill throw in my two pence worth here
i dont live in aussieland so dont know your laws so will just work from my own experience

can it be done in a built up area........yes of coarse just remember it is a full time job no days off
you dont need to feed three times a day from that age on twice is fine but on its own it WILL be bored and could eat throught a wooden fence i would put a four foot wire around the yard
i started out in a built up area and did fine but i use to go out of twon to some fields to let them run a near by gallop is a must
a walking machine is a waste of time for a pup period
breaking in .... i know it done differnt there but i break in all my own never had a problem time and patience is key
ask ask and ask questions of trainers you know must are very good to give advice

hi Noel,

thanks for the post. the wiring is a great idea. thanks for all the advice.

ghlover86

Hi

I believe a race dog is 60% rearing , 30 % breeding and 10 % training . i don't talk about feeding , pups must be a little more weight than a race dog .

The important stages is : age 0 to 3 months (mother time ), 3 to 8 months( growing period ) and 8 to 14 months is the most important , imprint period .dogs must never be stress in that time , else he will keep it all his life .

You have to keep all the litter together , 3 to 8 months in a 1/2 acre circular pen with trees and no corners , 8 to 14 months in a 1 to 1 1/2 acres circular pen , with trees and no corners . 6 feet deer fence is perfect .


At 14 months you can start to play with them , at 14 months it take me 5 min to learn a dog to walk at 18 months start fast work .

14 to 18 months you can do group of 3 or 4 dogs , turn loose in a safe 3 acres paddock , I cut the grass around with a radius of 100 feet , they learn to take the bend and run on the rail , you can drag just to make sure they chase , the best is a rabbit skin . When you hand slip first time , fix the rabbit skin on the harm , make him smell it before , he will know the rest .

I keep my pups in group in the kennel , all litter til 12 months and split depending there agressivity . sleeping Pen are 12 X 30 feet , feed only inside and in group .
Turn out 10 hours on 24 , i turn out at 6 am , bring at 12 feed , rest and out at 2pm back at 6 pm for eat and sleep .

At 14 to 18 months , group of 4 , feed in the sleeping pen a bowl for each dog , need to make sure the boys are not too ruff on bitches , some came in season at 12 months .
I turn out every 4 to 5 days in my 3 acres paddock for a fast free gallop , take 2 weeks to take the speed and now they start to build up in a race dog .

Training is work , rest and recovery , you need to build a sprinter .

This is approximation , some dogs can be early some late , but if you don't keep them all together till 14 months they can have problems to race in group and less competitive , shy when touch by others dogs .

Cheers ! Paul

good afternoon Paul,

thank you very much for your post!!

i have read your post a couple of times and find some of your techniques very interesting and if you don't mind would like to ask you some questions to hopefully learn some more about them. in australia the few trainers i know all bring there dogs up in rectangular enclosures. is the only reason you use circular enclosures to teach them how to handle bends or do you also have some other reasons as to using circular enclosures instead of rectangular ones? also do the trees serve only for shade for your dogs or do they also serve another purpose? lastly are you located in australia or overseas?

again thank you very much for your post, you've got me very intrigued with your methods.

kindest regards,

ghlover86.

Hi

I believe a race dog is 60% rearing , 30 % breeding and 10 % training . i don't talk about feeding , pups must be a little more weight than a race dog .

The important stages is : age 0 to 3 months (mother time ), 3 to 8 months( growing period ) and 8 to 14 months is the most important , imprint period .dogs must never be stress in that time , else he will keep it all his life .

You have to keep all the litter together , 3 to 8 months in a 1/2 acre circular pen with trees and no corners , 8 to 14 months in a 1 to 1 1/2 acres circular pen , with trees and no corners . 6 feet deer fence is perfect .


At 14 months you can start to play with them , at 14 months it take me 5 min to learn a dog to walk at 18 months start fast work .

14 to 18 months you can do group of 3 or 4 dogs , turn loose in a safe 3 acres paddock , I cut the grass around with a radius of 100 feet , they learn to take the bend and run on the rail , you can drag just to make sure they chase , the best is a rabbit skin . When you hand slip first time , fix the rabbit skin on the harm , make him smell it before , he will know the rest .

I keep my pups in group in the kennel , all litter til 12 months and split depending there agressivity . sleeping Pen are 12 X 30 feet , feed only inside and in group .
Turn out 10 hours on 24 , i turn out at 6 am , bring at 12 feed , rest and out at 2pm back at 6 pm for eat and sleep .

At 14 to 18 months , group of 4 , feed in the sleeping pen a bowl for each dog , need to make sure the boys are not too ruff on bitches , some came in season at 12 months .
I turn out every 4 to 5 days in my 3 acres paddock for a fast free gallop , take 2 weeks to take the speed and now they start to build up in a race dog .

Training is work , rest and recovery , you need to build a sprinter .

This is approximation , some dogs can be early some late , but if you don't keep them all together till 14 months they can have problems to race in group and less competitive , shy when touch by others dogs .

Cheers ! Paul

Hi ,

Sorry i did send the last post twice !!!

I did lear about Greyhound in New Zealand but my vet and couples of trainers over there gave me some clue .


Circular pen ! The pups should never running stop , turn 180 deg and run again like in square pen , the best pups will hurt there shoulders and will stay lame at the racing age , if they don't brake down before .

The trees help the pups to watching in front and taking turn , turning out in group show them top run many dogs together .

You just need to turn them out in this kind of pen and trow them a rabbit skin once a month to inprint there scent memory and competition spirit .

You don't have to drag a lot . more risk to get hurt in drag .

I'm in Canada now , i'm a fan of Aussie line , i have 9 pups ready to go race in USA , I got invitation by a very good track there to trials my pups .


<
Cheers !

Paul

hi Paul,

thanks for your reply and don't worry about the double post. i will have to try that one day and see how that goes. i wish you the very best of luck with your pups and hope they give you many wins. let me know how they end up.

kind regards.

ghlover86 =]

There are a lot of different rearing methods by farms in Australia, I know of a guy out in upper hunter valley who reared his pups in obstacle course paddock to teach them to use their eyes and brains to avoid obstacles. He put a lot of stuff like barrels, tyres, etc in the middle of paddock.
Some rearing farms (mine included) prefer to keep pups penned in at nights in 30m x 30m yards and let out daily for a couple of hours twice a day to free gallop in big paddocks. (more than 1 acre preferably, best is 10 acres or more, the famous Pringles reared them tough that way too, letting their pups run wild on huge acres.)

Other rearing farms keep pups in long straight runs, pups are never let out to free gallop around a huge paddock, so their skeletonal structure will be a lot more prone to calluses, deformity, overgrowth/undergrowth etc from constantly running up and down with other dogs in a long straight run, competing with their neighbours. Especially if the ground becomes hard and dry from the constant pounding, you'll find these pups at 12 months old with chronic wrist/metacarpal problems and 'dropped hips' etc.

One of my bitches was reared by a poor rearing farm in western sydney and was never let out to gallop, was kept permanently in a small yard along with her playmates and 20 other pups (at that time I had moved house and was working in a full time job, so couldn't get away to visit my bitch on the farm until she was 10 half months old. I had dropped her off there at 5mths old) So when I discovered the appalling conditions she had been in, I immediately grabbed her and took her home. But that 5 months already damaged her too much, she ended up with chronic wrist injuries, thin skeletonal frame (was well fed on bread and chicken though *rolling eyes*) dropped hips and overall her physical structure was just damaged to the keen eye. She broke in super fast but kept pulling up after each trial barely able to walk, so was only able to be worked every 2 weeks after her metacarpals and sore hips had recovered.

Never again will I send any of my pups out to be reared by anyone again, unless the establishment has been fully checked out in person first and with the internet these days you should be able to easily find out character references for each farm.
Back then I didn't have a computer or internet and most people didn't have computers too, that technology was still fairly new and only just starting to spread.
(And that was only 7 years ago lol lol)

All you have to do is post the name of a rearing farm on a forum, and ask members if they have used it and if anyone has anything nice or bad to say about it, and you'll have your answer (after sifting through some rubbish posts, don't forget there are jealous people in the game, so some of them may slander or say bad things about a certain farm even though they haven't been to that farm before).

cheers

good afternoon Lily,

thanks again for another informative post. i wish you lived in melbourne so i could shout you a drink lol. my pup is kept in a really long straight run which has me a little concerned now. he is in there with 2 other pups around his age (10 months) with other pups in neighbouring runs. the ground itself is well maintained with the grass being constantly green and soft underfoot. on one occassion the ground was getting torn up and hard and they moved the pups to one of the spare runs where the ground was nice and green etc. i'm unsure if the pups are let out for a free gallop but i'm heading up there tomorrow so i guess i'll find out. i try to go up there once a week just to take my pup out for a walk to get used to people as we will keep him as a pet when he is finished racing. seems to be working out well because his temperament is much better than some pups that i have seen there however i guess they all have different personalities so who knows. i think i might pop him in to see a vet at 12 months of age just for a checkup to make sure he is going well. he is being reared at mitchell lodge in keysborough, unlikely you have heard of them as you don't live in victoria but thought i'd throw it out there. they have about half a dozen dogs doing quite well this year so haven't really thought about their methods too much as i thought they must be doing something right but i think i might ask them a few questions. in your experiences do you think it's out of line asking a trainer questions about dieting and training methods? i wouldn't think many of them would be too keen on revealing that information.

well have a great day and thanks again Lily.

your information is really appreciated.

kindregards,

ghlover86 =]

lol no worries ghlover, actually I lived in Victoria for 9 months last year, so got to know a few people and raced at a few tracks down there.

Mitchell Lodge, yes I've heard of the place, haven't been there but from what I've been told, is an excellent set up run by professional people who knows what they are doing. I think your pup is in good hands! ;-)
How long are their runs? you'd only have to worry if the runs were less than 40metres long and not wide enough, sudden stops and turns will jar their wrists and hocks.

Re the trainer's methods question, I think most trainers would be happy to give you advice but some may not like telling you what they are feeding their dogs exactly, so they may just give you the stock answer lol it depends on the personality you are asking.

What you are doing with your pup eg visiting and taking it for walks, plenty of handling, is exactly the right thing, all owners should be more like you! ;-) Good luck and I hope the pup turns out a winner for you!

hi Lily,

their runs are somewhere around the 60 metre plus range maybe even 70 plus and the width is maybe 10 ish. i had a chat to them about doing a day a week of volunteer work and they're gonna try and sort something out. i also found a training college in kilmore that offers tafe courses for becoming a greyhound attendant, owner/trainer and public trainer. sent them an email asking for more details so will chase that up as it sounds quite good. i've spoken to a few people and it seems like handling the pups at a young age is a good idea which is great because they are more to me than just an investment and i love spending time with him and my mums pup.

thanks for passing on some of your knowledge.

kind regards.

ghlover86

hey guys,

thought a few people in victoria might find this handy so have posted a link of the website. there's a tafe in Kilmore victoria that offer certificates 1,2,3 in greyhound racing. level 1 = attendant, level 2 = owner/trainer and level 3 = public trainer. i have spoken to them today and they have greyhounds on site and provide a good hands on approach which may be beneficial for some new people in the greyhound industry (like me) they seem to cover just about everything when i spoke to them on the phone and the accreditation you get when you finish is accepted australia wide. i'll post more details when i look into it further but here's a link if anyone would be interested. also if any members have done this course i'd love to hear some feedback. have a great day.

ghlover86

Certificate I in Racing - Greyhound Attendant (02) - Courses - TAFE Courses Directory

p.s if i'm not allowed to post links on here i'm really sorry.

just trying to help =]