USA Bus Lines

Greyhound and Toddler?

My family and I are considering rescuing a retired racing greyhound. We have done copious research, and we are now wondering how, since we have a toddler, both the grey and the child can be on the floor together (with supervision) and still remain safe. We are concerned about hygiene, the dog tracking dirt into the house, etc. We realize greyhounds don't shed much (incidentally one of the reasons we decided on the breed), and we hope to adopt a grey who does the same, but we wouldn't like to have our toddler ingest/inhale any stray dog hairs. It's not practical to vacuum every time the dog is on the floor, however, we will vacuum the living room every day. I also read that someone trained their dog to wipe his paws before entering the house. Any tips regarding that bit of training would be helpful. Thank you!

Public Comments

1. A little dog hair never hurt anyone (and the greyhounds I have known had very thin coats). Just wipe the dogs paws when he comes in if you are worried.
2. They hygine is not the issue as they are very clean dogs, you'd only need to worry if your child was immuno-compromised. You can have the dog walk in the house over special mats that collect the soil. What I'd be worried about is that racing Greyhounds will have never shared their beds or lying areas since they were puppies. Some can be sleep-startle biters if you let them share a couch or lie on your bed. So what you need to do is specify exactly what temperamanet you require and wait until the rescue has one turn up. You want: friendly, not food aggressive/possessive, not sleep startle aggressive, small dog and cat friendly. Consider joining Greytalk and asking your question there, its arguably the best greyhound site on the web. http://www.greytalk.com/
3. umm YOUR way larger feet bring in even more dirt. and there will be plenty to go around in the yard too. overhygene cultivates allergies too http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20774622/ns/health-livescience/t/dirty-truth-you-can-be-too-clean/#.Tlp-kV1yCW4
4. Your dog has less germs than you may think. The way to begin teaching a dog to wipe it's feet is to teach it how to do the spin. That is by holding a treat in your hand and moving your hand in a circle around the dog's body and having the dog following your hand with it's nose We call that a spin, but in your case if you use this for wiping the feet, I think I'd call it wipe your feet. Then you can transfer the spin action to the mat. Kids have lived healthy for ages with animals. You'll do fine and remember kids exposed to animals at an early age are less likely to develop asthma.