Greyhounds for families with kids!

I was turned down by two Retired racing Greyhound adoption agencies because I had a child under the age of 5 years. Thankfully, I found "Elite Greyhound Adoptions" in West Palm Beach Florida.

The Founder of this organization seems to feel the way I do... Not in every situation is a large dog right for a small child, or the child right for the dog. However there are many times when both the right family & right dog can come together & make a perfect match.

As I've learned over the past year, many retired greyhound adoption agencies have very strict blanket policies. They will not waiver, even in cases where common sense is staring them straight in the face.

We had a large retriever "Marylin" that had to be put down after a very expensive fight against cancer. This dog was large & sweet but often clumsy and would bump into our 3 year old daughter. She was used to this and familiar with having a large dog. Our other dog (a small mutt) is a fear biter. Our daughter knows & respects the fact that she cannot pet this dog because there's a good chance that she'll get bit. She fully understands this and she's never tries to pet her unless we are there supervising.

This being our background, and having explained this on my initial adoption attempts. I was blown away when I was first turned down for a 6 year old retired racer that was missing a front toe and walked with a heavy limp. "Flash" He had been with the agency for a really long time waiting for someone to try and adopt him. They just about came short of hanging up the phone on me when I said that I had a 3 year old daughter in our home. (This was a large adoption agency)

Since then, and to my amazement I've found that many adoption agencies have the same type of "absolutely not" attitude when it comes to adopting retired Greyhounds to families with small children.

Thankfully, I found Elite Greyhound Adoptions. After being interviewed both over the phone & our family in person, they felt comfortable with adopting to us. We adopted a very sweet 3 year old black "kid friendly" greyhound. Our family fell in love with him. Four weeks later we adopted another very kid friendly 3 year old brindle from Elite. I will never own another type of dog, as long as there are Greyhounds out there that need adopting. These are the sweetest, best behaved animals that I've ever encountered.

I felt so compelled by Elite Greyhound Adoptions willingness to "think outside the box" that I used my film production company to create this video. It highlights this great organization and these wonderful creatures.

Beyond adopting to families with small children in the right circumstances, they also take in Racing greyhounds with serious injuries like broken legs. I've found that very, very few organizations will do this because of the huge expense associated with it. They often take in injured dogs from the other greyhound adoption agencies that won't take them.

They are truly an outstanding organization. They are doing a lot of good for both these animals and the many people and families that have adopted them.

Enjoy the video and if you want to be apart of this great organization please go to their website and donate. They'll appreciated any amount and it will certainly be put to good use. elitegreyhounds.org

By the way the black & brindle greyhounds shown several times in a fenced yard are my wonderful dogs "Jack" & "Ozzy". That's my daughter with them as well. She loves those dogs so much. She puts pink tiaras on them all the time and they don't seem to mind. They are both very tolerant & sweet with her.

Regards,

The Fogle family

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Greyhounds
• Children & Greyhounds
• Large Dogs
• South Florida
• Charity Organizations
• Miami
• West Palm Beach
• Racing
• Dog Tracks
• Fort
• Lauderdale

[Edaholt]

Beautiful and so well done. Makes me want number 5!!!

[FdiProductions]

Too funny... Actually my wife had a dream one time that we had 5. I swore that I would never have 3 dogs... Never say Never. They are so easy going and easy to take care of. They are also such good companions too each other!

[jkmbb2006]

Nice video.... The "kid" rule is touchy.... most Greyhounds tolerate all kids just fine. We adopted 2 before our daughter was born and they both loved her at every age.. shes 5 -1/2 now..

[FdiProductions]

It shouldn't be touchy... Again not in every situation, but there are definitely instances where these animals could be getting good homes.

For every one dog placed in a good home means that an agency can bring in another one off the track. By changing this kind of thinking of "absolutely no dogs for families with small children", is probably the difference of saving hundreds of these animals yearly.

It's my intention to try and get other agencies to lighten up on this blanket policy.

[mentalyunhinged]

keep up the good work, these dogs are wonderful and my 4year old puts her tiara on our 3 legged greyhound and he is very good with her. good luck with changing the policies of these agencies.

[jkmbb2006]

@SuperBookwolf some greyhounds do have agression issues which makes them unsuitable to be around kids. However my one had sleep agression issues, he would try to bite your ankles (not really) off in the middle of the night if you got out of bed and stepped near him. Funny though my daughter would sleep walk right past him and he wouldnt make a peep, only the adults. So i feel he knew it was a child and would never harm her. FYI his brother who we adopted too is still alive and well at 12.5yrs

[SuperBookwolf]

@jkmbb2006 In Britain the rescue places come and do home checks, so they are placing the dog in a home that suits them. I never realised that the US was so strict. What is the reasoning behind it? Greyhounds are so gentle and soppy, they are ideal for families with kids as long as the greyhound is not a really nervous one.

[ColdVioletvids]

Im 14 and my family adopted a retired greyhound and i get on brilliantly with my greyhound there such gentle dogs! I would reccoment this breed for any1

[Gazzz87]

fantastic ad. not one word or lie here. I pick up my second ex-racer tomorrow. From kennel to couch. Yeah baby =D

[happysaz133]

Great video, I don't agree with keeping them on a lead in an unenclosed area though, they can be trained. Otherwise, great showing how wonderful the breed is. I have two, Todd who is 9 and Maddy who is 2. Maddy is an abuse case, but she's come on in leaps and bounds since I adopted her!

[JacksHounds]

Great awareness video - greyhounds are fantastic with children so gentle and loving

[jessier2009]

Our girls are 3 & 6 yrs old, get along really well with Chloe our greyhound. We do have boundaries though. her space is her space....

[clskmstg]

Bravo! Great video and thank you for what you do!

[2greythounds]

Russell, it was great meeting you, Jack and Ozzy today. This is a beautiful video and really captures the wonderful aspects of owning greyhounds. Hope to see you all walking around the neighborhood soon.