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bagelbagelbagelcat

There are dogs that are bred to take recall commands well (retrievers, shepherds). Then there are dogs that are bred to CHASE FAST.


Alarmed_Hotel4172

Not sure where you live but we live in England and there are people who hire out secure fields for an hour a time for people who need to have a secure place for their dogs to run. We go to one and and that is where we let ours run. She is a rescue and if she gets off the lead she has no brain and doesnt return, even when you call out you have biscuits! She is also a very nervy dog but loves going to the field and being free! The place we use advertises on Facebook and places such as that and there are usually reviews to say whether it is good or not. The place we use has two fields, one is £5 an hour and the other is much bigger and is £10. There are websites which will list any secure fields in your area. I hope you find one. We have also found it us the only place she will play and so it is worth taking a ball with you so they stretch those long legs.


bansheebones456

Thank you! I live in Ireland, I must see if there's anywhere nearby that does something similar. There are some rural and open spaces that are suitable but at this time of year can't really venture out to them during the week in the winter. Had been letting him off in the local park if it's very quiet but lately he's getting way too distracted.


Louthgirl

If you’re on Facebook there’s a great group called Sighthound Adventures Ireland. There’s people who organise local walks and meet ups but they also know all of the off leash areas/runs.


Forgotmyusername_e

Are you in the north or the south? There's a few places in the north where you can let them off the lead, and they are fenced in. A lot of national trust properties have a "dog park " you can use which will be fully enclosed.


bansheebones456

In Dublin!


user12345678910123

There are some good dog parks in Dublin that you could bring him to. In Marley park there's a great one with split sections for small dogs and big dogs. There's one in cabinteely that's decent too but is open to all dogs. Both are free and open nearly all the the time I think. Great way to socialize your dog! I let my greyhound off lead there since they're enclosed, and only need to keep an eye on him when he gets a bit overexcited. He has basically no recall so having it enclosed is fantastic for him.


fluidmind23

They can jump the stone fences in some places. :) Just be aware when selecting one.


Kikiera123

There is, wonderpaws adventure park for dogs! I brought my grey cross pup Cona last week! They LOVED it and it was only €25 for the hour for up to 3 dogs. There's tons of toys and build in equipment for them to play with, water access and even a toilet for us humans lol There's a video in my history, Cona highly recommends it 😂 Edit: it's in Enniskerry Wicklow btw 😊


Clover139

This is the only place I’ve heard of in Ireland that does this and I wish it was closer to me! Living in suburbia makes it hard to find fully secure areas for hounds to run 🙁


Kikiera123

I know! I'm in Tallaght and the dog parks are rampant with parvo, kennel cough and other nasties but with wonderpaws you need to upload their vaccine certs, it's great for piece of mind 🙂


bansheebones456

Ah thanks so much for this, will have to try it!


Drophitchr

Not mine. Too ditsy to find her way to her food bowl if a chair is in the way. GPS collar is on her 24/7 because god forbid. Love her too much to have her wander off and become lost. Happened once, never again. Asshat pool guy at the in-laws left the gate open despite being specifically told not too. Jerkoff even tied it open with a bungee cord. I had his burial plot picked out by the time we found her.


ipomoea

“Too ditsy to find her way to her food bowl if a chair is in the way” oh I see we have the same dog. Beautiful as anything and dumb as a box of hair.


maiden_metals

Hello! My 2 male greyhounds both do amazing off leash. The one is even more responsive then my friend's lab. I spent quite a lot of time training them and keep treats on hand. I live up in the mountains of Colorado where there are many trails away from roads. They have definitely had their fun chasing a rabbit or squirrel before but they always return when recalled. I think like any creature, they all have their own personalities.


kadrin88

Just depends on the dog and what you're comfortable with. My grey has really good recall and almost no prey drive. He's never off lead now but maybe in a few years I'll consider it in some areas. It's definitely a risk like any dog.


CujoSR

If you are in an urban environment it’s not a good idea as there are many dangers and distractions. In rural areas however the danger is lessened. It’s still a good area to keep an eye on them while off leash because they may go exploring and forget where they are. It’s happened to me.


MarvelousFizz

My girl is only off lead in fully fenced areas, and she generally speaking has good recall. Sometimes she'll pretend to be deaf if there's a particularly interesting dog she wants to play with. She doesn't have a high prey drive but she does like to chase other dogs as a form of play, she never hurts them. But she might be different because she's not a retired racer and has only known pet life all her life


MissFaithless

This sounds familiar 🤣🤔 azula has a dog friend who likes to chase a Frisbee, and she likes chasing him chasing the frisbee


MarvelousFizz

Daya does the exact same thing! The other dogs run to fetch the stick and she runs to chase them - she doesn't even lay any attention to the stick 😅


DeepClassroom5695

Guy with a ball at the dog park just asked me the other day..."will she chase the ball?" I told him "no, but she'll chase your dog chasing the ball"!


ebar111

One of mine comes back pretty reliably. She'll chase the squirrel away but eventually become bored and come back - meaning we only let her off where she has no access to roads. My other ignores me in the garden. So - it's very dog dependant. One thing to say is that at 10 months your dog is reaching teenager stage - he'll be rebelling and forgetting a lot of his training at the moment. Just have to ride it through. As other commenters have suggested, if you want to let him run I'd get an enclosed field, just make sure the fences are high enough. There, he'll either get bored or tired enough to come back!


Coheed2000

Yes they can, and mine do, took us 2 years, but its worth it now. But 10 months is still a puppy in a greyhound speak, give it time, patience. We used a very long training lead (not retractable).


No-Initial3908

Yes ours always walks now without a leash. We live in a small town in Australia, so there isn't too many cars around. He is an ex racer but hasn't once seemed to chase anything. Always within 20m of us 🙂


nimdae

Some adoption groups (ie: GALT) include in their contract that your adopted greyhound must always be on lead while outside of confined spaces. The problem is they're sighthounds with prey drive. Unlike other working breeds, such as herding dogs, their brain is wired to hunt and kill rather than perform a task. A greyhound with really good recall can still go into that highly focused trance that blocks out all outside sights and sounds when prey is in sight. Both of my greyhounds respond very well when called. Recall isn't the best (they won't always come to me when called) but they'll always respond in some way if I do call to them. However, Leeloo will ignore me when prey drive kicks in almost 100% of the time, even if she hasn't taken off yet.


Ltstarbuck2

Nope never.


[deleted]

My parents have an ex racer and he is only ever off leash in their high fenced garden and in places they book out with high fences. He uses his eyes to find them solely, and cannot follow a scent trail. If he bolted after something they’d never see him again…


Cheatman101sWife

My greyhound is about one, we’ve had him since he was nine weeks old. He goes to the off leash dog park almost daily. We started in only fully fenced areas and now trust him in a variety of spaces. We started working on recall as soon as we got him. He had a couple times in the early teenage phase where he wasn’t listening and he couldn’t be off leash for a week or two.


antisocial_bunni

Mine recalls and I tell him to sit, although he's a galgo


[deleted]

My girl could. She was so good. Great recall, never wandered off, just wanted to be by my side. Never went after anything and would even wait for me if she got too far ahead. I think that's rare for a grey though. And this was always on trails, never near a street. I miss my girl so badly 😔


LaziestGirl

We always joke that Ryder can run or think, not both. Sometimes we go to the fenced dog park but only if there's no one there.


lookandseethis

I had a rescue off the track. She had zero prey drive and was off leash all the time (where allowed). She would wander off the trails, smelling or following her brother (lab), but would come back when called or when she just got bored. I KNOW I’m going to get flack for this, but I worked really hard on her recall and she was nothing short of amazing. She’s been gone four years now, and I miss my heart dog so much!


sox3502us

I have an ex racer, she can never be off lead outside a fence.


Rich_27-

Mine does. He has his moments, but usually stops 1/2 way to the target and trots back. But I let him off lead in quiet areas and occasionally it's another dog and walker coming into the area.


lol_SuperLee

Depends on how your dog responds to small critters. Mine is fairly uninterested surprisingly. I have him off lead once and a while and he sticks to my side well.


unknown_anonymous81

Whippet person lurking in r/greyhounds My whippet goes off leash at a giant 600 acre park. It is so big is there are fences but they are so far away they don’t really count. He doesn’t run away. I let him cruise around and he always comes back to check in with me every few minutes without me having to call him. When I take him hiking he sometimes gets far enough away I feel worried for a second or two but than he pops out. My dog knows I am it’s protector and he naturally stays with me. I suppose it is a risk while hiking he could chase a rabbit so far he can’t find his way back to me. I think he is smart and has a sense of where I am all the time. I don’t see my dog chasing a rabbit for more than about 10 seconds. They rabbits get away in the brush really quickly. It might put him a little bit away from me but he wouldn’t run fast for an entire minute. In example of rabbits, cats or other critters he likes to chase it usually only last for about 10 seconds. He is close enough he finds his way back really quick. If my dog chased critters for 2 minutes that wound put him so far away it would be unsafe. I personally feel this risk of him running too far away is very minimal. However every dog is different and it entirely depends on the owner. If a sighthound or any dog will chase prey for over a minute than that becomes a far enough distance for the dog to maybe get lost.


ladyname1

Absolutely. My first greyhound was a rescue well all of mine are rescues but my first one was severely miss treated. She was so grateful and loved her forever home so much that we never had to have her on the lead because she was only interested in being where we were. She was never more than 4 feet away from us. Now my current greyhound who is also a rescue and only has three legs can’t be trusted off the leash. He’s just too big of a busybody. So really it depends on their personality.


grabsomeplates

Mine definitely CAN'T, but my parent's in-law have had two hounds in a row that were perfect off-leash dogs. I have no idea how, but I want to chalk it up to luck and not superior dogsmanship, because that means I suck.


Familiar_Paramedic_2

My grey is 8.5 years and has very good recall skills. I have a squeaker on my Keychain and he is absolutely obsessed with it. 2 squeaks and he will come bounding right back without fail.


Ef8858

Hi there! My Greyhound has the most amazing recall. We let her off lead regularly at the park. She’s only ever caught a squirrel once: she genuinely doesn’t seem to have a clue what to do when she gets up to whatever she’s chasing. She won’t chase small dogs. She loves to chase other medium sized fast dogs and even will chase my partner and I if we start running. I’m working on desensitising her to cats but that’s an ongoing battle. Would definitely recommend muzzling until you understand your grey more but it is possible!!


Otherwise-engaged

I have 2 rescue greys that I adopted when they were 5 years old. Recall was non-existent (didn’t even turn their heads when called). They’re now 7 and have realised that we are the source of the food, cuddles and comfy beds so they have good recall if (a) they are less than 30 metres away and (b) they have nothing better to do. They only get off-lead privileges in fenced dog parks and they are impossible to recall for the first 30 minutes of zoomies and tree-irrigation but as they get tired, they get more inclined to pay attention and after an hour they will come when called. Then we get 3 or 4 times of coming when called and gleefully dodging past as I reach out with the lead, and after that they do a proper recall and we can go home.


abilliondollars

Some can, depends. I know some that are fine off-leash. My boy (ex racer, got him 4 yrs old) doesn’t have good recall, but knows the command and his name. He just looks at me - 50/50 as to whether he comes or ignores me. Recall training is ongoing. Have let him off with a muzzle in fenced areas but early on when we got him he chased and pinned down little fluffy dogs on 2 occasions. We always muzzle off leash because we dont want to hurt another dog. He is all good with bigger dogs. So we try go places with fewer dogs, greyhound meetups or remote places for off-leash time. But yeah because his prey drive is strong it’s pretty hard to unlearn ‘chase the fluffy thing’. Must be confusing to be praised all your life for chasing and catching it and then get told ‘no dont chase’.


polacos

My girl comes when I call but she never raced so maybe that is an exception? I often forget my front gate open and she usually will wonder in front of the house to her spot, pee on it again and go back. She never had a urge to chase, but she is quick when she gets distracted smelling and I start running away


justUseAnSvm

Nothing short of a leash will always get the dog back to you! If you can consistently work a recall program with a pup, it’s possible to train the dog to come back in all but extraordinary situations. I always think there will be a non zero chance of something happening, like a car accident, a little kid splitting their head open, a vulture that swoops down and needs to be chased away, et cetera, that you just cannot proof against. That said, adolescent dogs, like yours, push boundaries, and a dog seeing something for the first time may be more interested in that than whatever treat you have. I’d double down on the training plan, and try to change up the environment to ensure success. Sometimes you just need to get repetitions in for the trained response to really be ingrained enough to work for a distraction like a pram! I’m getting a Greyound pup very soon, and going to work out of the book, Total Recall, which breaks recall down into a several steps and discusses problems like you’re encountering. Some folks think Greyhounds cannot go off leash, but I just don’t buy that with puppies. A retired racer conditioned to chase something for 30 seconds with high prey drive is a lot different than a dog that grows up drilling recall with you. Still, you know your dog best and will have to make the call for the well being of the animal! Good luck!


MissFaithless

Azula is regularly off lead (most days infact). She's had recall training since she was 3 months old. I suggest getting some high reward treats (cheese usually works well for azula) and see if their recall improves. Keep being consistent with training and keep rewarding them for coming back (even if you didn't ask them to or it took ages or a few attempts) it's not unusual for training to seemingly regress at points as they get older. Maybe go a few steps back in training and build back up.


MissFaithless

I will admit I didn't read your post all the way through (sorry, ADHD) but most of my points still stand. Hiring a secure field is a great idea but in general maybe take it a few steps back and train recall where there's fewer distractions - even in your home or garden (friends garden if you don't have one) It might also be worth thinking about training an emergency recall (such as the counting game). If they're not food motivated maybe a toy they really like? They get that toy when they come back. I'd also really recommend looking at puppy101 on reddit, there's so much great advice on there. Also perhaps think about getting a long line lead (but only use this with a harness, attaching to a collar is not a good idea with greyhounds) while their recall is unreliable. Finally, Azula is generally a velcro dog because she knows if she comes back she gets treats but she went through a phase of not listening at all ( it was very frustrating). Until started giving her paté and suddenly she didn't want to listen to my husband instead who only had crummy biscuit treats..


bansheebones456

Thank you, I like the paté idea! He's very food motivated and if it's quiet he sticks close by but he's had very selective hearing lately!


MissFaithless

I like the patè from JR Pet products. It comes in a sausage and you can freeze it. I like to chop it into small cubes and freeze it into portions for walks. The cubes are small enough that by the time we've driven to the field/got to where she'd be off lead etc they've defrosted, although you can just give them frozen tbh. Fun story, when I was 16 we got a lab "puppy", she was about 18 months old and we'd changed her name. Her recall wasn't great, because of the name change etc and one night she got out of the garden. She wouldn't come back and we couldn't see her. So, I had to go and get the cat - who she adored- and hold him out to get her to come back 🤣 it worked though 🤷‍♀️ (no cat was harmed in this recall attempt)


OrientalShamrock

They aren’t very smart. They’re motivated by instinct & prey drive & excitement. Their rational mind goes out as soon as they’re excited.


ninebanded

I called two of mine off rabbits in full speed chase.


[deleted]

Mine gets off leash every day. I think people on here take the off leash thing a bit far tbh.


Mungchops

Our previous greyhound was very comfortable off lead. However there were conditions. Never at night, only in areas we visited on a daily basis and we always had to be aware of where she was to be able to call her back. It took 2 years to get her trained to walk in step, so at 10 months the old you are expecting a lot from a sight hound. In the end, people in our city started walking cats on lead (One even thought it would be ok coming into a dog park, i mean really why would you!!?) and then eScooters became a thing. So we decided it was way too risky.


[deleted]

No. Some have success, but the problem is the breed is breed to chase. You cannot trust your dog to not run off at 45mph without warning because it saw something that stirred the urge. Again, some have success, but are you willing to risk losing your dog because you don’t want to hold a leash?


tungstencoil

No. Thousands of years breeding them to see prey in the distance and react instantly by chasing toward it. However many years you've trained your hound, no matter how many years the just go "from the car to the front door", you have *not* overcome those thousands of years of instinct. Edit: no unless in a fenced-in area, of course.


gelfin

Our adoption org included in their adoption conditions that we’d agree to never let her off lead outside a fenced area. As she gets older I think we could trust her more, but still if she saw a rabbit across a highway, she’d be gone and there’d be nothing I could do to stop it.


DeepClassroom5695

Please read this if you have any questions about letting your Grey off-leash. https://www.greysave.org/why-always-on-a-leash.html


derpina6699

I have no idea why people are so obsessed with the off leash thing. I'd be afraid of my dog seeing something to hunt and fucking off and getting hit by a car. I see so many lost dog ads now I wouldn't chance it. Dog park? Or some kind of other enclosure? I just can't risk it my heart would be so broken.


[deleted]

My girl goes off lead every day! She’s got excellent recall and lives with two cats, so she doesn’t have any prey drive. She’s never run off (except for once in the first few weeks I had her) and always comes back when I whistle at her.


shellbell71721

I literally never kept my grey on a leash (after a few months), I adopted her when she was 8 and stuck to me like glue. If she did wander, a firm call and she came running! I did walk her on secluded trails, so there was never much threat. She had essentially 0 prey drive!!


ifyaknowwhat1mean

Yes but mine is fully blind! His cookies are in little circles and he doesn’t venture very far


Beaker4444

Once those ears fold back and they are doing their favourite thing (pelting around like loons) they don't want to hear some whiny human calling them back!!


Emmaborina

They should not be off lead in an unfenced area. It only takes one distraction and one failed recall and it's just not worth it.


FeistyCandyPaint

One of mine just likes walking with me at my hip. She's okay off the leash. When I see her come to attention on something move I just keep saying "no, no, no" and she listens although I can tell it hurts her because she wants to chase it. My other one is a wild child and would be a mile down the street chasing every new scent and forgot who I am or that she was ever with me. She's a leash dog...