Greyhounds and humans? Dog-gone it, you can't beat love at first sight

Alison Lewis and her daughter Courtney didn’t realise they would be adding a new member to their family last Saturday – but Silver the two-year-old greyhound knew.

The women had heard Greyhounds as Pets (GAP) was setting up an event at Hanrob Pet Hotels at Symonston to find homes for 25 mostly ex-racing dogs.

“We thought we’d just go and have a look,” Alison said. “I’m recently widowed and my daughter has just come back home to live with me so we’d been thinking about getting a dog.

“We went around all the dogs, patting and talking to them and we noticed how affectionate and friendly Silver was.

“We kept walking around, did the circuit of all the dogs, and was patting this other dog when Silver came over. It was like he pushed the other dog away from us, as if to say, ‘these humans are mine’.

“He chose us,” she said. “He has definitely filled a hole in our hearts.”

Alison said after they had spoken to members of the GAP team about how to care for Silver, it was a done deal.

The GAP team asked if they had good fencing, but Alison said it wasn’t needed because Silver was going to be an indoor dog, except of course when they took him on walks.

“The first day home Silver got on my daughter’s bed,” Alison said. “The next day he got on mine because the sun was shining in on it.”

For Alison and Courtney, “it was just meant to be”.

They had dogs before, but of the smaller variety. “I had a Maltese terrier which was a bit different,” Alison said.

Silver was one of the bigger boys up for adoption, weighing in at about 35 kilos. He came to the Rivett home with a great personality, according to his family, and a few cute habits including always keeping three of his toys together.

“If one is in another room, he’ll go and get it so they all stay together. He is such a lovely, sooky boy.

“All you have to do is tell him he’s gorgeous and he’ll sit with you for ages – as long as you keep patting him.”

GAP’s general manager Jamie Palmer said the adoption day was held in Canberra because of increasing interest in the animals in the ACT and southern NSW region.

“The idea was for instead of people having to travel long distances to see them, we could bring them to one central place. So we collaborated with Hanrob to do so,” she said.

“It was a great success. We had 25 dogs that needed rehoming and we found homes for 13 of them. It was fantastic.”

She said some prospective owners registered their interest on the website beforehand, others just turned up on the day.

“We put out a dogalogue so people could see the dogs we had, but it’s always good for them to meet in person.

“We wanted to show people that greyhounds are amazing dogs. They can be real couch potatoes – some only need a 20-minute walk daily. They are a naturally calm animal and are so easy to handle.

“They do this wonderful thing … we call it the greyhound lean. When they lean against you it’s like a weighty blanket so it’s instantly calming.

“We’ve started to do some training with them as PTSD [Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome] dogs because of their remarkable ability to pick up on emotions. We have already placed one with a medically transitioned police officer. His wife told us she could now leave her husband alone since he had the dog.”

More information about the greyhounds available for adoption is available on the website.