Meet Tildy, or more formally – Matilda Sue. Yes, when she is in trouble, I do call her Matilda Sue (or maybe, just Tildy Sue). Tildy is a three and a half-year-old greyhound and has been with me for nearly 2 years. Her coloring is called ‘red fawn’ and she is blessed to look like she is wearing perpetual eyeliner. Her ears are quite expressive along with her eyes.

I adopted Tildy from Bay Area Greyhound Adoptions – a non-profit agency out of Tampa that places greyhounds that come off the track. Tildy was formerly known as Del Sol Santona (Toni). I had to change her name as Tony is a name in our family and having a dog with the same/similar name just wouldn’t do!

Tildy is retired but she had a very short career. She only raced for around six to ten weeks. She ran in a total of 14 races. She won once, came in 2nd and third, once each. In her remaining 11 races – she more than likely finished in 7th or last position. It seems she just wasn’t that interested in chasing that ‘bunny’.

Did you know that you can look up just about any racing greyhound to see their pedigree as well as their race history? Take a look >> Greyhound Data. Even somewhat cooler is that every hound has its own webpage as well. As an example, here is “Tildy’s“. Her record needs to be updated but I just discovered this so something to work on.

Greyhounds are awesome pets for many reasons. While they are seemingly big and tall – they can look like a tiny dog when all curled up. They are typically easy to house train or already are trained. They are relatively quiet which is good for those that work from home or that are in apartments/condo situation. Surprisingly, they don’t need a lot of exercise – a nice 20-30 minute walk a couple of times a day is good and often they can do with less. The opportunity to run now and then is welcome but keep in mind, a greyhound is a sprinter. The running will not last long and there will be lots of rest and sleep after. If you want a good dog for long walks and hikes, the grey can be conditioned to be your companion with that type of activity as well. Some like water, others don’t. Some love dirt, others don’t. Just like other dogs, each greyhound has its own personality.

Tildy, for example, is a very anxious pup. She reacts fearfully with rain, thunder and similar noises. For instance, she seems unfazed by planes that take off from our local small airport (small planes), but during the Lakeland Sun ‘n Fun Air Festival, she is on edge every day – we can hear but we don’t see what is flying in the sky as we are maybe 10 miles from there. The last two years, that week has been really hard on her. Tildy loves people and always happily greets, but she doesn’t need attention. She is quite content to curl up in her spot away from the frenzy. In fact, if she is in the same room with a few people, after a while, she removes herself and goes to find a quieter location for a short period. She is well behaved but will appear to ignore every word, especially when I call her for my own need. We have tried a whole training regimen but she often shuts down after realizing she needs to repeat a task to get it right.

Tildy does have some separation anxiety but for the most part, she settles down as long as she can’t see/hear me outside. Part of this is probably amplified because I work from home so I am not away from her that often. She is not destructive and seems to settle fine if I am truly gone. She is good about letting me know that someone is around if I am not in the room with her and that basically is the only time she barks. She does ‘roo’ when she is happy to see someone or just happily wants to talk to me. It is my favorite thing to hear because she can be quite vocal!

As the Florida racetracks start closing their greyhound races and hounds need to find a home, more greyhounds will become available. It is best if we can find them homes. The adoption agencies are awesome partners with the racing kennels in most cases and that provides a great connector to get the dogs adopted. If you are in the market for a dog and want one that is loving, sweet, quiet, calm, easy – consider a greyhound. All you need to do is look at Petfinder or search for greyhound adoption to find an agency near you. Additionally, you can look at the Greyhound Data website for adoption partners. You might even want to foster a hound first to see how it goes. I’ll warn you though, it seems that greyhound fosters have some of the largest ‘fail’ rates – the foster family will often formally adopt the hound as their own!