I want to get a dog but I have to work, how does everyone on broadway market do it ?

Thanks, PMd you back

He's a Cane Corso.

Being large means you have to be more confident and disciplined with him. If he tries to take advantage, it's a lot of dog. He's good, but you need to assert yourself.

Hats has offered tomorrow, but you'd be very welcome any time this week.

@Markyboy
heal up fast, hope you get dog walking duties covered

Thanks DJ. Healing won't be fast unfortunately, but - as they say - it could have been a lot worse.

@hats has been doing a fantastic job of walking Herbie, but is away this weekend. I thought I had things covered, but plans have changed. If anyone else can help out, I would be massively grateful. Big ask, I know.

Good work @hats

Sorry I can't help, wrong side of london and next week getting married so a little busy

Hope the missing bits regrow soon, sounds pretty bad.

Thanks, that would be beyond the call of duty. Good luck with the wedding.

It's the shattered metatarsal that's the problem. X-ray on Wednesday revealed the damage to be worse than originally thought. Looks like 6 weeks in plaster. Fuck...

That's going to be a fucker to heal, and I can understand your need for a dog walker.

Here's my 1 year old lurcher. (He's collie x whippet).

Does anybody on here have a greyhound or whippet?

We'd love to get one in the future. We don't have a garden but instead of a garden our place is right on Blackheath so we have several hundred acres of common land right outside the front door.

Everything I read says that you MUST have a fenced off area to allow your dog to sprint. Would we be crazy to consider a greyhound or whippet considering we wouldn't be able to do that?

We did a Tellington T-touch therapy course for our dogs earlier this week. It uses gentle massage as a technique to stimulate different thought routines, prime a dog for learning and to use massage as a pattern interrupt during less than ideal behaviour.

It has already had a big calming influence.

As far as I understand greyhounds, you need to ensure you have plenty of cushions for them to sleep 23 hours a day!

That's the impression we get about them too!

Active in very short bursts...horizontal the rest of the time. Bit like me.

My friend has had two greyhounds. He lives in a two-up/two-down. The dogs seemed fine. If they've raced then they will just want to do fuck all till they die. If they've never raced then they will just be like normal dogs, just better looking.

We have a whippet - awesome dog. 45 min to an hour of free running every day and then its under the covers never to be seen until she is hungry.

Obedient unless she there are squirrels or rabbits around and then it's ears down and gone.

That's the thing I'm worried about...too many chase-able critters on Blackheath and in Greenwich Park. Not sure there is anywhere to safely let off the lead.

There are a few fenced tennis courts nearby that we could use first thing in the morning...

They will comeback - but you just have to accept they may be gone for a minute or two. As long as there are no roads they will be running across let them crack on.

Tennis court is not big enough to give them the space to get up to speed and flat out.

Blackheath is far too open to traffic-filled roads. Wouldn't take a dog there unless I was absolutely certain of its behaviour (mine would be complete non-starters). Greenwich Park would be much better. Also, Oxleas Woods would be perfect, but a bit of a schlep to get up there.

Yup, plenty of busy roads crossing Blackheath. Hence my concern that there are limited options to allow a dog off a lead near me.

The problem with Greenwich Park is the thousands and thousands of squirrels. Not sure that a whippet would give up chasing until physically exhausted. Stressful for everybody.

Once the squirrels have scarpered up the trees it will come back quite quickly especially if trained reasonably well. A guaranteed wee treat is more appealing than a squirrel that's up a tree. Females in my experience are more biddable on this front.

Have you had dogs before?

My wife previously owned a lurcher, I haven't owned a dog before.

Dog ownership is a daunting prospect to me. I suppose its a good thing that I am feeling daunted rather than underestimating it.

I live round the corner from you (well, Westcombe Park) and have looked after the parents-in-laws whippets pretty regularly.

They're not the best trained in the world, but Greenwich park is absolutely fine - you just had to wait a while until they get bored/have scared all the squirrels off. Just be prepared for the one rare occasion they do manage to catch something...

They're a male and a female and to FourGreenFields' point, the female is better at returning.

Have to admit I didn't know much about the breed; but they are fantastic dogs and perfect for relatively small spaces if you can get them out for a good stretch of the legs and are around most of the time.

Thanks for this. Useful and reassuring.

Our flat isn't massive but probably larger than average. I work from home every day and will be for the foreseeable future. In theory, we are in a pretty good place to bring a dog into our lives. Still a fair way to go for us to make the final decision though.

we recently bought our dog a Pit pat activity tracker, saw it on dragons den and thought it would be interesting/a good way of keeping a non stalky eye on our dog walker, it works like a fitbit in that it attaches via a strong Velcro loop to her collar it tracks activity levels and then when synched with the app on a phone it gives a breakdown of time spent in various zones (sleeping, walking running and playing/sprinting), its a pretty decent product, as Holly like to roll in crap when out with her dog walker, and will jump into any body of water she sees and has survived 2 months so far without missing a beat, it has taught us two things, the spends about 3 hours a day running and being very active indeed, and she spends around 20 hours a day asleep!

The key is choosing your dog, not it choosing you. The typical scenario is that you turn up to see a litter and there is one that really wants your attention and most people end up thinking they have "made a connection".

The best dogs tend to be those that are less needy and more independent. If you spend some time watching the pups you will see that there are a few that after the initial excitement go off and do their own thing - that's the one you want.

and as Bettini said, assuming they get out they are happy in a warm flat and love to get below a cover and sleep. If you go more than two days without that run though expect them to get a bit fidgety.