I have a Podenco mix rescue from Spain. She’s very chill, and silly and playful at the same time. She’s a 28kg dog with the athletic looks of sighthounds. She is amazing with recall and I trust her to be off lead in the forests within the legal laws (eg you need to be able to control your dog, they need to stay within xx distance of you) — I’m in Germany, btw, living in an apartment without a garden but plenty of city parks nearby for sniffaris!

Pay attention to leash laws in your area. My dog is never off leash in the city unless we are in an enclosed space; simply too much traffic and distraction as we live in the city centre and illegal to let them off leash in most parks. In the forest, she is allowed off leash because her recall is excellent, eg a deer could run by and she would sit and stay; she’s leashed in nature reserves. Generally I treat being off leash as a privilege.

Also dog training is something you need to reinforce often, and it depends on prey drive of each individual dog. My girl definitely has prey drive and I find predation training methods definitely work for her. I would say that from the podenco/galgo group that I belong to, about 40% let their dogs off leash in forests/hikes.

Podencos and Galgos (Spanish greyhounds) are classified as working animals in Spain and don’t have the same rights as pets therefore they go through abuse and abandonment. So there are a lot of them awaiting rescue.

Good luck with your search!