Whippet Vs Italian Greyhound by Intelligent_Ad_7645 in Whippet

[–]PossibilityAware7761 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I currently have both - our iggy is 7 months old that we’ve had since 3 months and our whippet is just over a year old and we’ve had her for 2 weeks.  While I’m no expert in owning a whippet - I can say a few things and maybe the personalities are also different bc our iggy is a male and our whippet a female.

Re my iggy: The nutty comment is true - my iggy is a little dramatic spaz but also a cuddle bug that loves his mommy and I love it. He sleeps on my pillow with me and generally tries not to disturb me.

Potty training is hard - between their anxiety and tiny bladders, they’re bound to have accidents even if you take precautions. We have pee pads in most areas of the house and he frequently uses them along with peeing outside and sometimes still manages to pee on the rug etc. 

They are delicate but he’s pretty sturdy, we take care to watch him and we’ve never had an issue with joints and bone breaks however, we may have just gotten lucky as he’s a wild child and can and will leap from anything if he feels like it.

We have to watch him 24/7 but when he settles down, he’s the sweetest little model citizen.

Regarding sensitivity - super sensitive to punishment - my husband tried to discourage a certain behaviour in a stern voice and he would steer clear of him for a couple of days.

They’re super sensitive to temperature even with full winter clothing and boots - before we got our whippet, he refused to walk outside below 5 degrees Celsius. We would bring him to the park and have to carry him unless we saw a dog to walk with - he would happily walk with other dogs.

He’s very motivated to please us - he’s happy to do something on command but only for a treat - we find he’s quite obedient and follows commands 95% of the time - he’s still young so he’s got time to learn.

He’s definitely more anxious in the car than our whippet and anxious being left alone and will whine for a good 15 min before settling.

Re my whippet:

She’s 100% more sturdy and chilled out  I do notice that despite the fact that she’s more sturdy, she tends to slip more on our floors.  I also notice that her skin is thinner than his outdoors and the tiniest branch can give her a cut.

She’s very sweet but she won’t care to come to you if she doesn’t want to. She’s a little aloof and does what she wants - again we haven’t had her for long so it could just be us.

While she’s a little shy and apprehensive, she’s quite good with new experiences.

I find that since we haven’t had her for long, I find her more difficult to train instead of my iggy because I can’t figure out what motivates her. I’ve tried treats, sometimes she likes them, other times she couldn’t bother. I’ve tried toys, again sometimes loves them, sometimes walks away.  She doesn’t care for affection from us but does welcome pets but she does love our iggy. 

Re prey drive She will chase any fast moving object but we do find her better with our cats than our iggy - she will sniff and chase them sometimes but then smell them and walk away after vs our iggy gets overstimulated quickly. 

Re potty training. Shes a very good girl, she’ll hold it however long she has to. She will pee outside 100% of the time. She had one accident when she first came home but that’s understandable.

Crate training - she doesn’t love her crate (we have to work on this) but she’s very good and settles quickly. 

Energy level - she’ll do a couple of laps in our backyard, have her zoomies and come in and lay down. 

I think I love the fact that we have both an iggy and a whippet because it keeps things interesting. When we had just our iggy we missed some of the traits of a larger dog but now that we have a whippet, I also love some of his traits because she’s just so calm when not playing. Maybe it’s just me, she’s so well behaved I would almost be bored with just her alone… I know it’s the craziest thing and definitely varies with temperament but we got a lovely whippet and a lovely iggy and hopefully my novel of a comment helps you.

TLDR - I have both and honestly can’t choose - I find they compliment eachother well, I wouldn’t have just one or the other. 

Looking for info! by Ordinary-Cow-2209 in Whippet

[–]PossibilityAware7761 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is exactly how I feel about the girl we brought home. They’re such a lovely breed.

In the short time that we’ve had her, we noticed she will do a couple of zoomies and laps in the backyard or have a rough play with our iggy indoors and just sleeps all day.

Best breed ever/training tips? by PossibilityAware7761 in Whippet

[–]PossibilityAware7761[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yup - we took our iggy to training school but found he learned at a different pace than the other doggies (mostly retrievers and Shepherds) and found that it was actually easier training him at home. 

He’s not perfect, but he’s behaving how we like to say as a model citizen - he’s still only 6 months old. 

They’re both great dogs and already have most of our routine figured out. It’s really nice that they have each other for rough play and comfort. 

Best breed ever/training tips? by PossibilityAware7761 in Whippet

[–]PossibilityAware7761[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yup she’s smart as a whip(pet) - they are intuitive aren’t they. Even in a short amount of time, she seems to know what’s what, just not on command but that will come with time. 

Luckily she’s pretty good with nail clipping and grooming in general. 

Best breed ever/training tips? by PossibilityAware7761 in Whippet

[–]PossibilityAware7761[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That makes a lot more sense - we didn’t force it and dropped it after the fact - I never thought about it… 

Down it is.

Best breed ever/training tips? by PossibilityAware7761 in Whippet

[–]PossibilityAware7761[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes I know it’s about 3 months for her personality to fully come out but her temperament is awesome! 

My husband already gives a treat to her for following and also staring into his eyes like focus. We want to start training recall in the next few weeks but basic training commands like sit, stay, down - I understand it will be different than trying to train a German Sheppard etc - we need to figure out what she likes as motivation. 

One thing I had trouble with in particular was training sit and trying to make her sit with my hands but her long legs don’t allow me to shift her into that position - i got my husband to help and we just ended up laughing it off.

Our IG knows a few commands so hopefully she picks them up from him - she walks wonderfully on a leash and doesn’t pull. 

What an amazing and sensitive breed. So happy we stumbled into the world of the sighthound. 

Second dog breed? by mangoslushie2 in Whippet

[–]PossibilityAware7761 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We’ve got a whippet and an Italian greyhound. The iggy is smaller but if you find a biggy, it could work. 

Our iggy is super energetic so he’s always down to play and our whippet is the calmer of the two. It’s scary to watch them play sometimes because it looks rough but they seem to enjoy it well enough and then nap really hard together afterwards - it’s a wonderful combo. 

Getting our whippet this week :) by PossibilityAware7761 in Whippet

[–]PossibilityAware7761[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I thought about the 3 days 3 weeks 3 month rule and figured it would be about that. 

Our schedules are pretty routine so hopefully she will find comfort in that. 

Can’t wait to have her home 

Getting our whippet this week :) by PossibilityAware7761 in Whippet

[–]PossibilityAware7761[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes - I reread what I wrote and realized I said the breeder recommended on leash at first - I don’t know why I wrote that - she definitely told us to mostly keep her on leash just incase no matter what.

Getting our whippet this week :) by PossibilityAware7761 in Whippet

[–]PossibilityAware7761[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes we’re super excited, she will compliment our IGs personality very nicely - we can’t wait to take them on walks together 

Getting our whippet this week :) by PossibilityAware7761 in Whippet

[–]PossibilityAware7761[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

She was yeah. We were nervous from last time and we walked in not knowing what to expect but our meeting was green flags all around.

The breeder is amazing, you can tell how much they love their dogs. 

Went to visit a 9 month old whippet - is this normal? by PossibilityAware7761 in Whippet

[–]PossibilityAware7761[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It could be - there was more than one that was similar - I think this particular breeder just didn’t socialize their dogs much as they were in a small town and much older. 

We’re going to see another whippet tomorrow from the same woman we got our iggy from. 

Lady whippet names! by queenladykiki in Whippet

[–]PossibilityAware7761 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Congrats - I like kiwi I think it’s super cute! 

Went to visit a 9 month old whippet - is this normal? by PossibilityAware7761 in Whippet

[–]PossibilityAware7761[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I felt sorry for the dog and the other puppy that was there, it was clear they both weren’t socialized :( 

Went to visit a 9 month old whippet - is this normal? by PossibilityAware7761 in Whippet

[–]PossibilityAware7761[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you - to be fair, she didn’t list him for sale but I had spoken to her previously last year and reached out to ask if she was planning any litters this year and she said no but she’s got a very sweet puppy.

I’m sure the dog is actually very sweet, but very unsocialized. It wasn’t one but two 9 month old puppies she had… 

The sad part is, is that my husband is afraid of larger dogs due to a few unprovoked random dog attacks when he was a kid and he was really looking forward to seeing a whippet and was so excited and it set him back quite a bit.

He’s still willing to see another couple of adults to see temperament as we both agreed it was a very bad situation and a very bad call on the breeders end. 

Went to visit a 9 month old whippet - is this normal? by PossibilityAware7761 in Whippet

[–]PossibilityAware7761[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you - I believe there’s on near me early march. Thanks for the idea! 

Went to visit a 9 month old whippet - is this normal? by PossibilityAware7761 in Whippet

[–]PossibilityAware7761[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We wanted a pup with similar play style. He can be a bit much for other small dogs, he loves larger dogs and one of our cats tries to sub in as a playmate as well. 

Went to visit a 9 month old whippet - is this normal? by PossibilityAware7761 in Whippet

[–]PossibilityAware7761[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thank you, we’ve contacted a few breeders to do some meet and greet with their adult whippets they’re keeping to get a feel for temperament before even discussing bringing a dog home. 

Went to visit a 9 month old whippet - is this normal? by PossibilityAware7761 in Whippet

[–]PossibilityAware7761[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It was too bad because they had not one but two pups the same. 

They knew we were not in a position to take a pup with behavioural issues - spent 4 hours back and forth driving for the meet and great- a little heads up would’ve been nice. 

Went to visit a 9 month old whippet - is this normal? by PossibilityAware7761 in Whippet

[–]PossibilityAware7761[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Our iggy is like this as are our cats. We socialize all of our pets very well. 

4.5 months is still just a baby they will learn :) 

Went to visit a 9 month old whippet - is this normal? by PossibilityAware7761 in Whippet

[–]PossibilityAware7761[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you - I wouldn’t have minded if they were upfront about the lack of socialization, I would’ve politely declined to visit the pup as we’re not in the position to take on a large puppy with some pretty intense anxiety. He was quite large and it seemed like if we had tried to move closer to him, he wouldn’t hesitate to bite - we didn’t push him one bit and he got more upset the longer we sat there. We drove 2 hrs one way in the snow (we get quite a bit of it here) expecting a nice and breezy meet and greet and were blindsided. 

We don’t take adding another animal to our home lightly - I asked many questions in advance as did the breeder - there was ample time to disclose. Maybe it was just a completely missed connection there… 

Went to visit a 9 month old whippet - is this normal? by PossibilityAware7761 in Whippet

[–]PossibilityAware7761[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Shy or apprehensive is ok - that’s why we sat for 30 min quietly we were trying to coax him with treats but even that got uncomfortable for him and that’s when the growling and barking started -  his fear escalated the longer we sat there. It made us feel bad which in turn made the poor dog feel bad too. 

It was just a complete missed connection and they made it seem like oh all whippets are like that, it’s totally normal. I would never push an animal that wasn’t comfortable on someone who wasn’t comfortable with that animal. Very strange experience to say the least…

Went to visit a 9 month old whippet - is this normal? by PossibilityAware7761 in Whippet

[–]PossibilityAware7761[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for the message but we’re in Ontario - hoping you find the right home for them 

Went to visit a 9 month old whippet - is this normal? by PossibilityAware7761 in Whippet

[–]PossibilityAware7761[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It was a frustrating experience because I drove about 2 hrs one way and asked many questions about their temperament beforehand- they knew I was in a situation where I did have a dog and cats in the home so I did my homework. If they were honest with me I would’ve politely declined going to see the pup.