This is the only forum I have ever found that has people in it that are "adult" enough to give their opinion on this.

I was in racing for 10 years and had 5 dogs in that time that I considered unadoptable. All had serious aggression issues.

I've been on the adoption side of it, too. I've seen a group that fosters all the dogs before they go to groups up north actually take back a dog that the group up north was going to put down because they said the dog was too aggressive. The dog is fine and living in FL. That was not the first time I've seen that happen either.

Any opinions on this? Are there unadoptable dogs?

I've been a greyhound adopter for 10 years and deeply involved in adoption for 6. I think only rare greyhounds might be "unadoptable" and then only for reasons of aggression. I absolutely do not consider any medical reason acceptable for that label.

Aggression is a hot topic. The same dog in two different households can act very differently. By the same token, aggression is too dangerous to pass along casually.

If a greyhound shows aggression in a foster or adoptive situation, it needs to be re-evaluated in a different household. If the level of aggression can really inflict harm, is unpredictable, or is consistent and repeatable, this greyhound needs very special handling/decision-making.

There are sometimes experienced homes willing to deal with this type of hound. If that's available, that's wonderful. If the group doesn't have that resource, I personally believe it's better to euthanize the greyhound than risk harm to a person.

Rehabilitating a biting dog of any breed is risky business. It's easy to focus on the loss of the aggressive dog, but I think we too often forget the implications to those around the dog. One mistake... one escape... The potential victims rarely get as much consideration until a really serious attack/bite occurs. Then, it's too late.

As a vet, I've been presented with aggressive dogs for euthanasia many times over the years. I always talk to the owner, trying to understand the events and circumstances. It's a terribly painful decision for most people. It's a terribly painful decision for an adoption group. Nevertheless, it can be the right choice.

Interesting topic. I'm looking forward to hearing other people's views.

Carol

There are some who are unadoptable. Not a lot, but some. It's almost always due to child aggression. I've seen some who just go crazy when they see kids and since no one can guarantee that the dog will never be exposed to kids in the neighborhood or the vets or something, these kind are generally not even put into adoption so there are probably a lot of adoption folks who've never seen one like that.

Smokey finally found his place and then lymphoma- that's a shame. for all involved with helping Smokey.

I have personally been around 2 dogs that I feel are/were unadoptable. One is on a farm and will live out his remaining years there. The other went into an adoption group, where everyone was scared to death of him. I thought they were all full of crap until I got a chance to spend some time with him. He is a BIG, MUSCULAR dog, and I thought most of it was just intimidation. Boy was I wrong! I took him out in the yard, and he was zooming around, and everytime he would get near you he would reach out and mouthe your arm with his teeth bared so that you knew who was in charge. He was big and strong enough that he could have easily taken a grown man to the ground, and I have a feeling if things didn't go exactly his way that he would. Scary situation-puts a LOT of liability on the adoption group if he goes into a home. So the question is....what truly is the best thing for a dog like that?

Hmmmm, well you could send him to the guy in Philly who pulls their teeth...

If you want to lose potental adopters . All it takes is one aggressive greyhound biting, wrote up in the news.

I love Greyhounds , but I would not live with or around an aggressive animal.

There are times, when you know for what ever reason something is unadoptable. People do make mistakes. And there could be a reason a dog is aggressive. But I prefer to Err on the safe side..

My husband and I adopted our first greyhound in 1991. We did not know that much about greyhounds at the time. But we learned. And Cody was the best dog we could have had. We lost him and could not think about adopting another only to lose it. But we agreed to "foster" for another group. During that time we adopted four "unadoptable" greyhounds. I won't go into the details, but they did not make it in any other home. And that was five years ago. We love them and live with them as they are. We started our own greyhound rescue group several years ago.

We promised ourselves that when we started down this path, we would do everything we could to make the adoption work, even if it meant holding the hand of every adopter. This seems to have worked. We have less than a 2% return rate. That is because we screen every applicant and have them read everything we send and make them convince us that they will be in it for the long haul. It's not about numbers, but about "forever" adoptions. We turn down many more applications than we fill.

We use our own experience as our guide and put ourselves into the place of every adopter. Are there "unadoptable" greyhounds? I guess there are, but we have not found them yet. We think that the key is to find the right home.

Tonight I took a very sweet big black greyhound to a home and told the potential adopter that he could not ever go to Petsmart, be near cats, small dogs, etc. He is very high prey. He is also very aggressive to other dogs when there is a toy around. This person heard the truth. I believe that all people only need to know the truth and then they will make the right decision. She is going to adopt this boy because she worked three years as a volunteer for our local humane society. She knows. That's all it takes. The truth. Good people will do the right thing if we only present them with the truth and give them the chance to determine if they can live with it.

As far as the term "unadoptable", it must be used wisely. What is adoptable to one person may be unadoptable to another. Just give people the absolute truth and they will make the right decision.

Let me clarify my original post- when I said serious aggression issues I meant towards people and not just me. I always have other trainers, kennel owners, helpers and anyone else that I trust check out the dog and give me their opinion, too.

It doesn't happen often but when a greyhound has aggression problems with people I don't think anyone can take a chance.

There's a ton of aggressive no cat dogs out there that have wonderful personalities and when put in the right home make great pets ( I've got 6 that fit that profile at my house as pets).

I knew of one dog last year that was a wonderful boy with a great personality and was the sweetest dog until he saw kids. He was so aggressive towards children that after his races they literally would go and check the path that the dog took back to the dog truck and the parking area to make sure there were no children around because he would attack kids. I don't think that dogs like that can or should be adopted out.

xracers, I guess you answered your original question. There probably are greyhounds that are not adoptable. So I guess we go back to "honesty" again. It takes honesty on the part of everyone involved to adequately evaluate a dog. It takes more than good intentions to make this all work. One flawed link in the chain can cause a lot of problems for everyone. As someone told me once when I questioned a dog that was sent for an adopter and it was definitely not the right dog, "You just have to suck it up on your end." NOT. There are too many dogs out there waiting for groups to take them and we won't risk our reputation for anyone's feelings. I can handle anything if it's the truth. And we can handle difficult situations. And we acknowledge that people do make mistakes. But we expect honesty.

I appreciate your willingness to be honest as groups like our depend upon people like you!!!

Oh, by the way, the aggressive dog that has been "pre-adopted" - is he blue?????

I think that there are some dogs that are just can't be trusted out in the world. We had one that came into our adoption program at the track. The trainer said he was aggresive, but he was so sweet with us. The state vet even said he wouldn't trust that dog. Well, we had him in the office, took him into the grandstand and even had him at the entrance for Sunday Brunch. He was fantastic, then one day a lady walked into the office and he went nuts! He lunged at her and luckily the person holding him knew how to handle him. We don't know what set him off, she hadn't even touched him yet. After that, we only had one option left... I know that sounds like we didn't give him a chance, but no one wants a 90lb black male with aggression issues. However, he didn't go without doing something good. When we were at the vet's office, a dog had been hit by a car and needed a blood donor, so we allowed him to be a donor, so he at least saved another dogs life before his own was over. Still makes me cry after all these years....he was such a beautiful dog to me

Just like any dog, there are some that aren't adoptable.