So I take the longdogs for a walk this morning. Ten minutes in, and I realise that I’ve forgotten my glasses. One of my shoes has no lace in and they’re the wrong shoes anyway because I’m standing in deep mud. It’s raining, Chilli stops every ten seconds to eat grass, and Django is pulling mightily in the other direction, having decided that it’s a five-poo day. Without my glasses I can’t tell if that’s another dog or a rubbish bin on the edge of the field. My recall whistle’s got tangled in my anorak, and Chilli goes off on one because she is suspicious of poodles. I laugh wildly at the worried poodle owner. Then I have to rush both dogs back the way we came because the old lady with the Jack Russell is approaching. The longdogs get tangled in my legs and each other’s leads, my feet are soaking wet, and I drag them home. I’m cold and my back hurts. Twiglet, annoyed at being left alone, has peed in the hallway and tried to eat a book. She always goes for the more expensive, hard-to-replace ones.

I make a cup of tea, and ten minutes later think, ooh, if only we had room for one more lurcher…

(And that all happened in the middle of writing this article.)

As part of greydogtales continuing mission to promote weird fiction, weird art and the weirdness that is the lurcher, we wanted to say something this week about rescues. We opted for two approaches, a) giving our opinion and b) highlighting an actual rescue centre.

This week we’re joined by Lurcher SOS, after we’ve mouthed off as usual. We selected Lurcher SOS Sighthound Rescue as our first centre (and possibly our only one after this article) by the exhaustive scientific method of looking at lurcher photos on-line and going oooh, they’ve got nice doggies. Our latest two longdogs happen to be Lurcher Link beauties. The previous three dogs were respectively a street abandonment, Battersea Dogs’ Home and Dogs Trust. We’re not fussy. If you want a name-drop for your own centre, just ask.

So this bit is purely us, and has no connection to Lurcher SOS. If you like them more than us, you can skip this ramble, we won’t mind.

As most listeners will already know, all our dogs are rescues, always have been. It’s a simple decision. Large and small centres are full of dogs in need. It might take time, but you’ll always find a lurcher you love (and who’ll love you) in one rescue or another. You don’t need to rush it. Don’t just try to grab a dog and hope for the best (and yes, we used to do that as well, once).

In our view, one of the worst things that can happen to a dog, a centre and you is for you to whisk a new dog away without preparation – and then find out a few days or a few weeks later that you can’t cope. The dog’s confused, the centre’s stressed out and you’ve lost confidence. If you’re in doubt, fostering and volunteering instead can be a good start. That way you learn your own strengths and abilities, and see a range of behaviours with which you may not be familiar. And this can lead to the famous ‘failed foster’, where you end up with the dog anyway even though you didn’t mean to.

Cand 8b — a ravening horde of longdogs we stole from lurcher link

Read up on the various types, and the worst they can do (greydogtales is good on that bit, at least) because you need to know first. Collie x lurchers can be different from bull x lurchers, for example. Some dogs at rescue centres have been abused, beaten, over-worked or starved. If that was you, then you might be scared and difficult to handle at first as well. Many in this group respond astonishingly to patience and security – they may never have known either before. Others are there because owners died, moved or couldn’t have a dog any more, and you might find some in this group who are home-ready from the day dot, as it were.

We’ve had the hyper-anxious and unsafe rescue (Jade was ready to bite anyone not in her ‘safe’ group, and threw herself through a closed window once) and the completely sorted rescue. You do get them – we overcompensated for Twiglet, worried that she might take time to adjust. The first thing she did was to take a scrubbing brush and happily eat it on the stairs. The second was to claim the entire double bed as her own. It turned out that we were the ones who were supposed to adjust. A less traumatised dog we’ve never met.

Once you’re prepared, you’ll find that most lurchers and longdogs are in fact superb family friendly, easy-going, devoted companions (apart from lurcher puppies, who are actually insane).

two longogs showing their wild, uncontrollable nature — two longdogs showing their wild, uncontrollable nature

Lurcher owners argue about what makes lurchers different from other types of dog, if anything. Our experience suggests a few common points which you might want to know:

they are genuinely faster than most dogs you’ll ever encounter
they don’t do well on some types of anaesthetic
their anatomy can make the traditional ‘sit’ uncomfortable
they have thin skins which get torn slightly more easily
with suitable bursts of activity, they sleep a lot, which surprises some new owners

Most dogs have a prey drive (it’s how they used to live). Lurchers can be sedate and disinterested in potential prey, but we always like to point out that a lurcher with a high prey drive needs more training and watching. You just can’t run as fast as they can! We’re not a veterinary or behavioural encyclopaedia, so we’re sure experienced lurcher people and centres will have their own points to add (if you want more of our views, some less serious, then click on longdogs in the little tag cloud on the left).

And so, on to someone else at last…

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Lurcher SOS

Now in their 6th successful year, Lurcher SOS was started in 2010 by lifelong lurcher owners. Lurcher SOS is a Surrey based lurcher and greyhound rescue organisation. They have a network of supporters, fundraisers and fosterers in the South and Southeast, but they have homed dogs throughout England, Wales and Scotland.
They are all volunteers and their mission is to rescue, rehabilitate and home abused, abandoned and neglected lurchers and greyhounds from Ireland and the UK. They rescue whippets and all other sighthounds too and have helped Spanish, Cypriot and even Romanian and Egyptian sighthounds!

The organisation takes in lurchers and greyhounds of all ages, from puppies to oldies. Dogs come to them for various reasons – some are strays, some have been ill treated and some need to find a new home because their owners no longer want them. Some of these dogs are so emotionally and physically scarred that they will need long periods in foster homes, learning to trust humans again.

Rescue centres vary in their missions. It’s worth noting that Lurcher SOS has a particular mission which prioritises dogs due to be put to sleep, or dogs in danger both in Ireland and the UK. Because of this, rehoming from private individuals can rarely be considered.

Like so many such centres, they’re a non-profit organization and receive no statutory funding. They rely solely on donations from the public and are always in need of fundraising support to cover the cost of the care of their dogs. They are also actively seeking new foster parents and permanent homes for rescue dogs.