10 Funny Greyhound Habits

If you have ever owned a greyhound, you may recognise a few of the following habits I’ve spotted in mine, a rescued fawn greyhound called Amber.

1. She sleeps (which accounts for about 22 hours of each day) with both her mouth and eyes slightly open – quite an alarming sight. My boyfriend says she couldn’t look uglier. I (obviously) find it quite endearing.
2. When she’s in her bed, she rolls onto her back (quite a balancing act for a greyhound, with such a bony spine) and contorts her body into a bizarre yogic twist with all four legs pointing to the heavens.
3. She likes to go inside things: duvets, blankets – anything warm, soft and den-like. Even in hot weather. Then when it gets too hot she’s too lazy to extract herself so lies there panting until her servants unravel her.
4. She likes to lean. Anyone standing in a convenient place will do. She leans to such an extent that if you moved away she would fall over. It saves energy for running.
5. She can’t sit down like a normal dog, because her legs are so long her bottom doesn’t reach the floor.
6. Skinny appearances can be deceptive: Amber is food-obsessed. She eats as though there’s a pack of wolves loitering behind her, waiting to pounce. She eats anything, even dreaded citrus fruits (yes, really – she recently ate an entire segment of grapefruit without wincing). She gets so excited by the sight of cheese that she has a kind of asthma attack until it reaches her mouth.
7. She likes ear-nibbling, given the chance. She approaches those in her favour with an innocent lick, then she goes in for a cheeky nip.
8. She often sleeps with her back legs so far forward and her front legs so far back that they cross over completely.
9. She loves sunbathing, and remains in the full sun until she’s practically dying of heat exhaustion. We apply sun cream to her bald bits (she has several) and then she spends the next half hour eating it all.
10. She sincerely believes she has the talent to hypnotise food from the plate into her mouth. She will not give up this lifelong ambition until she succeeds.