Italian Greyhound FAQs

No. Italian Greyhounds are not easy to house train, and many people never manage to fully house train their Italian Greyhounds. However, it is possible but training should start as early as possible in puppyhood. The most effective approach is labour intensive but worth the investment in time and effort. The approach is basically to take the puppy outside to pee and poop and never give him / her the opportunity to pee or poop indoors. This means anticipating when your puppy might need to pee / poop e.g. when it wakes up, when it has eaten, when it has had a drink, when it has had a fun play session, when something scary has happened, and every hour regardless. If your dog never gets the opportunity to pee or poop inside, then it will learn that the place to pee and poop is outside. When your puppy pees or poops outside, praise them and give them lots of positive encouragement. If your puppy does pee or poop inside, never show any sign of reaction – do not tell your dog off, do not create any fuss. Simply clear the pee / poop up without paying any attention to your dog.

An Italian Greyhound is not an ideal family dog and there are other breeds that are more easily integrated into a busy household with young children. Italian Greyhounds are a relatively high maintenance breed in terms of temperament, and with their small and fragile frame, they can be easily injured by young children who might not be able to handle a small dog like an IG appropriately. Italian Greyhounds can also be difficult to house train and therefore may pee and poop indoors which is not ideal with very young children at home.

Italian Greyhounds are a high maintenance breed that need a lot of care and attention. They are full of energy requiring a walk of at least one hour a day, intelligent, need human companionship, and can be headstrong and difficult to house train. They need daily teeth brushing and the breed is more prone to broken legs than many other breeds. Before deciding on whether or not an Italian Greyhound is right for you, you will need to do some research about Italian Greyhounds and their needs including temperament, diet, exercise & enrichment, common health problems, and grooming & maintenance. Plus you should try to meet some Italian Greyhounds.

Whippets and Italian Greyhounds are very different dogs in terms of temperament and care needs. Italian Greyhounds are generally more high maintenance than Whippets, more demanding and require more time, attention, exercise and patience. Italian Greyhounds also tend to be more difficult to house train and more difficult to train generally. Make sure you do your research about Italian Greyhounds and meet some IGs in person if you’re thinking about bringing one into your home.

Italian Greyhounds can be vocal dogs. Like all dogs, Italian Greyhounds bark to communicate. Some dogs have more to say than others and IGs can bark for many reasons. These include barking out of fear, frustration, boredom, excitement, loneliness, when they want something, when they are hungry, when they want to play, etc. Read more about the Italian Greyhound temperament.

Italian Greyhounds love human company and should never be left alone for long periods of time. We advise that an IG should never be left alone for more than 4 hours. Italian Greyhounds do not thrive without human interaction and care. An Italian Greyhound needs to be trained that it’s OK to be home alone and the amount of time that the IG is left alone should be built up slowly over time to avoid behaviour issues such as separation anxiety.

Italian Greyhounds are a high maintenance breed requiring good exercise, companionship, appropriate care and appropriate psychological enrichment. The small bones and fine frame of an Italian Greyhound also means the breed is also prone to leg breaks, particularly as IGs are very energetic and don’t necessarily understand that they’re not built for impact. they are not right right breed for everyone. Read: Is an IG right for you?

Italian Greyhounds are a very active breed with lots of energy and need age-appropriate exercise. A fit, healthy, adult Italian Greyhound needs at least a one hour walk a day, preferably to include some off lead time for free running if it is safe to do so. Italian Greyhounds have be much more energy and stamina than their larger cousins such as Whippets and Greyhounds and need more exercise than these larger hounds. Canine enrichment activities can also help to provide appropriate psychological stimulation.

Italian Greyhounds are renowned for being a relatively high maintenance breed. Most owners would agree that they are not “normal” dogs. They are “Velcro” dogs that love human company, they are full of energy, and they are also very intelligent. All of this makes for a dog that needs both appropriate physical and mental stimulation to avoid potential behavioural issues.

Italian Greyhounds are a low odour breed if cared for correctly. The short coat of the breed doesn’t tend to hold much debris and the dogs can be “wiped clean” with a damp towel easily, or bathed using a warm shower and an approproate gentle shampoo. Read more on grooming and maintenance.

This depends on the dog – some Italian Greyhounds can be let off lead but not all because of their sighthound instinct to chase things e.g. rabbits and squirrels. Italian Greyhounds need to be trained from an early age to have good, reliable recall. Go to a good puppy training class (that uses positive reward methods only) and start recall training as early as possible.

While the breed is not generally known for aggression, any dog has the potential to be aggressive in certain circumstances e.g. if a dog feels very threatened and has no escape route.

While Italian Greyhounds can be very social dogs, every dog is different and whether or not your IG would want to live with another IG depends on the personality of your dog and the personality of the dog that is potentially going to join them. Many Italian Greyhounds are very happy being “an only” having 100% of their human owner’s time and attention.

If you are considering bringing a second Italian Greyhound into your family, we recommend that you wait until your first Italian Greyhound is over 18 months old before bringing in a second. This gives you time to bond with and train the first Italian Greyhound, rather than two young puppies bonding to each other above their human family, and it also enables to use the good training of the first Italian Greyhound to train the second.

Two Italian Greyhound puppies together from day one, especially for first time Italian Greyhound owners, can prove to be a challenge too far, hence we urge caution and advise that you spend at least 18 months with a first Italian Greyhound.

Italian Greyhounds are sighthounds and sighthounds are renowned for “sighthound shakes”. The shake is more like a shiver and dogs can shiver for all kinds of reasons including feeling cold, excited, afraid, happy, in anticipation of something good happening, and when they feel uncomfortable or anxious.

A well-bred, fit, and healthy Italian Greyhound should be able to live a normal life without breaking a leg although accidents can happen. Good breeding and appropriate exercise from puppyhood to enable an IG to develop good motor skills and strength are the foundations to preventing leg breaks. In addition, owners can take precautions to help prevent leg breaks in Italian Greyhounds.

Italian Greyhounds don’t have very much natural insulation, so they feel the cold very easily. An IG of a healthy weight carries relatively little body fat and has a very fine short coat so there’s not much there to protect them from the cold. Italian Greyhounds should always live indoors with their human family as they are not hardy dogs that will live happily in outbuildings. It’s important to make sure that an Italian Greyhound has a soft, warm bed and appropriate outer wear for cold weather walks. See our essential kit listing.

Italian Greyhounds are creatures of comfort and love to stay warm and cosy. They feel the cold easily because they have little body fat and short, fine coats so they like to curl up under blankets to stay warm and feel safe. Italian Greyhounds are intelligent and most are very adept at getting under blankets to stay warm.

Italian Greyhounds usually have a lifespan of 12-16 years.

Some Italian Greyhounds like to swim but they’re not natural water dogs in general. Many Italian Greyhounds will try to avoid water to the extent that they will walk around a puddle instead of through it. Some owners report that their Italian Greyhounds do not like to walk in the rain. Our advice is that an Italian Greyhound should be wrapped up against the elements and exercised daily except in extreme conditions when it would not be safe to do so.

The safest way to travel with your Italian Greyhound in a car is to travel them in a secure crate (preferably on the back seat of your car as boots/trunks are designed to crumple on impact) or to ensure they are wearing a good quality harness and clip them in with a specially designed canine seat belt restraint – never attach a seat belt restraint to a collar on your dog as it could result in avoidable serious injuries.

If a dog stares at you it is trying to communicate with you. What the dog is communicating depends on the context e.g. if you are eating some delicious smelling food and your dog is sat at a respectful distance from you and staring while wagging their tail happily, brushing along the floor, the likelihood is they are keen for you to share your food with them. If a dog feels threatened by you then it may stare and have its ears pinned back, tail raised tense over its back, and you may be able to see the whites of its eyes.

Italian Greyhounds can be very social but like all breeds of dogs, need to be appropriately socialised from a young age. A good breeder will begin that socialisation while the puppy is with them and it should be continued by the puppy’s new owners. Note that there is a difference between appropriate socialisation and overwhelming a dog by exposing it to many new things in a short period of time which can lead to too much stress and be counter-productive.

Italian Greyhounds dig for the same reason as any other dogs dig and the list is long: for entertainment because they are bored, for attention because it gets a reaction from their owner, to relieve anxiety or stress, because they want to hide something, because they want to escape from a space, etc. To work out why your Italian Greyhound is digging you need to look at the context of that digging and the dog’s broader behavioural profile.

Italian Greyhounds should have a warm, soft bed to sleep in, preferably with the option of getting under a blanket. They also like to sleep on sofas and in human beds, but they should always have the choice to go to their own “safe space” if they want to.

Italian Greyhounds can make very good companions as they are loving and enjoy human companionship when cared for correctly. A healthy, well-bred Italian Greyhound is usually an agile, fast and intelligent dog so they can also be good at agility, canine hoopers, lure coursing and many other canine appropriate activities.

Italian Greyhounds are built to carry little body fat. An Italian Greyhound should ideally look nether too thin nor overweight. Just a hint of the last couple of ribs should be visible and the “pin bones” above the hips should be just visible. If individual ribs in the rib cage are clearly visible, then try to increase your dog’s calory intake – usually by increasing the amount they are fed each day. If your dog is loses weight suddenly for no apparent reason, goes off its food, or refuses to eat then seek advice from a qualified vet immediately. Take a look at our feeding and nurition info.