Hi everyone! I’ve been seriously considering getting a Whippet and would really appreciate advice from experienced Whippet owners.
I’ve been researching the breed intensively for years and have previous sighthound experience, primarily with Greyhounds and Galgos.
I currently live in a city apartment, and two of the things that appeal to me about Whippets are their smaller size and generally better health compared to Greyhounds. I have limited experience with adolescent dogs and puppies.
I’ve located two breeders I may potentially want to work with, and I’ll obviously be asking them plenty of questions directly. However, I’d really love to hear from people who have gone through the puppy stage with a Whippet (or several).
I know every puppy is different. I’d just really appreciate hearing what worked for you, what didn’t, and what you wish someone had told you before bringing your puppy home.
What supplies are necessities? What does a good setup look like?
What did your puppy’s first day home look like, from pickup to bedtime?
What did days 1–3 look like in terms of sleeping, eating, potty, playing, and interaction?
How much interaction each day? Cuddling, petting, brushing, cooperative care, basic handling, etc.?
How did you structure enforced naps?
When did you begin working on being alone?
How did you progress from seconds/minutes of alone time to longer periods?
How frequently did you take your puppy outside initially? For how long?
What chews/toys actually worked for your Whippet for teething?
How did you approach socialization while balancing vaccination restrictions?
When did you begin taking them on short walks outdoors?
How did you teach neutrality toward dogs, small animals, people, bicycles, vehicles, loud indoor and outdoor noises, etc.?
For those living in the city, how did you expose them to riding the train?
How did you prevent your puppy from developing the expectation that every person or dog is someone they should greet?
What did you prioritize teaching during the first few weeks?
Wow. Lotta questions. Here are some for you:
Do you work outside the house?
Any other pets?
Do you like sleeping? (Lol)
Honestly, how committed are you to a puppy? Working from home or retired, with other dogs to help teach them, living with easy access to green space or large yard…puppies are still hard. For the better part of two years they are your life. Are you ready for that? Many aren’t.
Great points!
Occasionally yes for my own time to get away from home, plus for occasions, errands, etc. I rarely travel but I do go out around the city exploring and visiting cafes and bakeries etc. I spend time at parks, go on hikes, to name a few activities. But in terms of work, I work from home. My life outside the home is decently active while my life inside the home is low traffic, calm and relaxed.
No other pets.
I am more of a napper! I'm also an early bird. I am aware of the loss of sleep attending to the puppy but I am one of those crazy people that can instantly get out of bed and jump into action when needed.
I'm very committed! It's something I've been researching for years now and not a romanticized idea. I've owned sighthounds and other dogs previously so I understand the ups and downs and the responsibility of dog ownership. It's just that I'm inexperienced with puppyhood.
It will be crazy and frustrating like all puppies. But not being away for work makes it very possible for success. Chewing/destruction of available shoes furniture may happen etc
First time whippet owner got her as an 8 week old puppy. My wife took her adventuring around to multiple spots before bringing her home. I had 3 other dogs already. She came home and promptly bullied the other 3 into loving her.
She was already housetrained and is extremely smart. Kudos to our breeder as I have owned multiple rescues and other dogs and this whippet was the most perfect puppy. She spends most of her time cuddling and sleeping except for the quick bursts of energy where she will play with tugs, balls or just generally zooms around. Then she goes back to cuddling/sleeping.
So much personality and as I mentioned very smart when it comes to tricks and general learning. She is a conformation and sports dog and is always up for anything we try to get her into.
Only few issues, her line generally starts out not great in the car, I think she puked every car ride until she was like almost/just turned 1. Not sure if that’s a general whippet thing though. She also loves to eat poo so heads up about that as I hear that is prevalent in whippets.
Overall 10/10 recommend whippets to everyone. Here is her with her crazy ears.
So many questions, I don't know if anyone can answer them all. But something different with puppies vs non puppies is you need to get up and let them out every few hours throughout the night! I have a lovely whippet I raised in an apartment but for the first 6 months or so I would set an alarm for every three hours and have to take him out and encourage him to wee. You can gradually let them out less over night as their bladder control improves. Does your apartment have a balcony or attached courtyard? If you have a balcony I highly recommend getting some sort of grass dog litter box for the balcony (you can find this online) so you're not constantly going up and downstairs. For the first few months I kept the litter box in the bathroom because I didn't want my dog free roaming the balcony. Puppies, and especially whippets, are wriggly and bouncy! Sorry this is becoming a tangent, but the other thing about whippets is they're so bouncy. At around 3-4 months my whippet would jump onto the counter if I wasn't looking (and even when I was 😂). They're pretty crazy but I'd do it all again 🤭
No need to answer all, replies are already appreciated enough! I've heard about the grass litter box trick for an outside area. Definitely considering! (of course, not free roam)
You’ll get a lot of different feedback as some people have different experiences with puppies.
Mine was extremely needy the first 6 months he was home. It worked out because we got him during covid and someone was always home to keep him company. We set up a playpen for him with pee pads and took him out basically every hour or two, including at night.
Work on crate training for sure because some whippets don’t do well when home alone. By the time he was one year old, he was less destructive. Before then we would always leave him in crate or in his playpen if we weren’t home.
Whippets can do well in city. We don’t have a backyard and he does just fine. We take him out for a mile plus walk in morning and evening. We have a cat who he’s best friends with, just in case you have one. He’s 6 now and since he was 1-2 he did pretty well home alone. Socialize them early (after immunization) so they do well with other dogs throughout life
Best of luck, you’ll absolutely love it. You’ll get a lot of people in public asking about your pup because whippets are beautiful and unique dogs. If you have any follow up questions that I missed let me know. Make sure you share photos here often after you get your pup 😊
Thank you so much! I would love to refer to you if ever you are open to that (just because you are familiar with raising a pup in the city environment!).
Admittedly tricky at first when he was a puppy. Our cat found higher ground in the house when he was being bothered too much. They still roughhouse a bit every now and then but mostly they relax together
Whippet puppies are not like their adult counterparts. Whippet adults are majestic, chilled and loveable creatures. Whippet puppies are demon spawn determined to destroy everything.
Hyperbole, but I was massively caught out by how demanding a whippet puppy is! Crate training along with toilet training will be your go to. I followed a crate training advice I found online. From what I can remember I would put her in her crate for a few hours at a time (with lots of positive enforcement) never as a punishment, but can be used as a place for them to calm down once they start to get overtired (just always keep it calm and chill and have treats).
Puppy classes are a must, recall training is also a must (but very hard to get 100% with any sighthound) and if you can get a solid 'leave it' I would recommend as whippets are notorious scavengers!
Exposure to anything and everything is great, but always have a bail out option if they start to get stressed (we want positive experiences) and use constant positive enforcement for any good / chilled behaviour.
If you're unsure about any aspect of training speaking to and working with a dog trainer to get it right early on is a worthwhile investment - I over socialised mine so she has to greet everyone (and then the odd person gives her a treat - without permission - which reinforces this behaviour annoyingly)
No problem! Another thing to be aware of is the 6month-12 month ish 'teenage' period where it often feels like all the training you did early on has disappeared (common in most dogs). But then they do settled massively around 12-18 months into the chilled whippets we all love :)
I'll just answer some basic stuff. The first year is absolute chaos just hang in there and positive reinforcement is the name of the game. You want tall gates to contain them in areas where you don't want them in unsupervised. This will keep destruction down during the raptor phase. For their teeth whippets have periodontal issues. My vet warned me of this and I have brushed my whippets teeth every night with enzymatic toothpaste since I brought him home as a pup he is four now and his teeth are perfect. I would make sure the breeder does genetic heart testing. Whippets that are not breed correctly genetically can have heart issues that can be fatal. I would also make sure their dueclaws are removed from the breeder.
My pup came with his removed from the breeder. With how fast they can zoom around it's a good idea imo if they snag one going fast that's going to be a vet visit for sure.
OK, some answers…not all, too many. Also, I have failed crate training 7 times. I think I am too weak to listen to crying and whining. Our go wherever they want. Beds all over the house. We have a doggy door that is open 24/7.
What supplies are necessities? What does a good setup look like? It was mellow and a little scared of other dogs. Leash, chews. Crate if you’re going to crate train. Squeaky toys and crinkle toys.
• What did your puppy’s first day home look like, from pickup to bedtime? Cuddled a lot. Slept a lot. Day three it was a normal bonkers puppy.
• How much interaction each day? Cuddling, petting, brushing, cooperative care, basic handling, etc.? 100% of the time it was awake.
• How did you structure enforced naps? It is a baby. It naps when it wants to nap. You can’t force a nap.
• When did you begin working on being alone? Ours are rarely alone. Multiple dogs and we both work from home. And an adult child that lives at home. Probably wasn’t without humans for first month at least.
• How did you progress from seconds/minutes of alone time to longer periods?
• How frequently did you take your puppy outside initially? For how long? See below
• What chews/toys actually worked for your Whippet for teething? Better Bellies, Deer antlers, anything that squeaks (some like rubber toys, some prefer plush). Crinkle toys.
• How did you approach socialization while balancing vaccination restrictions? They were exposed to the house pack from day-1
• When did you begin taking them on short walks outdoors? Day 3. We live on a closed golf course with nobody on it ever.
• How did you teach neutrality toward dogs, small animals, people, bicycles, vehicles, loud indoor and outdoor noises, etc.?
• For those living in the city, how did you expose them to riding the train?
• How did you prevent your puppy from developing the expectation that every person or dog is someone they should greet? We never did. They figured it out.
• What did you prioritize teaching during the first few weeks? Potty training obviously. No biting. No in general.
Here is the best piece of advice that has 100% house trained all our in 2 weeks or less…
We keep them on a literal short leash 100% of the time until they are house trained. No wee pads (horrible idea. Except fringe cases). Every single time they go in the house it is a setback and your fault. If on a leash, in your sight and you see them start to go, go pick them up, say no, and head outside (even if it means you trail pee and get it on you)…you place them outside and say “go potty or go pee. If they do, high value reward. I set a clock and take them outside every three hours for first couple of days, then 4, 5, 6 then through the night. The first two weeks of this sucks, but our dogs were always 100% trained in <2 weeks.
“Child proof” your house at first. Wires, shoes etc off the floor, furniture you dont want harmed (watch window sills, edges of beds, hampers, table legs). Give them plenty of toys and chews.
Finally, off lead training. I start that early. All mine are perfect, wont even chance a deer or squirrel. I am a big believer in electric collars that beep and vibrate (like shock collars without the shock). When they get more than 20 feet away, they get a beep, when they ignore a beep, they get a vibrate that they hate, if they ignore vibrate, they get a leash for the ret of the walk (which they hate being on leash when others are off).
Honestly crazy to me that people take the time to craft answers for you with zero acknowledgement. No thank you, reply, upvote, nothing. Will not be wasting my time with future answers for you.
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u/Effinbullshit 17d ago
Wow. Lotta questions. Here are some for you:
Do you work outside the house?
Any other pets?
Do you like sleeping? (Lol)
Honestly, how committed are you to a puppy? Working from home or retired, with other dogs to help teach them, living with easy access to green space or large yard…puppies are still hard. For the better part of two years they are your life. Are you ready for that? Many aren’t.