A rescue greyhound for the White House

you will not notice me if I wear camo, originally uploaded by circulating.

The Obama girls have been promised a puppy. Ten-year-old Malia has allergies.

Her mom wants the First Pup to be a rescue dog.

Hortense has a great idea. How about a rescue greyhound? These dogs are hypoallergenic, calm, friendly, and widely available at relatively young ages, as they are retired from the racing industry.

Comments

[Roscoe]

Greyhounds? Nice dogs, but I doubt Obama will play the race card this time around.

[Alon Levy]

I'm annoyed they chose to quote PETA for the article as if it was an animal shelter network rather than a radical animal rights group.

[Annapolitan]

Roscoe won the funniest comment contest I was running in my head.

I hear that Malia wants a labradoodle. Even though purebred dogs DO end up at shelters (I am a rescue volunteer and I know this is a common myth about shelter dogs), labradoodles usually DON'T end up there. But there are breed-specific rescue groups for all breeds and I'm sure someone has a labradoodle rescue group now, too.

So The First Family could kill two birds with one stone by finding a labradoodle which needs to be rehomed. That would make everyone happy.

I am a huge fan of standard poodles, also a low-allergy breed. They are wonderful dogs.

[mudkitty]

Greyhounds are calm?

[Laurel]

Yes, greys are calm. They're sometimes called "40 mile an hour couch potatoes." They do require exercise and some extra care, and many can't coexist with cats or other small pets, but they're splendid family dogs. This is a wonderful idea and I'd love to see it happen.

As for "labradoodles" and other crossbred "breeds," they have a disturbing tendency to inherit the common genetic defects of both parent breeds. Greyhounds are also remarkable in being less inbred than the average pedigree dog with the result that they have almost no inherited conditions at all. They only ones I've heard of are difficulty giving birth (and surely the Obama's dog will be neutered or spayed) and a tendency toward bad teeth.

[Laurel]

....oops, the Obamas' dog. And I teach English. Oy.

[CW]

As for "labradoodles" and other crossbred "breeds," they have a disturbing tendency to inherit the common genetic defects of both parent breeds.

So you're suggesting that there are some special rules for genetic inheritance that apply only to dogs? Very interesting. By what actual mechanism do they manage to favour these so-called "defects"? It's odd because most breeders have problems with inbreeding reinforcing defects and have to employ intentional outbreeding to ameliorate this. ("Breeders" here includes dogs breeders.)

Better yet, at what point in the process does this apply? At what point, I mean, is a breed a breed? Golden Retrievers, just for example, are the result of crossing the flat coated Retriever with a Tweed Water Spaniel. The resultant pups were then bred through with St John's Dogs, Irish Setters and Bloodhounds. So why isn't the Golden Retriever simply riddled with defects? More, since this all happened within the last hundred years, why aren't they still considered a crossbreed rather than a pure breed?

The fact is that "breed" in dogs is almost entirely an arbitrary and subjective matter for kennel clubs and their breeding records (and for those folks who think they can legislate canine aggression away by "breed" specific bans). Genetically it is a very, very sketchy concept. (Just try and determine a dog's "breed" by it's genome some time.) Even the idea that Canis familiaris represents a species distinct from C. lupus and C. latrans remains open to some question (there being less variation within these three species than is found between different ethnic groups of humans).

[Theresa Yon]

Greyhounds are definitely calm and most of them are lazy to some extent. There will always be exceptions but having met dozens & dozens, the calm temperament is typical. They sleep a great deal. Many of them will chase balls, etc because they love to run. Most get along well with other dogs & especially other greyhounds. The dogs were once put down en masse after racing, now many are adopted. Some are still put down. Most are great pets off the track, esp. with children.
I figured the Obama Presidency would be an UNQUALIFIED disaster. If they adopt a greyhound at least that will be a qualifier.

[Julian Elson]

The idea occured to me, too, probably because Ezra Klein's blog has had an ad for Grey2K at the top of its screen for quite a while (maybe more than a month now?).

[Lulu And Lolly]

We're two Maltese dogs and LoLLy is a rescue and we would just like to add that one of the best things about the new Prez getting a dog for his pack that is a rescue doggy shows just how awesome rescue dogs can be, because 2 many times humans think the rescue dogs are all just sad and stuff, and we think more humans would adopt rescue dogs if they didn't see so much sadness and stuff associated with them. It is true that many rescue doggies have challenges but we have many advantages 2. Greyhound or Any Hound, Two Paws Up for the Obama pack on the whole dog thing. Also, we hope that since the Prez gets his own Cabinet the new doggy gets her own Cabinet 2, that she can fill with many deelishus snax. Your PaLs, LuLu and LoLLy

[Laurel]

No, I didn't mean to suggest impossible dog genetics, and I'm not an expert. I was reacting to the idea (not expressed here, but often put forward elsewhere) that a crossbreed will "have the best characteristics of both parents" when they're just as likely to have the worst ones.

I apologize for the misinformation. It wasn't intentional.

[Chet]

Are you sure they're hypoallergenic? Most thin-coated dogs (or dogs without undercoats) -- like greyhounds -- still produce significant dander, which is one of the more common "dog allergy" triggers. I know that rescue greys make ME sneeze and my eyes water, so (despite their undeniable charm), maybe a grey isn't the right dog for the Obamas.

[John-Paul Pagano]

Greyhounds aren't really calm so much as they're comatose for around 18 hours a day, but when they're awake, well, they're greyhounds. They like to run. They're similar to cheetahs in both respects.

[Bloix]

A good place for hypoallergenic rescue dogs:
http://www.poomixrescue.com/dog_types.html

[greyhoundsthebook]

We agree with Hortense:

http://greyhoundsthebook.com/s/
for free "Obama, get the girls a greyhound!" posters