The definitive poll of greyhound characteristics
June 10th 2009 01:42
"Their greatest attribute is their good-naturedness," says one human.
"That's important, but I'd rate gentleness as the predominant characteristic," replies another.
"Laziness!" asserts a third.
The dogs chortle. Guilty to all charges, they say, but what does it matter, you silly humans? Just as long as you give us our dinner on time.
The Zoomies blog is presented by a mere human, however, and we will therefore put into effect a long-cherished project — to poll those who know and love greyhounds as to what they consider the breed attribute they hold most dear.
You are asked to pick three, and only three, of the following, and rank them in order of importance to you. If you feel there is a characteristic which should be included, please feel free to suggest it and I shall revise the list.
Points shall be awarded on a 3, 2, 1 basis for your choices, and an updated score posted regularly in the comments section.
So let us determine once and for all the consensus opinion of what most makes the greyhound the magnificent dog breed that it is.
Please choose three only, and rank them in order:
1. Friendly
2. Affectionate
3. Well-mannered
4. Lazy
5. Calm
6. Clean
7. Loving
8. Trusting
9. Good-natured
10. Good-looking
11. Gentle
12. Quiet
13. Smart
14. Great with kids
15. Great with the elderly
16. Great bed warmers
17. Don't need a lot of exercise
18. Can dig holes in the yard so deep they regularly find oil or gold
19. Patient
20. Noisy
21. Funny
22. Always in the way
| 47 |
| Vote |
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Comment by Roux
Roux 'b Doux, Standard Poodle with quick feet, and a good bed warmer in my own right!
Comment by Anonymous
7 lovng
8 trusting
Though I would have put "sweet" on there I guess it's covered.
greysmom
Comment by Chris Champion
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The tally so far:
Affectionate 6
Loving 4
Trusting 2
Comment by Janice M Cali
I and Me
Just Writing
4. Lazy
16. Great bed warmers
18. Can dig holes in the yard deep enough they regularly find oil and gold.
Comment by Chris Champion
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I'm so glad someone voted for number 18!
It's time I added my own vote, and I'm going to agree with you, almost - for me, the single most obvious characteristic is their laziness (in a nice way), followed by gentle, followed by don't need a lot of exercise.
The tally so far:
Affectionate 6
Lazy 6
Loving 4
Trusting 2
Gentle 2
Great bed warmers 2
Can dig holes in the yard deep enough they regularly find oil and gold 1
Don't need a lot of exercise 1
Comment by Queenie
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Quirky Queenie
Comment by Chris Champion
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Comment by Anonymous
Trusting
Smart
Comment by Linden Anne
Lazy
Loving
Quiet
Comment by Chris Champion
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Updating the list with the votes of The Buffalo's Butt, k9_lady, lindenanne and Harley's Mom (all from the Greyhounds Make Great Pets forum), nouschka and greyhoundbob (from the Pets Forums Pet Owners Community), greysmom and GreytMuse (from GreyTalk.com), Queenie (from Orble.com - upon reflection, it seemed fair to add a first vote for good-looking), and Lucinda (independent).
Also adding the following categories to the list: Noisy (suggested by Freyja, whose greyhounds, like mine, act as a reliable alarm clock), Patient (suggested by catz4m8tz), Funny (suggested by Breeze), and Always in the way (suggested by Lucinda).
13 - Lazy
12 - Affectionate
9 - Loving
6 - Friendly
5 - Gentle
4 - Trusting
4 - Good-looking
2 - Great bed warmers
2 - Good-natured
2 - Smart
1 - Can dig holes in the yard deep enough they regularly find oil and gold
1 - Don't need a lot of exercise
1 - Always in the way
1 - Quiet
Comment by Breeze
Good Natured
Good Looking
Thank you for adding my first choice. Couldn't vote without it.
~Breeze
Comment by Chris Champion
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Comment by Anonymous
loving
good-looking (why walk a dumpy dog when you can walk an elegant greyhound?
Comment by IrishGH
Friendly
Good Natured
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Adding the votes of Breeze, DonnaBehr, greytluck, greytloves, GreyAcresMom, fourofem, fsugrad, crazycrest, kristy, anonymous and IrishGH
18 - Lazy
17 - Friendly
16 - Affectionate
14 - Loving
13 - Gentle
12 - Trusting
9 - Good-looking
7 - Good-natured
7 - Smart
6 - Resilient
3 - Funny
2 - Great bed warmers
1 - Can dig holes in the yard deep enough they regularly find oil and gold
1 - Don't need a lot of exercise
1 - Always in the way
1 - Quiet
1 - Great with kids
Comment by Chris Champion
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1. Friendly
2. Affectionate
3. Well-mannered
4. Lazy
5. Calm
6. Clean
7. Loving
8. Trusting
9. Good-natured
10. Good-looking
11. Gentle
12. Quiet
13. Smart
14. Great with kids
15. Great with the elderly
16. Great bed warmers
17. Don't need a lot of exercise
18. Can dig holes in the yard so deep they regularly find oil or gold
19. Patient
20. Noisy
21. Funny
22. Always in the way
23. Adaptable
24. Clean
25. Fast
Comment by Roux
Even dumpy dogs have their beauty and place among us more eleglant dogs. I had a very good friend who was part bassett and part something trhat he wasn't sure of, his mother didn't want to talk about it. He was quite dumpy, but he was happy, cheerful, always ready to play and loved going for walks with his mom and his brother. Unfortunately he died because of complications due to heartworms, not his mom's fault. So dumpy is beautiful too.
Roux 'b Doux, Standard Poodle and pround of it.
Comment by Anonymous
10. Good looking
8. Trusting
Comment by Heidi/Clyde
We've been on holiday to Leigh Creek where the Boss works. How come the Missus can only vote for three of the characteristics? We are good at all of them and we insist she puts good with children at the top of the list because we are so patient with the two grand children we think we deserve a medal. They are both crawling around and into everything, they even steal our toys!
Next she says she has to put affectionate because we are but she can't decide between gentle and lazy for her last one.
We think you should add show stoppers too.
Everywhere we walk people stop to admiire us. The Missus is very good at starting conversations about the GAP program so we get lots of pats and ear rubs.
At Leigh Creek we were walking one day on the oval and there was a class out throwing boomerangs and things and learning about flight, two of the girls said "are they Greyhounds?" so we went across to say hello and the teacher came and started asking Questions so they all had a class on Greyhounds and GAP instead of flying. The Missus told them about us only touching the ground for 25% of the time when we run so that we could be a part of the flying lesson. We had lots of fun being patted and rubbed and then they wanted to see us run so two of the girls took us for a gentle jog across the oval (of course they were running as fast as they could) Clyde behaved himself and just ran but I did kangaroo bounds and played cartwheels, everyone thought it was a big hoot! Education is great, do you think we should add educators to your list Daisy?
Heidi.