Creating a mixed-breed dog has a ton of benefits. It means that you can combine the traits of two amazing breeds that you love and could help to eradicate certain traits or health issues which aren’t so desirable.
When creating a mixed breed, it’s a good idea to find two breeds that are of similar size and appearance. This gives you a better idea of what the final result will be.
A Bit About Greyhounds
Greyhounds are known to be loving and loyal pets. Despite their notorious need for speed, they are actually cuddly couch potatoes most of the time.
While they are great sprinters, they do lose energy pretty quickly, meaning they can’t run for a long time. This makes them easy to exercise.
Their lazy behavior after a walk is simply to recover the energy that they’ve lost. But this also means that you don’t need to have a huge house for a Greyhound.
While they are big dogs, they don’t need lots of space to run around. It’s also great news that they aren’t barky dogs either. This means you can live in close proximity to your neighbors without an issue.
Greyhounds aren’t classified as high-maintenance dogs. However, they do have some very specific training requirements as their body shape doesn’t allow for traditional ‘sitting.’ They also aren’t the most intelligent breed, so you will need to be patient.
Their love for you can also lead to some issues with separation anxiety which needs to be carefully managed. However, aside from this, they are a fairly simple breed to care for with limited health issues.
A Bit About Dalmatians
The Dalmatian breed first began back in the 1600s in Croatia and is famous for its spotted coats and long, slender build. They are noted as part of the utility category but are working dogs in many respects.
They are most recognized today for their affiliation with firefighters, but also accompanied horse-drawn rigs carrying nobles or carriages with gypsies in the past.
However, they are most suited to being guard dogs. Their muscular build, reaching up to 23 inches at the shoulder, is perfect for guarding coaches and horses, which was their original purpose.
Because of their traditional watchdog traits, they can be wary of strangers and other animals. They are loyal and loving dogs and will immediately bond with their owner.
However, they aren’t automatically suited to a house with other dogs or pets. Their past, being used as guard dogs throughout wartime, also makes them eager to chase, meaning that small rodents might be in danger.
Unlike the Greyhound, they do bark when they feel that there is an intruder – in fact, it’s their job to do so.
The Dalmatian Greyhound Mix
Because Greyhounds and Dalmatians are similar in height and stature, they make a great mixed breed.
Let’s take a look at what you’re letting yourself in for with a Dalmatian Greyhound Mix.
Appearance
Dalmatians and Greyhounds have similar heights, weights, and lifespans, making them the perfect mix breed opportunity.
Dalmatians reach around 24 inches at the shoulder, while a male Greyhound might grow slightly taller at around 30 inches.
The two breeds are similar weights, usually depending on the sex of your dog. A male Dalmatian can weigh up to 70 lbs, whereas a female Greyhound could be anything from 57-75 lbs, with the males typically being slightly heavier.
Both breeds have long snouts to help them breathe when running, long, slender legs, and floppy ears.
Your Dalmatian Greyhound mix breed is likely to look like a slightly short, fat version of a Greyhound, or a tall, thin version of a Dalmatian.
Coat
Both breeds have short coats and will need to be protected from both the warm and cold weather with jackets and waterproofs.
Dalmatians only come in their signature spotty pattern with black or liver-colored spots. While Greyhounds can come in a huge range of colors and patterns depending on how purely they have been bred. These patterns can vary from being a single color to having a white mask, chest, and feet, or be bi- or tri-colored.
A Dalmatian Greyhound mix can be any combination of these colors and unfortunately, there’s no way to tell which before they’re born. This entirely depends on where the dominant gene comes from.
Many mixes of this nature take the dominant gene from the Dalmatian parent, meaning that they’re predominantly white with faded spots. However, you can also find Greyhounds with full color on their back, or even brindle coloring, with their white patches showing remnants of spots.
Temperament & Behavior
The Dalmatian is known for being incredibly friendly and loyal to their owners, but wary of strangers. They are energetic and intelligent. So they need plenty of stimulation to keep them active and healthy.
They are natural guard dogs who are bound to protect you and will alert you to any danger that comes near.
However, while Greyhounds are loving and loyal, they don’t have a reputation for being overly intelligent and are typically very lazy. They also make horrendous guard dogs who are more likely to lick your burglars to death than bark to alert you.
Mixing these two dogs will usually mean that you have a friendly companion who bonds with your whole family, becoming a ‘Velcro dog’ and following you everywhere to protect you.
They are known for being great with children. However, the Dalmatian’s wary nature and the Greyhound’s chase instinct means that you shouldn’t place a Dalmatian-Greyhound Cross in a home with other animals such as cats or rabbits.
Diet
As both breeds are prone to Hip and Elbow Dysplasia because of the way their joints connect to make them more agile, your mixed breed will need a diet that contains fish oil to keep them supple.
As both breeds have the chase instinct and require a lot of calories and protein to keep them active, a raw food diet is often recommended.
This raw food helps you to keep the diet varied and more interesting and also helps you to pump in a ton of protein.
Exercise
While Greyhounds have very little energy after a walk, a Dalmatian is actually the complete opposite. This means that you’ll need to be prepared to take them on a long walk for at least an hour a day.
The more energy they use, the better they will be in the home. Dalmatians can be destructive. Although this isn’t typical for Greyhounds, you won’t know until it’s already too late.
Training
Dalmatians are known for their intelligence. However, this can mean that they get a little bored and begin to do their own thing. They respond best to positive reinforcement. To avoid breaking the diet, it’s recommended to use a favorite toy and praise as their reward.
Greyhounds aren’t quite as intelligent, but they can still pick up on commands fairly easily with positive reinforcement. Their challenge isn’t about understanding you, or wanting to do their own thing – they’re happy to take orders. Their issue is that they physically can’t do what you’re instructing them to do sometimes.
Greyhounds struggle to ‘sit’ and perform a sort of laying down motion instead. This is because of the structure of their spine in comparison to their hips. This can lead to confusion if the owner isn’t prepared as it won’t look like they’re sitting, but they are trying their best.
Greyhounds also struggle with potty training, especially if they’re ex-racing dogs. This is because they aren’t trained to be in a home from puppyhood. Their kennel lifestyle makes it okay for them to go to the toilet on the floor, so they do.
With your Dalmatian Greyhound Mix, it really depends on your dog’s appearance and which genes they inherited to understand how the training will go.
The best advice is to be patient and work on positive reinforcement with a toy that suits their needs. This toy should perhaps be something they can chase to activate the natural instincts of both dogs.
You should also carry out training in short bursts. This allows for the Dalmatian in them to be distracted by something more interesting and the Greyhound to take a break and digest the things they’ve learned.
Grooming
Greyhounds aren’t technically classified as hypoallergenic. However, their coat is so fine and smooth, that they can still work for people with allergies.
Their fine coat doesn’t need a lot of grooming. They need to be brushed every week to get off any dirt.
The Dalmatian is the complete opposite. They shed a lot and their fur is much more coarse and longer than a Greyhound’s. You shouldn’t need to brush them more than once per week, but when you do, be prepared with the vacuum.
The combination here means that they’re relatively easy to take care of when it comes to grooming. However, they are definitely not suitable for people with allergies.
Health
Luckily, both breeds are quite healthy. This makes them a great combination and will usually minimize your vets’ bills. However, there are a couple of common health issues to look out for.
Joint Dysplasia
Greyhounds suffer from Hip and Elbow Dysplasia, especially as they get older. This is because their bodies are designed for speed, so their build is meant to make them as light as possible.
However, excessive walking can cause their joints to slip out of place making it incredibly painful or even impossible to walk. This is fixable depending on the severity and may require an operation. Once it has happened, it’s more likely to recur.
Deafness
Due to their breeding, some Dalmatians are born deaf. This doesn’t hinder them too much, apart from when it comes to recall training.
However, if your Dalmatian Greyhound mix inherits this defective gene from its parents, you may be faced with deafness from birth, or steadily worsening deafness throughout their life.
A good dog trainer can teach you how to cope with this.
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I think my dog Sprout may be a dalmatian/greyhound mix. He is SO fast, instant speed out of the back door when in pursuit of next door’s cat! He is the most loving dog ever, and is especially bonded to me, but he loves everyone- other people and other dogs. Shape-wise, he looks like a small greyhound, with a thicker head, but he still has a longish snout. I would love to know for sure!
Sprout definitely sounds adorable Linda, what is his coat like?
My what was handsome boy is now old like me bless him. I put him down to being the Dalmation X Greyhound or as I like to call that type of breed a Greymation and he is abou 3′ tal from paw to shoulder base of neck and used tostand about 3-4″ taller than me on his hind legs, making him about 5’6″ but obviously he could never straighten them up so his front paws would be on my shoulder. If he could, he would have been about 5’11 – 6′ easily. He is fully Fawn with two large blackish grey spots and a couple of smaller spots on his body at the side just past his ribbs nearer to his hind quarters. He is 10 years old and can no longer run for much in my huge back garden. He’s very quiet, unless he hears people appraoching the house, then he barks his deep guard dog bark very loudly that it scares me enough to make me jump let alone strangers lol. He’s also a bit stubborn but like any other dog, his stomache rules his head. He’s a food lover. I feed him on a diet of mixed senior dry food preferably all natural and also senior wet food to mix in with the dry because the poor hasn’t many teeth left in his head. He was great with my now deceased other dog, she was a Bedlington Terrior cross Lunrcher and also great with my now deceased cat Jay-J. He was your typical tiger stripe cat. He lived until about 16 years or 17 years of age and my Lurcher lived until about 10-12 days short of 12 years. She was a right barker and a shadow to me just like my Greymation Sanbou, not the barker part, just being my shadow.
Thanks for sharing your amazing experience with your Grey-mation and Lurcher, Lynda. Appreciate it, and I hope you are well.
Evan