I don't have any personal experience, but my sister (speug) and mun 'dog share' with their two.

My sister works away a lot and mum, being retired, didn't want a full-time dog either. Originally with just Angus speug used to have him 3 days ish and mum had him the other four. There were a few ground rules but each has different house rules and he manages to swap between them just fine.

Since they got their new pup in October/Nov time, the dogs probably spend 90% of the time at mum's with either just her, or them both there, but I think are heading back towards the original arrangement of two homes split over the week as Cuillin gets a bit older (and more reliable at housetraining and being left!)

hopefully she'll see this and let you know more....

 

I did this with my parents when I got married and moved out of the family home. Sunny was my dog and about 2 to 3 years old when I moved out. As we both worked full time, it would have been unfair on him to live with us during the week. So he spent the week with my parents, we picked him up Friday evening and took him back Sunday evening. It worked very well. When my parents had their holiday we either took our holiday at the same time and he came with us, or we walked him in the morning and popped home at lunchtime to let him out.

I would think it would work well with a retired greyhound as they are laid back dogs and seem to be happy if they have a warm cosy bed to snooze in.

 

Two of my retrievers used to go to my Mother during the work day and then come home to me at night

 

Sounds good
Greyhound easy choice for this

 

My sisters dog spends half her week with my parents, I can not see the dog has any problems with this at all she settles in either house. She is not allowed (because of the cat) upstairs at my parents but is allowed on the sofa, at my sisters she is allowed upstairs but not on the sofa. I see her regularly in both homes I can honestly say she does not seem at all confused by different house different rules.

My sisters dog is just that though HER dog not my parents. Sister pays insurance, food, vet bills, makes all decisions.

If you were to have a joint ownership how would deal with deciding when a vet is needed. How would you deal with deciding on treatments, sadly sometimes tough choices have to be made how would you manage this say for instant one of you felt treatment, possibly very expensive, treatment was worth trying but the other felt differently.

Training issues, what if one of you felt a professional was needed but the other felt they could handle it. One of you is going to be having the final say.

If your friend found dog owning was not working for them would you be able to take over full time care, likewise if weekend ownership was not working for you would your friend agree to be full time owner.

Sorry not trying to be negative, I think from the dogs point of view, especially greyhounds who tend not to care who`s sofa they are roaching on so long as they have got a sofa to roach on, your idea is perfectly do able, I am just thinking of the things I would be asking if I processing your adoption application.

 

Thank you so much for all your replies! I'm glad to hear it has worked out so well for so many of you and has certainly laid some of my anxieties to rest!
Think it's made up my mind that I definitely want to seriously talk about getting a dog!

And thanks for the 'negatives' too, they're really helpful in working out what we need to discuss and consider carefully. I certainly don't want to go into this blindly. And I think we would need to carefully agree a 'what if?' plan to an awful lot of circumstances before we could consider going ahead! Realistically I'd be looking at day care if I had to take on full time care and would need to think carefully if I could genuinely finance that if that became a reality.

Nonetheless feeling excited about the prospect!!
Thank you so much!

 

Its probably be fine for the dog as its only going between 2 homes & greyhounds generally fine if still have their routine.

It could get quite tricky co-owning with a friend in the long term though so would discuss together what happens in potential changes. Perhaps you could consider fostering a greyhound & see how it works in reality before committing to an adoption.

 

Can't advise on greyhounds, but Evie, our first border collie, was my niece's dog, but my sister didn't want to look after a dog and so she lived at our house during the week (when my nieces were at school) and went back to my sister's house for any weekends and any school holidays that my nieces weren't at my house.

Because she was doing that from an eight week old puppy she just viewed it s normal, and was equally at home and happy in either house, with either family. And now my niece is grown up enough to have her own house, Evie is as settled and happy there as she is in her other two homes.

 

I didn't officially dog share, but my mum had my dog when I worked a long shift, when we had had weekends away and sometimes when we threw parties etc (so she wouldn't get stressed with people over, she had some rescue dog issues we were working through)
Anyway, she adored my mum and had the best time at hers, spoiled rotten, my mum loved the company and walks but didn't and still doesn't want a full time dog so it worked fabulously for us.

 

We dog shared with my gran who was left with the sole care of an excited, untrained farm dog after my grandad died. We'd take the dog in when my gran needed a break as she has heart problems. Our lovely dog passed away a few years ago now but it helped us to know how a dog of our own could fit into our lives.

 

I am in a similar situation to you in that I would love a dog but my working schedule means it isn't possible. For the last year I have been regularly walking and looking after my neighbour's dog. Whilst not the same as having co-ownership this did bring up a few issues that might be relevant to you.

The first is that you both have to be on the same page re training. You have to agree how you will train the dog and what commands you will use and even how much you will train it. In some ways I was quite lucky with Bertie. He had very little formal training with his owners (sit, stay, down essentially) and they didn't mind me training him to do other things like tricks and introducing commands to make our walks safer and more pleasant. Bertie was smart enough to figure out the commands I used with him were different to the ones he had at home.

However I can foresee that if his owners were more training minded we could easily have taught him something different with the same cue and he would have found that very confusing. One thing we never really got sorted was loose lead walking. His owners let him pull and I didn't so with such conflicting rules he sort of didnt pull with me once he had burned off his excitement but we never achieved good loose lead walking. We also had issues with greeting other dogs. Bertie loved other dogs and if he could would rudely bounce all over them. Another neighbour who walked him occasionally let him greet other dogs as he liked. I worked on getting him to ignore them or occasionally politely greet. I achieved some success but again the conflicting requirements of the people that walked him didn't make for easy training.

Also, Bertie didnt really stay at my house so we didnt have a conflict with house rules eg being allowed on the sofa / bed, being fed titbits or any of those other rules whilst living together. The dog would probably adapt to different rules at different houses but it is something to consider. But this would also include diet. You would have to agree on the dogs diet and treats etc so it didnt get stomach upsets.

As it is a family friend you might also want to consider what happens if you or they want / need to move away. Who retains possession of the dog ? My neighbours have recently moved and I was unprepared for how much I would miss Bertie (luckily I still get to visit every few months) but it is a real emotional wrench and that is even with knowing he wasnt my dog and I only knew him for a year. What if you fall out or one or the other refuses to let the other have the dog for some reason.

If you live close by then I suppose you would use the same vet. If not then you might want to think how using different vets over the dogs lifetime would work if each vet doesnt have a full history.

In law a dog is a possession. If you both pay for him equally then he belongs to both of you. You might want to think how insurance would work (one address might have to be considered his main address), whose details go on the microchip, who is responsible for paying vets bills ? For example will there be any conflict if the dog injures himself on your watch (for instance eats something you failed to keep out of reach and requires surgery to remove the blockage) or if it requires treatment whilst doing an activity that your friend does with it eg agility that you dont take part in.

If you both want to go ahead with the sharing (and it sounds a lovely way to get dog cuddles) then have a think about all of the issues that will occur and formally record them in writing (and keep copies). It might sound abit over the top but should the relationship between you fail for any reason it would be in the dog's best interests to have an happy future and for there to be no disagreements over its care..