Winston's Story
- Abby
- Adoption Stories
- 16 Jul, 2026
Ross and I adopted Winston in July 2025, just a few weeks after making the decision to adopt an ex-racer. He’s our first greyhound (because, yes, there will definitely be more!) and safe to say we quickly fell in love with him.
Back to the very beginning: November 2020
Winston was both on November 5th, 2020 - a bonfire baby! He was born in Ireland to parents “Droopys Sydney” and “You Little Rose”.
Back then, he had a totally different name: Bubbly Deputy.
The racing days
I don’t want to dwell on this part of Winston’s life for too long, because I personally do not agree with the racing industry. Plus, there are so many unknowns. While his races are all clearly documented online, we have no other information: Who took care of him? What was the best part of his day? What brought him joy? Did he have any favourite doggy friends? What kind of life did he have beyond racing?
Given his affinity for people, I do believe that he was well taken care of overall, and for that I’m grateful.
“Retirement” and rescue
After race number 56, Winston was “retired”*. He was passed over to a greyhound rescue in East Yorkshire, where he began the wait for his forever home.
And he waited…and waited…for about a year.
This part of his life breaks my heart, because he deserved to find his family so much sooner than he did. Winston is a gorgeous and friendly dog, but unfortunately as a large, black, male greyhound, he was overlooked for a long time (read more about “black dog syndrome” here).
When we enquired with the rescue, they were clearly keen to find him a home, as they admitted he was “stressed” in kennels. While we didn’t get a lot of specifics on what this meant, we understood that he struggled to settle and would frequently pace in circles.
In July 2025, the rescue brought Winston to our home and we met him for the first time - and promptly fell in love! While he was visibly anxious and didn’t actually show a lot of interest in us, he settled fairly quickly on the blanket we’d laid out for him on the floor, and it’s like he knew he was home.
I don’t really agree with the term “retired” for greyhounds. Dogs do not have careers; they don’t apply for a job, earn money, have a pension… and they do not “retire”. All of these things imply some level of choice. A greyhound does not choose to enter the racing industry; this life is chosen for them.
Moving into his forever home
On July 27th, 2026, Winston moved in!
Those first few days were very uneventful - mostly a lot of him staring at us like “who are you people” and us staring at him like “wow I can’t believe there’s finally a dog in our house”.
Overall he adapted beautifully to home life, sleeping through the night on his own, eating well and zero accidents in the house! He also quickly discovered the sofa…
There were also some challenges. I mentioned earlier that Winston had been stressed in kennels, and we saw some similar patterns emerge.
Taking him out and about was stressful. It’s like he was constantly on high-alert: always scanning the environment, jumping at the smallest noises, twisting and lunging whenever there was anything vaguely fast-moving. He began freezing up completely on walks, planting himself down and refusing to move, no matter how much encouragement we provided. At some point, he stopped going for walks altogether. He simply didn’t want to leave the house.
His prey drive also showed itself clearly after a few weeks. Seeing small dogs running off-lead, cats, squirrels or rabbits was challenging - he would jump and lunge like crazy! It was certainly a surprise after being assured by the rescue that his prey drive was “low”. After nearly being pulled off our feet a few times, we realised this wasn’t the case, and we needed to learn how to handle it quickly…
While for the most part he settled wonderfully at home, he was very sensitive to outside noise. We live in a terraced house, and on one side have neighbours with young children. At certain points of the day there would be a lot of noise from that side, and it got him very riled up; he would run in circles round the living room and fixate on them outside if he could see them through the living room window.
It was a similar story in the garden, where he would run up and down the fence line and pace in circles if he could hear people in the garden next door.
Looking back, it’s clear that Winston had been in desperate need of a calm, quiet home. He’s clearly sensitive to noise and struggles with over-arousal. What came next was many months of love, patience and learning.
Settling in: vet visits, behaviourists and many treats consumed
The first ~9 months were a bit of a rollercoaster:
- Winston had a few health scares, meaning multiple trips to the vet (and some hefty pet insurance claims).
- We went on our first trip away together, to a lovely quiet cottage, during which we celebrated Winston’s first birthday since being with us.
- We began working with a behaviourist to learn how to manage his prey drive, and how to help him actually enjoy walking.
- Winston experienced his first Christmas in a home!
- We went on as many group greyhound walks as possible, to try and build his confidence and learn good behaviours.
- Winston learned how to play with toys (rather than immediately ripping them up).
I’ll be honest: it wasn’t always easy. There have been ups and downs. But we’ve learned so much and it’s been an absolute joy to see Winston turn into the dog that he is today. He literally makes me laugh every day and I’m so proud of how far he’s come with some of his fears.
Progress is not linear
Nearly a year post-adoption, Winston’s fear around walking returned in full force.
Cue more vet visits, more behaviourist sessions, and lots more tuna cake baked…
Long story short, we were back to square one with walking. It was disappointing after months of progress, but we were much better equipped to handle it this time. We paid close attention to his behaviour and communication, and we didn’t try to rush him or push him past his comfort levels this time. I actually believe that our bond ended up being stronger as a result of this setback.
At the time of writing this, we’re still rebuilding his confidence. This time, we’re exploring clicker training (with the help of an amazing behaviourist) - we’ll definitely write more about this at some point!
Here is Winston recently enjoying his first “big” walk in over a month:
Looking back at the first year: what we would do differently
Lots of lessons have been learned since we adopted Winston. Looking back, I sometimes want to berate myself for some of the decisions we made and some of the things which happened, especially in those early days. But hindsight is 20/20, and I’m proud of the effort that Ross and I have put in and how much we’ve done for Winston.
If I could go back in time and do everything over again, or for the next greyhound we adopt (because there will absolutely be another at some point!), here are the main things I would do differently:
- Keep their world small in those early days: The rescue we adopted Winston from advised us to begin his usual walking routine from day one. In other words, walk him twice a day, every day, for around 20 minutes, beginning from the day he came home. We have since learned that this was terrible advice. Next time, we will have a structured plan in place to gradually build up to those regular walks.
- Don’t fight the prey drive: In those early days, our reaction to seeing a cat or squirrel on a walk was to try and distract Winston. This was pretty useless when the small furry was nearby, and just led to him becoming frustrated. We’ll publish more guidance around managing prey drive in future resources, but in a nutshell, it became much easier once we learned to work with the prey drive rather than against it.
- Advocate for them!!: Whether it’s the vets saying “I don’t think there’s anything physically wrong” after a cursory examination, or the man letting his spaniel run over while saying “Don’t worry, he’s friendly!” …I’ll never again be afraid to push back, if it’s in the interest of my dog. It can be scary to advocate for your dog, but it’s one of the most important things you can do for them. If I know my dog is acting out of sorts, I will push for more tests; if I know my dog wants space on a walk, I will firmly ask the other person to recall their dog.
Do you want to share your greyhound’s adoption story?
We’d love to share more stories of greyhounds who have found their forever home. We believe it’s a great way for new and prospective owners to learn about adopting a greyhound, so that they’re better equipped for their own journey.
If you want to share your hound’s adoption story, please get in touch!
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