19/10/2025
Today I tried to head out for the Southside pack walk, but apparently I didn’t read the event properly and ended up arriving an hour late 😬🤦♀️ the good news is, I still had a beautiful sunny walk with my long human girl and plenty of time to think about what makes a great packwalk experience.
Here are some tips to help you and your greyhound enjoy your next packwalk:
🐾 Keep moving – Many greyhounds find standing still uncomfortable (especially those with corns or pain). Try and avoid standing around at the beginning or end. This helps the dogs settle and reduces tension.
🔀 Avoid walking straight up to other dogs – Dogs don’t usually greet face-to-face like humans. Try to approach in a curve or arc, it’s more polite and much less stressful for them.
🦮 Watch those leads – we have all seen when a bunch of dogs try and great each other, leads that cross or tighten around a dog’s body can create extra tension and even trigger reactive behaviour. This is one of the (many) reasons I prefer a harness over a collar for walking.
🔎 Read the room (and your dog) – Not every greyhound enjoys hanging out in big groups, and that’s okay. If your dog finds packwalks stressful, they’re just as happy snoozing at home while you go socialise!
📚Keep learning – Packwalks are a great way to observe canine body language. If you ever want to understand more, and you have a short video (or photo) of your dog’s interactions (with permission, of course), feel free to add them below and we can break down what might be happening.
And finally, and this is the big one!!
💜Remember the intent – the AGSN started hosting packwalks as a way to help new owners understand their dogs, help new fosters or adopted dogs get back amongst familiar dogs (many greyhounds have not seen other breeds of dogs before becoming a pet). Keep this in mind if you bring other breeds or kids or bikes etc. This can be very overwhelming for a grey who is assimilating to pet life, let’s give all our of long dogs the very best chance and living their best life!
Hope you’re all having a lovely Sunday — can’t wait to see your favourite packwalk photos below! 📸
Photo description: an image split into three: two small, one long at the bottom, the first pic is of me a woman, with my hair in braids wearing sunglasses, red faces because it was hot and I was running to catch up with the pack (gotta run faster when you’re an hour late 🤦♀️😅). The second photo is our pram with my daughter in it. The bottom pic is of a Southside pack walk back in July 2019 - one from the vaults!
