Bob Koch, Nittany Greyhounds’ president and adoption coordinator, said there are a lot of misconceptions about the dogs, which have a 10- to 14-year lifespan.

Unless they’re big money makers, he said the dogs don’t typically race after they’re 4 years old.

He said, 20 years ago, there were some tracks that mistreated some of their dogs.

But times have changed, and the sport isn’t as popular as it used to be, with only two racetracks left in the United States in Wheeling and Charleston, West Virginia.

Nittany Greyhounds’ treasurer Beth Hench holds Ryan, a greyhound from Ireland, at the adoption service’s kennel in Port Matilda, Centre County. Mirror photo by Matt Churella

Koch said the dogs at these tracks are not mistreated.

“They’re very well cared for, and they’re loved by their trainers,” he said. “If you think about it, why would you mistreat an animal that’s making you millions of dollars a day?”

Although the trainers take good care of the dogs, he said there are some owners of racing greyhounds who have never seen their dogs.

Koch said one woman they get dogs from lives in a penthouse in Manhattan.

“She’s never seen her dogs,” he said. “But she owns dogs all over the country, (and) her trainers take very good care of the dogs.”

Racetracks typically “weed off” a dog that’s not doing well if the track has younger dogs coming in, he said. “They contact us, and that’s when we get the dogs, and we’ll put them in our adoption program.”

Monica’s Heart greyhound adoption agency used to operate a similar program in Altoona. But President Kay McNellis said they stopped getting greyhounds when all of Florida’s race tracks closed in 2020.

“We had been thinking of stopping because we’re getting old,” she said. “The end of 2020 was a good stopping point for us with them closing down the tracks.”

McNellis said Monica’s Heart is still responsible for any of its dogs that need to be “returned.”

“I got one last summer from another group where the wife died and the husband had to go in a home,” she said. “We will find them homes. We’re just not bringing in new dogs and adopting them out.”

Betty Thompson of Altoona has adopted greyhounds from Monica’s Heart since 2006 and has two greyhounds currently.

She said, with her last greyhound, she traveled to the track in Charleston to pick the dog up herself, since Monica’s Heart had already disbanded.

“I took him straight from the track and brought him home. He settled in pretty well,” Thompson said.

Barb and Greg White, of Warriors Mark, also own greyhounds.

Greg said his greyhounds are content to lay on their beds for most of the day.

“Everyone thinks you need a lot of space for them. You really don’t,” he said. “They’re not really high strung in the house or anything like that. They’re couch potatoes.”

But Barb said she doesn’t think greyhounds are for everybody.

“If you’re a jogger, don’t get a greyhound thinking you’re going to take it on a 10-mile run because they sprint,” she said. “They don’t have the endurance.”

They said you have to be careful with greyhounds because, if you open your door and the dogs inadvertently get out, “they’re gone.”

Barb said the dogs don’t intend to get lost, but they’re unable to find their way back since they won’t follow their scent back home.

“They don’t intend to be lost, but they just can’t find their way back. There have been tragic stories about that, so that’s my biggest fear,” she said, adding they have a half-acre of property fenced off for their dogs to play.

Barb said their oldest greyhound was initially terrified of vacuum cleaners, but Greg said the dog is now unbothered by the sound.

“Our older one doesn’t mind the vacuum cleaner,” Greg said. “But if she’s out on a walk and she hears a gunshot, she’s ready to go home.”

Since the dogs came from a track or an adoption agency, Barb said owners have to be patient with their greyhounds because everything in their house was a new environment for the dogs.

“They need to learn how to do steps, if possible,” she said, adding one of their greyhounds has never learned to walk up steps. “She’s the only one out of five that can’t do steps. She just can’t get it.”

Barb said one of the benefits of adopting a greyhound is they’re often brought to kennels as adults, so you don’t have to train a puppy.

Koch said if the dogs aren’t up to date with their shots or have not been spayed or neutered, Nittany Greyhounds takes care of that before the dogs are listed on its adoption website.

He said if someone is interested in a particular dog, the person has to fill out an online application with questions that determine whether they’ll make a good fit.

“We will not adopt out to anybody with children under the age of 6 only because racing greyhounds have never met children before,” he said. “But we also will not adopt out a greyhound if we feel that the household is not safe, if there is something just glaring about their application.”

After an applicant is approved by Koch, the person is invited to visit the kennel with any other animals they own to make sure they’re going to get along with the greyhound.

“Once they’ve met a dog, we allow the dog to go home with them for a trial,” Koch said, adding he contacts them after a few days to see how things are going.

“Once they tell me that they’re keeping the dog, that’s when we consider the adoption finalized. That’s when I take the dog off of the website, and we process their adoption fee,” he said.

Kennel manager Ellen Aschenbrenner said their kennel houses up to 35 dogs at a time. Since Nittany Greyhounds’ inception in 1997, it has housed almost 2,000 dogs, she said.

She said the international dogs come from Ireland or Australia. The American dogs only come from the track in Wheeling, she said.

Since Nittany Greyhounds is a nonprofit, Aschenbrenner said it also offers boarding services for people who want their dogs taken care of while they’re away or at work. She said they’ll sometimes board dogs for people experiencing medical problems.

“We just boarded a greyhound here for almost a month because the husband was in the hospital and the wife stayed in the hospital with him while he was going through his surgeries and everything,” she said. “We charge for it, but often we’ll do that for people who have medical emergencies.”

Aschenbrenner said her favorite part of her job is getting to see how excited everybody gets when a family takes their new dog home.

“Just getting to work with dogs is a great job,” she said. “But it’s not all that. There’s chores, too.”

Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520.

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