Frequently Asked Questions

The Sighthound Guy is Don Jordan, founder of K9 Exclusive Walks and a specialist in greyhound, whippet and lurcher care. Based in NW London and serving the greater London area, Don shares his home with two rescue lurchers and a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, so everything here comes straight from living with these dogs every day.

He built the service around a gap he saw in London’s dog care: “Sighthounds think differently from retrievers and collies, so I train and care with that in mind: lower repetition, higher reward, and a full understanding of the prey-drive response.” Every dog starts with a meet and greet and a one-night assessment, you get daily WhatsApp photo and video updates throughout the stay, and you go home with a clear plan to keep the training going.

Don holds a 5-star home boarding licence (no. 2023-2989) for up to eight dogs, is Canine First Aid certified, and is fully insured and bonded. The service carries a 5-star Google rating, is a Google Selected Business and has been featured in Time Out, with a 350ft secure private garden at the climate-controlled NW London home. The goal is simple: “every sighthound in my care thrives, physically and mentally.”

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I offer two services, both for sighthounds only: relaxed home boarding, and an intensive Residential Recall programme. Greyhounds, whippets, lurchers, salukis, deerhounds and crosses only. No other breeds, no other distractions.

Boarding is the relaxed home-from-home stay, priced per night. Residential Recall is the intensive programme: seven nights of e-collar conditioning from £850, or the full twenty-one-night training package at £1,700, where your hound learns reliable recall living with me day after day, not in a one-hour slot once a week. See services and our method for the detail.

I keep a free library of sighthound guides at thesighthoundguy.com/guides, covering training and recall, everyday care and feeding, and what to weigh up before getting your first sighthound. It is the same thinking behind every stay here, and a good place to start before you get in touch.

I serve sighthound owners across the whole of London, working from my home in NW London. Collection and drop-off cover Hampstead, North Finchley and Highgate, and daily walks take place at a variety of locations within the M25. If you’re unsure whether collection reaches your area, just ask my assistant.

Sighthounds think differently from retrievers and collies. They’re sensitive, fast, and wired around a powerful prey drive. Specialising in the breed group means everything I do, from the pack walks to the recall work to the home setup, is built around how these dogs actually behave. They’re never mixed with breeds that don’t share their temperament.

Start by messaging my assistant, which will take a few details and help you get going. Every new dog begins with a meet and greet followed by a one-night assessment, so I can see how your hound settles before any longer stay.

Boarding is £85 per night, with raw food included. The minimum boarding stay is 24 hours.

For boarding clients only, daycare can be added at £70 per day, for example when your booking runs on into the daytime (an am to pm stay).

Over Christmas, nights from 24 December to 1 January carry a £10 seasonal surcharge each, shown in your quote before you book.

Residential Recall is a separate, intensive programme priced from £850, covered below.

Slightly. Nights from 24 December to 1 January carry a seasonal surcharge of £10 per night, and the booking calendar marks those dates in gold so there are no surprises: your quote always shows the exact total before you confirm. Checking out on 2 January adds nothing for that morning.

Two things to note for the season: the £70 daycare add-on (an am to pm stay) is not available for stays touching 24 December to 2 January, and Residential Recall package prices are fixed year-round.

Boarding has a minimum stay of 24 hours. The Residential Recall programme runs for a minimum of seven nights for e-collar conditioning, or twenty-one nights for the full training package, so the recall work has room to land. Every new dog starts with a meet and greet and a one-night assessment.

A calm, climate-controlled family home with a 350ft secure private garden. Your dog stays as part of the household, with plenty of exercise, daily walks at a variety of locations within the M25, and proper rest. I’m licensed for up to eight dogs, so numbers stay small and the attention stays high.

Just any medication your dog takes, along with clear instructions. Raw food and everything else for a comfortable stay are provided.

Yes, across Hampstead, North Finchley and Highgate. You’re also very welcome to drop your dog off and collect from my home in person, wherever in London you are.

Cancellations made at least 72 hours in advance receive a full refund. Cancellations inside 72 hours may be subject to a fee.

BARF stands for Bones And Raw Food, later Biologically Appropriate Raw Food. It means feeding a dog what a dog is built to eat: raw meat, meaty bones, offal and a little plant matter, instead of processed food. It’s the standard here: raw food is included in every boarding stay.

A short history. For almost all of history, dogs ate raw. Meat, bones and scraps were the diet everywhere. The complete dry kibble we know today only arrived in the 1950s, and it was built for shelf life and convenience, not for the dog. Sighthounds are the exception in that story: racing greyhound kennels never fully made the switch, and raw meat stayed the backbone of kennel feeding right through the kibble era. In 1993 an Australian vet, Dr Ian Billinghurst, wrote Give Your Dog a Bone, put the case on paper and gave the approach its name. Since then raw feeding has grown from a fringe idea into a proper industry, and the UK now has registered producers making complete, balanced raw meals, delivered frozen and portioned. The guesswork is gone.

Why it matters so much for sighthounds:

• Teeth. Greyhounds, whippets and their crosses suffer some of the worst dental disease of any dogs, and gum disease never stays in the mouth: the bacteria reach the heart, liver and kidneys. Chewing raw meaty bones scrubs the teeth in a way soft food never can.
• A lean, muscular build. A sighthound carries muscle, not fat, and runs on quality protein. A meat-first diet feeds that build directly, and it keeps a hound lean without leaving it hungry.
• Fussy eaters. Anyone who lives with a whippet knows the refused bowl. Raw is the food picky hounds actually want to eat.
• Skin and coat. A fine coat over thin skin shows the diet quickly, and the coat is usually the first thing owners notice change on raw.
• Heritage. Many ex-racers were raw-fed in their racing kennels. For them, raw isn’t a new diet. It’s the one they started on.

Do it properly. Raw only works when it’s balanced and handled well. Use a complete raw food from a registered producer rather than guessing with plain mince. Keep the same kitchen hygiene you’d use for your own raw chicken. Only ever feed raw bones, never cooked ones, sized to the dog and always supervised. If your hound is an ex-racer with worn or missing teeth, or has a health condition, talk to your vet before switching, and make any change gradually over a week or so. Here, meals go in a bowl on a raised stand, so a tall hound eats with a straight neck rather than splaying down to the floor.

Some vets are cautious about raw feeding, usually over hygiene and badly balanced home-made mixes. Both are fair concerns, and both are answered by doing it properly, as above. Fed right, you’ll see why so many sighthound owners never go back.

It happens throughout an intensive residential stay, not in isolated lessons. Your hound lives with me and learns reliable recall in real situations, on real walks, day after day, which is exactly how the behaviour becomes dependable. Seven nights (£850) covers e-collar conditioning only; the full twenty-one-night package (£1,700) sees the training through. Training runs on my own e-collar, and at the end you buy an Educator Mini and I set it up for your hound.

The Big Six commands: Recall, Stay, Wait, Sit, Down and Heel. Recall is the priority, because it’s the command that keeps a sighthound safe when its prey drive fires. The other five build the calm, responsive dog that reliable recall depends on.

Yes. It’s harder than with most breeds because of the chase instinct, which is precisely why it takes a specialist and an immersive, lived-in approach rather than a weekly class. I work with the prey drive, not against it.

Every day. You’ll receive WhatsApp photo and video updates so you can see your hound settled, exercised and progressing. You also go home with a clear plan to keep building on the work.

Fully. The Sighthound Guy holds a 5-star home boarding licence, number 2023-2989, licensed for eight dogs. I’m Canine First Aid certified, fully insured and bonded.

A 5-star Google rating, recognition as a Google Selected Business, and a feature in Time Out. You can read genuine reviews on Google before you decide.

I contact you, or your nominated emergency contact, straight away. If treatment is needed, your dog goes to the nearest veterinary clinic or to my trusted vet without delay.