What breed of medium/large dog is best suited for me?

Ex-racing greyhounds are delightful pets. Most are "retired" at age 3-4 and can be expected to live another 8-10 years. They are real "velcro dogs": for the first time in their lives, someone loves them, and they return that love many times over. They are gentle, low-shedding, low-odor, little-barking couch potatoes indoors. Most people don't realize that a race lasts only 30 seconds. The rest of a greyhound's day is lounging/sleeping, so these dogs have little stamina and require far less exercise than you might think. A fenced yard for short sprints is ideal, but greyhounds are fine as apartment dogs as long as they get a long walk every day or two (once they build up the stamina for a long walk). They should never roam loose, due to their speed and fragile skin. There's a considerable size range, from under 50 to over 90 pounds, but they lounge on their beds, or curl up into balls to nap, and aren't underfoot the way many smaller dogs are. Most greyhounds adore other greyhounds, and many are fine with cats and other dogs. If you have a cat, be sure to adopt from a group that cat-tests its hounds on real cats, not stuffed animals. At the track, they are let out of their crates briefly, 4 times a day. So they are crate-trained, which is halfway to housetrained. They have never seen stairs, so need gentle coaxing, or the example of another dog, to learn stairs. If you get a dog that has been in a foster home, those things will already have been taught. Thousands of hounds are killed each year because the tracks aren't waiting for room to open up for them at greyhound adoption groups. When you adopt, you save the life of a different Greyhound by making space at the adoption kennel. Adoption fees run around $300 for a neutered/spayed dog that has been vaccinated, treated for parasites, and heartworm-tested. For more info and a link to a rescue group near you: www.adopt-a-greyhound.org.