Why Italian Greyhounds?

I realized today that I haven't properly introduced the inspiration for this blog: my two Italian greyhounds, Aubri and Emily (aka A and E.)
But first, why did we end up with Italian greyhounds in the first place?  Even before we got married, I wanted Alpha to get a dog.  He'd never had dogs growing up, and had a phobia of smaller dogs.  When he first got his apartment, I had visions of getting him a Newfoundland, but he kept putting me off for some reason.  Once we were married, the dream had to be put on hold, just for life reasons.  We spent our first two years in no-dogs-allowed apartments.  When we moved to Oklahoma for me to attend graduate school, we ended up on the eighteenth story of a high rise complex, which restricted dogs to under 30 lbs.  But after we'd settled there, we agreed it was time for a dog.  So I started searching for the perfect dog.

I have had four dogs in my past.  Two have been purebred; two were mutt rescues.  The purebreds were fantastic dogs; both mutts had to be put down/given away for biting a family member.  So you can imagine, I wasn't too excited about the idea of a rescued mutt.  And we couldn't afford (and didn't want) a puppy from a breeder.  But you can rescue a purebred!  There are tons of small rescue groups that specialize in a single breed.  But then, what breed to choose?

So, if we were going to get a small dog, it couldn't yap.  Yapping little purse-shitters make me want to drop-kick them.  And it couldn't require grooming, just for the sake of expense.  I needed something that could stand to be in the apartment for most of the time, since we didn't have any yard.  I considered corgis, or even a schnauzer of some type.  But I kept going back to whippets.  I loved the shape.  I fell in love with salukis while watching dog shows on tv as a child, but they were too fuzzy and too big.  Whippets seems like a natural conclusion, until I realized that they were too big as well.  So the next natural conclusion was to pick an Italian greyhound.
IGs, or iggies, are like tiny versions of the big greyhounds.  (Whippets fall in between, but are really their own breed.)  They generally weigh between 7 and 15 lbs, (though I've seen them as large as 30 lbs.)  Iggies (in some form or another) have been noted in art and literature for over 2,000 years, and were bred for both companionship and small game hunting.  But their popularity peaked in Italy in the Middle ages, where they became companions for nobility.  Pop culture says they were bred to be heat-seeking, and burrow under the covers to as as living hot-water bottles.
Iggies are typically very good apartment dogs.  They like to bounce and run, of course, but they are content to laze around for the majority of the day.  They are affectionate dogs, who bond to their owners and always want to be with you.  They want to know what's going on, and watch everything.  Iggies usually don't bark a lot.  They "talk"; making almost purring/howling noises, and some talk more than others.  But even when they bark, it's a real bark.  Not a yap.
Some say iggies are hard to train.  And this may be true.  My sample size is too small to have any sort of informed opinion on this.  But I believe that consistency and watchfulness is the key to successfully training any dog, regardless of breed.  The issue with iggies (that I've found,) is that, if fearful, they will be very sneaky.  They are smart animals.  They won't chew your shoe in front of you, or pee on the carpet while you're watching.  They'll drag the shoe under the bed, or wait until you're gone/asleep.
But I decided that this was the breed for us.  Without ever meeting one, I quickly got my heart set, and somehow convinced Alpha that this was the thing to do.