Italian Greyhound Club of America's breed standard for the tail is is "Tail Slender and tapering to a curved end, long enough to reach the hock; set low, carried low. Ring tail a serious fault, gay tail a fault. "

I've been pretty active with all sorts of play groups and breed specific social groups in person and online --been exposed to "show dogs" and back yard bred dogs and so forth... generally speaking, most of them do keep their tails down low.

My boys are a bit more outgoing than most of the others we've come across; although they keep their tail low some of the time, they are usually wagging it or it's up when they want to play or greet or socialize. It's usually down when they are cold or feeling timid or in trouble. I get a lot of comments from people about being shocked at my dogs behaviors being so atypical from the breed (in good ways- not so timid, etc).

I don't care too much about "show dogs" and "breed standards" -my boys are "pet quality" and they've always been the dogs to catch the eye of the average passerby, even when stood next to friends with "show dogs".

Of all the IGs we've met, most stick to their owner or near their owner and are very indifferent to other humans. Unless they think there's food involved or that they're missing out on something, they're indifferent to you. My Mike is mostly that way but our Hazen is a social butterfly and it's his mission in life to love every single being on this Earth and he gets so confused when some passerby's ignore him and keep on walking without greeting him.

Here's a bonus image or two of our boy's meeting Hello Kitty. http://i.imgur.com/rpEgu.jpg http://i.imgur.com/86pzt.jpg