single, working dog owner

[SnappyPix]

Badger, thanks for starting this thread, it's very timely for me.
I'm having a real crisis of conscience between the strong desire to have a dog - and also to get on my bike and ride.

Both me and my partner desperately want a dog, but we like to ride too and are really torn over what would be the right decision for our potential dog.
I work from home and if it weren't for the cycling, we'd have the perfect set-up for a little doglet - both of us want one, both of us would be 100% committed, we love being outdoors, etc. etc.

We adopted a dog last year, a greyhound lurcher called Jasper. To cut a very long story short, it transpired he had a VERY strong kill/chase instinct (we suspect he'd been used for illegal hare coursing as a pup - and he'd been found by a dog warden after being dumped on the street - very common for greyhounds and lurchers in the North of England, when they're no longer useful for racing or hunting). He'd been in the shelter for a year, rehomed once and returned (for being destructive in the house). He was very aggressive towards other dogs (especially small furry ones), but an absolute babe in the house.
We had him for several months and worked hard with a behaviourist to curb his dog aggression, but we were against an uphill battle against nature, nurture and learned behaviour.
He had several other issues, which we were ok with - separation anxiety, etc - to be expected in a rescue dog - and we made great headway in lots of respects - but the shelter had told us that he was fine with other dogs, which is something that's really important to me, at least to have something feasible to work on with regards to socialisation, etc.
After a weekend where he mauled a puppy and body slammed another (on top of a whole catalogue of disasters), we realised that we didn't have the resources to rehabilitate him and we weren't the right owners for him.
Lurchers and greyhounds are lovely dogs - but if you have one that's been used for hunting, they're not necessarily going to make happy sociable dogs (they usually prefer their own breed, believe it or not). And recall is an arbitrary thing. We spent lots of time walking him with lots of local greyhound groups and came to realise that it's a labour of love owning a lurcher!

We ended up returning him to the shelter after around 6 months - a heartbreaking decision and one that I'm still trying to come to terms with. It took several weeks to finally admit that we were failing him and that he was just not the right dog for us.
And we wholeheartedly held our hands up and admitted that we'd screwed up by not fully investigating all the little niggly things that we'd thought of when we adopted him.
I miss him dreadfully and miss the hole that having a dog has left.

We threw ourselves into biking and have recently joined a bike club and go on a group ride on a Saturday, which usually lasts from around 9am to 2pm.
And that's the dilemma.

In terms of dog ownership, I'm very realistic. Whilst I love the idea of an older rescue dog, I think that for me personally, I'm now drawn to the idea of a younger dog, possibly even a puppy. Not that I'm under any illusions that a young dog won't be hard work (quite the opposite, probably twice as much - and then they reach the terrible adolescent stage, but I'm not sure that I want a dog that might be preloaded with baggage). I'd prefer not to get an older dog, as having a very active, playful little guy is also part of the attraction. I'm willing to make huge sacrifices in my life - and to commit to walks at least 2 or 3 times a day.
But I worry that leaving a dog for the long weekend group ride would be unfair to the dog.

I managed to work through Jasper's fears about being left alone (not really full-own separation anxiety, he just wasn't used to being on his own - he'd been in the shelter for 2 years) by crating him and gradually increasing the length of time from 5 minutes to over 2 hours - ignoring his bad behaviour and rewarding his good.

If we did get a younger dog, I would make sure it was through the winter months, so that I'd be riding less and would have more time to acclimatise him to being left. I wouldn't expect any dog, let alone a puppy, to be happy being left for 5-6 hours (and a pup would be incapable of holding his little bladder that long!).

We're looking into the option of getting professional help for the weekends - a dog walker or dog sitter - to come in and break up the time left for him.
We don't really have a support network who would be able to offer help, and certainly not on a regular basis.

I'm absolutely aching to have a dog. I don't have kids and the bell on that maternal body clock is glanging louder than the bells of Notre Dame!
How do people on here cope with leaving their dogs? Would 9am to 2pm be too long and am I being selfish? It would only be a maximum of 2 days.
I know that every dog is an individual and it depends on their previous circumstances and how you train your dog to adapt to its routine, but I want to do what's best for the dog, not what's best for me. I know that if I'm with the dog a lot in the week and then leave it at the weekend, it would be hard for any little doglet to understand what's going on, so I'd make sure in the week that he got accustomed to being left crated for a few hours while I pottered and ran errands, etc (and went out on my bike!).

I look at people with dogs and feel such a pang of sadness, because I've waited so long to have one in my life, the conditions are perfect - and if I didn't ride there'd be absolutely no issue whatsoever.
I love my bike and have just rediscovered the thrill of being in a club.

I'm really torn.
I'd really value another perspective on this - and don't be afraid to be honest as I'm willing to take any constructive criticism or advice on the chin.
Sorry I've gone on for so long - and I don't mean to hijack your thread Badger.

Thanks for listening. Again, apologies for the long rambley post.


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EDIT.

Having just re-read the whole thread again, I see that lots of people leave their dogs for around the 4-6 hour mark without too much trouble. Maybe I'm just over-analysing all this because I'm so terrified of doing the wrong thing again, at another dog's expense? I think I still have a lot of guilt over Jasper.
Sorry for this very public soul-searching.

I guess that for me, it's a circumstance that I know would be part of the equation from the beginning, rather than something that develops over time as the guy gets older.
Maybe I'm just thinking about this too much. I see so many people with dogs who are away for far longer and the dogs seem to adapt and seem quite well-adjusted.
I'm not in a hurry to make the decision.
Ye Gods, now I'm going round in circles!