GREYHOUND

COUNTRY: Great Britain

WEIGHT: 60-70 pounds

HEIGHT: 27-30 inches

COAT: Short, smooth

COLOR: Any color

Group: Southern

Edward, Duke of York, described the Greyhound in The Master of Game as "shuldres as a roe buck; the for legges stregth and grete ynow, and nought to hind legges; the feet straight and round as a catte, and great cleas, the boones and joyntes of the cheyne grete and hard as the cheyne of an hert; the thighs great and squarred as an hare, the houghs streight, and not crompy-ing as an oxe.

This "duke's" mixture portrayed the sleek, muscled and racy Greyhound, admired for its speed for thousands of years. Tombs of Egypt from the Fourth dynasty, between 4000 and 3500 BC, show drawings of dogs similar to Greyhounds and Salukis, making it obvious that dogs of this type were much esteemed during this era. During the ensuing centuries, Greyhounds proved to be in great demand as an item of barter, and spread through the Near East and Europe. They were developed to standard in England, where they became a status symbol. A Welsh proverb states, "You may know a gentlemen by his horse, his hawk and his greyhound." The source of the Greyhound name is accredited to various plausibilities: from as simple an explanation as the breed's early colors or the Latin word gradus, i.e., swiftness; to the Old English grech or greg meaning dog; or a corruption of "gazehound" or "great hound."

The dog was a favorite of English nobility, who limited ownership by the common folk under the Laws of Canute formulated in 1016: "No mean person may keepe any greyhounds, but freemen may keepe greyhounds so that their knees be cut before the verderors of the forest, and without cutting of their knees also, if he does abide 10 miles from the bounds of the forest." In wide flat expanses, a hunter was handicapped—no brushy forest to conceal the human presence or to hamper the animal as it attempted to bolt. With its powerful eyesight and great speed enabling him to overtake the quarry, the Greyhound proved an invaluable aid. One of them, "Bang" by name, jumped an astounding 30 feet while coursing a hare.

When dogs became more than a means to a full cooking pot, the Greyhound excelled in coursing, and later track racing, hitting a speed of nearly 45]/2 mph, maintaining its reputation as the fastest dog on earth. Only the cheetah tops him for speed in the animal world. His track abilities have given him an advantage over all other breeds. The racing Greyhound is the only recognized breed in America not afflicted with the curse of hip dysplasia. Several Greyhounds made their fame and their masters' fortune on the track, some winning as much as $50,000 during their racing peak. The sale of one dog, "Indian Joe,1' copped the biggest price in dogdom: $72,000.

"In 1867 a shiftless tenant of an Irish nobleman was sleeping off the effects of a drunken spree on the banks of a stream running through the estate when he heard muffled cries coming from a sack caught on the root of a rotting stump. Staggering to the stream's edge the tenant drew from the water a half-drowned Greyhound puppy. When grown this puppy ... became the most famous of all racing greyhounds—Master McGrath . . . defeated but once in his entire racing career, and then only because he fell through the ice of a frozen stream during a course." Modern Greyhounds make gentle, well-behaved, graceful pets, elegant show dogs or thrilling competitors. They are affectionate with their families and, like many sighthounds, aloof with strangers. An interesting piece of trivia is that a Greyhound named "Low Pressure" has the distinction of being the most prolific dog. During his eight-year breeding span, he sired 2,414 registered pups, with another 600 unregistered!