Born To Run

In June, I attended the 2016 Heart of America Greyhound Gathering in Abilene, Kansas. The annual event is a benefit for Halfway Home Greyhound Adoption, an organization in Tulsa that adopts out retired racing greyhounds locally and also serves as a conduit for retired racers to reach adoptive homes in a multi-state area. Since 2002, Halfway Home has placed over 6000 greyhounds. I got my own grey, Freya, from the Hounds of the Heartland adoption group, which in turn had received Freya from the farm where she was training via the Halfway Home pipeline.

In addition to a variety of fundraising activities, there were round-table discussions attended by adoption group officers and volunteers from around the country. There were also presentations about the racing industry from the perspective of both observers and participants - I found these to be particularly interesting. And most interesting to me of all were the visits we made to breeding and training farms, where racing greyhounds are born and trained to run on a track.

I had always wanted to see firsthand what Freya’s life had been like before she came to live with me. This was my chance to get a look at the journey that would be taken by this pile of future sprinters…

The li'l duder in the mask is actually having a great day. Promise.

On their way to becoming a gaggle of retired layabouts such as these...

Third from top: Freya the Lovedoggie

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On the farm where greyhound puppies are bred and born, they start out their lives in a climate controlled brood house. The individual stalls contain a whelping box with a frame the puppies cannot climb over until they reach a certain size. The frame also has a ledge on the inside so that a small puppy cannot be crushed between the frame and its mother.

Suppertime!

The stall has a passage to an outdoor fenced run that the puppies eventually grow old enough to access and romp around in.

MOAR Suppertime!!!

The litter remains with their mother until they are weaned.

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Greyhound puppies start out looking much like puppies of any other breed.

Three days old, and getting older every day.

Even older... three weeks

They grow at an incredible rate, as puppies do, and before too terribly long begin to look like puppies of a greyhoundy sort.

And this one's older still...

After puppies are weaned they are kept together with their littermates as they grow, living in their own pens with their own dedicated runs. Later, puppies from different litters may be mixed and matched as the owners and trainers see fit, based on factors such as temperament. Over time, the individual puppies’ personalities will begin to emerge.

I nicknamed this one "Zen Puppy". I think his feet didn't touch the ground for half an hour as everyone wanted to hold him, and he was totally chill about it.

Although "Dobby the House Grey" would be cool, too.

Interacting with these loveable beasties, it is impossible to resist thinking about taking a greyhound puppy home and raising it. Confess this to a breeder – or to anyone who has actually done this in their home – and you will be advised that you should only do so if you want it really really bad, because it is going to take considerable conscientious effort on the part of the owner.

Check out the teeth on these guys…

A grey greyhound, a relatively uncommon occurrence. That color is actually referred to as 'blue', because words are like that sometimes, and also reasons and stuff.

And remember Zen Puppy? These are his actual real-life claws...

Greyhounds are one of the oldest breeds of dog. They are sighthounds - dogs that hunt by sight - and their primary mission for thousands of years was to run down prey at a sprint, leaving behind the hunter, who would follow on after and collect the spoils. For all that time, greyhounds were genetically groomed via selective breeding to independent-mindedly chase anything that they saw moving and kill it with teeth.

In present times, the dogs' running abilities are the central focus when breeding racing greyhounds. But as puppies, they possess an unfettered genetic predisposition to be self-propelled engines of destruction. The term might appropriately be applied to puppies of other breeds as well, but greyhound puppies have most assuredly earned the nickname 'land sharks'.

Shark attack!

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As the dogs continue to grow, they are separated again into smaller groups, by gender. The dogs live in communal (in this case igloo-shaped) dog houses, on long, narrow runs. There are a number of similar runs side by side. The dogs will often spend time running the length of the pens with dogs in the adjoining runs. The runs teach them to be competitive and to run in a pack.

Typical buncha tweens, just standin' around, amirite?

Older greyhounds are regularly observed wearing muzzles. This is not because they are an aggressive breed, but rather for protection from incidental injury. Greyhounds have rather thin skin, and once cut it is susceptible to further tearing under stress. Though not aggressive by disposition, greyhounds are dogs, with dog behaviors. With greyhounds, a nip from another dog during training or play could easily cause an injury that, while treatable, is more judiciously avoided in the first place.

Trio of dogs setting off after a lure at a training farm

For a greyhound, running comes naturally. Training to run isn’t really training to run per se, but rather to run in a specific manner, on a particular cue. Training starts on a training farm, typically a different farm from the one at which the hounds were whelped. We got to see young greyhounds being lure trained, in an area roughly a sixth the size of a football field. The lure – similar in appearance to an oversize crinkly plastic shopping bag – is affixed to a line that is threaded through a series of pulleys.  Handlers assemble the dogs, then let slip when the lure begins moving.

When the dogs complete the circuit around the lure course, another handler waves and plays keep-away with a large pelt at the end of a tether. Along with the pelt are a couple of squeakers, which when tugged make a noise that attracts the dogs. When the greyhounds graduate to track training, the first artificial lure they chase will be the pelt.

Some who have retired greys as pets use a squeaker to call their hounds to them

Finally, the dogs are ready to be introduced to a track environment.

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The training track is designed to closely simulate the environment that the dogs will encounter at an actual competitive venue. The running surface is a specific clay/sand mixture, a couple of feet deep. It is kept moist, and the surface is groomed frequently.

Racetrack Zamboni

There are starting gates at different points around the track, affording the opportunity to train the dogs over various distances.

These gates are mid-straightaway; another set are visible in the distance at the end of the oval

When dogs first begin training at the track, they are not staged in a starting gate, but rather are maintained in place by hand. They stand facing the mechanical lure as it approaches. As the lure passes by, the handlers lift and turn the dogs to point them down the track toward the lure that is now speeding away from them, and then release them to commence the chase.

I feel challenged getting Freya off of the couch some evenings... I watched one handler time and again hold fast two greyhounds at once as they stood side by side, then lift and turn both at the same time to let them go. I was impressed. During the training I observed, all the handlers I saw operated with an easy grace in concert with these spirited animals. It was a delight to behold.

Dogs are transported to and from the training track in compartmentalized trailers

As training continues, the dogs progress to starting from gates, often in groups of two or three, sometimes solo.

The lure zooms past. The gates are opened...

At 18 to 24 months old, a racing grey will begin its career at a commercial track. Depending on the methods of the owner and the dog's own levels of development, it may be ready to compete upon arrival, or may first undergo further training.

Fast around and into the straightwaway. The blur on the right of the image is the
pelt being used as a lure

In the US, greyhounds typically do not race past the age of five. For a dog that isn’t winning any races, that day comes sooner. After its racing career is over, a grey may be retained at stud or as a brood bitch. Upon retirement, at whatever point, the greyhound may then become available for adoption.

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I love the breed. Their gentle nature, the strikingly handsome composition, the quiet nobility. It was a lot of fun to get to spend time with other greyhound lovers from all around the country, many of whom were representatives of adoption organizations, the racing industry, or both. 

As is always the case with groups of aficionados, there exists an in-group vocabulary. We refer to our forty-five mile per hour couch potatoes, and speak of roaching and potato-chipping, of rainbow bridges and forever homes. It can be downright twee at times - and I cheerfully join right in. Back at home though, when I watch Freya doing zoomies fast around my back yard, I smile a smile like a child's smile, and whisper aloud the one word that looms larger than any other in my mind, “Magnificent…”

And when Freya lets me know that she’s happy too, in that moment, everything is right in my world.