Greyhounds are just the nicest!

I am just after getting a greyhound here in my house. She has never seen me before, and she calmy let me spray her down with flea spray, shove a worming tablet down her throat, scrub her with shampoo and conditioner, rinse her down and towel dry her, then blow dry her and brush her coat. I then flipped her over (like a cockroach) on my lap and carefully clipped her long toe nails, even accidentally knicking the quick. She laid there with her muzzle under my chin in peace and relished every kiss I gave her between the eyes.
How many creatures on this Earth are like this?
Such a gentle beast, and always forgiving.

What a babe! I wish I could keep her.

Training Greyhound Pup by means of the Common Kestril

The Arabs of "Unayza and Shammar", as I have myself witnessed, rear the nestling of the Common Kestril, and when it is "hard-penned", lure it with a lump of meat. As soon as it will somewhat come to this lure, they catch an antelope-rat or jerboa-rat, tie a cord to its leg, and fly the kestril at it. They next tie a long cord of ten or twelve ells in length to a rat's leg, and then fly the kestril at it from a distance. After that they break one leg of a jerboa and let it go in front of a two months old greyhound pup, and then cast off the kestril at it. The rat is taken after a few stoops. Next a jerboa is loosed in front of two greyhound pups three or four months old. The pups start in pursuit, and the kestril is then cast off. At one time the pups make a dash, at another the kestril makes a stoop, till at last the rat is taken.

After killing a few rats with broken legs, a sound rat is released, a fine stick, four fingers breadth in length, having previously been passed cross-ways through the ears. This stick hinders the rat from taking refuge in a hole, for of course two-months-old pups cannot, unaided, overtake and kill a kangaroo-rat in the open country. Well, the rat is let go, and the kestril and the pups give chase. It is exactly like hawking gazelle with a charkh. After about thirty or forty stoops and dashes, the rat is taken.

The whole object of this play is to teach the pups, while growing up, to recognize the charkh; so that should a hawk be flown at a herd of even a thousand gazelle, the hounds will chase none but the one at which the hawk is stooping. In puppyhood the hound has learnt that without the assistance of the kestiil it cannot overtake an antelope-rat, and hence it has learnt to watch the hawk; and gradually it becomes so knowing, that instead of at once starting in pursuit of the gazelle-herd when it is slipped, it will fix its gaze skywards, and wait on the movements of the charkh.

excerpt from "The Baz-nama-yi Nasiri, a Persian treatise on falconry", (1908)

Northern English Greyhound (Lancashire and Cheshire)

" In the southern parts of England, the Greyhounds are generally smooth, beautiful, high-bred dogs;— while, in some parts of the north, particularly in Lancashire and Cheshire, they are rough-haired animals, partaking much of the lurcher breed. As these counties abound in broad fences, as well as old dry marl-pits covered with briers and brushwood, the rough-haired dog is supposed to rush into and thread these places better than his smooth-haired high-bred competitor. Another advantage is, that many of these rough-haired dogs, when they lose sight, will immediately put their noses down, and pursue by the scent till they again come in view ; but they are apt to whimper in the chase when near the game, and manifest the impurity of their blood in many ways. They are not nearly so numerous at present as formerly, the smooth high-bred dog having almost uniformly been found far superior, even in the rough parts of the country just mentioned; and we have no doubt that in a few years a rough-haired mongrel (for mongrels they certainly are) will rarely be seen. It is very common in England for ill-trained dogs of this breed to run sly; that is, in place of following directly after the hare, and trusting to their speed to overtake her, they make towards the covert to which she is likely to run, and, taking the string of the bow, are sure to meet and destroy her. This is frequently the case when the Greyhound is acquainted with the country. The lower class of farmers seem to consider that it is not on a well-matched couple of dogs that the pleasure of the sport depends, but upon the number of hares they kill. "

excerpt from "BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES AND AUTHENTIC ANECDOTES OF DOGS" BY CAPTAIN THOMAS BROWN, 1829

Master McGrath

One of the greatest hounds in history.
A living legend never to be forgotten by the Irish.

read about him here

Hare Outsmarts Greyhounds