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.

Outline of a Greyhound

The sketch at the head of this chapter represents the outline of a greyhound of well-balanced physique. The letters indicate the points familiar to all cynophilists, but useful as references when studying the description which ensues :
A A Head
A B Muzzle
A a Jaws
C Eye
D D D D } Neck
d Ear
E E Shoulder
E E e e K K Chest
F Elbow
F F Forearm
F G Pastern
H Pastern-joint
I Foot
J Brisket
D N N Back
L L Ribs
LM Couplings
N o Stifle
p Thighs
Q Q Whip or tail
R Hock
S Second thighs

The vertical line cutting the diagram divides the dog into :
X Fore quarters z Hind quarters.
The termforehand is generally taken to include chest, shoulders, brisket, and forearm ; whilst quarters signifies back, couplings, stifle, thighs, second thighs, and gaskins ; but each term is elastic, and is often applied to the whole of the fore and hind quarters respectively.

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

"I wish I were as I have been..."

" My hawk is tired of perch and hood,
My idle greyhound loathes his food,
My horse is weary of his stall,
And I am sick of captive thrall.
I wish I were as I have been,
Hunting the hart in forest green,
With bended bow, and bloodhound free,
For that 's the life is meet for me, "

poem extract from "The Sportsman and His Dog: Or, Hints on Sporting" By Elzéar Blaze, Herbert Byng Hall

The Irish Greyhound

Canis Graius Hibernicus

This is one of the largest of the canine race, with an air at once beautiful, striking, and majestic. He has been known to grow to the extraordinary height of four feet although the general standard is about three feet.

In shape the Irish Greyhound somewhat resembles the common greyhound only that he is much larger and more muscular in his formation, clumsy in all his different parts, and is quite unserviceable for hunting either the stag, fox, or hare. His chief use in former times was in clearing the country of wolves and wild boars for which his great size and strength peculiarly adapted him.

The colour of the Irish Greyhound is a pale cinnamon or fawn. His aspect is mild, and his disposition gentle and peaceable. It is said he is greatly an overmatch for either the mastiff or bull-dog; and when he fights, he generally seizes his antagonist by the back, and shakes him to death, which his great strength enables him to do with ease.

M. Buffon supposes the great Danish dog to be only a variety of the Irish Greyhound; and Mr Pennant was of opinion that the French Matin and the Albanian dog were also varieties of the same.

The Irish Greyhound is now rarely to be met with even in his native country.

The Marquis of Sligo is among the few individuals who possess that fine animal in a state of tolerable purity; he keeps a number at Westport, in the county of Mayo, Ireland, where there is a person employed to look after them. It is said that great care is necessary to preserve the breeds and to keep them in good health.

Aylmer Bourke Lambert, Esq., one of the vice-presidents of the Linnsean Society, took the measurement of one of the Marquis of Sligo's dogs, which was as follows :
" From the point of the nose to the tip of the tail, sixty-one inches ; tail, seventeen and a half inches long ; from the tip of the nose to the back part of the skull, ten inches ; from the back part of the skull to the beginning of the tail, thirty-three inches ; from the toe to the top of the fore-shoulder, twenty-eight inches and a half; the length of the leg, sixteen inches ; from the point of the hind-toes to the top of the hind-shoulders, thirteen inches ; from the point of the nose to the eye, four inches and a half; the ears, six inches long ; round the widest part of the belly, (about three inches from the fore-legs,) thirty-five inches ; twenty-six inches round the hind-part, close to the hind-legs ; the hair short and smooth ; the colour of some brown and white, of others black and white."

They seemed good-tempered animals, but, from the accounts Mr Lambert received, it is obvious that they must have degenerated, particularly in point of size.

Dr Goldsmith says he has seen a dozen of these dogs, and assures us the largest was about four feet high, and as tall as a calf of a year old.

extract from:
"BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES AND AUTHENTIC ANECDOTES OF DOGS, Exhibiting Remarkable Instances of the Instinct, Sagacity, and Social Disposition of this Faithftil Animal", BY CAPTAIN THOMAS BROWN, 1829

The Properties Of A Good Grehounde

" A Grehound shold be heeded lyke a snake
And neckyd lyke a drake,
Footed lyke a catte,
Tayllyd lyke a ratte,
Syded lyke a teme,
And chynyd lyke a beme.
The fyrst- yere he must lerne to fede,
The 'second yere to felde him lede,
The thyrde yere he is felowe lyke,
The fourth yere there is none syke,
The fyfth yeare he is good enough,
The syxte yere he shall hold the plough,
The seventh yere he woll avaylle
Grete bytches for to assaylie,
The eygthe yere licke ladyll,
The nynthe yere cartsadyll ;
And when he is comyn to that yere
Have him to the tannere,
For the best Hounde that ever bytche had
At nynthe yere he is full badde. "

Extract from "The Booke of St. Alban's" by Dame Juliana Berners


A similar shorter proverb:

" The Shape of a good Greyhound.
A head like a snake, a neck like a drake,
A back like a beam, a belly like a bream,
A foot like a cat, a tail like a rat. "

Hare Outsmarts Greyhounds