Greyhound
History
The
Greyhound has been 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. As a favorite of
the Egyptian elite they where often mummified and buried
with their owners to continue hunting in the afterlife.
The Old Testament records, proverbs 30:29 and 31 "There
be three things which go well, yea, four are comely in
going:"- "A Greyhound". In Homer's "Odyssey" the
faithful hound Argus that recognized Odysseus, when no
one else did was a Greyhound.
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. 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. The Greyhound was
prized for his keen eyesight, capable of spotting small
moving objects at distances to one half mile away, and
a sprinter's body capable of forty to forty-five mile
per hour bursts making them the fastest of all dog breeds.
The
Romans began using Greyhounds for coursing. In coursing,
the speed and agility of sight hounds are tested against
their prey, the hare. The popularity of greyhound coursing
in Britain increased greatly in the nineteenth century,
as the Industrial Revolution gave the manufacturing classes
the wealth and time to enjoy such activities, and the
expansion of rail made it easier to get to coursing events.
Formal coursing meets reached their peak of popularity
in the late 1800s. Some of these meets, such as the Waterloo
Cup, are still held today.
A few
greyhounds existed in North America from colonial times.
A greyhound kept the German-born colonial military leader,
Baron von Steuben, company through a long winter at Valley
Forge. Greyhounds were imported to North America in large
numbers from Ireland and England in the mid-1800s not
to course or race, but to rid midwest farms of a virtual
epidemic of jackrabbits that was ruining their farms.
Greyhounds also were used to hunt down coyotes who were
killing livestock. They became familiar sights on farms
and ranches in Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas.
Americans soon discovered that greyhounds could be a
source of sport. One of the first national coursing meets
was held in Kansas in 1886. American coursing has been
most popular in the western states.
From
these coursing meets track racing would eventually develop.
It came about partly due to the necessity of controlling
the enormous crowds of people who came to observe the
coursing. In an effort to keep them from trampling land,
dogs, and other people, enclosed coursing parks were
developed. These were huge fields which were fenced with
an assortment of escapes (holes) built into the fences.
Hares were captured and trained to the escapes so that
they would have a fair chance. Then, during a coursing
meet, dogs would be slipped in pairs to pursue the hare.
The first artificial lure was used in England in 1876
[Mechanical Lure] and was a stuffed rabbit set up on
a long rail that ran straight for a long distance, then
went into a brushy blind. This did not, however, prove
popular and was dropped in favor of enclosed coursing.
It was not until the early 1900s, when an American, Owen
Patrick Smith, developed a lure that could be run in
a circle on a track such as horses used that racing began
to be considered as a sport.
Competitive
coursing is an amateur sport in the United States today.
The greyhounds compete for honors, not money. No gambling
takes place. Due to concerns over humane treatment of
hares, live hares have been replaced by artificial drag
lures. The course is typically 800 yards long. A white
plastic bag is attached to a thin line strung along a
series of pulleys in the ground. A motor winds up the
line, causing the bag to mimic the movements of a hare.
The greyhound's front legs are usually wrapped to prevent
cuts from the line.
Greyhound
racing has become one of the most popular spectator sports
in America. Attendance at tracks was nearly 3.5 million
in 1992. The over 50 tracks in America ran a total of
16,827 performances in 1992, over which fans wagered
almost 3.5 billion dollars. The largest track was Gulf
Greyhound Park near Houston, with an average attendance
of 5,000 for each of its 467 performances in 1992.
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