Chasing Fast CAT

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230 – August, 2024

By William Given

The American Kennel Club’s lure coursing sports program is based upon the ancient sport of live game coursing. The sport of lure coursing has a long history dating back more than five millennia. Stone carvings on obelisks and paintings in Egyptian tombs can be found which illustrate the hunting of gazelle with long-legged hounds. Sighthounds, like the Afghan Hound and Azawakh, the Saluki and Sloughi, have been used for thousands of years to chase, take down and kill gazelle and other game.

Today, the dogs chase a lure–usually a white plastic bag tied to a string. The string is pulled by a machine, at varied speeds depending on the size and speed of the dog, through a series of pullies across a grass or dirt course. When the plastic bag is pulled, it simulates a small animal running, peaking a dog’s prey drive.

Lure coursing in the United States

The mechanical lure coursing machines that we use today are based on the efforts of Lyle Gillette and some of his open field coursing colleagues. Gillette and his fellow sighthound enthusiasts were seeking to devise a method of lure coursing that would be portable, require only five to seven acres of land, and would be good for running their dogs safely at top speeds. It was in the early 1970s that Gillette and his team perfected, by trial and error mostly, the closed-loop motorized lure coursing machine for challenging the sighthounds.

Before the American Kennel Club developed their lure coursing program, lure coursing events were held by sighthound clubs under the banner of the American Sighthound Field Association. ASFA was founded in 1972. It was ASFA that promoted the sport of lure coursing throughout the US. To this day, ASFA-sponsored lure coursing trials are held most weekends throughout the year. ASFA events are limited to sighthounds.

You need only to see the enthusiasm, follow, speed and endurance expressed by our wonderful dogs to become hooked on the sport of lure coursing. AKC- and ASFA-sponsored lure coursing field trials are still held most weekends throughout the year, usually in multiple locations around the country.

What is a Fast CAT

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230 – August, 2024

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Posted by AnthonyA on Aug 19 2024. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.