‘Greyhound’ The Greyhound

By Amy Fernandez

Broad assumptions are always a risky bet; just ask anyone in marketing. Yeah, everybody likes to eat but the reality goes off on a zillion tangents from there. Ice cream? Beluga caviar? Or for real connoisseurs, fries and a cold beer. Anyway, my point is that when it comes to behavior patterns, relying on conventional pigeonholes can backfire big time. How does this relate to dogs?

Our game has always been a 50/50 arrangement with another species. For at least 15,000 years it’s worked pretty well. They’ve definitely got us trained. But just like us, dogs tend to have their own ideas about things. Generally, they seem almost preprogrammed to do all kinds of stuff; fetch, bark, steal your lunch. Those are all marvelously predictable skills because that stuff is embedded in survival instinct. But just like our very personal and quirky interpretations of survival instinct, it depends on the situation. Invariably, there are a few outlaws in every breed.

Take Greyhounds and coursing. Has there ever been a better recipe for success? Natural talent has played a role in human survival strategy for thousands of years and more recently into centuries of formal sport. Unfortunately, from an individual perspective, some Greyhounds find this expectation a bit too rigid.

I realize that I’ve got no credibility in this debate, so I’m gonna turn it over to our Sighthound expert, Helen Haas, and her amazing story of a Greyhound named…’Greyhound’.

Now Greyhound was a lovely bitch. Haas says, “I’d always wanted a Greyhound and her coat was pure white with one brown patch. She finished in straight shows; she was glorious.”  But as Helen admits, white dogs weren’t too popular in the breed. “Centuries ago, breeders had crossed Bulldog into the gene pool in order to improve their stamina and jaw power. That was so far back it really has no impact on type these days but a lot of people still considered white to be a sign of that influence.” Well, Greyhound didn’t vote to be born that color. Nor did she opt for a few other interesting talents that nature gave her.

Helen recalls, “She was raised with a big litter of black Afghan puppies. They got along marvelously.” Okay, that explains the name, but psychiatrists would probably have a field day with the personal identity issues. Back then, Helen was a top handler and a well-known Afghan breeder. She also had the number one Afghan in the country. She’d done some lure coursing with this dog. “He loved it but he had his own ideas. He would look around and take his time finding the rabbit, which isn’t what you really want in a coursing dog.” Ilya was a slow and methodical hunter, which is fine for say a Clumber, but not exactly the ideal for this noble, ancient coursing breed.

“We lived outside of Denver at the time, and there was also a local field coursing club.” However, you might say that this group was a bit of a closed shop. In other words, no dilettantes or thrill seekers. “They really didn’t want a lot of people showing up.”

Helen admits that her Afghan, the famous World Show winner Ben Haasin Czar Ilya, was only invited to this exclusive meeting because he was impossible to ignore. He was then the nation’s top Afghan and three of his daughters were already lure coursing superstars. “He sired three top lure coursers out of three different bitches. So, he obviously had the trait.” He just didn’t much like doing it himself. “I was still showing him then, and I guess they liked the idea of running a dog in full show coat.” Whatever their motivation, this wasn’t a plus-one invitation. She recalls, “But I decided to bring Greyhound along anyway. What could they do once I got there?”

As expected, they were not thrilled but it’s kinda hard to object to a Greyhound at a coursing meeting. “There were Borzoi, Salukis, and several other Afghans. I was really nervous at first. I really didn’t know what to expect when we let all the dogs off lead in this huge open field. But everyone assured me that, sooner or later, they always come back as long as you stay in the same place.” (Yeah, but what if that’s three days later?)

“So we turned them loose and got out our folding chairs.” And…nothing. “The dogs wandered around for awhile. You could see that they were scanning around looking for something to chase.” Except for Greyhound. “Finally, she realized what they were supposed to be doing.” Unfortunately, she cheated.

“She started sniffing around and of course they are supposed to hunt by sight.” Remember, Greyhound was already there on a probationary basis and these antics did not impress anyone. Every dog had its head up scanning the horizon, and this one was nose to the ground. “Finally, she went up to this big patch of tumbleweed, poked her nose in there, and she froze. She stood there in a classic point. It’s like she was showing them, ‘Oh, is this what you guys are looking for?’ Sure enough, there was a big jackrabbit hiding under there.”

But Greyhound wasn’t content to leave it there. “Then she went in there and flushed it out just like a Spaniel.  It shot out of there and the rest of the pack took off after it. So we sat down, had our lunch and waited.”

Yes, they all returned sooner or later. And as Helen knew, “Maybe a cottontail, but jackrabbits are just too fast and smart.” Apparently, that choice of prey was strike two against Greyhound. “As we were packing up to leave they invited me to come back…but only with the Afghan.”

It didn’t matter, Greyhound had bigger plans. Over the next few years she went on to become FCI. Can. Mex. Ber. S.D. AKC Ch. Cyrano Athena Ben Haasin. However, that was the end of her hunting career.

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Posted by showresults on Feb 11 2022. 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.