About Greyhounds

The Greyhound Heritage

The origin of the Greyhound is deeply rooted in ancient history. In fact, murals and paintings of dogs strikingly similar to today’s Greyhound exist from over 4,000 years ago. From the beginning, the Greyhound was held in high regard in the Middle East and throughout Europe.

  • Their pictures were etched in the walls of ancient Egyptian tombs and Pharaohs rated them first among all animals, both as pets and hunters.
  • Walls of Ancient CivilizationsThe Arabs so admired the physical attributes and speed of the greyhound that it was the only dog permitted to share their tents and ride atop their camels.
  • In early Arabian culture, the birth of a greyhound ranked second only in importance to the birth of a son.
  • In Persia, Rome and Greece, the Greyhound enjoyed similar stature and is the only canine mentioned in the Holy Scripture (Proverbs 30: 29-31).
  • Greyhounds link with nobility was established in 1014 when King Canute of England enacted the Forest Laws, which stated that only noblemen could own and hunt with greyhounds.
  • The Forest Laws were abolished in the 1500s by Queen Elizabeth I. She later initiated the first formal rules of Greyhound Coursing (the pursuit of hares), thus officially inaugurating the "Sport of Queens."
  • In the late 1800s, the Greyhound was imported to America to help Midwestern farmers control the jackrabbit, a noted crop destroyer. With the advent of the Greyhound in America, coursing events soon followed.
  • Greyhound track racing, as we know it today, began with Owen Patrick Smith’s invention of the mechanical lure around 1912, which made racing around a circular track possible. The first circular track opened in 1919 in Emeryville, California. Although this track was not very successful, it paved the way for the development of the Greyhound racing industry in America.

 

Finding loving homes in the Indianapolis Area for retired professional racing Greyhounds since 2000