Rakete

They are fun. If one has the nerves for fun. Mine did 50inch jumps like a rubber ball, up and down in one spot, tried to jump off bridges to get that damn motor boat, if you lost him, you found him stuck in a mouse hole or trotting through water like a stork, jumping onto frogs, he spend his walks inspecting bushes from the inside and remembered the smell of pizza on the street for 20min and ran back. There was no mean fibre in this dog. He was really great with people. A little clingy. Manipulative and a world class thieve, that stole candy out of elderly ladies handbags. Too

Actually they are said to have a soft mouth. Never worked one, as it is illegal where I live, but had a dog that was high in podenco blood, most likely mixed with galgo. Their style of hunting is not so much that of a sighthound, to some degree they work more like rogue dogs. The are fast, they can jump like a kangaroo, they are diggers, climbers and the tend to use their nose a lot. Very nice and affectionate dogs. At least for the people that keep them as pets they can be quite a new experience, to having owned other sigthounds before, as, well, their interest are differ

Loss of fur is also a well known reaction to frontline. This is some serious stuff, potent insecticide, with loads of potential side effects.

Sounds like ear mites. Do you own ferrets as well? They could also be infested with mites and be the starting point of transmission.

Just has been my first interpretation from what I read. Find it really interesting how different laws, different traditions etc. form a picture of a breed. So sometimes it might be interesting who is "on which" side. Not for judging, just understanding. I'd like to have a broad picture of the breeds I love (Came from the rescue side of the picture where racing and hunting is the purest of all evils. Started with dumped spanish hare coursers. And they thought me a lesson. So my point of view became more flexible)

Does'nt matter. Like that old stuff and a historic background. As we do not have much of it. A few, mainly afghan hound people, I think, that had a vision. Rented some fields, built gras tracks and kept it alive from the 70s till now. Not exactly sure, when the whippet people appeared.

This is how I understood it. Or that the racing people are against hunting, a different kind of people, a different mentality. But what do I know??We only have show and lure coursing/racing people. And debates about "Fat showdogs. The show people ruin the breed. " "These racing people destroying the breed" and "Your pedigree whippet is a grew. So I do not talk to you"

Never been legal since 1700 or so. There is no hunting tradition with sighthounds. Hunting breeds can only be used for pointing, retrieving etc, a dog catching game, a pig dog, a working terrier etc would be poaching and by all means against todays animal welfare rights. Seems to be the reason why there have been no middle european sighthound breeds established and no lurchers. No work for them. So they are kept as showdogs and pets only, many rescues from spain (Galgos and crosses) or ex-racers from Ireland. Working or "dual purpose" lines of all sighthound breeds can o

Thanks. Heard of it but hesitated as the last used "whippet bible" i got was overprized in shipping fees and was mainly expensive worn out pictures of long gone showdogs I am not interested in. I appreciate both your help a lot. So this forum made me spend way to much money by now within a few days. Haha.

I am Austrian. So there is strictly and only oval racing every now and then and maybe some lure coursing events (like 4 or 5 for a whole country) for my dogs. But I'm really interested in the way whippet racing is and was done in the countries of origin, in lineage etc. There is not much information around in german. (Own a race bred whippet pup myself. But american, belgian an czech lines, based on some Lyth, some Besaps etc)

Had a look at it. Whippet News seems to be a good start. Thanks.

Got some names of racing clubs? (I am Austrian. Means: absolutely no clue about the UK scene, names etc. )

As I understand it, it is not common to race working whippets and vice versa. But maybe there is somebody out there that can give me some hints. I am looking for books, magazines, whatsovever dealing with whippet racing, ped and non ped, and things like straight racing (something we do not have here) in english speaking countries. Thank you.

And why a hunting forum for someone who does not even hunt? (Guess, this might have risen the question if to give access to membership or not) Well, there is no tradition in hunting with sighthounds in german speaking countries due to hunting laws since like ever. But I strongly believe a better understanding of this type of dog comes with more understanding of hunting with them. Reading and "anti-hunting" training is everything I could do in a world where dogs able to catch game could even be classified as "dangerous dogs" if they ever do so. So pet and compagnion dog

Glad I found this thread. At least the first pages. Allready ordered the book. It is really hard to find solid information on exercising sighthounds in german. This book seems to be what I was looking for. Picked up some new thoughts on how to deal with the loads of energy of my race bred whippet puppy, that tends to loose itself in neckbreacking bursts of speed, beside restricting it per a 5minute/month rule or overdoing it.