Working whippets

[iworkwhippets 12,535]

14 minutes ago, sparky the hunter said:

Some lovely pics from iworkwhippets.  I will have to show this thread to my Mum she has raced whippets for over 40 years. She had a lot of champions, even used to go coursing pre ban till she had to have her favorite bitch put down in the field after breaking both front legs in a ditch.

thank you, and once again to gasaxeman for allowing me to hijack his thread 

[eastcoast 4,118]

6 hours ago, Chaff said:

Thanks for that I'm getting a better understanding  of bitza breeding seems like these truly special dogs that appear with the right owners really are like winning the lottery.

Down side to owning such a dog is that all dogs after never measure up, I suppose 

It used to be relatively easy to get surplus to requirements, for whatever reason, from the non-ped racing lads and lasses. The only whippet that I actually owned myself was sourced this way as a young adult dog. £10. As rabbiter that would also take the occasional day time hare, and have a damned good try at everything else ,he was the bargain of a lifetime.

[dodger 2,754]

Have many of these non ped whippets made useful dogs in the field without being injury prone like alot seem to be on the track?

Edited September 13, 2023 by dodger

[dogmandont 9,814]

4 hours ago, chartpolski said:

Is there any definitive proof of this ? I’m not disagreeing with you, but it seems in thoroughbred horse breeding the stud seems to influence the breeding more than the mare.

Also with greyhounds, it appears that the stud has more influence than the brood bitch.

I honestly don’t know, I simply try to get a pup from the best available breeding, dog and bitch, as possible.

Cheers.

If you haven't got quality bitches then any line is destined for failure, I personally think dogs take after the dam and bitches after the sire. 

[gaza 508]

My next dog will be a none ped or pedigree, prob none-ped. Been Leigh track but unfortunately not many competition dogs that day…mostly pets and lurchers running. 

Charts what did you prefer for work, pedigree or none-ped?

Don’t know anything about weight of lurchers Ive owned. But the open weight/scratch champion dogs what height do they usually average? Are they approaching greyhound height or 23/24tts etc?

And at the opposite end the lower weight classes are these even lighter than kc whippets and shorter. Remember someone on here posting pic of lower weight none ped and it was tiny. 

[Rickshaw swami 4,122]

5 hours ago, chartpolski said:

Is there any definitive proof of this ? I’m not disagreeing with you, but it seems in thoroughbred horse breeding the stud seems to influence the breeding more than the mare.

Also with greyhounds, it appears that the stud has more influence than the brood bitch.

I honestly don’t know, I simply try to get a pup from the best available breeding, dog and bitch, as possible.

Cheers.

Mr Charts I would recommend  reading about the x factor in racehorses.Its still not definitive proof but I believe it.

 

[chartpolski 23,467]

27 minutes ago, gaza said:

My next dog will be a none ped or pedigree, prob none-ped. Been Leigh track but unfortunately not many competition dogs that day…mostly pets and lurchers running. 

Charts what did you prefer for work, pedigree or none-ped?

Don’t know anything about weight of lurchers Ive owned. But the open weight/scratch champion dogs what height do they usually average? Are they approaching greyhound height or 23/24tts etc?

And at the opposite end the lower weight classes are these even lighter than kc whippets and shorter. Remember someone on here posting pic of lower weight none ped and it was tiny. 

I’ll try to answer your questions as best I can, but remember, these are just MY opinions, I’m whippet enthusiast, not an expert.

Id probably prefer a ped for all round work; they’re not as fast but probably a bit more robust and not so injury prone, but if it was just for hares, I’d go for a non-ped.

In the “no limit” scratch racing of the BWRA there are dogs that are bigger and heavier than some greyhounds I’ve seen run in the Waterloo Cup ! There’s one running now, extremely fast, but runs at around 59lb and about 25” ! Hardly what I class as a whippet, but their races, their rules.

Scratch racing classes vary between organisations,(BWRA and NWRF), and clubs. They can be up to 35lb, 40lb, 45lb, 50lb and no limit. Heights of these dogs can vary between 21” and, in extreme, 25”.

In the Championships the weight classes start at 16lb and go up to 32lb in 2lb increments.

As to your last comment, there are many non-peds that weigh the same or less than the peds, but are invariably faster.

It may have been me that posted about the tiny non-ped, this one has just won its Rch title in the 16lb class even though it only weighs 12lb !

It’s a non-ped, with greyhound in its make up, and there were others in the litter that weighed 30-40 lb. I’ve seen it run many times and it’s a game little dog, giving peds twice its weight start and beating them !

Id love to see the little tyke on a rabbit !

Hope this has been of some interest to you, and remember, they are just my opinions.

Cheers.

[chartpolski 23,467]

48 minutes ago, Rickshaw swami said:

Mr Charts I would recommend  reading about the x factor in racehorses.Its still not definitive proof but I believe it.

 

I’ve only glanced through it, but very interesting!

Im reading it as the “big heart gene” is only passed through a mare which carries it, but only results in the enlarged heart in a foal if the sire also carries the gene, which is much rarer in a stallion than a mare.

Secretariat is thought to have got his huge heart through such a mating.

As you say, not definitive, just a theory, but very thought provoking!

Cheers.

[saluki bouy 694]

24 minutes ago, chartpolski said:

I’ll try to answer your questions as best I can, but remember, these are just MY opinions, I’m whippet enthusiast, not an expert.

Id probably prefer a ped for all round work; they’re not as fast but probably a bit more robust and not so injury prone, but if it was just for hares, I’d go for a non-ped.

In the “no limit” scratch racing of the BWRA there are dogs that are bigger and heavier than some greyhounds I’ve seen run in the Waterloo Cup ! There’s one running now, extremely fast, but runs at around 59lb and about 25” ! Hardly what I class as a whippet, but their races, their rules.

Scratch racing classes vary between organisations,(BWRA and NWRF), and clubs. They can be up to 35lb, 40lb, 45lb, 50lb and no limit. Heights of these dogs can vary between 21” and, in extreme, 25”.

In the Championships the weight classes start at 16lb and go up to 32lb in 2lb increments.

As to your last comment, there are many non-peds that weigh the same or less than the peds, but are invariably faster.

It may have been me that posted about the tiny non-ped, this one has just won its Rch title in the 16lb class even though it only weighs 12lb !

It’s a non-ped, with greyhound in its make up, and there were others in the litter that weighed 30-40 lb. I’ve seen it run many times and it’s a game little dog, giving peds twice its weight start and beating them !

Id love to see the little tyke on a rabbit !

Hope this has been of some interest to you, and remember, they are just my opinions.

Cheers.

We used to race up at Stirling track only on the straight (my dads choice he was ex greyhound man argued and wouldn’t run the whippets as he thought the bend was to tight used to run like and figure of 9 with another 50 yard straight after)

coulpe bigger dogs one boy ran maybe 23/24 seemed massive thinking about it and our two were 21/5 and 22 

Tiny little bitch 17/5 to shoulder she done everything on the straights can still remember her now and her height funny never remember weights tbh my brain doesn’t do weight for some reason 

terrific little bitch and they’re was plenty cracking dogs great education for us as kids rugby in morning and then wait on pigeons come in Saturday afternoon Sunday eighty mile drive to whippet racing loved it 

 

[saluki bouy 694]

The whippets where my open into field sports and beating at local estate 

I can remember my first rabbit with my first dog Travis loved that dog 

[gaza 508]

Thanks for the in depth reply charts really appreciate that . Get the attraction of the racing and the breeding/conditioning that goes into it. 
 

Yeah that was the little dog I had a feeling it was you who posted. Looks almost like an italian greyhound the size of it. 
 

Wont be any time soon and my thinking was always bigger weight dog pup for bit of everything on lamp but going the other way now little sharp knock about dog with the terrier bushing. 

[WhiteSalukiBitch 16]

On 09/09/2023 at 13:31, jeemes said:

The only thing that lets a whippet down is thin skin and coat for hunting purposes, but easily fixed with a bit of crossing to Beddy or  similar. 

And some collie, hence the blue eyes? Nice dog by the way, my own "Whippets"  (Lurchers) have a drop of collie blood. 

[tatsblisters 9,599]

It's a dog I have been contemplating getting since I had my old lurcher put to sleep even though non peds can be cracking dogs my choice would be a ped tbh I know two people near me who have them for pets and they paid a substantial amount for them there hunting instinct once in the woods is full on though one of them a blue dog seems to have a slight skin condition that the lad takes him to the vets every month for a jab for it. My mate has a small whippet type lurcher he bred himself a mix of whippet Bedlington and springer spaniel that has stamina and nose and a natural retrieving ability that if he put a ped to it I might be tempted in one. 

[jeemes 4,481]

Pure Whippets are no where near as fast pound for pound as non ped, but quite a few Pedigree racing whippets now have some non ped blood in them. 

[Neal 1,866]

With regards to the question of whether the sire or dam has most influence on the litter: I remember reading several times about people feeling that the dam has the most influence simply because of the fact that she's raised them. By this I mean (or rather they mean and I'm pinching their thoughts) genetically the pups are 50% of each, but the dam raises them for those first few formative weeks and her temperament will therefore affect theirs. Put simply, a nervy (or 'pissy' as my brother calls them) dam might be more likely to make her pups nervy if she's constantly jumping out of her skin at every noise compared to a bomb-proof dam.

In addition to this there's the far more complex theory (or fact: I'm not sure which) that mitochondrial DNA will have an effect. I might get a lot of these 'facts' wrong as I'm writing from memory. I believe that it's only the bitch which passes on mitochondrial DNA as the mitochondrial DNA in sperm is all in the tail. Therefore it's held in the bit which does all the work in getting to its destination but is then jettisoned as it's no longer needed. Related to this is the possibility that it's mitochondrial DNA which makes pups (and presumably other animals too) more resilient. I was talking to a retired doctor friend of mine about it once and she reeled off a load of facts about mitochondrial DNA which were amazing. I then promptly forgot most of it. As I said, I'm not sure how much of that is either factual or accurate.