Page 16 - K9 News - Issue 15 - March2021
P. 16
Pedigree WhiPPet racing
Whippet racing may not be as popular as it once long and you’ll have missed them! It can be a
was but it does still continue around much of very social day out with lots of laughs between
the UK, from Cornwall, to Scotland, Kent and long standing enthusiasts full of stories from
Anglia and many places in between in some the days when the sport was more popular and,
form or other, both pedigree and non-pedigree. best of all, puppy cuddles. It’s always a treat to
The latter is more popular in the North, where see new puppies develop into racing athletes,
whippet racing originated. A pedigree racing with litters of puppies usually being snapped up
whippet in comparison to a show whippet has a before they are born via a waiting list.
more lean, muscular physique and is every bit a
canine athlete. They can achieve speeds of up Acclimatisation trackside for puppies or
to 35 miles per hour and have been credited as whippets new to the sport is useful to learn and
the fastest accelerating land mammal, reaching understanding all the noises of the occasion,
their top speed in as little as just four strides, not to mention a cacophony of animated dogs
easily outpacing a greyhound over a short barking who are yet to run or have already run
distance. They are every bit short sprinters and want to run again, dogs being called and
rather than endurance dogs, although many retrieved at the finish and of course the traps
show amazing stamina when worked in the field opening with a bit of a clatter. Puppies are
or other sporting disciplines. always swooned over trackside which helps with
socialising them too as there will be many hands
Racing mainly occurs on Sundays in various stroking them and all manner of voices spoken.
fields around the country by people very
passionate about their sporting hobby and their Training a whippet to race is a relatively simple
dogs. A battery-operated lure made from rags, procedure. You are merely nurturing a natural
faux fur or plastic strips ensures the whippets instinct to see something move and chase it and
follow their natural instinct to chase, covering typical of the breed they do have extremely keen
150 yards in less than 10 seconds. Blink too sight. Puppies are able to start on the track
in earnest from six months old by being hand
slipped; the lure is moved just a short distance
at first, with the distance gradually increased
as the dog grows and its musculoskeletal
systems develop. Sometimes, when they are
running half the length of the track, a second but
experienced dog is introduced to help school the
pup and further the competitive nature required
for racing. When the dog is showing confidence
after being hand slipped for the full distance
of the track, they are introduced to the traps.
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K9 NEWS DIGITAL / MARCH 2021
