By Dennis McKeon
copyright, 2018. The original post can be found here.
Often, with social media, on greyhound-dedicated pages, we see where some people become very agitated and sometimes even abusive, when in broad-based discussions, or when addressing a specific, greyhound-related topic or question, a participant in the discussion refers to the greyhounds’ lives, prior to adoption.
This is patently counter-intuitive, and the idea that we should remain in complete denial of a greyhound’s highly selective, purpose breeding, and their unique function---or of their bloodline, training, handling, their unique canine culture, and their experiences as performing athletes---and still hope to achieve a holistic understanding and appreciation of them, is entirely unrealistic.
Moreover, this gaping disconnect has sometimes resulted in well-meaning adopters causing more harm than good, by over or under-reactions to perfectly normal and understandable greyhound behaviors.
Disregarding the volumes of popular greyhound mythology that have proliferated via social and “news” media, it is very beneficial for the adopter to have some realistic idea of what have been actual, real-life experiences for the vast majority of greyhounds in the USA (and to a similar degree, elsewhere) aside from the cliche, hyperbolic propaganda.
Understanding the differences between a dog that is bred only to be a pet, and one which has been bred to perform a specific function, indelibly imbued by the socially-evolved culture of the greyhound colony, is often critical to intuiting and coping with any number of their behaviors. And foremost, to habituating the newly adopted greyhound to a completely different environment and lifestyle, minus everyone, both canine and human, they have ever known and with whom they may have bonded.
Simply assuming that a greyhound is always to be regarded as an object of pity, and failing to comprehend the various and profound effects of focused, selective breeding towards the performance of a function, and the dog’s ability and desire to perform at that function, can lead to a myriad of misunderstanding, often causing problems for both the greyhound and their adopter.
The sometimes vitriolic reactions to pertinent information that is directly a result of the greyhound’s unique breeding, purpose, canine culture, life experiences and “evolution”, to the extent that censoring this information is preferable to some, rather than availing themselves of others' empirical knowledge, is a tragedy.
An open mind may very well be an open door to the heart and soul of your greyhound.