CHAPTER XLVI 



The Greyhound 



N THE introductory chapter to the hound family we referred 

 to the name of greyhound and gave our opinion regarding 

 its origin, with our reasons therefore, so that we shall now 

 confine ourselves to the dog and its history. The advisabil- 

 ity, if not the necessity, for having a fast dog with which to 

 capture animals for food at a time when weapons were in their infancy, needs 

 no detailed setting forth. That was the starting point of the greyhound, 

 however, and we may depend upon it that discrimination was used in mating 

 fast dogs together so as to get still faster ones, until the lines of the grey- 

 hound were established. The ancestor of the greyhound was a contem- 

 porary of the first watch dogs and the first sheep dogs and was the first to be 

 bred for shape. We do not mean that our ancient ancestors had a scale of 

 points for their food-catching dogs, but they bred the speediest and cleverest 

 dogs together. That of itself means that they bred for uniformity of type, 

 for there is but one form that will give us speed and the ability to be clever 

 in handling game. Those lines are what we see in greyhounds that are 

 great performers, not dogs bred for show points, but for work. A wide 

 chested, straight-shouldered, slack-loined, weak-quartered dog cannot run 

 fast, and one that does will not have those faults, because if he had he could 

 not do what he does. That is the reason why the form of the greyhound is 

 traced back as far as we have any dog delineations. 



There is no doubt that the name was made to cover a great many dogs 

 that were not what we call greyhounds. It is not so very long ago that deer- 

 hounds and wolfhounds were called Scottish and Irish greyhounds. The 

 Russian wolfhound was mentioned as the Russian greyhound and his close 

 relative of Persia had also the same breed name and if we go back further 

 we cannot find traces of dogs that must have existed in England and could 

 only have been included in the general group of greyhounds. No mention 

 will be found of any dog that bore any resemblance to the Great Dane, yet 



there are illustrations of such dogs in England from a very early date. They 



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