GREYHOUNDS. 
683 
The time for trying and training greyhounds is at the 
age of twelve months, although fifteen months is sood 
enough. Some sportsmen enter and try them at ten months; 
but this is by no means to be recommended, as they are apt 
to get strained, if the course should happen to be long and 
severe, and, in many cases, they never get the better of an 
exertion of this kind at so early an age. They require but 
little training, as they are endowed with an instinctive pro¬ 
pensity to course ; and in some greyhounds their ardour is 
so great, that it is almost impossible to restrain them. 
They ought always to be entered at first with a trained dog 
of known abilities; and they should never be allowed to 
suppose, after having tasted blood, that a hare can escape 
them; and, on this account, ought never to be slipped at 
a hare when jaded and exhausted, or when too far a-head 
to be overtaken. 
When they have been taught properly to know their 
game, the next thing to be attended to is to accustom them 
to the slips, and when a hare is found, a distinct stand 
should be made by their keepers, and the words so-ho ! se¬ 
veral times repeated in a firm manner ; and the young dogs 
should never be slipped until the hare is at some distance, 
lest, being over anxious to possess it, they strain their limbs 
too much. 
The training of a greyhound requires from three to six 
weeks, the time, however, depending much upon the condi¬ 
tion and constitution at the commencement. If too fat, it is 
necessary to begin by administering laxatives. The exercise 
ought to be on turf, and occasionally on the road, with a 
horse, and by hard galloping, to strengthen their wind, as well 
as to keep their claws short; also in the morning and after¬ 
noon, before feeding, at first gently, and for an hour and a half 
at each time. As the training advances, and the condition 
