You've mentioned re: horse racing injuries most horses are run before they're fully developed and how this might affect career length and health, and I was wondering if the same thing might apply to greyhounds. Being a large dog, does traditional big dog advice and slow to fuse growth plates apply? Do you think some of the common race injuries mentioned in your greyhound post might be related to racing as teenagers? Thanks for your time. Headcanon: you talk to pets like they're adults humans
Well, I think somebody else mentioned it for horses, but it’s true.
Generally speaking, most greyhounds begin ‘training’ at 12 months of age, and have their first race at 18 months of age. They should be skeletally mature by then. They might race until they’re about 5 years old, but older than that would be very unusual.
The Greyhound health concerns are referenced here.
Greyhounds don’t carry a rider. All they carry when they race is a super light brightly colored vest with a number on it, and a wire muzzle. That’s not a whole lot, both together probably only weigh about 100-200g for a 30kg dog, compared to a 500kg race horse carrying, let’s say, 50kg of rider and tack.
Initially training is just free running. That means putting these older pups out in a paddock and saying “Off you go! Have fun!” They start off running at their own pace to build up stamina. Then there’s a stage of habituating them to the track, teaching them to chase the lure and practicing running around in a circle.
Generally speaking, racing greyhounds and non-racing greyhounds don’t seem to differ in their longevity. While they certainly can injure their bones and growth places while growing, these injuries are fairly rare. Working in a practice that sees a lot of greyhound, we might see half a dozen a year. We see a few more developmental conditions, like osteochondrosis dissicans (OCD) of the shoulder, where the cartilage is not adhered properly, but these condition are more noticed at the time of training rather than caused by training.
The most significant injuries from racing, including Track Leg, Hock and Carpus fractures and fractures of the metacarpals/metatarsals are more repetitive strain injuries caused from repeatedly running in the same direction around a circle, repeated high forces on the bones faster than the bones can adapt, or from crashing into something at high speeds. We would probably see less of these injuries if the dogs were racing in a straight line rather than around a track.
Soft tissue injuries, like sand burn or split webbings, are more a consequence of running on sandy tracks than from any training techniques.
(And I do sometimes talk to pets like adult humans, if they’re behaving themselves. A cat might be ‘Mr Snowball’ if he’s behaving himself but will swiftly become ‘Widdle Snowbie Smooches’ if it chucks a wobbly.)
