Dumb Question About Show/working Lines

[jock lock]

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I'm thinking about buying a whippet. Can anyone tell me whether there is a big difference between working and show dogs in whippets, and if so what the main differences are? Home would be a pet home only, no intention to show, and I've never been to see any coursing. However, coursing does sound interesting.........

Reason I'm asking is that in Spaniels for example, particularly in English Springers, the show and working strains could almost be two different breeds, and I just wondered whether the differences were quite as marked in Whippet lines.

I did a search but nothing relevant came up.

 

[Seraphina]

Yes, there is a bit of a difference in some show lines. Although a friend of mine who lives in Europe and breeds both racing and show dogs, has some which were top racing dogs as well as Beauty Champions.

I think the main difference is that many show dogs are getting lot bigger than is required by the standard, some have very broad chests with lot of front fill, and are longer in the body than their racing cousins.

 

[*Lesley*]

I race and lure course both my show breds they are however on the smaller side of traditional show bred size both weighing 24lb they are also very fit (don't mean show dogs aren't) but are very lean and muscular so not as well covered I think is the term used :unsure: I have also seen some of the larger sized show dogs do very well in both showing Lure coursing and racing so i think unless you want a dog which is bred for a specific ability where size is important a whippet with do whatever you want it to do, if it wants to of course :lol:

 

[Strike Whippets]

There's a fare difference between show and working Whippet's.........The show bred's are much bigger with heavy bone ........the working line's tend to be slightly finer and smaller, then the racer's finer and smaller again (this is a sweeping statement though, but is correct in most cases) ........In England you won't find ANY Whippet's that can win at show's and on the race track as Seraphina has mentioned due to the fact that these type's of Whippet has been bred completly differently over the year's (a show dog couldn't win a race against racer's, just like a racer couldn't win at show's against show bred dog's) ............What ever type of Whippet you choose you'll enjoy the fact that they'll try their hand at anything you ask of them.......Enjoy