I thought it would be interesting to see how people started.
We always had rescue dogs before whippets. One year my sister decided she wanted a dog for security, so we went to Last Chance rescue centre to see what they had. When we got there we both fell in love with the most beautiful lurcher pup and my sister took her home. It was then that i decided that i would like one and when i saw lurcher pups for homing in the same rescue centre I drove down immediately and adopted this lovely little brindle and white Lurcher (which turned out to be more staffie than lurcher
) Joey. I'd heard that lurchers raced and thought that sounded like fun so went on the internet and found Sussex Longdogs. We semi trained Joey with him chasing my son on his bike towing a furry toy. At about 10 months we took him to Sussex Longdogs and was told we had to trial him, which we did and lucky enough he chased. So at 12 months old we stuck him in the racing for "under 21 inch" lurchers. Bless him, we didn't know what a "non ped" was, and wasn't told what they were, poor Joey didn't stand a chance and basically gave up chasing everytime because the lure had gone and was out of sight. So we packed up racing.
A couple of years later, my interest built again and i got onto the old K9 Community and found out about Harvel and Maidstone pedigree whippet racing clubs. Myself and Sandra didn't really fancy a whippet but I persuaded her to go and have a look. We turned up and nobody welcomed us and we felt a bit unwanted, but i decided to bite the bullet and ask what was happening etc. I spoke to Lesley Meaker and she introduced me to Toddy and he was brilliant, he spoke to me for about half an hour and told us all about racing etc. I was hooked I then asked if he knew of any pups being available. Just then Daphne kitchen walked by and said the only one she knows of was in Cornwall. That was it, I spoke to Christine Harry and she said there was one left (Marley). We drove all the way to Cornwall on that Thursday and got a fantastic welcome from Christine and Tony. We saw the pups and that was that Marley was ours.
Marley was the perfect whippet for us in every way, after the failure we had with Joey and racing. Ok he's never won an open or champs but he has has done everything right, even when we mucked up or did things wrong. We were lucky to be able to go to EAWRC where the Browns made us feel welcome and helped us develop Marley. This encouraged us to keep racing, and after a year decide to get another dog, Bentley.
I've gone on too long now the reason i've done this is that we need to encourage more people in the sport, we could easily have walked away from racing after our first experience, it was only luck and determination that got us where we are now, just about to start our 4th year racing.
We always had rescue dogs before whippets. One year my sister decided she wanted a dog for security, so we went to Last Chance rescue centre to see what they had. When we got there we both fell in love with the most beautiful lurcher pup and my sister took her home. It was then that i decided that i would like one and when i saw lurcher pups for homing in the same rescue centre I drove down immediately and adopted this lovely little brindle and white Lurcher (which turned out to be more staffie than lurcher
A couple of years later, my interest built again and i got onto the old K9 Community and found out about Harvel and Maidstone pedigree whippet racing clubs. Myself and Sandra didn't really fancy a whippet but I persuaded her to go and have a look. We turned up and nobody welcomed us and we felt a bit unwanted, but i decided to bite the bullet and ask what was happening etc. I spoke to Lesley Meaker and she introduced me to Toddy and he was brilliant, he spoke to me for about half an hour and told us all about racing etc. I was hooked I then asked if he knew of any pups being available. Just then Daphne kitchen walked by and said the only one she knows of was in Cornwall. That was it, I spoke to Christine Harry and she said there was one left (Marley). We drove all the way to Cornwall on that Thursday and got a fantastic welcome from Christine and Tony. We saw the pups and that was that Marley was ours.
Marley was the perfect whippet for us in every way, after the failure we had with Joey and racing. Ok he's never won an open or champs but he has has done everything right, even when we mucked up or did things wrong. We were lucky to be able to go to EAWRC where the Browns made us feel welcome and helped us develop Marley. This encouraged us to keep racing, and after a year decide to get another dog, Bentley.
I've gone on too long now the reason i've done this is that we need to encourage more people in the sport, we could easily have walked away from racing after our first experience, it was only luck and determination that got us where we are now, just about to start our 4th year racing.
