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Monthly Archives: April 2013

Famous People Love To Own Greyhounds

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Righto!

Which famous people own a greyhound?

King Henry VIII

King Henry VIII Owner of Greyhounds

King Henry VIII Owner of Greyhounds

Who’s that you say? 

King Henry VIII was the King that ruled Ireland, had about six wives and he basically split up the Church of England away from the Roman Catholics.

Good Ol King Henry was said to be the first person to ever wager on the grey’s, wink wink, hush hush… (sure he was). No but seriously the King loved greyhounds, he even loved them more then wearing skirts! 

The King was said to have dozens of them, he actually ordered them as his standard breed and made the greyhound the symbol of the house of york!

Bart Simpson

Bart Simpson & Santa's Little Helper

Bart Simpson & Santa’s Little Helper

Please don’t make me explain who Bart Simpson is!

Santa’s Little Helper is easily one of the worlds most famous greyhounds there is. Santa’s Little Helper is a retired racing greyhound that Homer brought home for Bart in one of the earlier seasons of the Simpsons.

Cesar Millan AKA The Dog Whisperer

Cesar Milan AKA The Dog Whisperer and his greyhound

Cesar Millan AKA The Dog Whisperer and his greyhound

Cesar is a well known dog trainer that has been featured on shows like Oprah before having his own daily doggy show called Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan. Apparently Cesar rescued a retired racing greyhound from Spain after it narrowly fleed being shot by hunters, PHEW~ Good on ya Cesar!

JK Rowling 

JK Rowling with her new greyhound nawwww cute

JK Rowling with her new greyhound nawwww cute

Harry Potter author adopted a 4 year old retired racing greyhound named Sapphire from a Scottish adoption organization. I read some place online that the group apparently received a nice sized donation along with the standard fee. 

Dr. Harry Cooper

 

Dr. Harry Loves Greyhound Racing

Dr. Harry Loves Greyhound Racing

 Dr. Harry if your an internatrional reader and don’t know him is one of Australia’s most famous celebrity Vet’s. I remember growing up watching Dr Harry on the telly, I loved him, I remember learning a lot about dogs from Dr. Harry. Not only is he a celeb Vet but Dr. Harry is also a love and owner of Greyhounds and Greyhound Racing. At one point Dr. Harry was once a head Greyhound Vet at his own practice as well as being head Vet for one of the large Race Meets in NSW. A true lover of greyhounds… and an animal welfare advocate. “OMG How can that be?” 

Kenny Rogers

Kenny Rogers is said to have loved Greyhound Racing. We aren’t too sure if he ever owned one… but who cares! This is Kenny mate! If he loved em and he punted on em, that’s as good as owning one! What a legend of a man.

Tea Leoni

Tea Leoni with her white Greyhound

Tea Leoni with her white Greyhound

Hottie actress Tea Leoni from films such as Bad Boys, Jurassic Park and Deep Impact is a well known retired racing greyhound owner. Sorry that’s all we got…

Uri Geller

Uri Gellar and His Greyhound

Uri Is a Greyhound Advocate

Famous spoon bender, mentalist and entertainer Uri Geller is fairly loud advocate of greyhound adoption and retired racing greyhounds! Well done Uri, I wonder if he like the racing as much as he likes the dogs. 

Last but not least….

Vinnie Jones

Greyhound Racing's Man of The Match, Vinnie Jones with his Greyhound

Greyhound Racing’s Man of The Match, Vinnie Jones

Vinnie Jones loves punching blokes, football and greyhound racing.

What a legend of a man, seriously. Vinnie Jones is famous for several things such as his football (soccer) career, playing for club Wimbledon FC, Chelsea and Leeds United as well as his movie roles in films like Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrells, Gone in 60 Seconds, Mean Machine and X-Men.

He’s also famous for at one stage owning 21 racing greyhounds and having 2 of them race in Britains William Hill Greyhound Derby at the same time! 

Beginners Guide To Owning A Racing Greyhound

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Thinking about getting into Greyhounds?

Greyhound racing is an exciting sport, especially when you own a winning dog!

There are a few things to consider before getting into Greyhound racing as an owner. 

In this post we will talk briefly about the things you need to know prior to getting involved in the Industry, the Do’s & Don’ts, the costs involved an ultimately how to take you from being a beginner to becoming a prize winning cashed up owner!

Winning is a form of ART!

Before you even get started you need to know that unlike betting on greyhounds which is also fun :) (we don’t mind a punt) it’s very different.

You are now taking a very different gamble. It’s more like a well thought out, well planned investment that can pay off immensely! Yet like any other business or investment it has its risks, especially for newbies!

So before you even get started, understand that when you see the winners on the podium at the race track, these guys and girls have dedicated a lot of time and sometimes money into finding the right dog, the right trainer and the right set of ingredients to come up with a winning formula. 

The other thing is that losses will always outweigh wins, always!

Never kid yourself. Don’t even consider getting into the Greyhounds if you think your going to come in and win every race. The facts are that most owners lose more often then they win. If your smart and you know how to do your numbers this shouldn’t scare you away though. 

The Costs Involved

We are not claiming to be finance or economics experts but let’s take a fairly vague look at some of the costs involved in owning and racing a Greyhound.

$3000 for the dog, $100 a week for the trainer (including food), another $100 for tattooing and micro chipping and then lets say an average of $150 per month for supplements and or any Veterinary bills, $110 for naming, $6-$20 for trialing etc so on and so forth.

So in your first month you may be looking at $3,500 or MORE…!  Depending mainly on the price of your dog and what sort of training you signed up to as some trainers wont charge anything and will simply do a 50/50 split on any prize money winnings.

Don’t take what I’m saying here as gospel in terms of costs. There are so many other costs like kenneling, rearing if you decide to buy a pup, breaking in, travel costs, trailers if need be and you have not even raced yet!

In other words, unless you have really, really deep pockets you need your dog to notch a win or place fairly quickly! 

However when you do win you could be pocketing a nice lump sum of money.

Prize money differs depending on country and city races and a few other criteria that we won’t get into right here. It’s good to note though that some of the highest ever recorded prize winning over a career are usually between 400k and 500k. Nothing like a race horse, but still a hell of a lot of money! And that’s not even considering the money you can make breeding the dog after it’s career is over :)

The Dogs website publishes a fairly good Greyhound Ownership Cost Index Chart which you can view here: http://www.thedogs.com.au/resources/pdfs/GOCI.pdf

Where to Buy a Pup or Racing Greyhound

You will need to think about whether you want to buy a puppy or a race ready dog.

There can be pro’s and con’s and then some on both sides of the fence.

For example; if you buy a puppy it doesn’t matter what genetic history they have from their parents you still take a gamble as you will never really know what they are like at racing until they race. This can be problem or it can be a massive benefit if you do your research and stumble across a bit of luck!

If you decide to get a race dog, your going to know it’s track record and hence know what you are buying instantly without having to wait months or years for it to race like you would with a puppy. 

It’s a decision your going to have to make at one point and the best advice is to do your research, speak to breeders, speak to current owners and see if you can strike a good deal.

When you have decided you want either a puppy or a race ready dog its time to find the right one! You can either browse the Greyhounds For Sale Listings on our main website HERE!

Or alternatively if you know what you want specifically, we advise you to post a Greyhound WANTED Ad like the ones listed right HERE. If you don’t have an account all you have to do is register for an account here and then start posting your ads!

We of course are totally 100% biased as to where you get a dog from and recommend our own website, but that doesn’t mean you cant look in other places or just do what other do and head to the track for a bit of word of mouth!

What to do NEXT?

Greyhound Puppies: If you went for the pup option you now need to get him or her into a rearing program, usually for about 12 months but it depends on how old they are when you buy them and then need to have them broken in for the race track! 

Again you can find these Greyhound Services on our website right HERE. 

A lot of times if you have a contact such as a trainer or someone you find to do your rearing and or breaking in these people will usually put you onto other people such as Vets, trainers etc.

Your pup may need to be earmarked/branded (tattooed) if it hasn’t already or it may need micro chipping depending on what state or territory you live and operate out of. Please do your due diligence and check with states laws and regulations. Most times this should already be done buy the owner prior to your purchase but we want you to know that we have heard of cases where this was  not done and you may need to have it done yourself. 

Once your pup has been prepared for the track you it will need to give him or her a race name! Yipee! This is the fun part.

There are some regulation involved obviously and you will need to read up on these. You can read all the information you need on Greyhound naming as well as finding information on registering the name over at: http://www.galtd.org.au/GreyhoundsAustralasia/index.php?q=node/37

You can also reserve a name here: http://www.galtd.org.au/GreyhoundsAustralasia/files/Reserve%20Name%20Form.pdf

Check for name availability here: http://www.galtd.org.au/GreyhoundsAustralasia/index.php?q=node/38

And don’t forget to read the 22 rules here: http://www.galtd.org.au/GreyhoundsAustralasia/index.php?q=node/37

At this stage you should have found a trainer. If not we suggest you either search through our list of trainers here or alternatively if you cant find what you are looking for you should post a Trainer Wanted Ad here, after registering.

Your trainer will normally organize a whole bunch of other things for you such as VET visits, trialing and testing, racing registration (MARKING), finding a catcher etc. If not we suggest you head down to your local Greyhound Racing Track and they will have all the necessary forms as well as putting you onto a catcher and person responsible for marking and formal registration as well as telling you the trial dates and costs.

For the future we aim at setting up a LISTINGS feature on our website which will have an entire list of breeders, trainers, race tracks, officials, VETS and so on. With all of their contact details. Stay tuned.

Your dog will be ready to race once it has been registered or marked, been through its race preparation (breaking), been trialed with other maiden greyhounds and raced in a trial maiden race and you are given the green light by the racing officials in your chosen state and at the race track. 

Racing Greyhounds: 

Pretty much the same applies to racing greyhounds as with puppies except for the obvious things like getting them race ready.

Once you have found your racing greyhound it’s now time to get yourself a trainer, get your dog down to the trials and obviously have them registered and marked under your details.

The Next Step is WINNING!

Once your dog has started racing the boring parts are over. Unfortunately there has to be a lot of regulation and paperwork to get your dog onto the track, but once that is all done you can focus on your dogs training, it’s health and getting it to win!

We wish we could tell you what the winning formula is, but lets be realistic here…

From knowing what we know, we honestly and sincerely believe that finding and paying for a top quality racing greyhound or puppy, hiring an experienced and knowledgeable trainer with a winning history and investing in your dogs health and well being are probably the most critical things you can do in order to achieve the success that you so desperately want and need!

If you don’t get that mixture right its hard to win. 

You can have the  best trainer in the world, but if your greyhound runs more like a British Bulldog then you have no luck. On the other hand you could have the best dog, the best trainer but your dog may be getting over or under raced which could cause health and well being issues and then your stuffed and so is your dog!

It has been proven time and time again that a happy dog is a winning dog! 

And remember at the end of the day you are still taking a gamble so only invest what you can afford to lose.

We’d also like to add a special notice here about greyhound adoption. Once your dog is retired from racing you should think about keeping him or her as a family pet or alternatively putting the Greyhound up for adoption with GAP. We strongly advocate Greyhound adoption, as you will read in our blog post titled OzGreyhoundSales Does NOT Support Greyhound Adoption. And we want to see all retired racing Greyhounds living happy, healthy and full filling lives once their careers are over and we honestly believe that it can be achieved.

So on that note, we’d like to wish you all the best in your Greyhound racing adventures!

If you want to start your journey off on the right foot, head on over to our Greyhound Classified Ads Website, register and browse for a winner or post a wanted ad!

COMPETITION: Name Our Greyhound!

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That’s right!

We’d like you to name our RED GREYHOUND, the cool looking red dog that makes up our logo!

Name this little guy

Name this little guy

 
So far he or she doesn’t have a name and we think he or she would really, really like one.
 
What good is a great greyhound without a name?
 
Not much, even if it is just an image. But that’s the thing, it’s not just an image and not just a picture. 
 
Our dog has got soul! 
 
When our Argentinian designers where designing our logo they would send us different images of greyhounds day in day out. It took weeks to find our dog. In fact I think the customer service girl on the other end was beginning to get sick of us rejecting all the sketches her team where making for us.
 
Initially they asked us to give them three words to describe the dog so that they can create a wicked design.
 
We used the words great, powerful & iconic to describe the way our red mascot needs to look and in the end what we got was all of that but with a kind of feminine touch, girly touch… and guess what?
 
WE LOVED IT!
 
We believe our little red friend is not only unique, but we believe he or she has a life of its own and we’d love for you to name him or her. 
 
Everyone knows that half the fun of racing a  greyhound is coming up with the name!
 
THE DETAILS
 
To enter you simply need to come up with a name, any name, so long as the name is not any of the following:
 
DONT’S
  • A CURRENT RACING GREYHOUND
  • A HISTORICAL OR PREVIOUS RACING GREYHOUND
  • ANY TRADEMARKED OR COPYRIGHTED NAME
  • ANY NAME ASSOCIATED WITH A SIMILAR LOOKING GREYHOUND
  • ANY NAME ALREADY TAKEN BY ANY OTHER BRAND
  • A BUSINESS OR BRAND NAME

That’s it for the don’ts. Now let’s take a look at what we would like the greyhound name to be.

The name MUST be:

DO’S

  •  UNIQUE
  • FIT THE PERSONALITY OF OUR LITTLE RED FRIEND (IS IT A HE OR A SHE? IS SHE SMART? CUTE? RAW?YOU TELL US)
  • FIT OUR NEW COMPANY PROFILE (WE ARE YOUNG, INNOVATIVE, CREATIVE AND MOST OF ALL WE ARE REAL, YOU KNOW… HONEST REAL.. NOT DOUCHEY REAL)
  • TIME TESTED. THIS GREYHOUND NAME NEEDS TO STAND UP AGAINST THE TEST OF TIME FOR YEARS TO COME
  • MOST OF ALL IT NEEDS TO STAND OUT AND BECOME A PART OF AN ICONIC BRAND
Once you have come up with a name you must post it on your own timeline (your personal FB page) and be sure to link to and or mention our Facebook page right here: https://www.facebook.com/Ozgreyhoundsalescomau
 
***In order for your entry to be validated you must message us via our FB page to confirm your entry***
 
And then get as many likes for your suggestion as you can.
 
Its that simple.
 
The person with the most likes by April the 30th 2013 @ 7:oopm AEST will win!
 
THE PRIZE ?
 
The winner with the most likes for their chosen name will win a $100 TRAY OF MEAT and a slab of Victoria’s finest –Vic Bitter!
 
We know it’s not much, but it’s all we have at the moment and besides you get bragging rights for the rest of your life!
 
Just tell us which butcher you’d like to get your meat from and we will organize a $100 voucher for anything behind the fancy glass window and the same goes with the slab of VB!
 
RULES, TERMS AND OTHER BORING STUFF YOU NEED TO KNOW!
 
Our lawyers (AKA the Internet) told us we should probably have a few rules so that we dont get into any trouble and so that no one sues us :)
 
We don’t like too many rules, plus it’s boring and we think most people are the same so to make it nice and easy for everyone involved we have decided to use a simple yet very effective numbered format with fancy little titles:
 
GENERAL RULES & LEGAL STUFF
  1. ONE NAME PER ENTRANT ONLY (per Facebook account)
  2. You must be 18+ to enter
  3. Each name must comply with the Do and Don’ts above
  4. YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO BUY LIKES, ALL LIKES MUST BE GENUINE
  5. Don’t be a twit! Please be nice to everyone involved in the competition, stupid behavior wont be tolerated
  6. DO NOT SPAM PEOPLE FOR LIKES, ANYONE CAUGHT SPAMMING OR HARASSING PEOPLE FOR LIKES WILL BE INSTANTLY DISMISSED FROM THE COMPETITION AND REPORTED TO FACEBOOK

LEGAL RIGHTS & RESPONSIBILITIES

  1. By entering this competition you acknowledge that the idea put forth by you for this competitions will be owned, operated and managed by OzGreyhoundSales (www.ozgreyhoundsales.com.au) and that by taking part you acknowledge and agree that you understand this is a name you have supplied as part of a competition and that you have given up your legal right to any and all forms of intellectual property for the name/s you have provided
  2. YOU WILL NOT OWN THE NAME, THE BRAND, THE COMPANY, ANY PART OF THIS WEBSITE OR ANYTHING RELATED (please don’t ask us for money)
  3. You acknowledge that as far as you know and to the best of your knowledge the name you have provided under this competition is not a brand, name, trademark or copyright of any other legal entity, corporation or commercial venture

PRIVACY AND INFORMATION

  1. You acknowledge that your initials and the state you are applying from will be posted publicly to acknowledge the winner of this competition
  2. YOU UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT ANY IMAGE YOU SUPPLY TO US WILL BE PUBLISHED PUBLICLY IN ONLINE MEDIA TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE WINNER OF THIS COMPETITION (IMAGES MUST NOT BE SUPPLIED BUT PREFERRED)
  3. OzGreyhoundSales requires your full name, proof of age (Drivers License, Proof of age or passport), and a contact number in order to supply you with the winning prizes and by taking part in this competition you agree and understand this as well as agree and comply to providing this information
  4. For more privacy info: http://www.ozgreyhoundsales.com.au/PrivacyPolicy

That’s all of the boring but important stuff! Head on over to our Facebook page and begin coming up with name ideas and asking your friends to like it!https://www.facebook.com/Ozgreyhoundsalescomau

 

p.s. we suggest you format your post on our page like so: “Dear OzGreyhoundSales, you should name your red greyhound “MY-IDEA”, please like this post to vote for me!” then share it like mad!

p.s.s. don’t forget that the competition ends at 7:00pm AEST on the 30th of April!

ENTER BY POSTING HERE: https://www.facebook.com/Ozgreyhoundsalescomau

GOOD LUCK!

Today we answer a fans question from Facebook

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Today we where asked the following question by a fan of ours on face book :

fbquestion

 

We thought it may be better to answer right here on our blog. Here goes.

Great question! Basically we are only new so I can confidently say that you can double or even triple anything I say in terms of features and benefits in the next 12 months :)

Firstly we are a young and vibrant team that is slowly growing this means we are in tune with the online and digital marketing world, I come from an online marketing and digital content creation background and my partner comes from a web development, mobile apps, networking and programming background, plus our consultant friend that’s been breeding and racing greyhounds now for about ten years (we are all under 35).

OzGreyhoundSales goes the extra mile, as you can see anyone that posts a classified ad on the site we do our best to also post it on our Facebook fanpage and also on our twitter page as well as prompting people to share their ads on their own and giving them the tools to do it.

We are already utilizing pay per click ads with Facebook which means we are attracting new people that are interested to buy or sell whatever it is that you are buying or selling, every day and we plan on mobile apps, website mobilization and a second set of major updates including Facebook sign up and registration due in the next 6 months.

In terms of the site itself we are setting ourselves up to specialize in ads alone and are already on our way! We are a greyhounds classifieds website first and foremost and plan to become Australia’s leading classified ads website providing our site users with the best features and tools possible to be able to buy and sell their products.

Once we begin charging we will have a free option ideally for the lifetime of the website and the business, a featured ad option which stands out from others, a top ad option that sits above the rest and gets optimum exposure as well as a bump ad feature that takes your ad from the bottom of the list and bumps it up to the top.

We already allow free images uploads and will soon allow video uploads, we have a blog which we try to update daily with news, articles, funny bits and bobs and other information, we are strong and lively advocates of greyhound adoption and we plan on implementing some sort of donation scheme where we will donate a certain percentage from all profits made :)

Currently there is a lot of work going on in the area of our websites SEO to ensure our site and your ads appear up the top of the search engines and so far we are doing pretty well considering it takes some sites months and even years to rank in the search engine results pages and finally our site is already doing things some of the competitors sites cant or don’t.

For example, on OzGreyhoundSales you can select to create a FOR SALE or WANTED ad, then you can categorize and drill down on your ad so that when people search they have a very easy way of searching for what they want. Lets say for instance you are not selling a dog, lets says you make home made dog collars, you would select the category type GEAR and then drill down and select COLLARS.

Anyone that sets up a top ad with us (currently free) gets their ad featured in out static website banner listing which will end up being much more expensive. Finally we are local, we are Australian and we plan on becoming #1 So give us a go and we’ll do whatever we can to make you happy. 

OzGreyhoundSales DOES NOT “SUPPORT” GREYHOUND ADOPTION!

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 In case you missed the title..

OzGreyhoundSales DOES NOT “support” greyhound adoption!

This might sound a little shocking to you at first. Let me explain…

“Support” in the context we are using it means to:

“to sustain (a person, the mind, spirits, courage, etc.) under trial or affliction: 
They supported him throughout his ordeal.”
or
“to maintain (a person, family, establishment, institution, etc.) 
by supplying with things necessary to existence; provide for: to support a family.”
 
That’s straight from dictionary.reference.com.
 
Now I don’t know about you, but the word support, to me, sounds a little bit too weak when speaking about something like greyhound adoption.
 
It’s the type of word a parent would use to say to their son or daughter when it turns they want to become a trendy artist instead of going to law school or something like that “we don’t agree with your decision fully… but support you, ta ta it’s OK here is a kleenex”.
 
Let me be the one to say that we DON’T just simply “support” greyhound adoption.
 
This is what we really think about greyhound adoption:
 

OzGreyhoundSales is 100% totally and willfully dedicated to promoting and advocating (very loudly) the safe passage of both retired racing greyhounds and also un-raced greyhounds into the loving and caring hands of people that wish to nurture and care for them via adoption and foster programs!

 
We LOVE greyhounds, what can we say!
 
We love dogs and animals in general.
 
Is it so shocking to you that we can be in the industry as a third party as well as loving the animals themselves?
 
For some people it is.
 
Some people simply can not comprehend that 99.999999999999% of the fine people in the industry love their greyhounds dearly and want the best for them while they are training and racing as well as the ones that don’t make it to race day or retire early and aren’t used for breeding.
 
Some of these opinions that greyhound industry people are monsters and that they run meat factories is ignorant to say the least!
 
I’m the type of person that likes to look at a problem and find an honest, reliable, practical and affordable solution that makes everyone (including of course the animals) happy. WIN/WIN.
 
The industry I agree does have a problem with early euthanasia of some of its greyhounds.
 
But hang on a second… since when did the solution to any problem require a complete shut down of the industry that the problem resides in?
 
It is absolutely ridiculous to call for the industry to be shut down and it is unrealistic to even offer that up as a solution.
 
Let’s put that theory to the test shall we?
 
What if we looked at other industries where people or animals where effected negatively in some cases and lets see what happens when we shut that industry down.
 
ALCOHOL: Did you know that alcohol is only second to tobacco as a preventable cause of death?
 
So with all the alcohol issues, the deaths directly attributed to it, all the punch ups in pubs and violence in the homes why don’t we just ban it? Lets just ban alcohol altogether because we simply have no other solution. Lets do that and see what happens.
 
Wait a second… they did that in the United States of America once and instead of curbing violence it helped the exponential growth of the Mafia and crime which led to more deaths, more violence, less control and helped create a black market underground for casino’s and drugs that the world had never seen before.
 
In a nut shell, prohibition never worked.
 
AUTOMOTIVE TRANSPORT: Cars KILL and so do stupid drivers. 1464 is the number of total Australian automobile related deaths in 2008. Based on that figure and our new theory we should stop the production of automobiles and of course automotive transport. Seeing as we are doing that, lets stop all forms or transport other than walking because clearly trains and planes kill people (and animals) too.
 
I wonder what would happen?
 
Well for starters it would put a few people out of work. By my count it would be about 86 Million automotive workers out of money… worldwide, 56 Million people working in air transport, aviation and tourism… worldwide and however many millions more that work on trains and other forms of transport like buses and trams.
 
Im not so sure the world bank, wall street or anyone working in economics would like that.
 
Must I go on or do you see the point?
 
How can some people say to the thousands of hard working and dedicated folk that are either directly involved in the industry such as the breeders, the trainers, the owners, race track staff, announcers, veterinarians, food producers etc or the third parties to the industry that they are now going to have to stop doing whatever it is they have been doing (and let me tell you some have been doing it for generations) and find another job or business to get into because there are no other solutions on offer?
 
It is complete and utter madness!
 
Let’s take the conversation away from the industry and it’s people for a moment and let’s talk about the dogs themselves. These animals have been specifically born and bred for thousands of years to chase prey and to basically run really, really fast.
 
Greyhounds themselves love to race. There is no doubt about it. If you have ever seen a happy dog, you would have no trouble knowing via your own eyes that greyhounds love to race once you have seen them compete.
 
So what is there to do for the great greyhound that has been perfectly bred for thousands of years to do what nature intended it to; which is to run, really, really fast and to chase things? Shall we just begin breeding them to be simple pets?
 
All you have to do to come to the same conclusion I have after asking yourself that question is to look at the countless horror stories of pure bred animals for show or as pets.
 
Im not going to debate what I consider a non argument here. Pedigree dogs for show or as pets are proven to have many health issues and ailments due to inbreeding. If you want to look into it further I suggest you do some research online. Here are a few informative articles and 1 video from some very credible sources:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Does this mean I believe all pure breeds have ailments? No of course not. Some breeders specifically travel great distances just to diversify the gene pool in their animals. However the reality is that many upon many pure bred dogs have health issues because they have been bred for looks and temperament instead of for the animals health, well being and their natural abilities. 
 
We should be proud of what we have done with the greyhound breed of dog.
 
If all pet or show breeders did what greyhound breeders have done and bred the animal to promote it’s natural abilities and eliminating genetic disorders or breed specific health problems . Then there would be no issue. But that fact of the matter is that most breeders of other canine breeds have bred their dogs for the material purpose of winning medals and looking cute.
 
Inbreeding is a necessity when you want a dog to look and act the same as it’s parents and siblings and it’s taken it’s toll on the dogs gene diversity which has wreaked havoc on their health and well being.
 
Greyhounds love to race and they are bred by the smartest and best dog breeders on the face of this planet!
 
If greyhound racing where to shut down you would have greyhounds being bred for their looks and temperament instead of for their abilities and for diversification. So how does that do anything even remotely positive for the dogs and the breed in general?
 
It doesn’t.
 
So what is the answer then?
 
The short answer is that there is no short answer.
 
Rarely things in life are simple. Some things are black and white, cut and dry but most issues we face as a society are unfortunately many shades of grey. Although those that wish to shut the industry down want it to seem black and white, simple. It really isn’t.
 
However that does not mean we must stop the discussion. At first we need to start a smart, compassionate and honest discussion. A discussion is not; ridiculing, shaming and damning the industry folk in the news and media calling them monsters. A discussion goes two ways.
 
Once a discussion gets going and everyone is on the same page that is when we will see the real solutions come to light.
 
Some things to think about are:
 
Gene selection and gene analysis in greyhounds. This will undoubtedly have an effect on reducing the numbers of dogs euthanized.  If more dogs are chosen fit to race before they are even born then the ones that are born will have a higher likelihood to race instead of being side lined. If the dogs race and they race well they will more than likely go into breeding programs and become a brood bitch or a stud dog.
 
Medical advancements. Lets take a look at some of them:
  • The Regenus AdiCell arthritis treatment for animals that uses the animals own fat tissue to heal arthritic bones and joints.
  • Laser therapy which stimulates healthy cell growth and healing.
  • Trigger point therapies and massages
  • A Grade premium quality foods which greyhound breeders and trainers spend thousands of dollars a year on, in fact the greyhound racing industry is well known for feeding BARF or other similar mixtures well before the health trend actually kicked off.
  • Supplements such as fish oils, electrolytes and other minerals are used quite regularly on greyhounds whereas compared with the regular pet who may never see a vitamin in his entire life.

Education. Educating people from the one time owners right through to the back yard breeders and even families wanting a new pet. If we can educate more people that want to own a dog for the fun of it that they should be inclined to look after the dog after its racing career ends the chances are most people would either be unwilling to go ahead with their new venture or that they would take responsibility of the greyhound after it’s race career.

The same goes with one time or backyard breeders and especially for families on the hunt for a new family pet. I mean it’s still all too common to hear of people that have no idea they can easily and affordable adopt a retired racing greyhound with an excellent story behind them and a great temperament!

Finally, adoption. If we put more effort and time into re-homing greyhounds and finding suitable people and families to adopt them then we could potentially solve two problems at once.

Here is a scary fact seeing as we are talking about canine euthanasia.

We know that in Australia dogs are purchased and then abandoned on a regular basis. Many of those abandoned dogs are then euthanized. That number sits at a whopping 245,783 as per a PIAA (pet industry association paper from 2012).

However we also know that a very large number of the greyhounds that go into adoption programs and are then successfully re-homed stay that way because of the adoptions contracts that some volunteer organizations and adoption programs use as a pre-requisite prior to re-homing.

So would it be too much to ask if we where to discuss the relationship between new dog ownership and greyhound adoption?

To me the relationship is quite clear and strong.

When people want a new dog why can’t we offer them a greyhound?

There are about 450,000 pet dogs purchased each year (again as per PIAA), surely some of those new owners would be interested in a greyhound don’t you think? And with the adoption contracts and home placing that occurs I see no reason for the new owner to then abandon the dog if he or she could simply return it back to the adoption center.

Adoption hurdle overcome

For a long time retired racing greyhounds have under law been required to wear a muzzle in a public place. Although the laws are somewhat different for the states, they are all very similar. This law directly stood in the way and acted as a major hurdle to greyhound retirement programs.

In 2011 the NSW regulation was amended to allow for retired racing greyhounds and pet greyhounds who had successfully completed a re-training program to instead wear a green collar as opposed to the muzzle.

For more information on the Greenhounds initiative go here.

So to all those that are calling the industry folk a bunch of monsters, they need to sit back and have a good hard long think about exactly who is loving, caring, training, re-homing and batting for these animals. If they look closely they just might find its the very same people called monsters.

For more information on adopting a greyhound and or getting the message out please visit:

http://gap.grv.org.au/ VIC

http://www.gapsa.org.au/ SA (also looks after NT)

http://www.greyhoundsaspets.com.au/ WA

http://www.thedogs.com.au/DPage.aspx?spid=130&id=58 NSW (also looks after ACT)

http://www.greyhoundpets.org.au/ QLD

http://www.gaptas.org.au/ TAS

The greyhound racing industry is not going away and it has no reason to, so let’s all try to work together to look after the dogs!

WHO WANTS FREE BANNER ADS!?

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G’day everyone, as most of you know OzGreyhoundSales is a fairly new website for buying and selling greyhounds.

Because we are still fairly new, it means we are continuously adding new content to the website.

What this means for you is that if you own a greyhound related website we are more than happy to post a few free banner ads for you to fill space on the website and run a few more tests.

These banner ads are different to the classified ads as they are static ads that are covered on virtually every single page across the whole site. If you would like to see what they look like simply go to the main website here www.ozgreyhoundsales.com.au and take a look at the ads on the right hand side in the vertical section.

We like to keep things fairly simple and honest at OzGreyhoundSales so to be eligible all we ask is that you must be advertising a greyhound related website, product or service and that you provide the image and text along with a web link for the banner to link to.

In return it would be great if you could tell your friends about us on Facebook or Twitter :)

To apply simply send an email to admin@ozgreyhoundsales.com.au or simply comment below. Cheers and good luck!