With urgent laws planned to prevent the unnecessary killing of racing dogs during the transition, that will mean more greyhounds up for adoption, with people needed to take on dogs bred for racing – as Glover had five years ago.
She encouraged people to adopt these “great family pets” and embrace both their elegance and eccentricities.
“I think they’re one half incredibly elegant and the other half completely weird. For example, they constantly leave their ears lying down, which in other breeds means they’re either stressed, or about to become aggressive – but in greyhounds I just say ‘they have resting sad face’.
“And they’re all legs and when they run, it’s one part beautiful and one part just weird looking, and they can’t sit properly because they’re not engineered for their butts to comfortably hit the ground in ratio to the way their legs are.
“So I’m fully aware that they’re funky dogs. But at the same time, I find them just elegantly beautiful. I always say they’re the supermodels of the dog world, because supermodels are also quite alien-looking.”
Dawn Glover's pet greyhounds Angelina and Henry.
Surprising to many people was that a dog bred to chase bait at pace around a racetrack was also “incredibly lazy”, Glover said.
“I think it’s very mysterious as well that they’re just incredibly lazy. They always have been. You can look in history books and see photos of Scottish Kings and there’s two greyhounds flopped over asleep next to the throne.”
Most greyhounds were happy with a 20-minute walk a day, squeezed in somewhere around their 18-hour sleep schedule.
“We often say greyhounds are the cats of the dog world.”
Expect to be amused even when the dogs are at rest, with greyhounds the “Kings and Queens of bed fails”, she said.
“They love to sleep upside down. And you’ll fill your house with soft surfaces for your greyhounds and all of a sudden half their body will be off the bed.”
Dawn Glover with pet greyhound Henry, 9.
Other favourite activities for her two 9-year-old dogs – Angelina, a former champion racer, and Henry, found to be unsuitable for racing – included lots of snuggling.
“My girl Angelina, she’s never met somebody she doesn’t want to cuddle.”
While greyhounds were sometimes muzzled in public while learning to be pets, or for their own safety, they could make good family pets – although children, as with any dog, should be taught how to safely interact with them.
Neither of her dogs bark, which was typical for the breed, making greyhounds perfect city dogs, Glover said.
She spent about $250 a month per dog on feed, but Henry has special dietary needs and they could be nourished for less.
Greyhounds are universal blood donors for other dogs, and were also the only dog breed mentioned in the Bible, Glover said.
“This is a dog that’s been around for 8000 years. You can see these dogs’ granddaddies in the Egyptian hieroglyphs, you can see them with Greek statues – they’re in the stories of [Greek goddesses] Hecate and Artemis.”
Greyhound racing is to be phased out in New Zealand. Photo / Bevan Conley
Her main message was that most greyhounds haven’t been mistreated and could be rehomed, as many would need to be with the end of racing, Glover said.
“They’re not damaged goods. They’re really loving dogs that are gonna need homes.”
*Glover is events co-ordinator for Greyhounds as Pets, which holds events where people can meet greyhounds. More information at greyhoundsaspets.org.nz/events.
Cherie Howie is an Auckland-based reporter who joined the Herald in 2011. She has been a journalist for more than 20 years and specialises in general news and features.
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