* "Klassen" bei Greyhounds
Verfasst: Di 11. Jul 2017, 13:32
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Zum Copyright - dieser Text darf nicht ohne Quellangabe und Verlinkung der Originalübersetzung zitiert werden. Bei Verwendung des Textes immer mit enspechender Verlinkung zum Beitrag.
CLASS IN GREYHOUNDS... or, GOOD GREYHOUNDS DON'T STEP IN YOU KNOW WHAT
Class is a versatile word. We have class actions, class warfare, class consciousness, class guys, class gals and class clowns.
When we speak of class in a greyhound, it means something else again.
From a perspective of performance on the racetrack, “class” is the capacity to replicate successful or winning performance at a specific grade level. The higher that level, and the more frequently the greyhound can closely replicate his best performance, the higher the “class” that greyhound is said to possess.
On a more intimate and personal level, class is palpable, observable, a matter of conformation, refinement, deportment and character. It can be a bit like the notion of “charisma”. Hard to say exactly what it is, but when we encounter it in another, we recognize it right away.
I can recall one day standing in the turnout pen with the great Hall of Fame trainer, Don Cuddy, watching some brindle pups who had just arrived from a farm in Washington state. Though they had been on the road for several days, they were in fine fettle, right off the truck.
Don said to me, “See that bitch with the ring tail? That’s a real high class bitch there”. I nodded approvingly, not entirely understanding what he had sensed immediately about her, which might lead him to make such a remarkable and uncharacteristic (for him) statement. He was never one to gush over, or to have any expectations at all, of untried pups.
She had a lovely, foxy face, perfectly set ears, her eyes were honest and brimming with intelligence, and she was well balanced and racy---but so were the rest of them.
There can be a difference between common greyhounds and extraordinary ones, which can transcend simple congeniality. For many of them, it can be said that they have a special “air” about them, a magnanimous nature to which other greyhounds may be attracted. Sometimes it can tend to border on detachment, a sort of lone wolf mentality. With others, it can exhibit as simply a sense of being “above the fray”, and entirely without pettiness.
As a general rule, greyhounds who do things right in the kennel, tend to do things right on the track. Greyhounds who tend do things right on the track, are generally among the higher class individuals in any kennel colony. I’ve always felt that these higher class types would also tend to do things right in the home, and that they were therefore excellent prospective pets, from the standpoint of making an easy transition. Of course, many of these high class greyhounds are kept by their owners for breeding purposes.
Nevertheless, my own experiences, and the purely anecdotal feedback I have received from adopters, who have chosen high class greyhounds as pets, seems to sustain those thoughts. Which is not to take anything away from those dogs who were lesser lights on the racetrack, but have also transitioned nicely into splendid pets.
One day, walking the dogs prior to weigh in, the trainers were all grousing that no one had seemingly bothered to pick up the rest area for a couple of days. I can still hear the dismissive sounding voice of the old timer who muttered under his breath, but who was close enough to me so that I could hear him, “Good dogs don’t step in s**t.”
Over the course of the years, I found that to have been a remarkably accurate observation. Good greyhounds of high class, above all, are usually focused and “in the moment”, whatever they are doing. They tend to notice, process and react to things more quickly than less astute greyhounds, both on and off the racetrack. It has been my experience that the old timer was right on the money---good greyhounds of high class, seldom, if ever, step in s**t.
A little over a year after Don Cuddy had remarked that a green puppy, just off the farm, was “a real high class bitch” , I would find myself collecting the winner’s trophy for a major open stakes race that she had won, living up to everything and more, that the great Don Cuddy had sensed in her at first glance.
It was pure class.
copyright, 2015
Dennis McKeon
Zum Copyright - dieser Text darf nicht ohne Quellangabe und Verlinkung der Originalübersetzung zitiert werden. Bei Verwendung des Textes immer mit enspechender Verlinkung zum Beitrag.
CLASS IN GREYHOUNDS... or, GOOD GREYHOUNDS DON'T STEP IN YOU KNOW WHAT
Class is a versatile word. We have class actions, class warfare, class consciousness, class guys, class gals and class clowns.
When we speak of class in a greyhound, it means something else again.
From a perspective of performance on the racetrack, “class” is the capacity to replicate successful or winning performance at a specific grade level. The higher that level, and the more frequently the greyhound can closely replicate his best performance, the higher the “class” that greyhound is said to possess.
On a more intimate and personal level, class is palpable, observable, a matter of conformation, refinement, deportment and character. It can be a bit like the notion of “charisma”. Hard to say exactly what it is, but when we encounter it in another, we recognize it right away.
I can recall one day standing in the turnout pen with the great Hall of Fame trainer, Don Cuddy, watching some brindle pups who had just arrived from a farm in Washington state. Though they had been on the road for several days, they were in fine fettle, right off the truck.
Don said to me, “See that bitch with the ring tail? That’s a real high class bitch there”. I nodded approvingly, not entirely understanding what he had sensed immediately about her, which might lead him to make such a remarkable and uncharacteristic (for him) statement. He was never one to gush over, or to have any expectations at all, of untried pups.
She had a lovely, foxy face, perfectly set ears, her eyes were honest and brimming with intelligence, and she was well balanced and racy---but so were the rest of them.
There can be a difference between common greyhounds and extraordinary ones, which can transcend simple congeniality. For many of them, it can be said that they have a special “air” about them, a magnanimous nature to which other greyhounds may be attracted. Sometimes it can tend to border on detachment, a sort of lone wolf mentality. With others, it can exhibit as simply a sense of being “above the fray”, and entirely without pettiness.
As a general rule, greyhounds who do things right in the kennel, tend to do things right on the track. Greyhounds who tend do things right on the track, are generally among the higher class individuals in any kennel colony. I’ve always felt that these higher class types would also tend to do things right in the home, and that they were therefore excellent prospective pets, from the standpoint of making an easy transition. Of course, many of these high class greyhounds are kept by their owners for breeding purposes.
Nevertheless, my own experiences, and the purely anecdotal feedback I have received from adopters, who have chosen high class greyhounds as pets, seems to sustain those thoughts. Which is not to take anything away from those dogs who were lesser lights on the racetrack, but have also transitioned nicely into splendid pets.
One day, walking the dogs prior to weigh in, the trainers were all grousing that no one had seemingly bothered to pick up the rest area for a couple of days. I can still hear the dismissive sounding voice of the old timer who muttered under his breath, but who was close enough to me so that I could hear him, “Good dogs don’t step in s**t.”
Over the course of the years, I found that to have been a remarkably accurate observation. Good greyhounds of high class, above all, are usually focused and “in the moment”, whatever they are doing. They tend to notice, process and react to things more quickly than less astute greyhounds, both on and off the racetrack. It has been my experience that the old timer was right on the money---good greyhounds of high class, seldom, if ever, step in s**t.
A little over a year after Don Cuddy had remarked that a green puppy, just off the farm, was “a real high class bitch” , I would find myself collecting the winner’s trophy for a major open stakes race that she had won, living up to everything and more, that the great Don Cuddy had sensed in her at first glance.
It was pure class.
copyright, 2015
Dennis McKeon
