Meet Swift

Meet Swift, my gorgeous greyhound.

We adopted Swift in October 2019 on his 03rd birthday. He was a track dog in greyhound racing but fortunately for us, he wasn’t very good and was retired early.

Swift is still very ‘keen’ and has a high prey drive so must be kept on leash at all times for his safety, as well as any small rodents in the area. He is naturally a very shy, timid dog but when he sees something that he has been trained to catch he gets quite excited.

Sighthounds have been breed to catch wildlife. They have an innate desire to chase small moving creatures. Trainers of racing greyhounds hone in on this instinct from puppyhood and encourage this behaviour. Most domestics dogs will be taught to lessen an undesired behaviour but racing greyhounds are allowed to let their pre-drive thrive and are heavily rewarded for chasing and catching on a daily basis.

When Swift came to us, he was anxious around people he didn’t know, especially men. He was scared of any new surroundings and became overwhelmed in group enviroments. We have done a lot of work with Swift to ease his anxiety using subtle exposure methods and whilst he is definitely more confident, he is still quite shy and timid. He is a gentle giant and a loving, sweet boy.