Greyhounds, those dogs that steal your heart when they look at you, were already known to the Romans in Antiquity. In fact, their name comes from Vulgar Latin: Gallĭcus canis, or, in other words, “dog of Gaul”.
According to the Fédération Cynologique Internationale (FCI), greyhounds are descended from ancient Asian sighthounds and are classified as short-haired sighthounds -although the wire-haired variety also exists. Greyhounds belong to a pure breed, meaning that their characteristics were achieved through natural selection over the centuries and not by crossing them with other breeds.
Greyhounds are great runners. They can reach speeds of 60km/h. That is why they have traditionally been hunting dogs, whose primary quarry was the hare. Their hunting origins have undoubtedly contributed to the fact that they have not received the good treatment and respect they deserve. So much so that numerous expressions became common in colloquial language that did not exactly cast our beloved greyhounds in a favorable light.
Expressions such as “send a greyhound after him” (which denotes the difficulty of catching up with someone, or of understanding or obtaining something); “the person who sold us the greyhound” (an expression used to refer to someone known for disappointing people); “Lucas’s female greyhound” (which denotes someone’s absence when they are most needed); “go pick fleas off a greyhound” (which is the same as dismissing someone contemptuously”) and many others. Fortunately, most of them have now fallen out of use.
Greyhounds also appear in popular proverbs such as “A greyhound gets its breed from its ancestors: short-tailed and long-legged”. Or “Give an old greyhound a hare, not a rabbit” (which recommends assigning experienced people difficult tasks suited to their knowledge and abilities). Or also “A greyhound chasing two hares comes back with neither”, meaning that it is better to have a clear objective than to divide one’s efforts. And even: “The greyhound runs faster than the mastiff; but if the road is long, the mastiff runs faster than the greyhound. Nevertheless, both run quite well”, which highlights the differences between them without disparaging their respective natures.
Greyhounds have also played a certain role in literature. The Archpriest of Hita wrote that “At the hare that emerges, the female greyhound immediately gives chase…”, highlighting this breed’s primary and ancestral function. Benito Pérez Galdós also mentions greyhounds in his work Amadeo I in the following passage:
“It was touch and go, you can believe me, that I should leap from the console into the lap of the whiskered lady to congratulate her on her sound advice. What discretion, what talent, what a keen eye! I said to myself: “A greyhound gets its breed from its ancestors. I know that the first writer of the century fathered you! […]”
And, of course, greyhounds are also mentioned in the first sentence of the most important work of all those written in Spanish:
“In a village of La Mancha, whose name I do not care to recall, there lived not long ago one of those gentlemen who kept a lance in the rack, an old shield, a skinny nag, and a greyhound for racing”.
Little by little, the situation is changing, and insensitivity toward greyhounds is no longer commonplace. Thanks, among other things, to the awareness-raising work being carried out by organizations such as SOS Galgos. Nowadays, it is known that greyhounds make perfect companions. Because of their somewhat timid and gentle nature, their nobility, and because they adapt well to life in a home and are tolerant of other pets. Not to mention their beauty. It was only a matter of time before such charming animals took their rightful place in society.
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