Release the hound!

Today was the 17th annual Greyhound Gala gathering sponsored and hosted by the GPA of Wisconsin and is their biggest fundraiser and celebration of the year.   I have been the past two years before this and it seems like it gets so much bigger each time.   Hundreds of greyhound owners and their beloved pets get together to socialize, reminisce, and talk about all things hounds.   There are vendors selling collars, beds, leashes, and dog coats along with the groomers there clipping nails, brushing teeth, and giving full body doggie massages.   Games are played all around and usually my grey participates in all of them.   However, he either had some performance anxiety or he has become so used to retirement, he forgot what he did before he came to us.   There was a kind of apple bobbing game that was tweaked a little bit to be "bobbing for hot dogs".   I watched a couple of doggies attempt to catch the wiener before it hit the bottom of the dish, but they backed off as soon as their nose got wet.   My dog wouldn't go near the bowl and had nothing to do with the bit of hot dog offered as a reward.  

The pinnacle of the event is the aptly named "radar run".   An area is set up outside where your dog is released and it runs toward the sound of a squawker, an instrument with a sound like a rabbit in distress used to lure greyhounds.   I watched dogs run down that strip of land like they had just got off the track.   Some were clocked at an amazing 45 mph and others were topping the high 30's with ease.   Confident in my hound, I entered the run and let him do his thing.   As the squawker started to bleat, he just casually made his way down the run, trotting to a scorching 27 miles an hour.   I realized then, that he is more comfortable wasting the day away lying on the couch where the only place he has to run is in his dreams.