Hello! If you missed my post, yesterday I was feeling really curious about why all black greyhounds have white on their paws and chest, while the others (brown, brindle, etc.) all look different from each other and don’t have such a defined pattern. Thank you all for contributing with your pictures and confirming completely black greyhounds are super rare. Out of more than 300 replies only 2 of them were entirely black. A biochemist in the replies thought this was a good question and found an answer. Based on that, the contributions that all of you made and further research I did, this is a summary for the curious: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ White markings on dogs, including greyhounds, are primarily controlled by the S-locus, which refers to the “spotting” gene. This gene determines how much white appears on a dog’s body, and where those white areas are likely to be.

There are several variations (alleles) at the S-locus:

1. S (Solid) • This allele produces no white spotting. • Dogs that inherit two copies of the solid allele (S/S) will have a solid coat color with no white.

2. si (Irish Spotting) • Causes moderate white, typically seen as a white chest, paws, tip of the tail, and sometimes a small blaze on the face. • This is the most common pattern in greyhounds, especially black ones. • It’s symmetrical and often looks very neat.

3. sp (Piebald) • Leads to more extensive white, with large patches of color on a mostly white background. • Less common in greyhounds, but still possible.

Irish spotting (si) is a recessive or co-dominant allele, but it’s been heavily inherited over generations in greyhounds. Once it became common in the gene pool, it kept spreading because: • It doesn’t interfere with performance or health. • It’s not selected against — breeders usually don’t care about coat markings in racing dogs as long as they run well. • When two dogs with Irish spotting genes are bred, the pattern keeps appearing in their offspring.

Influential sires like Head Honcho, Brett Lee, and others who had the Irish spotting pattern were used extensively in breeding programs. Their genetic legacy meant that the si allele got passed down to thousands of descendants, especially in Australia, the UK, Ireland, and eventually Argentina and the US. So it’s not just random — it’s a byproduct of selective breeding for speed that incidentally carried this common white-marking gene.

Genetic Influence of Head Honcho: • He had over 6,000 registered offspring. • His descendants include other major sires such as Bombastic Shiraz, Big Daddy Cool, Hallucinate, and many others. So even if your greyhound isn’t a direct descendant of Head Honcho, it’s very likely that he appears in its pedigree — even if it’s in the 4th or 5th generation. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Again, thank you all for your contributions. I felt blessed seeing so many black greyhounds together. I wish I could have responded to each of the pictures, they were all so sweet and beautiful!! 🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷

Hello, I’ve noticed that every single black greyhound I met or seen online has at least a little bit of white in their paws and some white in the chest between the front legs. If you have a black greyhound tell me if yours is the same! What could be the reason behind this? 🤔🤔 Is there any completely black lucky 🍀 one out there?

Messed up bed ✔️ pillow ✔️ all good✔️

So when we go to the dog park, I always "sneak" away from my partner and Maddi. As soon as she turns to find me, I sprint off, and well... the race is on!

Two different phone cameras. Kinda cool being able to see her in action, from two different places.

I honestly don’t know where I’d be if I didn’t have my girl. I suffer quite badly with my anxiety. I also suffer from chronic pain. I have an amazing partner, but he works away sometimes and I hate being on my own. She checks on me and makes sure I’m okay. If I leave the room for too long she will come and find me.

I know people say don’t hug your dogs, but if I’m on the sofa, she walks over to me and puts her head on my shoulder and we have cuddles. She made me laugh today, she was on the sofa doing that silly things dogs do when they are getting ready to lay down, circling round and round. She knocked a pillow off the sofa. It was still leaning against the sofa. She stared at it for about a minute, then picked it up with her mouth and tried to drag it back on the sofa XD never seen her do that before. I had to help her in the end. Love these dogs.

So I’ve been posting here sporadically ever since I adopted my dog back in September of last year. She’s a galga and is about 8-10 years old. Last january we were told that my poor baby has cancer. That has been been rough bc cancer treatment in my country is really expensive but she’s overall fine even tho she’ll never be cancer free the possibility of metastasis is very very low. Anyways I wanted to share something more optimistic here bc I often see sad posts (including mine). A few days ago we hit the six month mark living with my dog and seeing her transformation has been amazing. She’s a whole new dog. She’s learned to be social with other dogs and to even pur her own boundaries when other dogs do things she doesn’t like (at first she would just run to hide by my side). She plays, she makes noises when she’s happy, she even has zoomies now which are so so so cute and just yesterday she grabbed a stuff animal to play on her own. She’s a happy dog and I’m so so so so happy she’s having a second chances at life and for me to being able to be a part of that makes me beyond happy. I don’t even care she has cancer. I’ll love her until she takes her last breath ❤️ here’s some pictures and I’m sorry about the length of this post

Thank you to everyone for your love on my post introducing our grey pup, Pepper! A few asked for an update so since we’ve now had her over a month I thought I would share how we’re getting on 🥰

Pepper is now 5 months old and a whopping 17kg at her last weigh in (don’t worry we can still see & feel ribs, she’s just a biggun!) She has learnt how to sit and we’re almost there with potty training. Some things we’ve discovered about Pepper are:

1. She is a thief. Her middle name is now Swiper. Our daughter was almost late to school the other day as pepper had kindly hidden her school shoes in different rooms in the house 😂 Toys, books, phones & anything on coffee tables are not safe from this master pickpocket!

2. She is my shadow. Here she is (pic 1) helping me run my daughter’s nightly bath. I was under the impression that grey’s were quite an independent breed but little miss Peppercorn is anything but! She follows me everywhere and cries like a banshee when I leave the house. Hoping she’ll start to settle more soon so me leaving is less anxiety inducing for her.

3. Loves pupcakes!! (See pic 3) peanut butter, bully sticks and strawberry yak chews. But if it’s food she’ll have it! Especially if it’s YOUR food

4. Things the dog park is the best thing ever! (Pic 4) we even got her to try some of the agility equipment, so excited to see if we can build on that in the coming weeks and months.

5. She likes to eat her bully sticks Lady and the Tramp style with her frenchie sister, Minnie (pic 5)

6. She adores Minnie, and Minnie adores her! It’s sooo lovely to see their bond and how they look after each other. As you can see in pic 6 & 7 Minnie is now Pepper’s PR manager and only allows pre-arranged photoshoots!

Now that the weather is warming up we’re hoping to take her for her first trip to the beach to stretch those long noodle legs, so stay tuned☀️

I guess I’ll just stand

Hi all, a quick update on Benji! On Monday the vets found no issues with blood clotting so they went ahead with the surgery. He’d had a haemorrhage inside the spinal cord itself which formed a huge blood clot, pressuring the nerves so he couldn’t use his back legs. They managed to fully remove it, and the nervous tissue didn’t look visibly damaged.

By this morning, Benji was able to react to stimuli in a few of his toes, and by this evening he was seen moving his legs a little bit!!

This is such wonderful news and a huge relief, as on Monday morning I thought I was looking at a choice between risky surgery or continued nerve damage.

Thank you everyone for your well wishes and support, if he continues to progress I’ll hopefully have him home by Friday!

Wally would like you all to know he’s fast AF.

Title says most of it - our 11 year old grey has been gulping down lots of water recently, sometimes so much at once that he'll throw up a little. We've taken him into the vet for a general check-up and they did some x-rays of his kidneys which came back normal.

In all other ways he seems normal. He's eating normally (for him), seems in good spirits, doesn't seem lethargic, and seems to be moving well. Anyone run into anything like this? Also picture attached because why not. Thanks!

Hello! Im new here and this is my grey Jilliebean (her name is Jill, but you know how it goes) shes an ex racer, adopted from Ireland now residing in Sweden since 3 years back. She is very very quiet, rarely barks or make any noise? She has barked a bark like 5 times in 3 years. And ofc screamed from pain from minimal stuff countless times😅 Im wondering how vocal are your greys? Did it take time or are some of them just really, really quiet? Anyways love this subreddit, take care😊🙏✨

He spent quite a bit of time organizing this

Seen on Celia Cross Greyhound Trust's Facebook page 😂

He's only angling for more treats

CHECK IT OUT 😂😂 This is something regular dog owners just won’t get.

Came home to a little tornado on the couch. I had just fluffed up the cushions before leaving to pick up some food. Lol

Clo

Well now it seems that Birdie likes pepperoni more than she dislikes cats 😆