Whippet breed guide

Whippets are calm in the house, saving their energy for explosive bursts of running. Between bursts of intense pursuit they love to stretch out and relax for long hours, a loving and loved companion.

Young Whippets are smart, agile and mischievous and can jump and climb, so AKC says confining them safely when unsupervised is a must.

Whippets live 12 to 15 years. The frame is not well suited to carrying excess weight: a mature adult should show two to four vertebrae and hipbones not sunk into dimples of fat and a Whippet at a healthy weight may look skinny to people used to heavier-bodied breeds.

The short, smooth coat needs little maintenance beyond a weekly grooming with a brush and an occasional bath and the nails should be trimmed often if not worn down.

Whippets are sprinters by nature, so adequate exercise could be several vigorous retrieving sessions a week with a ball or flying disc, regular walks or play with another dog in a safely fenced area. Always keep a Whippet on lead outside a fenced area.

For thousands of years the Greyhound has been the template for later sighthounds and the mild-mannered Whippet is a highly successful member of that clan of lightning-fast sprinters. The Whippet story begins in Victorian England, where north-country coal miners enjoyed dog racing and rabbit hunting on their days off.

They could not afford to feed and kennel large athletes like Greyhounds, nor did they have space to exercise them, so the miners' practical solution was to breed a smaller version of the Greyhound.