Spark's new fella

I'm always learning something new about greyhounds when I visit the local retired greyhound rehoming kennels. And I guess as a novice I can be forgiven the occasional (or not so occasional) stupid question.

The latest hound to make me look daft was Spark's new fella, a wee little dog called Pete. Yes - the fantastic news is that Mikey's home trial went well. He's now been signed for and is living in a new home.

That meant there was a spare berth in Spark's cabin, and Pete was the dog that filled it. He's a dear little black boy with a white flash on his nose, and when I saw him in the paddock he ran straight over to me, looked cute, and whimpered for dog treats. As a bit of a soft-touch (how do they all know?) I fed him a couple of treats, and then decided I had to take this mischievous pair out for a walk.

Pete's a charmer and started giving me doe eyes every two minutes as we walked. He even seemed to be a bit of a calming influence on Spark. However, I couldn't help noticing that his trainer or owner had done something really quite odd to his coat.

It looked like his back legs and tummy had been shaved - I could understand it if he was a bitch (spaying?), but in a male dog? Perhaps some way of streamlining the dog when racing?

So, when I got back to the kennels, I quizzed one of the kennel hands. "Why on earth has he been shaved?"

I got back an incredulous look. Then laughter.

Apparently Pete is suffering from something that affects a lot of dogs on the track - I looked it up when I came home and found it was called Bald Thigh Syndrome - it could be stress related and the good news is it often clears up once the dog stops racing.

Not always though, and the kennel hand told me that one of her dogs gets this every year around about bonfire night - not surprised, all those loud bangs make me jump too.