Looking for a few fast friends

I would encourage anyone to adopt a greyhound. My first meeting with puppy luvs(my nickname for him) was in a room filled with dogs and he certainly was the loudest in there. He was very unsure of himself in our home for the first week or so but now, it is like he has always lived here with his own corner of the livingroom.
Fast Friends is the saving grace for all of the retired racers. The people that work there take great care of these dogs and many adopt a greyhound they have fallen for. It is an amazing experience to see a staff member halfway inside a crate snuggling upto this beautiful animals.
It doesn't take someone with a five bedroom house and 100 acres of land, just a person who has love to give, time to take walks, and can give these dogs the life they deserve.

I have been inside their building many times while working as a security guard at the race tract. They are what they say they are and probably one of the last honest and caring people on planet earth!

This is just another case of bad journalism. Facts are not checked, just print lies because you are to lazy to check such a ridiculous statement.

Many people wear hats in kennels and this is just another AR myth. Perhaps one of the "experts" from fast friends can explain what they are talking about.

I would like to know which kennels at which tracks they have been in and seen first hand what the people with hats do to these dogs.

Does anybody really believe that people with hats treat dogs badly and people without hats are kind to dogs.

If I said, people in adoption that have black hair kick dogs, would you believe it. I hope not. That statement is as crazy as the hat one.

dmdsmoxie wrote:

This is just another case of bad journalism. Facts are not checked, just print lies because you are to lazy to check such a ridiculous statement.
Many people wear hats in kennels and this is just another AR myth. Perhaps one of the "experts" from fast friends can explain what they are talking about.
I would like to know which kennels at which tracks they have been in and seen first hand what the people with hats do to these dogs.
Does anybody really believe that people with hats treat dogs badly and people without hats are kind to dogs.
If I said, people in adoption that have black hair kick dogs, would you believe it. I hope not. That statement is as crazy as the hat one.

No, you misunderstand the nature with why those dogs bark at people. The spent 90% of their time isolated in their cage and in the dog shack. They didn’t have much human contact...they were starved for human attention. So they get out of that shack to got for a race, I am sure they were just thrill to be outside and racing, and getting some attention. Didn’t the teenage dog walkers wear uniforms and a base ball hats....I am sure walking around the track was a very pleasant experiance. You know the theory that a squeaky wheel gets the oil, I’ll bet they knew that barking gave them a chance to have human contact. So I would go past their out doors cages, the whole bunch of them would start barking. All they wanted was me to do is pay attention to them and play with them.

I bet you the ball caps remind them of a pleasant out door experience and human contact...they had done that behavior of barking for human contact under extremely isolated experience. Now seeing a person with a ball cap automatically causes them to bark. They are barking because they crave human contact, who do you think fed them and showed them any positive experience.

The barking condition quickly fades away when flooded with human attention...and for the rest of their lives they are always grateful to be around humans and stimulation.

I watched a group of those greyhounds playing in their large outdoor cages all the time. It was so funny and entertaining for me watching the dogs gently playing with each other. They were like young boys who endlessly enjoyed wrestling and tussling with each other. They would never stop playing with each other. They were really a playful species of dogs.

You get my point, you would walk past their cage and the whole group of them would furiously bark at you. It is easy to interpret the barking as aggression and fear of humans. It was exactly the opposition, they were begging with all their might for human attention.

You ought to look up Pavlov conditioning of dogs!

wow dmdsmoxie,
you are a real moron. You're just another brain-dead retarded monkey wasting space on my planet.

Greyhounds have bad memories of their trainers?! I guess Ms. Thomas has never seen a racing greyhound reunited with its trainer. When Raynham holds its annual adoption festival, racers return to see their former trainers for the day and the result is invariably one of friends mobbing one another with pets, wags and kisses. And what possible reason could there be for changing a dog's kennel name when it goes into adoption? That makes NO sense whatsoever. A dog's name is the only thing he takes with him. It's the only thing he'll know when confronted with new people, a new environment, new food, and different dogs than he's known for a year or two. Why not dye him a different color too, and make the change complete? Honestly, you people are full of yourselves. Greyhounds make great pets BECAUSE they've been racers, not in spite of it. They are socialized on the farm where they are raised with their mothers and littermates, not snatched from them at a young age at weaning like most breeds. They are professionally raised and trained which is why they behave and walk nicely on a lead. Articles like this perpetuate a mythology about the breed that is totally unnecessary. If everything the anti-racing crowd ever said about racing was true, Greyhounds would be neurotic, unadoptable headcases, not the sweet, calm and affectionate dogs we know and love.

Mike Mulligan wrote:

You get my point, you would walk past their cage and the whole group of them would furiously bark at you. It is easy to interpret the barking as aggression and fear of humans. It was exactly the opposition, they were begging with all their might for human attention.

Mike u haven't a clue , greyhounds are handled everyday on the farm and during training so u have no clue . You should visit a farm and learn what u are saying before u post. I challenge u to visit a farm u will see but u have to have a OPEN mind if thats possible. You will be pleasently suprised.
This story is just another way for AR's to dicredit greyound racing and non of it is true. OPEN mind Mike

I can't believe the utterly ridiculous comments made by anti-racing people. I wish for once you people would tell the truth... which is that most ex-racers love to see their trainers again, and love it when given the opportunity to race again for fun....

There needs to be a way to silence these lies, once and for all. Seriously, there HAS to be a way.
All the AR screamers get free rein to spout whatever they please, no matter how untrue it is. The media gobbles it up and sends it out because the media has ABSOLUTELY NO INTEREST IN THE TRUTH.

I challenge this miserable journalist, and every other miserable journalist, to actually get out here in the dog biz as an employee, and THEN come back and try to tell this pack of lies. DO IT!! Or stop printing what you know nothing about.

Continuing to perpetuate all this misinformation has resulted in lost jobs all over this country. We are good, honest, compassionate and hardworking people. We love our dogs. And we love them far more than all these anti racing screamers can possibly do.

Looking for an address to send my complaint to this editor.

It's incredible how easy it is to demonize those one doesn't know. It is nothing less than bigotry. The infuriating thing is that reporters often aid and abet those people who libel and slander people in the racing business. It's criminal, really. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Maybe the truth is closer to what can be found in these photos. http://www.cpoy.org/... Note the hat.

How on earth can the newspapers continue to publish such a pile of poo! If 81 greyhounds are barking, it's because they feel like it. They are certainly not going to stop if someone removes their hat. Get a grip!

An occasional greyhound may chase a frisbee but they are much more apt to chase something moving along the ground. Changing their name helps them how?

Obviously this group isn't doing too well in the pity adoption department. Perhaps they should let a group take the dogs who know how to find them home instead of just moving them to a different kennel.

Until journalists are held accountable for facts and not sensationalism this is the kind of garbage that will be written. I applaud everyone that aids in adoption of ex-races, but greyhound owners are not doing the industry any favors by putting their hounds in the hands of groups like this. The industry spends thousands each year for greyhound adoptions-a fact that seems to get lost in oversensationalized journalism and groups that tug at the heart-strings of potential adoptees. I had to read the story twice to believe that an adoption group would actually say that. And, that a reporter would actually believe it to be true. But most of all, an Editor allowed it to be printed. I am a former Greyhound trainer, I currently own a racing greyhound and I wear a hat in the kennel everytime I go visit him and all the other dogs. I go to pet reunions and they cry if they can't get to their former trainers. Very sloppy reporting, indeed.

I guess the next time I visit my dogs at their kennels and farms with my grandchildren we'll have to take off our Red Sox and Patriots hats.In this way they will stop licking our faces and wagging their tails like they do now when they see us with our hats on!

Mike Mulligan's comments speak for themselves,not worth reponding to.

On the other hand the reporter(and editor) did a very poor and unprofessional job by not checking facts.

dmdsmoxie is an idiot wrote:

wow dmdsmoxie,
you are a real moron. You're just another brain-dead retarded **** wasting space on my planet.

No, you are the complete and total MORON. dmdsmoxie knows greyhounds. He is also very generous with his his time and donations to adoption.

It's obvious to me that you are the one wasting space and air.

If you have no clue what you're writing an article on, could you do everyone a favor and not write it? This is probably, never mind, definitely the stupidest thing I have ever read.

Mike Mulligan wrote:

<quoted text>

I watched a group of those greyhounds playing in their large outdoor cages all the time. It was so funny and entertaining for me watching the dogs gently playing with each other.

Are you sure those were greyhounds? I watch mine play every single day. Not much gentle about it. They do have a wonderful time but gentle? No, you must have your breeds as mixed up as your story.

"The speedy dogs associate hats with their former racing trainers and that's usually a bad memory for them".

I'd laugh if I wasn't convinced that anti-racing people actually believe that garbage. I'll bet the reporter swallowed it whole too and never bothered to do any independent research on greyhound racing or life in the kennels.

Sounds like this group is trying to keep their adoption jobs by coming up with a lot of lies and BS to show how important they are to getting the greyhounds
acustomed to being a pet. I have trained for over thirty years 90% of the time wearing a hat, 10% of the time trying to get it back from one of the dogs playing with it. Half the greyhounds I adopted out were fixed before leaving my kennel and going straight to a family - that would leave Fast Friends kennel out of work. I've worked with all of the adoption groups in Colorado (they are all a great) and they are more interested in helping the greyhounds find good homes instead of starting lies. Barking with dogs is a form of communications. Fast Friend Kennel your full of the same stuff I would pick up during my turn-outs. Maybe I need one of thier counselors.