Happy Christmas from the Haggswood Hounds
With the run up to Christmas we’re certainly not showing any signs of relaxation and slowing down over the festive period here at Haggswood.
Over the years we’ve had some real highs, ranging from Category 1 Finals, to being helping hands during the birth of some gorgeous litters, and even having our lighting system updated (it’s the little things!) but I personally find the most rewarding part of the job is watching our retired hounds settling into the new chapter of their lives after their racing career.
We were all thrilled to be treated last week when one of our own bred greyhounds visited with his family Portia and Chris, along with his sister Sadie the Rottweiler and brother Leo the Chihuahua. Ryker (formally Rich Whispers) never was interested in racing, even armed with a pack of sausages we couldn’t even get him to chase us round the paddocks, but he very quickly ran his way into his new family’s hearts. Ryker proves he was far more successful in the show ring at Crufts than the parade ring of Nottingham. Ryker was reintroduced to his brothers and sisters where his Crufts rosette was very much on show and we couldn’t have all been prouder.
Christmas is a great time for us to showcase our beautiful retired greyhounds round Nottingham Stadium. With the tracks becoming increasingly busy, being filled on weekends with Christmas party bookings and families taking the kids out I like to dress a couple of our dogs up in Christmas jumpers and allow the public to really interact with them as the majority only see them from a distance across the track. It’s great being able to put a lot of the myths to bed with people attending a meeting for the first time and handing out the Race Day leaflets, plus its lovely to see our hounds lapping up all the attention showered upon them.
We have a Haggswood website, two separate Facebook pages for our racing greyhounds and our retireds, as well as our Twitter page. Anything and everything positive to do with the sport and our dogs we try and get out there as much as possible on the social media scene, I personally think it’s the best way to get a younger generation involved. If we could increase the knowledge of only 2% of the country’s population of how amazing owning a racing or retired greyhound can be it would make a huge difference, and as a kennels we will constantly be striving to do this.
We know the hard work that goes in to caring for these beautiful animals doesn’t change, even for Christmas Day. A big thank you to our amazing owners who continue to support us going into the New Year, feeding our kennel staff with that much chocolate that we have begun to roll down parade at the tracks with the dogs rather than walk. A huge merry Christmas from us at the Haggswood kennels and a very lucky New Year to you all.
