The Italian Greyhound Club

from Helen Rishworth

A little bit about me … I have been showing dogs since I was 5 years old (I’m 18), and have been owned by Italian Greyhounds for about 9 years. At home we have two Greyhounds, four Whippets, Roo the Italian Greyhound (more about him later), a Miniature Smooth Dachshund, two lambs and two budgies…not your average combination of animals, more a ‘Brangelina’ style rainbow family.

Wills and Kate

The lambs admittedly are not in the house (we do have some standards).  Wills and Kate (they arrived on 29 April this year) enjoy the stables and field, and we’re very careful not to let the dogs out when Kate and Wills are frolicking around doing all the things that lambs do.  Roo the Italian Greyhound has been known to break into our royal enclosure. He thought it was great fun chasing two woolly giants around the field but Wills and Kate were less than impressed to put it mildly.  Don’t worry, although this incident was amusing to watch at the time, it’s something we’d rather not repeat in the future!

I often get asked how IGs compare to Whippets as companions, usually by a Whippet owner who would like a smaller version of their Whippet. Although many people often mistake IGs for small whippets their personalities vary distinctively. It’s fair to say that an IG will be on the go all day long if the option is there, whereas a Whippet will enjoy a funny five minutes and then say, “Where is my bed?”

"Talk to the back, because the face is not listening!" Sid in a huff at Gatcombe.

We took Sidney, one of our Whippets, to Gatcombe horse trials back in August and if looks could kill, I would not be typing at this present moment. To say that Sid didn’t want to be walking around a beautiful estate on a lovely day with his owners is an understatement. Although he is only just about to turn 7 years old, Sid has very easily slipped into the retired, kitchen dog role!

On the other hand, if we had taken Roo he would have been lively from the moment we left the car, to the time we got back in it. Why I didn’t take Roo to Gatcombe, or to any other horse trials, is something I can explain another day!

Helen x

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