Though it is not until recent years that the Whippet, or Snap-dog, has come into such prominence as to warrant its recognition by the Kennel Club as a variety, yet for many decades the animal has been known to the miners and other workers in the North of England. More than thirty years ago at least the name Whippet was bestowed upon a dog built very much on the lines that to-day find favour. It is, however, only some ten or twelve years since the effort to popularise the dog in the South of England was attempted. Somehow, straight-running, as the sport for which the Whippet is chiefly used is called, did not catch on in the South as it already had in the North, and the efforts of those who provided an opportunity for the public to see how the sport was conducted did not meet with much success.

Prior to the appearance of the First Edition of this work, no mention of the variety as such had been made by any previous writer. To-day no work upon the dog could be regarded as complete that did not deal fully with the Whippet. Moreover, the variety is one of the few that can now boast a handbook devoted to its uses, breeding, training, and general management.* How the name Whippet came to be given is not with certainty known. The probability is that it is .a provincial one, expressive at once of the diminutive size of the dogs and the quick action they display in the sports in which they are used, especially that of rabbit-coursing - or, rather, running rabbits, for the laws of coursing are not followed, but the dog that soonest reaches and kills, or snaps, the rabbit, wins; hence the appellation of Snap-dog, a name by which they used to be known at the Darlington Show, where, in years gone by, good classes of them were annually found. The Whippet was originally produced from a cross between the Greyhound and the Terrier; but to-day it breeds as true to type as any other variety. In conformation it is Greyhound-like; in fact, it may be most truthfully described as a small edition of the Greyhound. There are two kinds of Whippets, distinguished respectively by a rough and a smooth coat, the latter being the favourite and the one usually seen.

* "The Whippet and Race-dog," by Freeman Lloyd (London: L. Upcott Gill).

Whippets are kept in great numbers throughout the counties of Lancashire, Yorkshire, Durham, Northumberland, and the northern districts of the Midlands, but for sporting rather than for show purposes.

First with regard to the racing for which these dogs are used, and which is so popular with the working classes in many parts of the North. And here it may be well to state that as a sprinter there is no dog that can touch the Whippet for pace. The race-dog may be anything from 9lb. to 241b., the latter being the maximum. The dogs are handicapped according to their known performances, etc., the distance run being 200yds. They are entered as "Thomson's Rose, 19½ b.," etc., as the case may be, the weight appearing on the handicap card. Dogs are weighed out an hour before the time set for the first heat, and are allowed 40Z. over the declared weight. The winners of the heats are weighed again immediately the heats are run. If the meeting extends over one day an allowance is made of 8oz., provided, of course, the dog has run on the first day. In the final heat dogs are generally allowed 6oz. in addition, making 140Z. in all. This allowance should, however, only be made when a handicap that commences one week is finished the next. The dogs generally get a light meal - half a pigeon, or a chop, or a piece of steak - after running the second trial heats, and so weigh a bit heavier the second time of scaling.