What we know about Picabo before she came to Greyhound Pets of America (now known as Greyhound Adoption Center) is mostly what we know of the life of most greyhounds bred for racing. We didn't do a whole lot of research into her life as a track racer or what the typical racing life is like. It wasn't really important to us. What we know is what we've been told or can assume based on that. We do know that she came from a greyhound racing track in Tucson, Arizona because that is where she was rescued from.

We also know that she was born in May 1991. We know this because it was tattoed inside her ear, as it is with most all greyhounds born and bred to race. '0501'. She also had an another unique identifying number in her other ear. I'm not sure exactly what that number is, but I believe we were told it was an American Kennel Club number. I can only imagine what that is like to a young dog.

She was most likely born in Tucson and bred to race. Her training occured between birth and 1 1/2 years. From what were were told, she was kept in a cage most of her hours, most likely with lots of other dogs and the cages were stacked multiple high. This is somewhat important later for those dogs lucky enough to have a life beyond the track. When an adopting family is evaluated for a dog, one factor is whether or not any outside yard has fences and how high they are. A dog that seems to have been a 'top crate' dog is not matched with a family with low fences...'top crate' dogs are most likely jumpers who can leap. We're not sure what Picabo was, but she did have some ability to jump up into the car when she needed to, so she may have lived somewhere in the middle of a wall of brother and sister greyhounds in crates. When we first saw her, there we a few indications of what life in a greyhound track kennell was like. She had many patches where her thin, smooth skin was exposed because fur had been taken off, either from trainer abuse, living in a cage, or skirmishes with other dogs. And a skirmish with another dog is what mostly led to a main distinguishing body mark that thankfully ended up bringin her to us...she had a chunk of one of her ears missing.

Her daily life was more than likely very routine with everything scheduled to maximize her growth and her ability, need, desire to run fast for a short distance. She was probably only let out when it came time to run a training race or the real thing. She was more than likely fed a very meat heavy diet and only after she had performed. Run to eat was taught from the earliest, most likely.

She was probably given very little time to socialize with her fellow runners outside of competition time. When she came off the track, while friendly, she was pretty timid and scared...except around men. She was probably exclusively trained by men, so she never had any real experience with women and especially little people. This impacted how she interacted with us from the very beginning. But it was also evident that she liked to play and run, especially with other greyhounds.

Typically, greyhounds are trainged from the first 1 1/2 years of their life and then set out to race for their living. Literally. If and when a dog began to not win races, their fate was pretty much sealed. And this is not much a reprive, since they usually only have a racing life of 3 years at best. 4 1/2 years of life expectantcy for the best of racers. Picabo was about 2 1/2 when she was rescued, so we can assume that she won some races, but quickly became a liability to her owners. My assumption after observing her in walking and social situations, was that she was too interested in what the other dogs were doing to keep focused on staying ahead. You can't see the other dogs if you're in the lead!

But in hindsight, her early retirement meant that she had more years to enjoy life on the outside. Thanks to Greyhound Pets of America.

Next: Rescue By GPA and How We Got Her Just By An Ear
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