Newcomers to Whippets can be forgiven in thinking that the racing whippet is a blue blooded pedigree dog that was developed by the Kennel Club. The fact is the racing whippet was around long before the Kennel Club existed. It is thought that the Whippet developed in Northern England during the 19th century. The cross that was used is unknown for definite but it is generally thought that Greyhounds were crossed with small terriers (including possibly the Bedlington Terrier), to produce a small, swift dog capable of hunting rabbits and other small game.
Back then the whippet belonged mainly to the working class people of England. These were factory and mine workers in Northern towns near Manchester and Liverpool, who worked hard and lived simple lives. Because of this, the whippet became known as the "poor man's greyhound," or the "poor man's race horse." During non-working days, owners raced their whippets in fields. These races became known as "rag races," because a piece of cloth was waved and used as a lure. The dogs typically ran a straight 200 yard track and Whippet Racing was born.
Kings Park is originally a Non Pedigree Club, Non Pedigree is a term used for a "type" of Whippet which is purposely bred for racing and have remained to the original type much more than their KC registered cousins (which can be backed up by looking at archives and British Pathe videos) who have to comply with breed standards. "Non Ped" Whippets don’t tend to suffer with a lot of the auto immune diseases associated with KC Whippets of today, our gene pool is fairly small but by allowing greyhound blood as out crosses allows much needed genetic diversity to be added into the breed. The term “Non Ped” came about in the racing fraternity to differentiate from the KC registered racing Whippets, referred back then as Pedigrees or Peds, it is misleading by implying they have unknown parentage when in actual fact they have a recorded history dating back many many years and whilst they do have greyhound in their breeding only a small proportion racing are first cross Whippet x Greyhound.
Back then the whippet belonged mainly to the working class people of England. These were factory and mine workers in Northern towns near Manchester and Liverpool, who worked hard and lived simple lives. Because of this, the whippet became known as the "poor man's greyhound," or the "poor man's race horse." During non-working days, owners raced their whippets in fields. These races became known as "rag races," because a piece of cloth was waved and used as a lure. The dogs typically ran a straight 200 yard track and Whippet Racing was born.
Kings Park is originally a Non Pedigree Club, Non Pedigree is a term used for a "type" of Whippet which is purposely bred for racing and have remained to the original type much more than their KC registered cousins (which can be backed up by looking at archives and British Pathe videos) who have to comply with breed standards. "Non Ped" Whippets don’t tend to suffer with a lot of the auto immune diseases associated with KC Whippets of today, our gene pool is fairly small but by allowing greyhound blood as out crosses allows much needed genetic diversity to be added into the breed. The term “Non Ped” came about in the racing fraternity to differentiate from the KC registered racing Whippets, referred back then as Pedigrees or Peds, it is misleading by implying they have unknown parentage when in actual fact they have a recorded history dating back many many years and whilst they do have greyhound in their breeding only a small proportion racing are first cross Whippet x Greyhound.
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