Why ‘grey’ hound? A Background on Greyhound Colours

There can be no breed of dog less aptly named than the ‘greyhound’. You might argue that there is no such colour as greyhound, since within the breed, that shade of grey coat is recognised as ‘blue’. 

But the palette is considerably wider than blacks, blues, fawns and brindles. All can be mixed with whites, to a greater or lesser extent. Hence a greyhound with ‘more white than black’ will be labelled ‘white and black’. But the reverse proportion will be ‘black and white’. Or to see the common abbreviation on a racecard ‘bk w d’, the last being its gender – ‘d’ for dog, the alternative being ‘b’ for bitch. (Hounds with significant amounts of white in their coats are, bizarrely, often termed as ‘coloured’.) 

But the most diverse colour, by far, is brindle; a variation that was introduced by Lord Orford, an 18th century hare coursing enthusiast, when he crossed his greyhounds with the English Bulldog to make it a tougher and more resilient strain. At the same time, the cross also saw the breed become much smoother coated. The overall effect would be profound.  

When track racing was introduced in the late 1920s, brindle was the predominant colour of the racers. In fact, 14 of the first English Derby winners were brindle, five were fawn with just one black. 

And there is more than just one shade of brindle. The alternate, or background, colour to the black stripes can vary widely in both shade and dominance. Hence, we have ‘blue brindles’, ‘light brindles’, ‘dark brindles’ and perhaps the most striking of all ‘silver brindles’. 

Changing colours 

But there is more to colour than meets the eye. For a start, colours ‘evolve’. Although brindle was the predominant colour for many years, the introduction of Australian bloodlines in the late 1990s saw a huge shift in the colour balance. 

It started with a Victorian import called Frightful Flash. He looked quite different from the Irish and British dogs. He was taller at the shoulder and leaner than the majority of the home breds. More striking though was his colour. He was predominantly black but with white ‘stockings’, and chest. Suddenly, greyhounds with white stockings began appearing on tracks everywhere. But more was to follow. 

Flash’s success at stud would see the arrival of an even more successful sire, Top Honcho. He was black and although more of a traditional British/Irish stature, it would be his colour that would dominate breeding for the next decade.

Although there is something stunning about a handsome muscled hound with a shining black coat, you can have too much of a good thing. Suddenly, re-homing kennels were full of lookalikes. The lack of a novelty factor didn’t help hopeful hounds stand out. But things would evolve again. 

The Australian imports were so successful that they flooded the market and soon breeders were looking for some new bloodlines and the USA stepped up to the mark. The Americans had a complete spectrum of different colours, some of which had never been seen before. They had ‘red’ as a variation of fawn and in various shades, different hues of brindle and they also boast tri-colour hounds. 

Perhaps the most bizarre change in colour though occurred in the mid 1990s when ‘dun’ greyhounds appeared on the scene. Dun looked like a variation of fawn, though in fact, it was an ‘allele’ of black. The dun coat colour was more commonly referred to as ‘chocolate coloured’, though it was accompanied by other traits, usually almond-coloured eyes and pink nose leather. Where did it come from? A study of genetics suggested that it could be traced through a successful British stud dog called Staplers Jo. It wasn’t around for long and disappeared as soon as Staplers Jo left the gene pool. Bizarrely, the term ‘dun’ first appeared in the stud book in 1882. Who knows, it might be back in another 90 years or so! 

Changing attitudes  

Alongside changes in colours are changes in attitude towards them. For many years, dogs who were predominantly white were considered to be ‘too coursey’. This was a reference to dogs bred for hare coursing, who while undoubtedly fast, weren’t necessarily reliable racers behind the electric hare. Much of this probably came from a particularly successful coursing sire called Newdown Heather, a dog who almost exclusively threw predominantly ‘coloured’ greyhounds. At one time, fawn dogs with black muzzles were tarnished with the reputation of being potential fighters. 

Perhaps the greatest irony though has been the change in attitude to blue greyhounds. As an allele of black, blues were very much in a minority. A track might have 250 greyhounds on the racing strength but there might only be four or five blue runners among them. The observation that ‘you don’t see many blues’ developed into ‘you don’t see many good blues’. A grossly unfair slur. But all that would change with the arrival of the ‘Aussies’ mentioned earlier. Because, in addition to throwing plenty of black hounds, Top Honcho also threw a fair number of blue greyhounds. 

Some genetics 

Around 30 years ago Gavin Fitzpatrick, former Keeper of the Australian Stud Book, created his Rule of Thumb to help us see what colours may be produced when greyhounds are mated. This is it: 

So that’s cleared up any questions!!