60 Fun Facts About Whippet

Whippets are classed as which type of dog?

Sighthounds hunt by sight and speed rather than by nose, and the Whippet is Britain's compact member of the family.

The Whippet sits between which two breeds in size, and closely resembles both?

Think of the trio as large, medium and small versions of the same streamlined outline.

In the 19th century the Whippet earned which nickname?

Working men in the industrial north could not keep thoroughbreds, but a fast dog and a Sunday race meeting were within reach.

The Whippet is believed to have the fastest what of any dog?

It also has the fastest running speed within its weight and size range, though larger Greyhounds are faster flat out.

Which best describes the typical Whippet temperament?

Whippets are famous for lounging indoors for hours, then exploding into short bursts of speed outside.

Because of their hunting past, Whippets have a strong prey drive that may lead them to chase what?

Cats, rabbits and squirrels are the classic targets, which is why owners keep them leashed in open areas.

The Whippet's short, smooth coat is easy to manage partly because it lacks what?

The trade-off is poor insulation, so many Whippets wear a coat in winter.

Thanks to a thin coat and low body fat, what might a Whippet need in cold weather?

Whippets are well suited to indoor life but chill quickly outdoors, hence the popularity of fleece coats and sweaters.

Which French hunting manual did Edward, 2nd Duke of York, translate in the early 15th century?

His English version, The Master of Game, praised keeping great, middle and small greyhounds for different quarry.

What did John Caius call the 'lesser sort of mungrell greyhounde' used for catching rabbits?

The tumbler is often treated as an ancestor or early cousin of the Whippet, and it was still being described in the early 19th century.

The name 'Whippet' comes from an obsolete early-17th-century term meaning what?

The dog got the name long before the modern breed was standardised.

By what nickname did Victorian writers know the emerging Whippet?

The name described the breed's habit of readily 'snapping up' anything small that moved.

The first written use of the word 'whippet' for a type of dog in English dates to which year?

That is more than 250 years before the Kennel Club got round to recognising the breed.

Oudry painted two whippet-like dogs, Misse and Turlu, presented to which French king?

Oudry painted Misse a second time alongside a completely different, non-hound breed.

The rougher-coated 19th-century northern Whippet type came from crossbreeding with which breed?

The Bedlington, itself a miner's dog from Northumberland, has Whippet in its own ancestry, which explains its arched back.

The rough-coated northern Whippet type of the 1800s was frequently referred to by what name?

It was most popular in Durham and Northumberland, while the smooth type ruled Lancashire, Yorkshire and the Midlands.

In which year did The Kennel Club officially recognise the Whippet?

Recognition let Whippets enter dog shows and have pedigrees recorded, pulling the breed away from the racetrack.

Who brought the first Whippets from England to the United States?

The American Kennel Club recognised the breed in 1888, three years before its British counterpart.

In which US state were the first American Whippet populations established?

The New England textile towns had strong ties to the mill districts of northern England where the breed was raced.

Where did the Whippet rank in the American Kennel Club's breed popularity list for 2024?

The breed has stayed inside the AKC top 60 for a decade.

Which Whippet was the first of the breed to win Best in Show at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show?

The other three names all won Best in Show at Crufts rather than Westminster.

In which year did a Whippet first take Best in Show at Westminster?

The winning dog was bred in England and campaigned in the US.

Which Whippet won Best in Show at Crufts in 2018?

Known as Tease, she was the third Whippet to take the top prize at Crufts.

How many times had a Whippet won Best in Show at Crufts by the end of 2018?

The wins came in 1992, 2004 and 2018.

In 2011 the Westminster Kennel Club named which female Whippet its Hound Group Show Dog of the Year?

Chanel's win came almost half a century after the breed's only Westminster Best in Show.

Under the breed standard, the ideal height for a male Whippet is roughly what?

The American and Canadian standards allow slightly taller dogs, up to 22.5 inches for males.

In 2019 The Kennel Club stopped accepting registrations for Whippets of which colour?

The club ruled it was not a naturally occurring colour in the breed, so it must have come from crossbreeding.

How does the breed standard treat coat colour when judging Whippets?

That is why Whippets come in everything from solid black to solid white, plus red, fawn, brindle, blue and cream.

What top speed can a Whippet reach?

That is 56 km/h, the fastest of any dog in its weight class.

Which gait, in which all four feet leave the ground twice per stride, lets the Whippet reach top speed?

The feet are airborne once with the body fully stretched and again with the legs tucked underneath.

Like other sighthounds, Whippets are intolerant of which class of anaesthetic drug?

Low body fat and a liver poorly equipped to process the drugs make barbiturates risky, so vets choose alternatives.

A 2024 UK study found what life expectancy for the Whippet?

That beat the purebred average of 12.7 years and the crossbreed average of 12.

A Kennel Club health survey found what to be the second leading cause of death in Whippets?

Mitral valve disease is the most common heart problem, and many healthy athletic Whippets have harmless murmurs that complicate diagnosis.

The mutation behind unusually muscular Whippets, identified in 2007, affects which gene?

The same gene is behind double-muscled Belgian Blue cattle, and the mutation has never been found in Greyhounds.

Two copies of the muscle-growth mutation produce a hugely muscled dog known by what nickname?

They have a broader head, shorter legs and thicker tail, and are slightly more prone to muscle cramping but otherwise healthy.

Whippets carrying a single copy of the muscle mutation were found significantly over-represented where?

One copy adds muscle without the bulk that slows the double-copy dogs down.

In 2015 scientists used CRISPR/Cas9 to recreate the 'bully whippet' gene deletion in which breed?

The Chinese team produced two extra-muscular puppies as a proof of concept for gene editing in dogs.

In early Whippet 'ragging' races, what did owners wave at the far end of the track?

Dogs that competed this way were said to be 'trained to the rag'.

In early Whippet racing, what was the person who held the dogs on a leash and released them called?

The slip frequently doubled as the race judge.

At Australia's Gurney's Paddock, Saturday race meetings were held with more than how many Whippets?

There was also racing three nights a week at the White City track.

The British Whippet Racing Association, formed in 1967, standardised races for which dogs?

A rival body for purebreds only, the Whippet Club Racing Association, was set up a year later in response.

Whippet racing was hugely popular with the colliers of Lancashire and Yorkshire. What did colliers do?

The dogs' cheapness to feed and house made them ideal for working-class sportsmen.

Which of these dog sports, in which dogs chase a mechanical decoy across a field, is a Whippet favourite?

Whippets also compete in agility and flyball, and in straight racing.

The WWI British Medium Mark A tank was nicknamed the Whippet. What was its earlier project name?

Its designer, William Tritton, is traditionally credited with borrowing the dog's name for the fast new machine.

How many crew did the Whippet tank of World War I carry?

With four machine guns and so few hands, the gunner had to keep jumping between mountings.

How long did the Whippet tank 'Musical Box' roam behind German lines at Amiens in 1918 before being disabled?

It destroyed an artillery battery, an observation balloon and a transport column while its crew wore gas masks against leaking petrol fumes.

Ashley Whippet, the first famous disc dog, became a sensation in 1974 after being smuggled onto which ballpark's field?

The game was stopped for eight minutes while Joe Garagiola called the Frisbee action; the owner was then arrested.

Ashley Whippet's owner, Alex Stein, was a college student from which state?

Stein and Ashley went on to win the first three Frisbee Dog World Championships from 1975 to 1977.

The 1977 documentary Floating Free, featuring Ashley Whippet, was Oscar-nominated in which category?

The eleven-minute film was shot at that year's World Frisbee Championships.

Ashley Whippet was the pre-game entertainment at Super Bowl number what, in 1977?

He also performed at the White House for a young Amy Carter.

Ashley's Ice Cream, a Connecticut chain named after Ashley Whippet, opened in 1979 near which university?

The location was a nod to the Frisbee's origin as a campus craze of tossing Frisbie Pie Company tins.

Sighthounds such as the Whippet are also known by what other name?

Scent hounds, by contrast, rely on their noses and endurance rather than eyesight and speed.

In coursing trials, most breeds enter the veteran stake at 6. How old must a Whippet be?

Irish Wolfhounds go the other way and qualify as veterans at 5.

The Whippet's coat is known for what grooming advantage?

A quick rub-down is usually all the grooming a Whippet needs.

The American Kennel Club describes Whippets as 'quiet and dignified' where?

The AKC adds that they make 'excellent house dogs' despite their racing pedigree.

In medieval England, a small greyhound-type dog like the Whippet was popular for what job?

Hunting manuals of the era describe greyhounds in great, middle and small sizes for different kinds of game.

A whippet-like dog appears in a 1758 portrait of the 7th Earl of Northampton by which painter?

Earlier, Jean-Baptiste Oudry had painted two similar dogs, Misse and Turlu, presented to Louis XV.

Of 161 Whippets evaluated by the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals, what share had hip dysplasia?

Decades of breeding for running rather than looks have spared the breed many of the exaggerations that cause problems in other dogs.

What feature of a resting Whippet's heart can alarm vets unfamiliar with the breed?

Once the dog is exercising, the rhythm becomes regular and efficient, powering its sprinting ability.

On which day of the week were Whippet 'rags' a popular event in northern England and the Midlands?

Dogs in this early form of racing were said to be 'trained to the rag', and few of them were purebred.