Once upon a time, many centuries ago, when man first joined forces with dog, he did so for essentially practical reasons. Dog was useful to man; dog helped provide food by hunting, and later dog helped to guard livestock and home.

      As man recognized different traits within those original dogs, he started to breed selectively in order to refine those traits. Those evolved dogs with particularly good scenting powers; those whose guarding instincts made them fearsome defenders of the home and those whose speed and sharp eyesight enabled them to catch meat for the table.

      Today’s sighthounds have been bred for the one purpose of running after and catching prey. Whatever your feelings regarding the use of dogs to hunt food, it is important to remember that at one time these dogs were an essential part of man’s survival.

      Sighthound breeds have emerged across the world throughout the ages. From the Arabian deserts came the Saluki or Gazelle Hound, Egyptian murals depict a dog very similar to the Pharaoh Hound of today and Britain’s own types also emerged in the forms of the Scottish Deerhound and the Irish Wolfhound, to name but a few.

      The sighthounds are so named because their eyesight is keener than that of other types of dog, but that is not to say they do not possess good scenting powers. Sighthounds are instantly recognizable by their build: long legs, lean, athletic bodies and slender pointed muzzles. Everything points to an animal built for speed (compare a racehorse with a moorland pony to understand the difference.)

      Sighthounds are gentle and affectionate toward their owners, tolerant with other animals if they have been reared with them and very seldom aggressive either to humans or other animals. The only aggressive hounds you may come across are ones that have been brutally treated by their owner and fear may make it attack in self-defense if it feels threatened in any way.

      By and large the sighthound breeds are not the brainiest of dogs and here we come to the Lurcher. Man, always out to create something better, came up with the idea of crossing a Greyhound type with a Collie type. (I use the word ‘type’ because several hundred years ago the different breeds were far less well defined that they are today).

      The brain of the herding dog combined with the speed of the sighthound helped to create the Lurcher. A fast but trainable hunting partner, who could be taught all manner of things useful to a man who wanted to provide his family with the maximum amount of meat for the table.

      Bearing in mind that in feudal times, only the Lords of the castle and other landed gentry were allowed to own sighthounds. The common man, often living on the rations with wild game, was forbidden to hunt the game that abounded in the vast forests where the lords went hunting, and had either to see his family go hungry, or resort to cunning in order to eat properly.

      Hence the Lurcher came into being. The loyal, intelligent herding dog was given a dash more speed from the Greyhound type and a sneaky, faithfully and silent hunter was created. This is why the word ‘Lurcher’ had always been synonymous with poaching, the taking of game illegally. Some sources say that the word comes from the old English word ‘to lurk’; to lie in wait and steal about stealthily.

      The interesting thing about the Lurcher is that over the years many different breeds have been added as man has tried to improve the dog. Today a Lurcher can be a straight cross between a Collie and a Greyhound, or it could be a Saluki and a Greyhound, which for purists is not a Lurcher at all but a ‘longdog’ (a cross between two sighthounds); the Deerhound/Greyhound is another popular sighthound cross.

      Terriers, Whippets, Retrievers, even German Shepherds, have been used to create Lurcher. In theory, all these additions have been made with the aim of improving the working ability of the Lurcher. It is only comparatively recently that Lurchers have been bred purely as showdogs or pets.

      There are some strains of Lurcher that have been in existence for many years and who knows what breeds have gone into the melting pot. Many are rough coated and are often referred to as the Norfolk Lurcher, supposedly originally a mixture of the droving dogs from Norfolk and a Greyhound.

      Lurchers can be Whippet sized or Deerhound sized, depending on their breeding. They can be any color combination found within the dog world, but they all bear the same characteristic long legs, pointed muzzles and lean, graceful bodies. To say that a dog is a ‘lurcher cross’ is simply to give a label to any long- legged mongrel and there are plenty of leggy mongrels with not a dash of Sighthound in them.

      The Lurcher was bred in Ireland and Great Britain by the Irish gypsies and tinkers in the 1600’s. They were used for poaching rabbits, hares and other small creatures. The Lurcher is never bred to a specific standard. The name Lurcher is derived from the Romany name lur which means thief. The gypsies considered the smooth coated Lurcher the most prized. The Lurcher is rarely seen outside of Great Britain and Ireland and is still common in its native land. Gypsies traditionally sneered at any Lurcher not predominately Greyhound, since these “lesser” Lurcher’s were not as good at hunting and could not stand a full days work of the hunt. Today some breeding is carried out in a more systematic manner breeding Lurcher to Lurcher to perpetuate the “breed’s” prowess at hunting and coursing.

      The Lurcher is not a purebred dog but is of definite type, usually having a member of the greyhound family as one of its parents. It is thought to have been developed because, at one time in England, only those of noble blood were permitted to own a Greyhound or any other sight-dogs such as the Saluki, Whippet, Borzoi, Afghan hound, Irish wolfhound, Deerhound, etc. So these crosses were made to produce an efficient hunting companion for commoners and a popular poacher's dog. Possibly, the best Lurchers result from a Greyhound X working/herding cross. The size of a Lurcher can vary enormously it can range in size from nineteen inch whippet crosses to huge Deerhound crosses of thirty inches.

      The Lurcher's coat can be rough or smooth and it should look like a relative of the Deerhound, Saluki or Greyhound. The Lurcher is generally an obedient dog, which makes an excellent coursing hound and hunter, and will combine this role with that of a faithful and affectionate family pet.