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Greyhounds Reach the Beach
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The ocean on Saturday morning. The fence marks the beginning of the
beach. As you can see, it doesn't extend very far before you hit the water.
One of the biggest (perhaps THE biggest) annual events involving greyhounds and greyhound owners in the United States is the Greyhounds Reach the Beach event held every Columbus Day weekend in Dewey Beach, DE. What started about nine years ago as a small gathering of friends who owned greyhounds now attracts a convention of about 2,000 humans and 3,000 greyhounds from states as far as Florida and Minnesota.
Tyler and Wren watching the waves. Tyler's sporting Wren's coat because
he seemed to be shivering a little in the breeze. He's still pretty thin
for his size.
We signed up for Greyhounds Reach the Beach soon after we got our first greyhound, Wren. Deanna and I thought the event would be nice for Wren: racing greyhounds grow up surrounded by other greyhounds, and they tend to socialize with each other. We were planning on getting a second greyhound, a sibling for Wren, but we didn't know when that was going to happen. As it turned out, we met Tyler, a black male greyhound staying with a foster family, the Sunday before Dewey. Once we checked that our hotel was fine with us bringing a second greyhound, we adopted him and made the necessary preparations to squeeze two greyhounds in the back of a Toyota Camry. :)
The drive to Bethany Beach (where our motel was--we signed up too late to stay in Dewey Beach itself) actually went very smoothly. The dogs were very comfortable, as we had stuffed their doggy beds in the footspace so that the back seat area was like one big mattress. It took us just over three hours and one pit stop to get there. I knew we were in a quality motel when I saw a Maryland Terps banner affixed to the front of the check-in desk. Everyone slept well despite the relatively close quarters--the hounds don't usually sleep in our bedroom with us, preferring the living room.
Since the beach was a bit wetter than everyone expected, many of the
owners and their hounds milled about on the street leading to the beach.
We got up fairly early the next morning so we could reach Dewey in time for the scheduled greyhound walk on the beach. The weather was cooler and wetter than we had hoped. When we "reached the beach," we found more ocean than we did beach. Hurricane Isabel had done her work: at high tide, the edge of the waves came up almost to the dunes. There were a few other greyhound owners out and about, and we tried to walk along the upper edge of the beach, but while we had stopped to talk to some people and let the hounds sniff each other, we were caught by surprise by a particularly long-reaching wave. My jeans were soaked above the ankles--my feet were pretty much wet for the rest of the day. So we got off the beach.
Many of the cars parked along the street were decorated for the journey
to Dewey. The white greyhound silhouette is a car magnet. Deanna and
I have similar black magnets on our cars now.
The first real event we went to was the Blessing of the Hounds. Several hundred humans and hounds gathered on Read Street by the start of the dunes for the blessing. The greyhounds were there in all shapes and sizes. Many wore coats because of the wind, some even wore hats. At the end of the blessing, someone (human, we're sure) started howling. After a few moments, the hounds began joining in. Wren howled and Tyler barked. It was a canine symphony of sorts.
Next, we went to a seminar about feeding dogs a raw diet. This was something Deanna had been thinking about doing. Dogs are carnivores and are designed to get their energy and their nutrition from meat and fat. The grains that are in all dried dog foods are not natural for them. The seminar presented a very convincing argument for going with a raw diet: it makes dogs' coats sleeker, it gives them more energy, and the meat bones help keep their teeth clean (our freezer is now filled with prepared meals based on the raw diet).
Wren and Tyler waiting for the Blessing of the Hounds.
After that, we went and got some lunch at a hound-friendly beach restaurant (the owners also owned greyhounds). Wren and Tyler laid down at our feet as we sat on barstools with our hamburgers and fries, surrounded by other greyhounds and their owners.
Then it was off to the vendor tents to check out the all of the dog merchandise. We left Wren and Tyler with volunteers who were dog-sitting for the shoppers, rather than try dragging them through the shopping crowds. There were greyhound car magnets (we already had some we bought on the Internet), greyhound T-shirts and sweatshirts, greyhound calendars, greyhound-inspired art, greyhound kerchiefs--lots of stuff. Our plan had been to just look around at first, but when we saw that it had started raining, we decided that we should buy a raincoat for Tyler--he and Wren had been taking turns wearing Wren's raincoat during the morning (greyhounds have thin fur, thin skin, and very little body fat, so they're more susceptible to the elements than most breeds).
This is a shot of the crowd gathered for the blessing.
With both of our greyhounds now protected from the elements (and the rain having stopped for the moment), we headed off to the beach again towards the lifeguard station for another seminar. The tide was lower, so we could actually traverse the beach and avoid the water. Something about the beach energizes Wren, apparently: she was darting back and forth and jumping about. She even did a few 360-degree jumping turns. Tyler was just his usual dignified self, although he would quickly back away from any encroaching waves.
On every block, you could see greyhounds and their owners making their
way from place to place.
We probably should have realized that the seminar, "Canine Massage," would be popular and should have planned accordingly. We did make it in time to squeeze in the back, but it was just a bit too crowded, and we really didn't have any room to follow along with any training exercises. We left with a booklet and headed back to the vendor tents.
We left Tyler and Wren with the dog-sitters again at first, but we realized that there were some things we wanted to buy that we would need to make sure would fit: namely collars. Greyhounds have to wear special collars called martingales, and since it's the one piece of adornment every hound has to have, it makes sense that they come in all shapes, sizes, and designs. Wren and Tyler each came home with four new collars and a mult-hued fleece coat. Deanna also bought Wren a little straw hat adorned with flowers and a chin strap. Wren doesn't seem to mind wearing it, but when she shakes her head vigorously, the hat tends to end up under her chin! Deanna and I also bought several T-shirts. One of the vendors also had a store along Route 1 in town, so we went there to check out what they had, and I ended up buying a leash system that prevented the dogs from getting their leashes (and themselves) tangled.
Wren braces herself against the strong ocean wind. She's actually still
on her leash--I edited the leash out for aesthetics.
By that time, our hounds were "dog tired." They had laid down several times in the vendor tents. In the leash store, Tyler found a large empty black duffel bag which was apparently close enough to a mattress to his mind: he stretched out on it and caught a few minutes of shuteye. So we decided to call it a day. Since we hadn't seen any restaurants near our motel in Bethany, we went back to the car for some blankets and headed to Grotto's Pizza, where I had seen greyhounds inside earlier in the day. The dogs laid down on the blanket while we ate our pizza. Two of the Grotto staff gave each of the dogs a treat from a dog treat bucket on the sales counter--it was obvious that Dewey Beach enjoyed this annual visit by the greyhounds. We headed back to Bethany and watched tv before going to bed.
A good shot of greyhounds in flight. Look at how Wren's front legs are
back inbetween her hind legs as she thrusts forward.
We slept in a bit later the next morning, which was sunny and comfortably warm. We checked out of the motel and headed for Dewey. The ocean was much calmer, so we took the dogs to the beach again. I brought the dogs close enough to the shore so that they got their feet wet from the ocean. It was obviously not their favorite pasttime--no sea dogs in our family!
In between runs, Wren would come up to Deanna and try to get Deanna to take
off her muzzle (she would rub the muzzle against Deanna's legs). Seemed
a good opportunity for a picture.
Our last stop was the greyhound open run at Rehobeth Elementary School. The run area was a football field area enclosed by a high wire fence: perfect for letting greyhounds run to their hearts' content. There were about 20 or so greyhounds and their owners there when we arrived. As stated in the rules, we put muzzles on Tyler and Wren (greyhounds will sometimes bite at each other when racing each other) and took them into the run area. After they had met most of the other dogs without any incidents (not that we expected any), we let them off the leash. I'd seen Wren run before at our local dog park, chasing after non-greyhounds without even straining herself, so I knew how fast she was. From our first meeting with Tyler, I knew he was faster than her, but I didn't realize how fast he was until I saw both of them running with the other greyhounds. He was easily one of the fastest hounds there, with incredible catch-up speed. He ran so fast that he somehow lost his break-away collar with his tags on them. We spent a long time searching the entire run area looking for it, only to find that someone else had found it and stuck in in the fence near the run entrance. Our hounds obviously enjoyed their own, as we were there for over an hour.
Worn out at last, we loaded them up in the car and headed for home. They slept peacefully most of the way back.