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One of the most fascinating things I learned about greyhounds, working with and within colonies of them, was to observe and to become aware of the dynamics of the pack, and how the pack functioned within the culture of the colony. It might surprise the uninitiated, to learn that there is very little difference in pack dynamics, from pack to pack, within a kennel colony---such as one might find at a racetrack kennel complex---or from pack to pack of young greyhounds, one might encounter at a greyhound breeding facility.

For the journeyman/woman greyhound trainer, who has practiced the craft at more than one, or with several different kennels, even at different racetracks, almost to a dog, there is a canine counterpart of each individual, in each and every kennel/colony.

This is primarily due to the cultural immersion each greyhound undergoes, at each stage of his/her development, as a member of a performance greyhound pack/colony, and its natural ebb and flow. It is also the result and a benefit of highly focused and meticulously selective breeding, where those greyhounds selected to produce future generations, are almost always greyhounds who embraced and thrived within this unique, canine culture. Greyhounds whose athletic accomplishments, speaking to that, well exceeded the average. Greyhounds who, in their own turn, "handed down"---as a matter of genetics, as a matter of nature, as a matter of nurture, and as an environmental phenomenon of collective consciousness---both an innate and learned understanding of canine social grace, and of greyhound cultural norms.

This is why we can see thousands of retired greyhounds, at national greyhound gatherings, interacting, socializing and co-existing, virtually without incident, in unforced harmony, as they once did as members of a performance-dog colony. It is also one of the main reasons why greyhounds make beguiling, charming and fascinating pets, the vast majority of whom make the universe-spanning leap from professional athlete to loveseat adornment, with a minimum of fuss and bother.

Greyhounds can experience upset or difficulty with novelty, particularly the novelty, upon adoption, of being the "only dog"---something of which they could never have conceived, and have never experienced in their lives. Likewise, they can be deeply affected by the imposition, and the wholesale application of human cultural mores and values upon them.

Living "in the moment" as they do, they are driven by instinct, genetics, and centuries of highly selective breeding toward the performance of a specific function. Bred to a performance ideal, which is a fundamental, visceral and artistic expression of their elementary nature. An expression immeasurably enhanced by the canine cultural edifice that has informed, engaged and sheltered them, from whelping box to starting box.