Grandpa Clark's Whippets

It seems my readers are afraid to write comments after my blogs, but they have no hesitancy in emailing questions.   I'm just glad to hear from them either way.

Several have asked what a whippet is and my easiest answer would be "a small greyhound like dog used for hunting."

This is a photo of a whippet.   It's obvious that they are extremely fast dogs.  They average 20-30 pounds and with the male being larger than the female.  They stand 18-22" high.    They average 6-8 pups per litter and they live to be 12-15 years.


Wikepedia provides the following:  Whippets were bred to hunt by sight, coursing game in open areas at high speeds. One can find numerous representations of small greyhound-like hounds in art dating back to Roman times but the first written English use of the word "whippet" with regard to a type of dog was in 1610.^[12] There is a picture by Jean Baptiste Oudry (1686–1755) of "Misse", one of two English whippets presented to Louis XV, in the Washington National Gallery and another, with her companion, "Turlu", by the same artist in the Musée National de Fontainebleau. However, some French sources, notably the Ministry of Culture, use the word "levrette" to describe Misse and Turlu. Levrette describes small greyhound type dogs like the whippet or the Italian greyhound. In the nineteenth century, whippet racing was a national sport in England, more popular than football. It is only beginning with this period that the existence of the whippet as a distinct breed can be stated with certainty. The age of the modern whippet dawned in 1890 when the English Kennel Club granted the breed official recognition, thus making the whippet eligible for competition in dog shows, and commencing the recording of their pedigrees. In the United States, the whippet was recognized in 1888 by the American Kennel Club. Early specimens were taken from the race track by dog fanciers of the time and exported all over the world. The whippet's versatility as a hunting, racing, exhibition or companion dog soon made it one of the most popular of the sighthound breeds.

I don't know how my paternal grandfather, James Peter "Jim Pete" Clark became interested.   I never heard any say, but my supposition is that it was a result of his interest in jack rabbit and coyote hunting.   I asked his wife, Mabel Rachel (Jones) Clark about the dogs once and her off-hand comment was:  "I don't know how he became interested by I used to think he loved those dogs more than me sometimes."    My father, John Leander "Tim" Clark was also a dog lover raising German Shorthair bird dogs and various kinds of coon hounds.   My mother would have likely agreed with Grandma Clark.    Father and son were great lovers of dogs.

James Peter "Jim Pete" Clark with three of his whippet hunting dogs.   The picture was taken in the back yard of the Maple Hill Central Office.   Note the plowed garden over his left shoulder.   I'll bet it was plowed with a horse and walking plow by my great uncle, Ed Miller.   Even though this photo is from the 1930s, Uncle Ed Miller was still plowing gardens with his horse when I was a boy in the 1950s.

I have heard my father, John Leander "Tim" Clark talk about going on the Saturday or Sunday afternoon rabbit and coyote hunts with his father and grandfather, Leander Emory "Lee or Deacon" Jones many times.   During the Great Depression of the 1930s, it was a great passtime for men and if you loaded your own ammunition, as they did, it didin't cost much.  So for what it's worth, that's a little more about whippet hounds.     Happy Trails!