Question For Whippet Owners

[F1fanatic]

I bought 2 whippets from a friend who breeds them. She told me that if a whippet gets lost and is not found within 24 hours it will turn ferile. At the time I thought it seemed very strange but didn't think any more about it.

When I came to Thailand I brought my whippets with me. They were now 2 years old and had always been spoilt rotten, sleeping in my bed with me etc.

Unfortunately I was involved in a car accident whilst visiting Krabi, my car overturned and the back window came out. One of my dogs was thrown into my lap where I held onto him, but the other ran out of the back window when the car stopped moving.

To cut a long story short, I remained at the accident site walking up and down the road calling for my dog for about 6 hours with no success, until I had to give up and go to a hotel for the night with my other whippet who was very distressed.

I remained in Krabi for a few days spending most of my time at the accident site calling for my lost dog, but to no avail.

I returned home for 3 days and had posters and leaflets made and then returned to Krabi to contine the search, pin up posters, hand out leaflets etc.

Over the course of the next month I spent about half my time in Krabi and kept being told about sightings, all close to the area of the accident. After a month there were no more sightings and I had to assume the worst.

Because I know my whippet was in the area and must have heard me calling (not to mention cooking chicken there of an evening), I have to accept that my friend was right and that he had turned ferile, unbelievable as it seems. I can understand him being too frightened to come the first night, but after that....?

Has anybody else heard about or have experience of, this whippet trait?

[F1fanatic]

Sorry, had complete brainstorm there - I meant feral! Is ferile a word??

[Tywais]

Sorry, had complete brainstorm there - I meant feral! Is ferile a word??

Feral is the correct term in this case (returning to an untamed state). Ferile means able to have off spring or able to grow and develop.

Ok, I had to look it up myself.

//edit - I did find several hits regarding this, here is one > yahoo answers

[Nienke]

The car accident must have been pretty traumatic for your dog. When dogs got really frightened they can run for over a kilometer (up to 1 1/2 to 2 km's as I've been told) before they calm down and start looking around where they are, only to find out they are lost. It is possible that by only looking around the site where the accident happened, you have been looking at the wrong place or not far enough.

I'm really sorry for what happened. Besides the horrible experience of the accident itself, you also lost a loved-one.

As for your dog turning feral? Possible, although hard to answer that question unless you'll see him again.

Nienke

[F1fanatic]

I looked up Yahoo Answers, but it seemed to be about whippets running off chasing things rather than them turning feral.

Although I put up posters and distributed leaflets further out, all the sightings were within half a mile of the accident site. The accident happened at a 3 way junction surrounded by palm nut oil plantations and waste land, with limestone mountains around most of the area.

If the sightings were to be believed, he remained in between and either side of 2 of the roads. This seems likely as immediately after the accident someone saw him running down one of those roads before he ran into the waste land between them. We concentrated our search around this area (and a bit further out) as soon as we got out of the car and for the rest of the evening/night.

It was one of the most traumatic things ever to happen to me (and my dogs). The car accident itself was forgotten (so never bothered me) as soon as I got out of the car and realised I had lost my dog.

[Tony Clifton]

This is what I know as a whippet.

Good luck with the dog.

Edited June 13, 2008 by Tony Clifton

[cmsally]

One of my best friends used to keep Whippets. As well as a huge garden , there was a huge area of neighbouring woodland and they would frequently go off on rabbit chases. Never failed to come home though.

If they were lost I can't see them just forgetting you if they heard you call. Whippets don't suddenly turn wild, never heard of it. But I can see them running like h-ll when they are frightened, so maybe extend the search a bit further.

Good luck!

[F1fanatic]

Thank you for the kind thoughts, but this happened 17 months ago now. It's just that I'm only now able to start trying to make sense of it.

As you can imagine, I'm terrified to let my remaining whippet out of my sight! Fortunately he's such a soppy, gentle dog that he prefers to stay near me. It's obviously affected him too, after all this time he still won't go near a road.

[bina]

ridiculous!!!

dogs dont really go feral. rather, if they are born w/o owners/houses etc they they are feral as in domestic animals born in the wild and not handled, but can be retamed since the genetic makeup of a dog gives him the potential for domestication.... a lost dog just becomes frightened and maybe defensive nasty and tries to survive, usually not by hunting etc but by eating garbage and handouts. most lost house dogs die unless they had a good strong survival instinct or hunting instinct (not just chase instinct like a whippet)... most feral dogs are half owned dogs who have reproduced and so on several generations down the line. and anyway, no dog, not even a wolf/dog mix, goes back to nature within two days, it takes lots of time and learning on part of the animal to readapt to the 'wild' state.

i suspect someone found him and adopted him... a more likely scenario since he is a purebred and not a soi dog.

wild animals born in captivity become feral as they go back in to the wild even if they were born two or three generations in captivitiy. they are still wild animals, its genetic.

some packs of soi dogs and thai village dogs are feral, i.e. they are several generations of dogs born 'wild'; yet u can take a puppy and work with it, or even an adult, and work with it. it might not be a good family dog, but u can work with it. a wolf, u cant do that with.

we have feral dogs, feral camels, feral donkeys and feral cats here. if u get them young, u get a good pet. even adults can be worked with. rare though for mature runaway dogs to join these feral packs; usually only pups. we have a huge pack living in a quarry near my village and have yet to see all the lost runaway pekinese, german shepherds and labs joining the pack. *males will breed the bitch if he is strong but wont run with them a long time.

just google pariah dogs/feral dogs

bina

israel

Edited June 13, 2008 by bina

[F1fanatic]

ridiculous!!!

dogs dont really go feral. rather, if they are born w/o owners/houses etc they they are feral as in domestic animals born in the wild and not handled, but can be retamed since the genetic makeup of a dog gives him the potential for domestication.... a lost dog just becomes frightened and maybe defensive nasty and tries to survive, usually not by hunting etc but by eating garbage and handouts. most lost house dogs die unless they had a good strong survival instinct or hunting instinct (not just chase instinct like a whippet)... most feral dogs are half owned dogs who have reproduced and so on several generations down the line. and anyway, no dog, not even a wolf/dog mix, goes back to nature within two days, it takes lots of time and learning on part of the animal to readapt to the 'wild' state.

i suspect someone found him and adopted him... a more likely scenario since he is a purebred and not a soi dog.

wild animals born in captivity become feral as they go back in to the wild even if they were born two or three generations in captivitiy. they are still wild animals, its genetic.

some packs of soi dogs and thai village dogs are feral, i.e. they are several generations of dogs born 'wild'; yet u can take a puppy and work with it, or even an adult, and work with it. it might not be a good family dog, but u can work with it. a wolf, u cant do that with.

we have feral dogs, feral camels, feral donkeys and feral cats here. if u get them young, u get a good pet. even adults can be worked with. rare though for mature runaway dogs to join these feral packs; usually only pups. we have a huge pack living in a quarry near my village and have yet to see all the lost runaway pekinese, german shepherds and labs joining the pack. *males will breed the bitch if he is strong but wont run with them a long time.

just google pariah dogs/feral dogs

bina

israel

I know it sounds ridiculous, but whippets are strange (but wonderful!) dogs.

You really have to have one to understand how different from other dogs they are. As an example, I had been unable to train either of them to even 'sit', forget the 'here' command! I admit I am not a good dog trainer, but even so I've been able to get other dogs to understand this, and other, simple commands! My brother, who trained his own dog to follow him when he went for cycling rides (along with all the normal instructions) at first laughed when I told him my remaining whippet was untrainable. He now agrees! It doesn't actually matter normally because he is such a gentle, loving dog and wouldn't cause any trouble to anyone. As another example, he has no concept of dominancy. I have another dog (female) now, as a companion. Because she was a Soi Dog she tries to be dominant as she clearly feels one of them needs to be dominant. My whippet just stands there looking confused and soulfully at her on the odd occassion she tries to assert her dominance. It really is v funny to watch

I hope he was adopted by someone else, but it's unlikely for 2 reasons :-

1) It was a v poor area and I put up a reward of 20,000 baht. I wish I'd made it a lot more now to make all the local people desperate to find him, but I was told that was more than enough and if I made it higher there was a danger someone would steal my remaining whippet. Even now I think they were right as there were groups of local people out looking for him - I saw them and went with some of them.

2) When frightened (normally they are very friendly, but they get very nervous, very easily), my whippets wouldn't go near anyone, and they can run! One of the sightings was by a man eating food at a bus stop. My whippet went very close but ran away when he tried to approach. This was about a week after he went missing and he must have been starving (someone saw him trying a eat a palm nut), which is why I always carried food and even barbequed food a couple of nights in areas where he had been seen.

The thought of him turning feral would never have crossed my mind if it hadn't been for the original warning I received from the breeder.

By the way, he was bred from show dogs, not hunting dogs.

[F1fanatic]

p.s.

Unfortunately there were some local dogs around. Unless they have back up, my whippets are frightened of other dogs. They'll bark, but from behind your legs!

When my whippet and soi dog see other dogs now, my whippet goes running and barking up to the strange dog until he's about 10m away. He then looks round to see if my other dog is with him, if she is he continues (she's v friendly and goes to see other dogs to make friends), if not, he comes running back to me!

[mangotogo]

p.s.

Unfortunately there were some local dogs around. Unless they have back up, my whippets are frightened of other dogs. They'll bark, but from behind your legs!

When my whippet and soi dog see other dogs now, my whippet goes running and barking up to the strange dog until he's about 10m away. He then looks round to see if my other dog is with him, if she is he continues (she's v friendly and goes to see other dogs to make friends), if not, he comes running back to me!

Hi,

I doubt a whippet would have the stamina to become feral. I have had 4 whippets in the last 25 years and all of them were trainable. They might not be the brightest but they usually don;t get into too much trouble. Kennel dogs, ex show dogs not imprinted on humans can be a challenge. I have rehomed quite a few from show clients and some needed a lot of work to be resocialized. But they were not feral, just detached and rather vague! I have just imported a puppy from Australia. I could only get her only at 12 weeks of age from the breeder as she was deciding which ones were of show quality.....but so far she is adjusting really well to city living.

Will start her show career at Impact from June 26 to June 29 . If you are in Bangkok come and say hello there?

[F1fanatic]

p.s.

Unfortunately there were some local dogs around. Unless they have back up, my whippets are frightened of other dogs. They'll bark, but from behind your legs!

When my whippet and soi dog see other dogs now, my whippet goes running and barking up to the strange dog until he's about 10m away. He then looks round to see if my other dog is with him, if she is he continues (she's v friendly and goes to see other dogs to make friends), if not, he comes running back to me!

Hi,

I doubt a whippet would have the stamina to become feral. I have had 4 whippets in the last 25 years and all of them were trainable. They might not be the brightest but they usually don;t get into too much trouble. Kennel dogs, ex show dogs not imprinted on humans can be a challenge. I have rehomed quite a few from show clients and some needed a lot of work to be resocialized. But they were not feral, just detached and rather vague! I have just imported a puppy from Australia. I could only get her only at 12 weeks of age from the breeder as she was deciding which ones were of show quality.....but so far she is adjusting really well to city living.

Will start her show career at Impact from June 26 to June 29 . If you are in Bangkok come and say hello there?

Hi Mangotogo,

Would love to, but unfortunately will be in Phuket.

Good luck at the show!