MyItalianGreyhounds.com 300sel
Title
My Italian Greyhounds!
Description
The Italian Greyhound is a small sight hound. The breed became widely popular in Italy hundreds of years ago. As a result of this popularity, they picked up the moniker "Italian" in the western world. Actually, the Italian Greyhound (or "IG") is a Mediterranean dog with roots in ancient Greece and Turkey. The likeness of the Italian Greyhound has been found on artwork dating back thousands of years! It is one of the oldest purebred dogs in the world. They gained great popularity among royalty throughout Europe. As time progressed, they became popular with the general population as more people accepted animals into their homes solely for companionship. Today, there are clubs and resources for the iggy around the planet!
The Italian Greyhound resembles the large racing greyhound in most aspects, and it comes in a smaller package! (CLICK ABOVE FOR A LARGER PICTURE)
As with anything with such an old history, there is debate as to the line and breeding of the IG. There is some material that indicates the Whippet and IG are the same dog that split off into two distinct breeds. Other material indicates today's larger "racing" greyhound was actually bred up in size from the IG (most commonly, small breeds are bred "down" in size from a larger breed). In any event, today's Greyhound, the Whippet, and the Italian Greyhound are three distinct and separate breeds of dog.
