The Greyhound Walking Club (TGWC) is once again bringing central NY owners of retired racing greyhounds and their canine friends together to explore various local walking trails. Revived in May of this year by Glenn Santa, TGWC's latest event was Sunday, July 25 at Wegmans Good Dog Park in Onondaga Lake Park off Route 370 in Liverpool
Organizer Santa arranged with Onondaga County Parks for an hour of greyhounds-only use of the small-dog side of Good Dog Park from 9 to 10am on July 25. After socializing with the dogs and owners, and letting the hounds explore off-leash in the fenced area, Santa raffled off some helpful dog walking gear – water bottles, string backpacks and one greyhound walking jacket embroidered with Greyhound Walking Club of Central New York. Participants then finished the morning by walking the nearby trail along the lake with their hounds.
TGWC encourages people who are interested in retired racing greyhound adoption to come to a walk and meet some of their re-homed hounds. The list of potential walk locations on TGWC's website includes local state parks and trails within easy driving distance of Syracuse. According to FAQs about the walks posted on the website, the walks welcome greyhounds, other breeds of dogs who are good walking companions, and walkers of all ages and abilities.
Greyhound walking clubs exist in other US states, including groups in California, Oregon, Arizona and several Canadian provinces. An earlier group of central NY greyhound walkers stopped meeting in 2009. Santa decided to revive the walking club's activities because he “missed the camaraderie of meeting regularly with other retired racing greyhound owners.” Santa is working with Onondaga County Parks to arrange future regular meet-ups at Wegmans Good Dog Park.
Once each month, TGWC organizes a walk in or near Syracuse. Walk participants post a reply on the walk announcement on the group's website, meet and devote an hour or so to walking together and enjoying their hounds in the outdoors. They don't meet in rain or snowstorms or when temperatures drop below 20 degrees F. In May, the group walked the Onondaga Lake Park West Shore Trail, and in June they met at Mill Run Park in Manlius to walk the trails. Stay tuned to the Greyhound Walking Club website for the announcement of the next walk location.
Many of Sunday's walk participants adopted dogs from, or are members of, one of the central NY greyhound adoption groups who are participating in the July 29-Aug 1 Grapehounds Wine Tour. Grapehounds is an annual fundraising event that pairs raising awareness of retired racing greyhound adoption with a Finger Lakes wine tour and tastings at several supportive wineries along the shores of Seneca Lake. Read more about the Grapehounds Wine Tour, and see the Thursday through Sunday event schedule.
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Comments
Even wearing muzzles, those retired grayhounds are some of the cutest dogs ever.
I love the Grapehound tours! Those greyhounds are some of the sweetest, most docile, adorable dogs around!
Ginger, I'll be reporting from Grapehounds on Friday. Jess, these dogs were just wonderful to meet. In meet-ups like this among dogs who may not have run together before, the muzzles let the dogs safely meet and greet in a large group. When they lived at the track, they wore muzzles to run and to play. So for most of them, the muzzle isn't anything special. They were all very relaxed with each other and with the crowd of people. These dogs all very much just wanted people to pet them.
It was a great day. I appreciate that fact that so many people came to our event. Thanks so much Pat, for writing this.
Glenn
Pres, Greyhound Walking Club
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