The Great British Greyhound Walk is an annual dog-walking event that brings together greyhounds, lurchers, other sighthounds and their owners, to raise awareness and show members of the public just what wonderful pets greyhounds make.
Every year, large group-walks are held nationwide on the same day and at the same time; together, the groups walk concurrently as one huge family, promoting greyhounds one step at a time.
This is our brand-new website dedicated to giving you the most up-to-date information our walks, both past and present. Whether you’ve never been on a “Greyhound Walk” before, or you and your hounds are “regulars”: join in, share photos and come along to a Walk near you – you don’t need to book or “join”, just come along and introduce yourself – we’d love have you with us.
The Great British Greyhound Walk is a project of Greyhound Walks, a group of greyhound and lurcher owners who walk most weekends in Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk and Hertfordshire.
The Great Britain map is filling up and there’s hardly a corner where there isn’t a walk happeniGreat achievement for GBGW to have passed last years walk total already with still a month to go.
Thank you everyone!
In this series of posts you’ll get to know the folks and (more importantly) the ‘hounds behind the Great British Greyhound Walk.
Evie, Claire & George
Introducing: (The Other) Claire
Known affectionately by all the ‘hounds on the walks as “Aunty Claire”, Claire Reilly is responsible for distributing both her infamous Liver Cake and all of GBGW’s print media.
Claire’s life changed dramatically three years ago when her boss of 20 years died suddenly after returning home from a holiday in Oman. After 20 years of devoting her time to a great boss on a full time basis, she was asked by his family to continue working for them, but on a part time basis.
This gave Claire the opportunity to do something she had wanted to do all her life: own a dog. Not just any dog though, Evie Greyhound entered her life and has been her constant companion and best friend for the last two and a half years.
Greyhounds have now become a massive part of Claire’s life and she says that she has met more people in the last two years than she has in the last decade!
Many of the Walkers have become great friends and Claire can say without a doubt that owning a Greyhound has certainly changed her life for the better.
Evie: Award-winning Brindle
Evie
Evie is a beautiful, sweet Brindle girl and Official Girlfriend to Greyhound Walks’ Greyhound-in-Chief, George (who owns Janet Peacock).
Evie likes nothing more than letting Claire have 25% of the sofa so that they can sit together in the evening and watch TV.
Although Evie loves going for walks with all her doggy friends, she is in training at the moment for the Olympics – she is in the “Sleeping for Britain” team and is practising snoozing, forty winks, sleeping and napping.
She has a very good chance of winning a Gold Medal for our country later on this year!
from the York walk organisers …
Our event is taking shape – more of a ‘fete’ at the end this year, including competitions for the hounds. “Daftest face” and “Naughtiest hound” are two of our categories (you can see we’re not taking it too seriously). We’ll be making bottle cap rosettes for the winners, of course! My co-organiser Tina is brilliant at getting donations for prizes so there will be a raffle again.
Can’t wait!
What are all the other walks going to be doing?
In this series of posts you’ll get to know the folks and (more importantly) the ‘hounds behind the Great British Greyhound Walk.
Introducing: Claire
Claire: GBGW Website Guru
Claire belongs to two hounds, Ziggy and Hector, and together they have been going on Greyhound Walks since late 2010.
Claire currently volunteers for Greyhounds Walks as the resident GBGW Website Guru. As the Head (read: only) Web Designer and Developer, she is responsible for all the complicated fandangly whizz-bang oojimajiggery that makes the new GBGW website so much more interactive than it was before.
Aside from being the brains behind the new and improved GBGW website, Claire is a fully-trained Web Developer that occasionally gigs as a Features Writer and recently, has turned her hand to Public Speaking. In her spare time, she’s a keen amateur photographer whose work often features her beloved ‘hounds.
Claire’s Favourite Place: Snuggled in bed with her houndy-boys
Claire’s Speciality: Positive Thinking (and an encyclopaedic knowledge of the Music and Career of Prince.)
Ziggy (Moss Ted 2007 – )
Ziggy: Looking Dapper
Ziggy was originally schooled in Ireland as a racer, but did rather dismally when it came to test trials. Whilst the rest of the litter went on to forge successful racing careers, Ziggy and his brother (Ricos Time) were transported to the UK, where they were cared for by the Retired Greyhound Trust. Ziggy found his people during his stay at the Brentwood RGT and on 12th November 2009, he left kennel life and finally went home.
Ziggy is a gentle giant with a sensitive soul: eager to please, but easily spooked. Although mostly silent, very large groups of dogs can make him nervous and liable to grumble, loudly. Ziggy can be found plodding along carefully on “Short Walks”, slowly building his confidence amongst smaller groups.
More beauty than brains, Ziggy features on several ranges of greeting cards (as featured and published by MOO) and has had success upon being entered into the Greyhound Walks annual Dog Show: he currently holds the title of Black Beauty, 2011. Well, he is a dashingly handsome boy…
Ziggy’s Favourite Place: His “House” (soft crate), where it is safe.
Ziggy’s Speciality: He gives really great “Paw”.
Hector (2010 – )
Hector: Looking Cute
Hector is a Whippet; Whippets are Sighthounds much like Greyhounds, only a smaller and slightly bouncier model. Hector was the last of an unwanted litter of seven – the “owner” even went as far as to “go halves” on the petrol when Claire went to collect him(!) – his Mother was used for lamping and his Father ran on the Flapping circuit. Luckily, Hector was taken to his Forever Home on 14th September 2010, at 12 weeks old.
Hector is such a playful character, bursting with endless affection and mischief. He is a total cuddle monster and will work those big puppy eyes and cute wonky ears to get exactly what he wants. Hector is often seen practically super-glued to Claire’s wheelchair: desperately devoted to her, he insists on being at her side/on her lap whenever possible. And when this isn’t possible, he turns into the resident Whinging Whippet™ (no home should be without one…)
Hector’s Favourite Place: In Claire’s bed – under the covers, of course!
Hector’s Speciality: Stealing people’s “warm spots” the split second they’ve vacated a chair.
45 walks registered now and only 17 to go to reach our target of 62 and still 3 months to go.
Lots of great plans are coming together with the organisers to make it a real day out with picnics, raffles, fun and games and even mini dog shows being planned.
Eastbourne have their own bus to promote their greyhounds, don’t know if Boysey and Marlene will be taking it to their walk though.
Lots of activity on the website getting everything tidy and up to date.
We now have 39 registered walks, a couple waiting to come in and 18 being nagged from last year … this years target is 62 walks so please spread the word and help us reach the walk target, then all we have to do is reach the hound target … that’s not decided yet!
The brand new Great British Greyhound Walk official launch!
Our new site boasts an (ever-growing) list of upcoming walks, so why not find a walk local to you? We’ll be adding locations across England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, The Channel Islands and the Republic of Ireland throughout the coming weeks, so keep checking back for updates.
Alternatively, to stay up-to-date with all developments, follow us on Twitter.
Is there not a walk close enough to you? Do not despair, simply read How Do I Organise A Walk and submit a walk of your own.
Before You Go…
The Great British Greyhound Walk is getting bigger and better every year – and it’s all down to you. From Twitter “tweets” and Facebook “likes” to volunteers, walk organisers and regular walkers, it’s your taking part that makes GBGW happen and we couldn’t do it without you.
So please, spread the word in whatever way you can; no tweet is too small, no walking-group too large.
We want to make this year’s GBGW the biggest and best yet; to promote the rescuing, rehoming and reverance of Greyhounds across the nation and celebrate the hounds that already enrich our lives and hog our sofas, for our lives would not be the same without them.
Every hound waiting for a home deserves our best effort, so come on and let’s all put our best paws forward for this year’s Great British Greyhound Walk: Promoting Greyhounds, one step at a time…
