Comments on: High Speed, High Impact

By: Kris

Kris — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 11:18:33 +0000

Please get your knee checked out - I was hit in the side of the knee by a golden retriever running at full speed. Because I was standing with that leg locked, I suffered medial ligament damage that still gives me hell every now and then (this occurred in 2000) it hurts most when I put full weight on that leg going up stairs. I hope you seek medical attention - it’s not something that just heals with time!

By: Pat

Pat — Thu, 07 May 2009 01:49:41 +0000

I had an incident just tonight. I was leaving my cousin’s house (I am 62)and her Bernese mountain dog decided to fool around and I wasn’t paying attention. She was running full speed and collided with the side of my right knee, which hurts like a bugger. Hopefully, it is nothing serious. Having trouble doing steps and it is really hurting. Wish me well.

By: edwin

edwin — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 04:16:59 +0000

Dogs are not the only ones hurt at dog parks. I got blind-sided in the knee by 60 lb. dog.

By: mary ann mcneal

mary ann mcneal — Thu, 08 May 2008 12:51:01 +0000

I was searching for dog survival sites. Sabrina, my 6 yr old Italian Greyhound
was with me at Casa Verde lodge in Honduras. We were on a deck on the 3rd level.
The spacing on the rail was large enough for her to easily pass through.
She wanted to go down and run to the river where she had swam the day before
…class 3 kayaking…..
Out of the corner of my eye I saw her take a flying leap and emit a small howl.
I imagined her a mass of broken bones and my heart broke. When I looked over the rail she had landed about 20 feet forward. Standing on all 4 legs in a slight brace
Stunned. By the time I got down she was still very dazed. Suddenly she turned her head and walked slowly toward me. No injury of any kind.
She is now called Sabrina the Flying Wonder Dog.

By: rikki

rikki — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 20:22:46 +0000

I had a Maltese that sustained an injury as a result of her fondness for zipping around our then very large yard at break-neck speed. She tore/ruptured a ligament (anterior cruciate ligament)…expensive surgery and a long recuperation period ensued.

(She was a couple years old when this happened and in good health otherwise. She lived until just short of her 20th B’day so I don’t think the injury was caused by anything other than the fast running and turning incident.)

I continue to have Maltese and mixes but I don’t allow any of them to run like my other dog did…We actually have old films taken at gatherings and you can see her racing in and out of the frame in the background as she does her silly run. She was definitely having fun at the time, but she was not having fun when that ligament ruptured!

Many years later there was an incident at our local off-leash park where a greyhound ran into this same dog and knocked her end over end so that was it for dog parks for our dogs. (No little dog area at that facility.)

Another relative broke her leg when her much-adored black lab went sliding into her, she lost her balance and the dog and she went to the ground in a heap.

I found the article interesting also.

Rikki

By: Nora and Rufus

Nora and Rufus — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 17:21:23 +0000

Oddly enough, My Rufus, who is a good 78lbs solid dog himself, had a side collision at the dog park with a Greyhound-Black lab cross who was fast, tall, and oh so powerful, and running around like crazy……..At first Rufus acted like he had a broken leg and whined and limped towards me, dangling that leg as if it was shattered…….fortunately…it was just a good jolt and he was fine in minutes…..but it REALLY scared me. I thought my Rufus was really hurt!

By: Nancy G.

Nancy G. — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 17:07:30 +0000

All Sighthounds have speed in their genes- I have owned Borzoi and Italian Greyhounds. When running, they are oblivious to everything else, and so many who escape a yard or a leash soon get killed by cars, they think they can outrun everything. And then there’s the prey instinct they also have, to chase down anything smaller that moves- a cat, a small dog, even a bird. One of my Borzoi girls was so fast she actually did catch birds. But they are like race horses, running is bred into them for thousands of years, it’s what they love to do. So you have to be careful with them. That’s not to say that any dog, focused on something, couldn’t barrel into a person, wall, or another dog and do serious harm. But while a shepherd might have the instinct to “herd”, and a retriever to “fetch”, a Sighthound has the instinct to “RUN!!!”

By: Mike C

Mike C — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 14:53:10 +0000

Interesting speculation and a nice mini-review of basic physics. HOWEVER, short on facts. How often, in fact, do “fatal collisons” occur. Is it more common in Greyhounds specifically due to their unique physiology?

ONE cited example, and some serious speculation, does NOT make this anything more then the authors imaginative extrapolation.

I would have liked to see something a little more concrete then the authors’ pronouncement that “the potential for speed-related injury is very real among dogs”. This type of article (speculative and short on facts) seems rather frequent in the media these days.

Just one mans opinion…

By: Belgian_owner

Belgian_owner — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 23:33:50 +0000

My dog collided head on with a lab while both were going for the same ball in a park, and SNAP! His upper canine broke in half.

He’s a much more careful dog these days…

By: Jennifer Moore

Jennifer Moore — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 22:18:59 +0000

Excellent article. These are things I just don’t stop to think about–I don’t currently have dogs–but now that I think on it, I have been knocked down in the past by speeding dogs. Not fun.

This was very informative and fascinating.

Jennifer Moore

By: mittens

mittens — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 22:10:11 +0000

greyhounds in particular through their natural genetics and breeding are built for speed bursts - really fast sprints. (besides this theyre also known ironically to be ‘couch potatoes’). you aren’t allowed to adopt the ex-racers in particular if you do not AGREE TO KEEP IT ON A LEASH AT ALL TIMES except in enclosed areas. off leash in a dog park is a space fraught with danger for greyhounds- sight hounds, they could take off in a nano second if something strikes them as prey on the run. they can go over 45 mph and with other dogs who think the running is interactive play and humans standing around like door stops things can go horribly wrong as it did in this case. they’re known to have really bad road sense-they have have no street smarts- they get hit by cars a lot. they tend to view all open gates and doors as starting gates to burst out of at top speed . people who do not know how to handle a trigger happy( it’s how they’re trained- it’s not their fault) speed machine on a leash shouldn’t even walk them.

the idea that they’re just meant to ‘ run’ because they’re ‘ wolves’ is while appealing untrue for modern domestic dogs.( in fact some ex racers refuse to run while retired and adopted out) they’re not wolves anymore- they’re centuries removed from it and like all dog breeds have been bred by humans to retain those wolf aspects we’d like to use for our purposes. a free running greyhound is a greyhound in jeopardy. the dog shouldn’t have been off the leash at the dog park for the obvious reason that doesn’t require higher mathematics to understand- off leash for a greyhound with many unpredictable objects in it’s path is unsafe for the animal and those around him. it’s very sad when an accident like this happens but as in most things there are things to be done to avoid such an out come. it’s called a leash and understanding that you have a domestic dog not a free ranging wolf, not a wild animal and you are responsible for its safety in a world that bears no resemblance to the ‘ natural’ environment of a wolf which does not include humans as anything else but a threat and fellow bigger predator.

By: janet

janet — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 18:07:52 +0000

It scares me so much when my whippet runs around in the yard at top speed but I have to let him run a little because that’s what he was born to do. Even in the house I am careful to not throw the ball very far or fast as I can see how a dog could run into the wall and injure himself. I guess no matter how scary, you have to take some chances in life or live in a padded cell.

By: Diella

Diella — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 17:55:25 +0000

This is very interesting. I always see dogs colliding with eachother at dog park and sometimes with humans(non resulting in injury) and think it’s funny but now that I think about it…it’s quite dangerous. My dog has never actually collided with any other dog..he is either able to dodge them or will choose to jump over them since he is a big dog but he does have issues with running while excited and trying to get around people by squeezing through small spaces which has pushed me off to the side and nearly lost balance a few times. I still like dog parks but it makes me wonder how we can avoid these situation because when our dogs get to running like that…I don’t know how we would be able to stop them.

By: Lynne

Lynne — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 16:59:33 +0000

About six months ago my mother-in-law told me of a collision between two greyhounds playing at the park. One was injured so badly he had to be put down. I had never heard of such a thing but now see that it happens more often than we realize.

By: kaefamily

kaefamily — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 15:55:33 +0000

I know all about dog and human collisions … I had a swollen upper lip and a bruise knee to prove how fast a 10 year old male Dalmation could run and the damage he could produce!

Just recently, I almost crashed my face on the pavement while walking our slightly uncoordinated and easily excited 2 year old Border Collies … he wanted to chase every bird, dog and critters he saw!

Thanks for the info. Now I am much more careful to protect our dogs and ourselves :-)