Primo has been with us since the day after Christmas. I believe he ran his last race a handful of days before he retired. Since he’s been here, he’s been on the same fitness regimine as Echo – lots of walking and road work – to maintain his track physique. When I decided at the last minute to attend the Inaugural Stakes of the newly formed National Lure Coursing Club I decided it would be a perfect time for Primo to make his lure coursing debut.

Because he is not certified to run with other dogs, Primo could only be entered in the Singles Stakes. No big deal, and I actually prefer a dog to run alone their first few times out so they learn that their goal is to chase the bunny, not play with or race the other dogs. In the Singles Stake, the dogs run the full course alone and are given a score based on various criteria (depending on the running organization’s rules) by the judge(s).

Primo’s first run was beautiful. I usually expect a freshly retired racer to completely blow the first turn, since the dog isn’t used to “the bunny” making a sharp turn out of the blue! Primo put his shoulder down and really leaned into that first turn, staying right on the bunny’s tail. Turn after turn he ran beautifully. Good speed in the straights and he had impressive stamina to get through the long 940 yard course (at  Birmingham he was racing 550 yard races).

Prepping him for his second run of the day, I made sure he had a really nice, long warm up walk. He seemed limber and was moving nicely. He perked when he got close to the field and was ready to run again. The first half of his course was as nice as the first run. Then, the slip steward (the hunt master in ASFA) and I noticed he seemed to be slowing down. At first, we both thought he was just running out of gas. Then I saw his hind end get a little bumpy for 4-5 strides and I knew something wasn’t right. Then he stopped running completely and I took off running across the field. Of course, these things tend to happen at the furthest possible point away…so it took me while to jog the 400 or so yards out to where he was standing…hind leg suspended behind him.

“Crap!” I thought.  “Please, please, PLEASE don’t have a broken leg” was the only thought racing through my mind. On a visual inspection everything looked fine. I tentatively started examining his leg and foot…first gingerly, then a little more firmly. Nothing really seemed to be bothering him, other than he wouldn’t stand on his back leg. I try to get him to walk a few steps and he mostly tri-podded it. By this time, some other folks had joined me in the field and were helping to assess him. Other than a little resistance, perhaps, in his knee we didn’t really see anything that would be causing him to limp.

Fast forward to Monday morning and I decide to take Primo in to the vet just to be on the safe side. The vet did a full range of motion exam and found unusual in his hip, leg, knee, tendons, etc…The only thing we did find (which I noticed while waiting in the exam room), is a swollen toe on that leg. Now, never ever have I seen a greyhound come to a dead stop when chasing  something because of a sprung toe. Apparently, though, Primo is not one for “running through the pain” and he pulled up when something didn’t feel right. I’m glad he did, because running on a bad toe can just create a more severe injury.

We’ve dealt with more than our fair share of dislocated toes from the yard, play group and lure coursing. So, we’re treating him for that (rest and time and pain meds). I’m not sure if I’ll ever put him back out on the coursing field. His other back foot has a pretty gnarly looking toe from a previous dislocation and, though that toe healed well and has caused no problems for him, this second sprung toe makes me think he just doesn’t have the feet to handle lure coursing.

At this point, only time will tell!

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