History of Greyhounds
UK 18th-19th century

In 1776, at Swaffham in Norfolk the English Earl of Orford established the first public coursing club. Desiring to have greyhounds with greater endurance, the Earl conducted crossbreeding experiments with other breeds, including bulldogs and Afghans. These attempts were unsuccessful though.

Formal coursing was very popular during the whole 19th century, especially in the late 1800s, attracting crowds of spectators. The attendance boom was largely thanks to the Industrial Revolution without which the manufacturing class wouldn't have time, money and means of transport (expansion of railways) to get to the greyhound tracks.

In 1836, a coursing competition the Waterloo Cup was organized at Great Altcar in Lancashire and was run each year until 2005. For a long time the cup was deemed as the utmost challenge for coursing greyhounds, so the dog which won the cup was generally considered the top greyhound of the year. Those dogs which managed to win the cup more than once (Master M'Grath in 1868, 1869, and 1871 and Fullerto in 1889, 1890, 1891, 1892) were hailed superstars

One major problem with greyhound coursing was that the competition was not suited for larger audience. The solution to this problem was enclosed coursing and it simply required fencing off a coursing field and additionally making a series of holes which fulfilled the role of escape outlets for hares.

Artificial lure was first attempted on September 11 1876, at Hendon, England. The race in which six dogs run after “a weird contraption on wheels” that moved along a single track on 400-yard straight course attracted little attention. The idea of artificial lure didn't take well and people stuck to enclosed coursing until 1920s...