The dog formerly known as Prince

... has been renamed Champ. This is actually short for "Champagne", but when he needs his street-cred I won't mention that.

I just couldn't quite see myself yelling "Prince" across Regent's Park, should we ever get to that stage of recall. Everyone would be expecting to see a King Charles spaniel or similar.

He had his first real off-lead run this morning, in an estate garden about half the size of a football pitch, and it went pretty well. He does know what a whistle or "come here" means, and usually obeys it, unless something else more interesting is going on around.

It is interesting comparing him with Beanie, who being a Staffie was very smell-focused. Greyhounds are classed as "sight-hounds", and that's just what he keeps doing; looking around with great intensity and focusing particularly on movement. And he's certainly be off after it given the chance.

Digging through his paperwork, I find that his racing name was Alfa Focus, and would you believe it, the web yields the first part of his racing record, from Ireland! (I'm pretty sure it is the right dog, since the whelping date matches.)

So I can call him Champ, since he did win three races in Ireland, as a one-year-old, on this record. Although since according to this site his prizes were a grand total of 51 euros, so perhaps they weren't very big races.

And here's his pedigree, back to his great-grandparents (better than I can do!)

And I'm struggling to interpret them, but the British Racing Board results suggest he also won or came second in races at Romford, Nottingham and Peterborough. So he's had an adventurous life - more adventurous than some people have.



But I think he might be ready for the quiet life now, and to fit in with Philobiblon ...