Many years ago greyhounds were greyhounds, whippets were whippets, and any other sort of running dog was a lurcher. Today things are different, and running dogs are now usually divided between lurchers and longdogs. The author of this book defines these two categories as follows: the longdog is either a pure-bred greyhound, whippet, deerhound, wolfhound, borzoi, saluki, Afghan hound, a cross between any of these pure breeds, or a cross between their crosses, until such time as blood other than longdog is introduced; and a lurcher is a cross-breed between any longdog and a breed other than longdog. It is the lurcher that is the subject of this book. It is mainly about those dogs which are produced as the result of matings between greyhounds or whippets and gun-dogs, guard dogs, sheepdogs and terriers, with a few other kinds thrown in for good measure.