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[windhund]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

How many years do they usually race?

Depends on how fast they are. They start racing at about 18 months of age. Some of them wash out immediately - they are slow (relatively speaking), or they don't care about chasing the lure. Others will race for several years - most tracks have a requirement that a dog must retire if it reaches 6 years of age, but for a dog that old to still be racing is a rarity. Kind of like human athletes - it's not common to see a professional athlete over the age of 40 or so. Also, some get hurt. Pumpkin broke her hock (which is actually a collection of small bones in the rear leg), and she couldn't race anymore after that. Doesn't keep her from zorching around the yard at alarming speeds, but her career was over.