Dogs are like human beings and tend to learn with age. They get better at taking their opponents over, they improve at getting off their trap… Younger runners, despite being less experienced, might perform better than expected for their age if they are well trained. They are also more likely to show swings, while more experienced dogs tend to exhibit more stable performances. We have harvested 5 years of UK greyhound race results to produce the graphs below. The graphs show that:
- The speed of a greyhound increases on average by 1% from their early days to their peak. Of course that is only an average across hundreds of thousands of greyhounds and the ability of a trainer to peak promising performers is key.
- A greyhound is usually at its peak between 2 and 3 years old, although it depends on the distance of the race.
- Greyhound performances will peak at around 3 years on 400m races. They peak a little earlier at around 2 to 2.5 years old on longer distances.
- The performance of a greyhound reduces over time after their peak performance. The performance of males tends to degrade slightly faster than females on longer distances. Older females often exhibit higher stamina.