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What happens between a greyhound's puppy hood to a maiden race? What does the dog go through?

I was told by a friend when I asked a parent to take me to a greyhound race that the practices of greyhound racing was very cruel. I looked it up, and it seems that this is true. Now, I have two questions. 1) It seems very vague about what happens before a dog's first race. What kind of training does the dog go through? Is it cruel training? 2) Is greyhound racing itself cruel in your opinion. Thank you for any information you can provide me.

Public Comments

1. The training begins with box launching – how to launch itself out of the starting box. It is also taught how to chase a lure. Over a few months they gradually increase the distance the Greyhound runs when leaving the box. When the Greyhound is 19 or 20 + months old they start practicing with other dogs and with lots of people at the track. The owner also gets the Greyhound used to large amounts of people . It is not cruel . No . My neighbour trains , races and breeds greyhounds . It is in no way cruel . The owners really care for their dogs .
2. Here is one description (several pages) http://www.adopt-a-greyhound.org/misc/on_the_farm/the_formative_months.shtml Like any other business, how things are handled varies greatly. Some people in the industry enjoy the dogs as dogs, and are very kind. Others see the dogs as the equipment for their business, and take care of them for that reason alone. And others take advantage of the situation to be abusive. Whether treated well or not, one issue with greyhound racing is that, until the adoption programs started several decades ago, virtually all were killed if they had no potential, or when their racing days were over, unless they were used for breeding. That meant that animals from newborn to 5 years old were being killed simply because there was no longer a money-making use for them. Many are probably still killed -- exact numbers are not clear. Again, that's a mixed bag -- some of the adoption programs grew from people in the industry who loved the dogs and saw their potential as pets. At this point, some adoption programs are vehemently anti-racing, some are pro-racing, and some stay neutral but work with the industry, to make sure that as many dogs as possible get adopted. Some argue that it is no worse than the thousands of potential pet dogs of other breeds, who get put down because breeders over-bred, or owners didn't feel like training them. The fact that it is organized into one industry adds to the sense of it being purposeful and inhumane, to some people. I'm in the US, BTW, so that's where my info has been gathered. Things may be very different in other countries, especially if the industry is on a smaller scale.