Modelo Integrado de Planeación y Gestión (MIPG) – Colombia

I spent hours trawling through journal article databases looking for literature on

racing animals. I searched specifically for social science sources about both racing

dogs, racing horses, and racing pigeons to illuminate greyhound experiences. This

was in the hopes that I would find literature discussing any transition that these

animals go through, whether this was through training for their roles or retiring.

Finding any social science literature on racing animals was very difficult even

without looking for transition information.

When I did find literature on racing animals, it was very human-centric, because the

horses or pigeons themselves were not the main focus; the humans were. Many of

these articles only look at the human perspective and not the experience of non-

human animals. The authors gained data by interviewing or conducting participant-

observation with humans. Due to this, the literature only discusses why humans have

become involved in the pigeon or horsing racing industry and what it entails for

them (Cassidy, 2002; Jerolmack, 2008; McManus, Albrecht, & Graham, 2013).

What the non-human racers face in their industry and their contributions are either

ignored or glossed over (see for example Graham, 2013). This is despite the fact that

the racing industry would not exist without these animals, which some of these

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the animals’ point of view, which they could have gained by observing their body language, for example, is not considered.

Additionally, some authors make claims that they do not follow through. One of

these assertions is that they investigate the relationship between humans and racing

animals; another is that they look at the roles that racing animals play in their area of

research. Graham (2013) is one such academic. She states she looks at how humans

and horses have together created distinctive place identities at horse festivals

(Graham, 2013, p.1). However, she does not do this, rather focusing extensively on

the contributions all human actors involved in the festivals have made, but not on the

horses.

It terms of transitioning racing animals, I found no articles specifically investigating

any changes they go through. Even in each individual source of literature, there are

only very few mentions of what is involved in the transition of racing animals. For

example, in McManus, Albrecht and Graham (2013) there is only one small section

discussing what happens to horses once they retire from racing (pp.153-154). They

state that some ex-racing horses become involved in show jumping or eventing,

whilst others are euthanized due to having low economic value (McManus, Albrecht

& Graham, 2013, pp.153-154). This is only mentioned in passing and horses’ experience of retiring is not discussed.

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Working dogs

Since there is very little social science research about greyhounds, I turned to

literature on working dogs who were either being trained for their roles or entering

retirement, since greyhounds fit this category. In these articles, I looked for any

information about how working dogs change over the course of their transition, what

they were like before and after this, and what influenced these changes.

Just like racing animals, finding literature on working dogs was difficult. Yet, I did

find more articles on this subject than on racing animals. Working dogs researched

include police dogs, guide dogs, and drug detecting dogs (Cobb, Branson,

McGreevy, Lill, Bennett, 2015; Braverman, 2013; Sanders, 2006). More research has

been done on dogs entering a working role than on those entering retirement.

Dogs who begin working have been through a transition since they have gone from

one life stage to another though learning new skills. The articles I found investigate

this by looking at how humans train dogs. For instance, Braverman (2013) discusses

how police dogs’ basic behaviour and natural instincts are shaped through training so they can help to assist the police (p.146). Additionally, Sanders (2006) states that

police should train service dogs through a deep voice and learning to read their body

language (pp. 157; 167). However, these articles do not go into any more detail

about how dogs have been trained than this. These articles, therefore, are from a

human-centric perspective since they rarely focus on the dogs themselves. If they do

look at the dog, they mostly focus on what they have been trained to do and not how

they change over time. How they experience being in a partnership with humans is

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Dogs entering retirement also go through a transition between life stages. A few

articles state what happens to dogs when they retire. For instance, Cobb et al. (2015)

notes that guide dogs either remain with their handler or move to a new environment

(p.101). Instead of looking at the impacts the transition into retirement had on the

dogs, they mainly discuss the impacts they have on humans, for instance the affects

guide dogs retiring have on their owners (Allen, 2006, p.7; Sanders, 2000, p.136).

Articles on working dogs are very human-centric. They focus on what dogs

contribute to human society through their specific roles. But, they do not look at how

dogs understand or benefit from these relationships. Furthermore, the ways in which

dogs change as they transition to one life stage to another is only glossed over. For

instance, how a dogs’ behaviour is altered through training to become a working dog, what happens to a dog once they are no longer needed for their specific role, or

any changes they go through after retirement is not discussed.