Of all breeds of domestic dogs the Greyhound can trace its origins back beyond royalty to divinity. As a favorite of the Egyptian elite they where often mummified and buried with their owners to continue hunting in the afterlife. Throughout early record history the greyhound can be spotted receiving mention. The Old Testament records, proverbs 30:29 and 31 "There be three things which go well, yea, four are comely in going:"- "A Greyhound". In Homer's "Odyssey" the faithful hound Argus that recognized Odysseus, when no one else did was a Greyhound.

Being "sight" hounds, that is, hunting using a sense of sight rather than smell or sound, they have eyesight keen enough to spot small moving objects at distances to one half mile away. This eyesight and a sprinter's body capable of forty to forty-five mile per hour bursts make them the fastest of all dog breeds. As with any fast sprinting animal (the Cheetah among the cats for another example) the Greyhound has often been described by its owners as the worlds fastest "couch potato". Greyhounds really require less exercise than an average dog. 

This breed's modern English name has been traced back to a middle English "Greihound" which originated in an Icelandic "Greyhundr" by way of an old English name "Grighund". All this travel from a dog whose earliest mention is in pharonic Egypt.

In the 15th and 16th century the Greyhound found itself doing less hunting and more formalized racing. The English have long "Coursed" greyhounds. This sport took the form of releasing a rabbit in the center of a large field and the dog from one edge of this field. The intent was to judge the Greyhound's speed, and ability to hunt, as it raced out to try to catch the fleeing rabbit. From this very early form of training for the hunt, we can clearly see the evolution of Greyhound racing.

The United States opened its first formal Greyhound racing track in 1920 and the dogs continue to be raced today.