small-to-medium breed
Whippet
Working men in the north of England built the Whippet in the 1800s from small Greyhounds and terrier stock, for rabbit coursing and rag racing - the old nickname was the poor man's racehorse. What came out is a sprinter who sleeps: half an hour flat out, then most of the day on the warmest cushion in the house. Quiet, clean and undemanding indoors, with thin skin that tears and no tolerance for cold.
Pup Height
18-22 in
Pup Weight
25-40 lb
The standard sets no weight; the AKC lists 25-40 lb. Height is set by sex, and a deviation of more than half an inch either way is a disqualification: males 19-22 in, females 18-21 in. A short, close, firm coat, and color is immaterial - any color or marking is allowed. Source: AKC breed standard.
Pup Lifespan
12-15 years
Your pup, at a glance
What’s Life With This Pup Really Like?
Extremely high. Whippets seek out warmth and contact, burrow under blankets and sleep pressed against whoever sits down.
Very good. Gentle and tolerant with children who have been shown how to handle a lean, thin-skinned dog carefully.
Mixed. Usually excellent with other dogs and often fine with a cat raised alongside them, but small pets and running cats trigger a chase.
Low. Whippets are quiet dogs who rarely announce anything, which is part of why they suit apartments.
Moderate, in bursts. A few minutes of hard sprinting and an hour of walking covers the day; the rest is sleep.
Low. A short single coat sheds steadily but lightly, and the hair is fine and easy to lift off furniture.
Playful and comic. Zoomies, toy shredding and a bouncy, cat-like silliness indoors that surprises people who expect a serious hound.
Very low. A dry-mouthed breed with no loose flews.
Good but sighthound. Whippets learn quickly and work happily for food, then ignore everything once something runs.
Low. A Whippet may look up when the door goes and will not do anything about it.
Minimal. A weekly once-over with a rubber brush, regular nails and real attention to teeth.
High. Quiet, clean and small enough for an apartment, provided the sprinting happens somewhere safe and the cold is managed.
Lifestyle fit
Could This Be Your Best Breed?
A Whippet suits an apartment as well as a house, and an owner who can get to a fenced field two or three times a week for a real sprint and does not mind a sweater in winter. Keeping one runs $1,000 to $1,800 a year, across twelve to fifteen years. The one thing no Whippet owner gets is a dog who can be trusted loose on open ground.
Living Space
An apartment suits a Whippet better than most medium dogs - they are quiet, clean and asleep for most of the day. What they cannot do without is somewhere safe to sprint several times a week: a fenced field, a securely fenced yard, or a rented enclosure. Loose running on open ground is not an option with this breed.
Pup Experience
Fine for a first-time owner who accepts the sighthound bargain. Whippets are gentle and easy to live with, but they are soft-tempered, they do not train out of chasing, and an owner who expects an off-leash dog will be disappointed no matter how much work goes in.
Daily Pup Time
About 45 minutes to an hour a day, with at least two or three sessions a week that include a real sprint. Grooming is a few minutes a week, and the coat needs a sweater more often than a brush.
Allergies & Coat
The Whippet scores 3/10 for shedding and 1/10 for drooling. No dog is truly hypoallergenic. The allergens come from dander and saliva, and a coat that sheds this little leaves far less of them on your furniture, floors, and clothes.
Quirks & challenges
The Not-So-Easy Stuff
Recall Has Hard Limits
A Whippet in pursuit is out of earshot within seconds and cannot hear a recall. Long lines and fenced ground, not trust.
Prey Drive Is Real
Squirrels, rabbits, cats and small dogs can all read as game. Socialization helps the household; it does not switch the instinct off.
Thin Skin Tears Easily
There is almost no coat or fat over the skin, and a wire fence or a bramble opens a gash that needs stitches.
Cold Weather Needs Layers
A single short coat over a lean frame. Below about 50F a Whippet wants a sweater outdoors and a warm bed indoors.
The Sofa Is Theirs Now
Whippets seek out soft, warm places and will burrow under blankets. Decide the furniture rules early, because the dog already has an opinion.
Fences Must Be Solid
Whippets clear five feet from a standing start and will follow movement through any gap. Six feet and a checked perimeter.
The good, the bad & the hairy
Health, Care & Costs
Understanding the health risks and ongoing costs of a Whippet helps you plan for a happy, healthy life together.
12-15 years
$30-$50
per groom (bath, nails, ears, teeth check), rarely needed and easily done at home ($0-$200/year)
$1,000-$1,800/year
all-in (food, routine vet, minimal grooming, insurance, incidentals)
Health Risks
Conditions this breed is prone to.
Common to sighthounds. Very little body fat, a large red-cell mass and slower clearance of some drugs mean standard doses and protocols can go wrong, and recovery is often rough. Use a vet who knows sighthound protocols and say so before any procedure, including a routine dental.
A mutation in the ABCB1 (MDR1) gene lets certain drugs cross into the brain - some wormers, sedatives and chemotherapy agents. Frequency is low in Whippets and high in longhaired lines, so the cheap cheek-swab DNA test is worth doing whatever the pedigree says, and the result belongs on the chart.
A mutation in the myostatin gene doubles muscle in dogs carrying two copies, producing the heavily built 'bully whippet' with cramping, dental crowding and other problems. One copy makes a faster, healthier dog, which is why the mutation persists in racing lines. A DNA test exists and good breeders test.
Mitral valve disease and arrhythmias are the main inherited concerns, and the breed's normally large athletic heart and low resting heart rate can complicate the picture. Breeding stock should have a cardiac examination, ideally with an echocardiogram.
Progressive retinal atrophy, cataracts and lens problems all appear in the breed, and congenital deafness shows up in some dogs with heavy white markings. Annual eye examinations by a veterinary ophthalmologist, and a BAER hearing test on puppies from affected lines.
The likeliest reason a Whippet sees a vet, and not inherited. Lacerations from fences and cover, torn muscles from hard turns at speed, and split toes - a skin repair is often a few hundred dollars, and it happens more than once in a lifetime.
Insurance & Health Coverage
A sound breed on the whole, and a small dog to feed, so premiums sit at the low end for the size.
What you are insuring is accidents. Thin skin over a fast dog produces lacerations, torn muscles and split toes, and those claims arrive throughout a Whippet's life rather than at the end of it. Accident cover earns its keep here more than illness cover does, and it is worth checking whether the policy excludes injuries from racing, lure coursing or organized sport, because several do and that is exactly where a Whippet gets hurt.
Heart disease is the illness to plan for, and it usually arrives in middle age - after the point where a policy taken out late will treat it as pre-existing. The genetic conditions are a different matter: MDR1 and the myostatin mutation are congenital, so no policy covers them, and DNA results on both parents are the only protection there is. Ask the breeder for the paperwork.
Get a Pet Insurance Quote
Care needs
The Daily Routine
Grooming
About as low as dog grooming goes. A rubber curry brush or a hound glove once a week lifts the loose hair, and a bath every couple of months is plenty - the coat carries almost no odor. The jobs that actually matter are nails, which grow fast on a dog with no road work, teeth, because sighthounds build tartar early and dental disease is common, and a skin check after any run through cover.
Exercise
Less than the shape suggests: 45 minutes to an hour a day, of which the valuable part is a few minutes of genuine sprinting in a safely fenced space. Two or three of those a week keeps a Whippet content, and the rest can be ordinary leashed walking. Lure coursing, fast CAT and a flirt pole in the yard all scratch the same itch.
Food & Weight
Feed for a visible waist and two or three visible ribs - a Whippet at a correct weight looks thin to people used to other breeds, and a heavy one loses the joints and the speed. Two measured meals a day, and in cold weather or through a coursing season the ration usually needs to go up rather than down.
Similar breeds
If This Isn’t Quite the One
Greyhound
The same dog scaled up by thirty pounds, with the same recall limits, thin skin and anesthesia considerations. The Greyhound needs a little less exercise and is usually adopted as a retired racer at two to five years old; the Whippet is springier, more playful and far easier to fit into a small home.
Italian Greyhound
The same sighthound temperament at a quarter of the weight, and even more cold-sensitive. The Italian Greyhound is fragile enough that broken legs are a real risk and housetraining is genuinely hard; the Whippet is sturdier, more athletic and needs proper space to run.
Silken Windhound
A modern American sighthound built from Borzoi and Whippet stock in the 1980s, with a long silky coat and a gentler off-switch. The MDR1 drug sensitivity runs high in the breed and has a DNA test, which matters before any sedation.