McCorkell’s dog is ‘Fleet’ of foot
By Michael Riley, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter The Bancroft Times
While most pet owners undoubtedly think their beloved companion is a champion, Bancroft resident Erin McCorkell’s dog Fleet has the laurels to prove it. Fleet is a Whippet who has captured the crown for the top lure coursing dog in all of Canada for 2019. Also that year, Fleet competed in flat racing with the Canadian Kennel Club and was the overall combined top dog in that organization.
McCorkell has been a dog owner for a long time, but says she is a complete convert to the Whippet breed. Her family has three of them now. She got Fleet at Hyflyte Performance Whippets in Brampton and the breeder’s name is Helen Ferguson.
Fleet will be five years old in July, and in addition to being the top dog in lure coursing in Canada, she has also captured the eighth overall spot in lure coursing with the American Sighthound Field Association.
McCorkell explains the races that Fleet has competed in. Flat racing is either a 200-yard straight course, sponsored by the North American Whippet Racing Association or a 350-yard oval course sponsored by the National Oval Track Racing Association, while lure coursing is quite different. Developed back in the early 1970s by Lyle Gillette and other California sighthound fanciers, lure coursing happens in at least a five-acre area and the dogs follow and race after a fake lure. McCorkell says it mimics what whippets were originally bred for, which was to chase small game like rabbits.
Often described as looking like a Greyhound but smaller, Whippets began to be bred by north country coal miners in Victorian England. While they enjoyed dog racing and rabbit hunting when they weren’t working, these miners couldn’t afford to feed and kennel large dogs like the Greyhound. So they began to breed a smaller version of the Greyhound for those purposes. According to the AKC, the name Whippet seems to come from the antique word “whappet” which means a dog that yaps.
Whippets made their way to North America around the turn of the 20th century when English workers came over to New England and brought their dogs with them. Subsequently, Whippet racing became all the rage in the New World, as it had back in England.
McCorkell started competing with Fleet in 2019 and describes how it all got started.
“She got best of breed at very first trial and that kind of hooked us, and we campaigned her because she was just doing so well all summer. She ended up handily taking 277 points at the end of the season and the next dog I think had 200 points,” she says.
Since COVID-19 emerged last year, there have been no in person competitions of course. But McCorkell says the American Kennel Club really got on this and put together a virtual competition focused on rally obedience.
“It’s a more fun form of competitive obedience. All you have to do is pick a routine they set out for you and have somebody video you doing it. You send it in to the judges, they mark it and they give you your score. We embraced that and Fleet got her novice trick dog, her novice rally title and her rally intermediate title, with an average score of 97.7 per cent. She was the second highest scoring whippet to qualify,” she says.
This impressive score qualified Fleet for the AKC National Rally Championships, but they weren’t able to attend unfortunately, due to COVID-19.
As far as preparation for the events, McCorkell says that Whippets need very little exercise and can sleep up to 23 hours a day.
“However, they need to run off lead and have those bursts of speed and really be able to run. That’s what is so good about living in Bancroft, as there are so many wide-open spaces. She gets to run in the woods where there’s uneven footing, kind of like trail running. It’s better for people than road running. Because of all the different muscles you’re using, you’re having to balance and use your core more and having to be more agile, so it’s the same for dogs,” she says.
McCorkell says that she’ll keep competing with Fleet for sure. In fact, there’s a trial coming up in Ancaster on the weekend of June 19 and June 20.
“That’s the only drawback to living here is that none of the events are close by so we have to travel a way to get to them,” she says.
Fleet may also have some stiff competition from within her family soon. McCorkell says that Fleet’s sister Zelda is also shaping up to be a fine racer. In fact, so far, she is doing better at her age than Fleet did in terms of speed and obedience.
“I think people only think that Whippets belong to city people or rich people. And you know what, she just belongs to a pet household in Bancroft and she’s done some spectacular things,” she says. “I was extremely fortunate to find that breeder and have her offer me Fleet!”
