My current foster greyhound Petey went for a teeth cleaning today. In general ex-racing greyhounds are very healthy. They don't have any predisposition for hip dysplasia (in fact, the greyhound is the only breed of dog that has had no recorded cases of hip dysplasia) or any other medical problems, with one exception: many of them have lousy teeth. They accumulate tartar and need cleanings every year or so. For that reason I have been trying to brush my guys teeth every night, but it's hard to remember to do so. There is a lot of discussion out there about the cause of bad teeth on ex-racing greyhounds, which can usually be put into 2 camps:

• Diet. These folks think that the soft, high protean diet that the dogs get while racing is the cause of bad teeth.
• Genetics. These folks think that it's just a genetic issue thats just not been selected against.

I'm inclined to go with the Genetic reason. If it was just diet you would think that it would tend to decrease after retirement where the dogs have lots of dry kibble and other things to chew on. Still, it's possible that it's related to the formative time when their teeth are coming in.