We adopted Emmett from AnimalSave back in October 2005, and he’s been a great member of the Krugler pack. He seems to be a mix of sighthound and Labrador – in other words, he’s a mutt.
But one day, while Jenna and I were speculating about what kind of sighthound would give him his deep chest and curled tail, I did a search on “greyhound labrador mix”, and found out that we’d been wrong all these years.
He’s not a mutt, he’s a lurcher!
What’s a lurcher? Well, according to Wikipedia (source of all truth and goodness) a lurcher is:
a hardy, crossbred sighthound, generally a cross between a sighthound and any other breed…the lurcher was bred in Ireland and Great Britain by the Irish Gypsies and travellers in the 17th century. They were used for poaching rabbits, hares and other small creatures. The name lurcher is derived from the Romani language word lur, which means thief.
There’s even a new group called the North American Lurcher & Longdog Association. It’s a bit hard to tell, but I think Emmett is very excited about the possibility of membership.
Ken's Techno Tidbits 
He’s a beautiful dog.
We recently adopted a dog off the street that we believe is a lurcher as well (click here for pics). We got him at the beginning of June when he was two months old (the oldest pictures). He’s about 4 and a half months old now and growing bigger every day. We believe he is a shepherd-greyhound mix.
Have you joined The NALLA? I’m thinking of doing that.
Hi Doohickie,
I’d heard about the NALLA while researching lurchers for my blog post, but I hadn’t joined.
Thanks for the reminder, I’ll look into that again.
— Ken
One of my dogs looks exactly like Emmett! When I browsed your blog I thought that somebody took a picture of my dog and put it on your website. 🙂 Agatha is about six years old and very pretty. She’s gentle, energetic, and likes running. I haven’t seen many looking like her and we always wondered what her breed is. Now I guess I have some ideas: she might be a greyhound-labrador mix!
I’m thinking of surprising my daughter for Christmas, and buying one of those DNA kits to find out what it says. I’ll update the blog post if/when that happens.
— Ken
Hi Ken and Emmett!
I was shocked to find out that my Lumpi (or Lulu as we call him) is a lurcher! Thanks to you! We always thought he was a lab/greyhound mix but never even thought he could be something else. Your Emmett looks just like our Lumpi (who was also adopted in 2005! but in SC.). Here is a link to my website if you’d like to see more pictures and videos of him. http://cavecanis.com/videos.aspx
What are the activities that you do with him? Agility, hunting, etc.?
Kata
Hi Kata,
Emmett is all about the ball – it’s the lab retriever in him. So there’s a lot of chuck-it action with tennis balls.
And occasional hikes in the hills and mountains around where we live.
Unfortunately we got Emmett a bit too late to socialize him, so he can be very aggressive with other dogs, which makes outings tricky to plan.
That’s sad. Our sheepdog is like that too. He is not a big fan of other dogs. Anyways, it’s nice to see another Lulu out there! 🙂
OMG! Thanks to your post and picture I figured out what my service dog Tonya truly is. A lurcher! she was a resacue and we always thought lab and something. It has been a topic of great disagreement since I got her a year ago. She looks like Emmett’s twin. See her facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/labragoddess. She is the best dog I have ever had. Her only weakness is chasing any small animal she sees; armadillos, squirels, rabbits, etc. Thanks for your help.
I adopted my dog about 6 months ago from a shelter and he also looks exactly like your dog including the light fur behind the shoulders. I think his ears are a little longer but he looks exactly like Emmett. According to my dog’s shelter papers he was born roughly in Nov 2005. I was curious as to what he may have been mixed with as they told me he was a lab mix and upon doing an internet search, I found your blog with your dog’s photo. Thanks for sharing. It was very interesting to learn about the lurcher.
We adopted a greyhound/ lab mix from an animal shelter about two years ago and our dog looks exactly like your Emmett. It’s a nice combination. It sounds like Emmett has a nice temperament and our rescue has been a great family dog.