Murray, Author at I Heart Greyhounds

I’m not sure about your greyhound, but my greyhound, Brother, suffers from ETS – Escaping Tongue Syndrome. Escaping Tongue Syndrome is not unique to greyhounds, but for some reason, greyhounds are experts in this. We sometimes call this a ‘blep’ or a ‘derp’; A ‘Blep’ is often when the tongue pokes out the front of the mouth and a ‘derp’ is often used to describe a dog that appears to be broken. But, whatever you call it, Escaping Tongue Syndrome is adorable and endearing.

Brother is missing one of his canine teeth. This seems to be one of the main causes for his ETS. It never ceases to amuse me when we’re out walking, he does a massive shake and following this his tongue is often left poking out the side of his mouth. He seems to be unaware of the amusement this causes me and others passing by.

We want to celebrate ETS. So, we’ve created a gif that you can add to your Instagram Stories. You can find the gif by searching for it in Instagram or by visiting Giphy. For those of you looking for it, here is the link: https://gph.is/st/m8AVWyE

I would love to see your best ETS picture. Please feel free to tag us in your Instagram posts. We’ll definitely check your post out and if you use the sticker on your story let us know. We would love to be able to re-share your post to our followers and fellow greyhound lovers.

Use the hashtags: #ETS #IHEARTGREYHOUNDS

We love to include a greyhound with Escaping Tongue Syndrome in many of our designs. The greyhound on our Colour Guide products, our original design, has ETS. If you’re looking for a unique greyhound gift for someone, or for yourself, look no further than these designs in our store. There are 16 different designs to choose from and can be applied to many products from homewares to t-shirts and mugs.

Greyhounds are incredibly beautiful and unique dogs. Greyhounds have always been selectively bred for speed, not ‘fur’ colour. This is why, unlike some breeds of dog whose colour is important to its identity (think dalmatian), greyhounds vary in colour. They have a base colour and are either brindle or non-brindle. Brindle is the striping pattern on some greyhounds. In addition, some greyhounds will have very short stripes which appear as spots rather than defined stripes. We have developed a greyhound colour guide for you.

Greyhound colours and patterns are as unique as fingerprints and these can change overtime as they age. For instance, fawn greyhounds can lighten as they age and we all have seen the beautiful grey facial masks of older greyhounds. To add to colour confusion, greyhounds, when they are born, often don’t resemble the colour they will grow into. When I was growing up, our white and fawn female greyhound had a few litters, and we could never be sure what colour they were going to be for a couple of months.

A variety of greyhound colours are pictured here. — Greyhound colour badges

However, greyhounds can generally be grouped by their colours and include the following:

Black
Black and white
Blue
Blue brindle
Brindle
Dark brindle
Fawn
Fawn brindle
Light brindle
Light red fawn
Red
Red and white
Red fawn
White
White and black
White brindle

I currently have two black greyhounds, Brother and Raz. Raz has beautiful white toes on her paw and a lovely age-grey muzzle. Brother is mostly black, apart from a very small patch of white on his chest… he also is growing a very beautiful grey face as he ages. What colour is your greyhound? Do you have a preference for any colour or are they all just as lovely as each other?

Greyhound colour guide gifts

You can find many more greyhound colour options on our mugs or the complete set printed onto a very eco-friendly tote bag in our store. Or head over to our Redbubble collection for more unique applications of our greyhound colour guide.