“I’ve never screamed so loud. The bug had bit. I had a tremendous passion for it.”

David Peck on watching his first Greyhound nearly win a stakes race at Victoryland

David Peck started out training bird dogs in the early 1970s. One of his clients was a friend who became involved in the new parimutuel racing in Texas. He visited David and recommended that he try his hand in training Greyhounds based on his success with bird dogs. Greyhounds gave David “renewed energy and lit me up.”

David started out with two pups, and he started training them like his bird dogs. His methodology worked, and one of those first Greyhounds became a top competitor at the Victoryland Greyhound track in Alabama. During one of his summer bird dog training sessions, he was called away to cheer on his Greyhound at a final stakes race. That hound took second place, just barely beaten at the wire. It was the start of an American Greyhound racing career that lasted well into the 2010s.

After founding Clear the Way (CTW) Kennels, David continued to improve his training methods. In particular, he focused on track design and surfaces. He encouraged American dog tracks to adopt Australian-style track design to improve the overall footing and safety for racing Greyhounds.

In this episode, host John Parker talks with David about his decades of dog training — bird dogs, American racing Greyhounds, and — now — Belgian Malinois. David shares his experiences with both training and breeding Greyhounds, describing the differences and similarities between the breeds with which he’s worked. He also talks about how he worked to make Greyhound racing safer and keep the sport alive.