THREE greyhound of the year titles and an award as Australian trainer of the year. That just about sums up the influence Reg Kay has had on greyhound racing in Australia. It appears Reg is never without a good greyhound in his kennel, whether that kennel is at his Lowood home or when hes tripping about the country in search of big race victories.
Reg walks a bit steady these days, sometimes with a bit of a stoop. He reminds himself to straighten up every time he watches a replay of himself going to the boxes with one of his dogs. Reg Kay has been training greyhounds for as long as he can remember. Since the days he ran a milk run on the north side of Brisbane.
Hes picked up a few ideas along the way and perfected them. You dont win an award as trainer of the year if you dont know what you are doing. Greyhounds Qld Magazine Editor DAVID BRASCH sat down with Reg and picked his brains about the training of greyhounds the Reg Kay way.
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GREYHOUND training, according to Reg Kay, has a few basic principles.
One is observation, another is common sense. And with those simple ideas, Reg has been churning out top class greyhounds for decades. Elite State, Size Can Matter and Elite Blue Size have all won a greyhound of the year title for him.
A couple of years ago Reg produced just a handful of dogs all year but three of them, the littermates Knocka Norris and Elite Oriental (Elite State-Oriental Angel) and Made To Size (Surf Lorian-Queen Size), swarmed through Group 1 victories and track records and by years end Reg was named Australian trainer of the year.
It was testament to the fact Reg took on the might of the many powerful kennels around the country and beat them with just a handful of dogs.
So what does Reg Kay do differently to any other trainer that helps him keep churning out Group winners, track record breakers, and winners galore.
Its pretty simply around here, says Reg. We dont have any secrets.
FEEDING
Reg went through his feeding routing for littermates Knocka Norris (a 35kg dog) and Elite Oriental (a 27kg bitch).
I feed a split meal and have done so for quite a while, said Reg.
I still work in the old pounds and ounces when Im feeding. In the morning, Knocka Norris would get four ounces of kibble and three-quarters of a pound of meat. Elite Oriental would get two ounces of kibble and five ounces of meat. Both dogs would be given a Beta K tablet, rebound tablet, Vitamin E and Betacel. On top of their meal would be one and a half cups of water. I dont feed milk.
Reg uses Coprice a working dog kibble. Ive tried all the expensive brands and the different brands and have always come back to this one, he said. It costs $40 a bag, contains beef, chicken and rice, 25 percent protein and 15 percent fat. And its an Australian product.
For the dogs dinner, it is much the same but in larger portions.
At dinner time, Knocka Norris would get six ounces of kibble and one and a quarter pounds of meat. Elite Oriental would get four ounces of kibble and one pound of meat. On those meals we give Sprint Oil, another Beta K tablet and another Rebound tablet. And every night I put on about 8mls of Max RBC which is a liquid iron and vitamin mix with contains all the additives the dogs need.
I add one and a half cups of water to the meal.
Reg uses only kangaroo meat but adds lard if he feels the fat content is not enough or the dogs are not holding their weight. Probably a spoonful of lard and not every night, he says.
Reg refuses to use injectible vitamins. Its only my opinion, but Im dead against them, he said.
WORMING
Reg uses Ivomec and Equimax to worm his greyhounds. In summer, I worm every three weeks, he said. In winter it becomes once a month. And every now and then I will pop a different wormer down their throat just as a change.
DAILY ROUTINE
Reg is at his kennels at 6am every day.
I put the dogs into the small empty out yards first thing, then clean the kennels, hose out, straighten beds etc, he said. The dogs then go on the walking machine for 10 minutes. I only ever walk them at a walking pace. I know of some people who use the walking machine much faster, but thats not for me.
After that the dogs go back in their kennel and are fed.
We let them out again about 10am and 2pm and then at 4.30pm. After that we feed them their evening meal.
WEEKLY ROUTINE
A dog racing week to week, will generally continue the daily routine, but once a week gets a straight gallop up the Kay track.
We have two distances, 300 metres and 400 metres, with a set of starting boxes at both those distances and electronic timing on the straight, said Reg.
I have always tried to keep my dogs a little bit fresher and wanting to race. For the life of me I cant understand how people race Monday to Thursday, Monday to Thursday. Thats not for me.
Kay says no trainer should be without his own straight track. I cant believe anyone can train without their own straight, he said. Even putting a dog into a car and driving it 10 minutes or so to a straight track is not ideal.
Every time a dog gallops up the straight at Regs property, it gallops out of the starting boxes and behind the drag lure and with another dog.
It teaches the dogs to compete by putting two dogs together each time they gallop, he said. We do this right from the time they are broken in. Early on the runs are over 400 metres, but when a dog is racing regularly we keep them to one 300 metre run up the straight between races.
I know some trainers will gallop twice between races, but this is the way that suits me and my dogs.
EARLY EDUCATION
Reg believes rearing has the greatest impact on a dogs career. There is only one way to rear and that is the best way.
All the dogs we race are bred here and reared here, he said. They are reared tough and you will not see a fat pup. We start to kennel our pups from about eight or nine months of age and by 12 months they are in light work.
We give them a few slips up the straight over a couple of hundred metres each week to get them started. If they are fierce chasers, and in danger of doing too much, we might ease back a little on them. We do all our own breaking in giving the pups trials at the different break-in tracks we have nearby.
This might take three to four months but we are constantly giving them slight ease-ups along the way. If the pups are reared right, they are ready to do all this.
Reg says he has never seen a slow young pup grow into a fast old dog.
We never field trial our dogs, said Reg. I hear all the time people saying a dog will need six, eight, even 10 looks at Albion Park before they are suited there. I dont believe this.
But we always give a dog a look at a track if it has not been there before, unless that dog is a brilliant beginner like Elite Blue Size. But once a dog is racing, they never leave this property.
GENERAL
Reg says he doesnt get blood counts on his dogs and couldnt read one even if he did. I dont get them, he said. The blood count I use is the electronic timer on the straight track. If the dog is running his times, then what can be wrong with him? If he doesnt, then something is.
And we never give our dogs a hydrobath. Weve got one, but Im not sure if it even works these days. The dogs get hosed down after a race or trial.
Reg checks all his own dogs but if anything major crops up he will take the dog to Richard Eaton-Wells. Ive got a laser but I dont even know if it works, and the ultrasound is there but its got a lot of rust on it.
In the past he has never used seasonal suppressants on his bitches. But recently he has tried a few. I gave up on Nandoral, he said. I found the bitches lost a leg.
He says Capalaba is integral to the racing industry in Queensland. Elite State had his first six starts at Capalaba and Knocka Norris had his first four there, said Reg.
In recent years Reg has branched out to greater horizons travelling interstate with dogs in search of riches.
When travelling by plane, I like to put a half kilo on a dog for the flight, he said. Other than that, we dont do anything different when travelling. I know most of the top southern trainers do nothing different.
Reg believes too many trainers try too hard and do far too many unnecessary things with their dogs. People can stuff up a good dog, but weve all done silly things with them, he said. But in the end, everyone tries their best to do the best by the dog.
I believe some people hang on to slow dogs for far too long.
But he also says some people cant be told.
Look at football competitions, he said. Football has A Grade, B Grade, C Grade and even D Grade. But we have only got A Grade dog trainers.
Most of the best trainers I know have a very mild disposition of their own. The guys who make the best trainers generally are not the bombastic types. Dogs sense a calmness about the people around them and respond to that.
If a young person wants to be a greyhound trainer, he or she shouldnt be afraid to ask questions. Thats how I started. But some young people cannot be told. They think they know everything immediately.
Reg says his milk run many years ago was a night delivery and he had plenty of time during the day to spend on greyhounds. For four years he ran the trials at Lawnton and watched the great trainers of his era in action as much as he could.
I saw them all come over to Lawnton and I learnt a great deal just by watching them, he said. Thats what I mean by observation. Observe your dogs but also observe what the best trainers do. I picked up so much from blokes like my great mate Bobby Belford, John Reimer, Harold Follett, Stan Cleverley when he came north with a dog, and my old mate Syd (Knocka) Norris and his dad Perc.
I watched them all the time.
I remember in the old days when a trainer set his dog up for a punt. They had to get the money.
Reg says he played a lot of sport as a young man (he was an A Grade cricketer) and had an idea of fitness so he based some of his ideas on human fitness.
He says a greyhound is a creature of habit and if you change that habit it will react and sometimes not for the best.
But one of the best pieces of advice he can give anyone is to tap into a champion broodbitch line.
I was lucky to get Another Fool all those years ago, he said. Old Jim Osborn (father of Elite States owner) gave her to me. Shed won the Teys Brother Puppy Stakes at Lawnton and the Silver Collar up Capalaba. Darkie was her kennel name and she could be a handful. But she was a magnificent bitch.
She produced the Fool line and many, many of her daughters produced.
Its the same today with Julie (Edmondson) and her bitch Queen Size. The mother was a great broodbitch and now her daughters are producing as well.
But Reg Kay puts the polish on them in a fashion that turns the promise into Group 1, track record, or greyhound of the year results.

great read, and a great dog trainer ,

thanks for sharing the article david

mick

one question though of trainers reading...do you wash out your kennel every day, even if the dog doesnt pee in its kennel?

i have a thought that alot of the kennels that get washed out every day stay wet in winter & humid in summer & this cant be good for the dog either way...i dont know this as a fact because i have never housed a dog for any length of time, but it seems reasonable that this could be the case.

What about just vacuum & mop....maybe if you have heaps of dogs this is not viable time wise?? I just know that i wouldnt feel good being in a wet cold cage most of the day in winter then a humid one in summer.

just a thought, and as i said i have no evidence this is right

every four weeks they are scrubbed with an electric scrubbing machine , the residue is then power washed of the floor and a squegue is used to mop up all excess water , drying time about an hour in winter 5 minutes in the summer , this seems to work ok for us and keeps the place nice and clean , but i must say moping is time consuming , our floors are epoxy painted im not sure if that would dry quicker or slower than sealed plain concrete

nothing worse then walking into somebodys kennels and smelling week old piss and shit on the floor

if your at work and cant empty them thats a diferent story, a lid full of white king in some hot water and a mop will do the job.. but to many are actually to lazy to take there dogs out to empty at night time and just let them to there business in the kennels. i had a bitch come back whos toes and underneath her feet where red raw from standing in her own piss

biggest turn off is walking through someones kennels and seeing and smelling piss

james each to their own way of doing things , i stated how we do it at our kennels , if overkill so be it , but there will be no let up in the routine ,

ive seen it many times, maybe my stomach is weak but i struggle to walk through kennels that smell

look dogs do piss there kennels from time to time, they maybe stressed or other reasons so it does happen but when its due to being lazy and not going outside after a certain time then your rite lazy bastards. but if they have pissed and its left to the mornign to clean up then thats a whole other level

clean dogs, clean kennels it seems basic to me

stands to reason i guess...another little bit of common sense

I would def like to split the bills more than one way!!