Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
Beat the crowd
10 questions No timer
60 free Whippet trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Whippet trivia quiz covers the sleek British sighthound from every angle: where the name comes from, the medieval 'tumbler' and Victorian 'snap-dog' that came before it, the Bedlington cross of the north-east, the mill workers who carried the breed to Massachusetts, and the Kennel Club recognition of 1891. There are questions on the breed standard (height, colour, the merle ban), on temperament, on the double suspension gallop that makes it the fastest dog of its weight, and on health quirks such as barbiturate sensitivity and the myostatin 'Bully Whippet' mutation. The quiz also runs through Whippet racing culture, from 'ragging' with waved towels to the rival racing associations of the 1960s, plus the breed's Best in Show wins at Westminster and Crufts, the World War I Whippet tank and its rogue tank 'Musical Box', and Ashley Whippet, the Frisbee-catching dog who stopped a Dodgers game and played a Super Bowl. Questions run from easy to expert with the difficulty shown on each one, and every answer was checked against a reference page and carries its citation. If you enjoy it, try our Dogs and Greyhound quizzes next.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Whippets are classed as which type of dog?
Sighthound
Sighthounds hunt by sight and speed rather than by nose, and the Whippet is Britain's compact member of the family.
Q 02The Whippet sits between which two breeds in size, and closely resembles both?
The Greyhound and the Italian Greyhound
Think of the trio as large, medium and small versions of the same streamlined outline.
Q 03In the 19th century the Whippet earned which nickname?
The poor man's racehorse
Working men in the industrial north could not keep thoroughbreds, but a fast dog and a Sunday race meeting were within reach.
Q 04The Whippet is believed to have the fastest what of any dog?
Idle-to-running acceleration
It also has the fastest running speed within its weight and size range, though larger Greyhounds are faster flat out.
Q 05Which best describes the typical Whippet temperament?
Gentle and calm
Whippets are famous for lounging indoors for hours, then exploding into short bursts of speed outside.
Q 06Because of their hunting past, Whippets have a strong prey drive that may lead them to chase what?
Small animals
Cats, rabbits and squirrels are the classic targets, which is why owners keep them leashed in open areas.
Q 07The Whippet's short, smooth coat is easy to manage partly because it lacks what?
An undercoat
The trade-off is poor insulation, so many Whippets wear a coat in winter.
Q 08Thanks to a thin coat and low body fat, what might a Whippet need in cold weather?
A dog jacket
Whippets are well suited to indoor life but chill quickly outdoors, hence the popularity of fleece coats and sweaters.
Q 09Which French hunting manual did Edward, 2nd Duke of York, translate in the early 15th century?
Livre de chasse
His English version, The Master of Game, praised keeping great, middle and small greyhounds for different quarry.
Q 10What did John Caius call the 'lesser sort of mungrell greyhounde' used for catching rabbits?
The tumbler
The tumbler is often treated as an ancestor or early cousin of the Whippet, and it was still being described in the early 19th century.
Q 11The name 'Whippet' comes from an obsolete early-17th-century term meaning what?
To move briskly
The dog got the name long before the modern breed was standardised.
Q 12By what nickname did Victorian writers know the emerging Whippet?
Snap-dog
The name described the breed's habit of readily 'snapping up' anything small that moved.
Q 13The first written use of the word 'whippet' for a type of dog in English dates to which year?
1610
That is more than 250 years before the Kennel Club got round to recognising the breed.
Oudry painted two whippet-like dogs, Misse and Turlu, presented to which French king?
Q 21Which Whippet was the first of the breed to win Best in Show at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show?
Ch. Courtenay Fleetfoot of Pennyworth
The other three names all won Best in Show at Crufts rather than Westminster.
Q 22In which year did a Whippet first take Best in Show at Westminster?
1964
The winning dog was bred in England and campaigned in the US.
Q 23Which Whippet won Best in Show at Crufts in 2018?
Ch. Collooney Tartan Tease
Known as Tease, she was the third Whippet to take the top prize at Crufts.
Louis XV
Oudry painted Misse a second time alongside a completely different, non-hound breed.
Q 15The rougher-coated 19th-century northern Whippet type came from crossbreeding with which breed?
Bedlington Terrier
The Bedlington, itself a miner's dog from Northumberland, has Whippet in its own ancestry, which explains its arched back.
Q 16The rough-coated northern Whippet type of the 1800s was frequently referred to by what name?
Rabbit dog
It was most popular in Durham and Northumberland, while the smooth type ruled Lancashire, Yorkshire and the Midlands.
Q 17In which year did The Kennel Club officially recognise the Whippet?
1891
Recognition let Whippets enter dog shows and have pedigrees recorded, pulling the breed away from the racetrack.
Q 18Who brought the first Whippets from England to the United States?
Mill operators
The American Kennel Club recognised the breed in 1888, three years before its British counterpart.
Q 19In which US state were the first American Whippet populations established?
Massachusetts
The New England textile towns had strong ties to the mill districts of northern England where the breed was raced.
Q 20Where did the Whippet rank in the American Kennel Club's breed popularity list for 2024?
50th
The breed has stayed inside the AKC top 60 for a decade.
Q 24How many times had a Whippet won Best in Show at Crufts by the end of 2018?
Three
The wins came in 1992, 2004 and 2018.
Q 25In 2011 the Westminster Kennel Club named which female Whippet its Hound Group Show Dog of the Year?
GCh. Starline's Chanel
Chanel's win came almost half a century after the breed's only Westminster Best in Show.
Q 26Under the breed standard, the ideal height for a male Whippet is roughly what?
18.5 to 20 inches
The American and Canadian standards allow slightly taller dogs, up to 22.5 inches for males.
Q 27In 2019 The Kennel Club stopped accepting registrations for Whippets of which colour?
Merle
The club ruled it was not a naturally occurring colour in the breed, so it must have come from crossbreeding.
Q 28How does the breed standard treat coat colour when judging Whippets?
It is considered immaterial
That is why Whippets come in everything from solid black to solid white, plus red, fawn, brindle, blue and cream.
Q 29What top speed can a Whippet reach?
About 35 mph
That is 56 km/h, the fastest of any dog in its weight class.
Q 30Which gait, in which all four feet leave the ground twice per stride, lets the Whippet reach top speed?
Double suspension gallop
The feet are airborne once with the body fully stretched and again with the legs tucked underneath.