Greyhounds and the closely-related breed, Salukis, have been used by the people of the Middle East for about 8,000 years. They are members of the dog group known as the "gazehounds" or "sighthounds" because of their reliance on their keen sight to find the location of prey in the distance. (Unlike most dogs, the greyhound does not have a very good sense of smell.) The walls of ancient Egyptian tombs contain pictures of dogs that look very much like the modern greyhound. The dogs are associated with the Egyptian pharaohs, and during the Middle Ages in Europe, only members of the aristocracy could own greyhounds.

The Romans enjoyed a sport called coursing, in which one greyhound (and in later centuries, two greyhounds) raced in pursuit of a lure. The modern sport of greyhound racing can be traced to the Earl of Oxford in 18th-century England, who created the first public coursing club and tried to breed the "perfect" greyhound.

While greyhounds came to the Western Hemisphere with the first Europeans, they did not become popular until farmers in the Midwest realized that greyhounds could be used to keep down the population of jackrabbits that threatened crops. The Midwest became the heart of American coursing, and later, of greyhound racing. Cavalry officers stationed in the American West sometimes kept greyhounds because they could be used as scouts and could help in running down game animals. Gen. George A. Custer is said to have coursed his pack of greyhounds the night before the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876.

Greyhound racing, in which six dogs ran in pursuit of an artificial lure, was begun in Hendon, England in 1876. While the idea did not catch on there at first, it was revived in the United States in the early years of the 20th century. After experimenting with a number of lure techniques, including pulling a rabbit skin around the track with a motorcycle, the sport caught on. It became especially popular in Florida in the 1920s. The sport also returned to England, where it received a great deal of public support as well.

The establishment of pari-mutuel betting around the country in the 1930s increased the popularity of greyhound racing. By 1992, more than 3.5 million people bet $3.5 billion on more than 17,000 races. Since that time, other kinds of legalized gambling and protests from animal rights groups have caused some tracks to close and revenues to go down. There are now more than 40 tracks in 15 states.