More beautiful beady eyes, slender snouts and bashful smiles than you can say ‘No' to will strut around Tauranga's CBD in the Great Global Greyhound Walk and try to steal your heart on June 19.

Animal lovers are encouraged to join the walk – which starts at the Hairy Maclary statues on The Strand at 10am – to raise awareness of the greyhound breed and help promote adoptions.

Greyhounds As Pets' BOP and Waikato regional coordinator Diana Anderson. with her two greyhounds Zeva (black) and Achilles (brindle). Photo: Daniel Hines.

Greyhounds as Pets organised the Tauranga walk, which will be synchronised with others throughout eh country – and internationally.

GAP helps re-home racing greyhounds once they retire from the track and has found homes for nearly 1600 retired, four-legged competitors in the last decade.

BOP and Waikato regional coordinator Diana Anderson says GAP aims to re-home 365 retired greyhounds annually and by 2018 the target will be 500.

Asked if this amount would see most rehomed, Diana says: 'No, it still wouldn't”. 'There is a need to find homes for these dogs – they either retire from racing or were never suitable for racing.”

Since March, Diana's rehomed 13 in the BOP and Waikato regions. Her love for the breed is obvious. 'They're addictive,” laughs Diana.

Buying a property, she wanted a pet 'and the more I read about greyhounds the more I thought it was the dog for me, because they are relaxed and not high maintenance”.

She adopted her first greyhound Zeva two years ago, then Achilles 12 months ago.

Now Diana's trying to find homes for more. 'Some don't know what greyhounds are like – they're actually really cruisy and don't need as much exercise as people think.”

Diana wants to squash the misconception that greyhounds need more exercise than the average dog. 'That's not the case. I get this question a lot. That's why we want to be out in the public and let people see how relaxed they are.”

'They do sleep a lot – so they're definitely not endurance athletes. They do like to run – so it's great if they can do that on the paddock, in the park or at the beach – but they tire really quickly.”

'They're okay with a 20-minute walk twice-a-day – they don't need hour-long walks.”

Diana says greyhounds are a fairly healthy dogs breed and only need a securely fenced property.

Greyhound racing trainers put dogs into the GAP adoption programme. When a dog becomes available, it gets moved to one of GAP's three kennel bases in NZ.

They assess the dog in general, and if necessary if it likes children or even farm animals. People can apply and GAP check them and their suitability for each individual dog – so both man and pooch are happy.

'We're quite thorough in our adoption process because we don't want dogs coming back to us,” says Diana.

This year's walk, with the theme ‘Carnival', happens June 19 from 10am at the Hairy Maclary statues on The Strand and finishes at Drydock Café.

To adopt a greyhound, see www.greyhoundsaspets.org.nz or contact Diana on 022 396 4509 or at: diana@gap.co.nz