When we used to go Afghan racing. I got talking to a professional photographer who was also interested in Afghan racing and asked exactly the same question. His answer was as follows.

Set the camera up on a particuler point on the track and have the camera focused on that point , say a stake holding the side netting up.As the dogs pass that point take the picture. it is always better to set this kind of thing up on a tripod with remote shutter release to avoid camera shake.
Well thats what he did and the photos were stunning, obviously the fastest shutter, speed depending on how bright it is, the better.


as an example



Ok Ok its a greyhound I know, but they were allowed to race as were any type of dog.

Bazza

Hi,

Thanks everyone - now I've got lots of new things to try!

I think a decent shutter speed (though not necessarily so high that it freezes all movement) is kind of a prerequisite, so I'm going to stick with shutter priority mode as I haven't the skill to handle full-on manual.

I think there could be some mileage in going to manual focus though:
- I won't have to keep the shutter button half-down to hold focus, and that means that exposure metering will occur at the time of the shot, not as I'm setting things up
- It'll free me up to really track the dogs as they approach the target point and hopefully get better composition/timing

I'll give that a go - hopefully this Sunday, if the weather behaves itself!

Look forward to seeing the results BD

Well I finally got a decent chance to try out the revised procedure and I've had some encouraging results. Still nothing to write home about but my usable-vs-bin ratio has improved, so thanks everyone for your tips!

I think I'm getting a little better at calmly judging the moment rather than putting all my trust in burst mode.

That is excellent, not much room for improvemen there.