As a greyhound trainer, she isn't quite what you'd expect, but blonde and pretty Kelly Macari, who only 21 year old, would never take another job. She talks to Women's Editor Sarah Foster.

THE two slim figures stand companionably side by side. One is a chocolate-coloured greyhound - a handsome specimen called Prince - the other his blonde, attractive trainer, who starts to groom his shiny coat. The pair seem perfectly in tune; they clearly know each other well, and as the brush goes through his coat, Prince doesn't struggle or protest. This is one woman and her dog, and he is one of her best friends.

When you first step inside Mill Kennels, at Rowlands Gill, in rural Gateshead, you are assaulted by a pungent, doggy smell. The greyhounds' pens stretch out in rows and cover most of the large space, and at the slightest provocation, there is a chorus of loud barks. When Kelly Macari hears the dogs are playing up, she's up and at them in a flash - just like a mum with errant children, she just can't let them misbehave. And really this is how things are: she treats the greyhounds like her offspring.

"They're just really like humans," Kelly claims. "They're like children - they rely on you and they know what time you're going to be here and what time you're going to leave. They know your routine as well as you do."

The kennels belong to a good friend of Kelly's husband, who lets her use the land and building for her own and other people's dogs. "My husband is 37 and we've got a little boy, Ewan, who's one," says Kelly. "He had a dog in a kennels where I worked and that's how we met. He comes to the kennels and goes racing with me all the time."

It may seem odd that she has chosen such a masculine career, but Kelly has lived and worked with greyhounds ever since she was a child. Her father simply loved the creatures and she inherited this love. "My dad used to have greyhounds when I was younger so I was brought up with the dogs and I decided at weekends to go and work for his friend at Brough Park," explains Kelly, who lives in Newcastle. "My dad used to race them, so basically, from when I was born, the dogs were there."

When she got older and left school, Kelly just progressed to being full-time, departing Newcastle's Brough Park to work at Sunderland's dog track. She attends races every week, and being one of the home trainers, has become a well known face.

"I take the dogs racing every time they run - I'm always there," she says. "I go to the track to talk to my owners and make sure everything is OK. Going and watching the dogs and seeing how they all run is very rewarding after all the work I've put in."

Looking after 39 greyhounds is quite clearly no mean feat. While Kelly isn't on her own - there are two others at the kennels, though neither one is here today - it's still a time-intensive job. When she describes what is involved, you're not surprised that she's so slim.

"We get here in the morning and take the dogs out, clean the kennels and then give them breakfast - they have cereal, milk and honey - then we'll take them for a nice long walk," she says. "We'll pull all the beds up and make sure the water is all changed and the kennels are all clean, and then we groom the dogs, treat the ones with injuries and take them all out again. We give them their dinner in the afternoon then we take them out again and make sure the kennels are all clean and tidy before we leave. We're here all year round - there are no days off. I don't think people realise how much work is involved."

If lots of exercise is vital, then making sure the dogs eat well is also key to looking after them. Apart from what they have for breakfast - which sounds remarkably like humans' - they wolf down other tasty foodstuffs. "I use dog food which is a complete race food for greyhounds and I use meat, brown bread and vegetables," says Kelly. "Some dogs get different things in their food in case of cramp, or maybe they have something wrong with their skin."

While not all greyhounds can be champions - indeed among the 39, there are a handful which don't race - she says they love being on the track and get excited every time. She makes their welfare her priority and insists they're happy dogs. "People will sometimes say greyhound racing is cruel and that it shouldn't be allowed but these dogs are bred to chase and that's what they want to do," says Kelly. "They love it. If I was to open the doors now they'd all want to be in that van to go racing.

"When they retire, they're here until they get re-homed. They're so loving and they're very lazy when people take them home - they don't need a lot of exercise if they're not racing."

Among the dogs that she takes care of are five she owns herself. She'd dearly love there to be more but says she'd like to relocate. "I'm hoping to buy a new property where we would live and have dogs, and we'd have our own puppies," says Kelly. "I'm hoping to start breeding once I get the new kennels. We've got a Staffy as a pet but I just want a house full of greyhounds."

This may sound odd to other people but Kelly clearly loves the breed. She knows her lifestyle marks her out from other women of her age but says she wouldn't change a thing.

"All my friends used to say to me 'why do you want to train dogs?', 'why don't you want to come out partying and enjoy yourself?', but all I've ever wanted to do was look after dogs and make them happy," she says. "Partying and going out are not really my sort of thing - I'd rather go to the dog track and watch my dogs run than go out clubbing."