Per this article
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=lurcher&x=0&y=0
Did you consider looking in a dictionary?
Why yes I did and mine (Random House) said this
The article seemed to be talking about something more specific than a mutt in that they might have wanted to breed the dog, so I was curious.
The OED has a little more info. Too much to post right now, but basically, “lurch” has an old definition of “out-eat someone.” A “lurcher,” therefore, is a person who out-eats, or eats more than his fair share. From there, it seems to have applied to dogs used by poachers to nap game illicitly. It also says they’re typically sheepdog/collie/greyhound mixes.
The Lurcher is not a specific breed, but rather a cross bred hound chosen for particular hunting traits. There is no such thing as a lurcher breed as differing requirements make for a differant mix.
They are nearly always crossed from running hunters such as greyhounds and whippets, and some other breed depending upon the specific role or prey.
Hare coursing is a very popular sport amongst some sections of society, and this requires a very fast, agile animal with more endurance than say a greyhound and also with a certain amount of hunting intelligence.
Hunting a hare requires the prey to be detected and set to flight by human undergrowth thrashers with scent dogs, all of which are too slow to catch a hare.
The hare itself can usually outrun even a greyhound by using sudden sidesteps, and changes of direction, even a lurcher would not usually catch one, unless it applies that hunting intelligence.
Hares have shorter forelegs than hind legs, chasing one uphill the hare will almost always win out, the trick is for the lurcher to make the hare swerve in such a way as to force the hare downhill, which slows it down significantly.
Betting is the main motivation for this sport, most of the betting is illegal and so attracts a certain type of person.
Good lurchers can make their owners significant sums of money through the chase and also through the bookmaker.
Lurchers are genreally easy going and friendly animals, certainly not stand offish in the way that greyhounds sometimes are, and they make good pets. They need less exercise than you might imagine as they run around like mad for maybe half an hour before they have worn themselves out, they are also full of character.
One friend of mine had a lurcher that was in the habit of body slamming other dogs, and the speed at which it hit them always knocked them clean over (and people too - totally knocks the wind out of you), no matter if it was a strongly built Rottweiler, or bull mastiff - despite those dogs having at least 2.5 times body mass. All this would be in sheer fun and enjoyment of speed and accelaration, a lurcher given room to develop speed could pretty much take on any dog that was foolish enough to remain static and wait for the incoming charge.
Here is your obligatory link,
The ideal lurcher, back when I was a young 'un, would be greyhound/border collie cross. The idea being to get a dog with the speed of a greyhound and the brains of a collie.
Mine had those traits reversed.
Our former dog ,I suppose , could be classed as a lurcher. He was half Whippet and half black Labrador. When he was young the whippet side predominated. He was thin and seemed to be all legs and could certainly get up to a fair speed . When he got older he slowed down , fattened out and became more like a Labrador. He lived until he was sixteen . Still miss him.
Did you ever see the Guy Ritchie movie Snatch? Remember the scene where the pikeys have the two hare-coursing dogs, and Turkish bets the fight and/or caravan on the outcome? Those two dogs are, IIRC, lurchers.