Book I of Ovid’s Metamorphoses tells the story of Daphne, who was turned into a tree by her father Peneus to save her from the ravages of Apollo, described metaphorically as resembling a hunting dog in pursuit of its prey. This chapter examines early English versions of Ovid, showing that translators brought their own experience of coursing greyhounds to bear on the text. The main versions under consideration are by Arthur Golding, George Sandys and John Dryden. In the eighteenth century the appropriateness of Ovid’s canine metaphor was questioned by Samuel Johnson, and there are suggestions as to why he might have felt that way. The first part of the chapter concludes with an extended reading of an adaptation of the Daphne story by the contemporary American poet Alice Fulton, who reworks it from a feminist perspective whilst still drawing upon canine metaphors. The second part of the chapter concerns the relationship between Procris and Cephalus as recounted in Book VII, concentrating on an exceptional dog called Laelaps. The translations by Golding, Sandys and Nahum Tate are again invoked, while a brief coda describes visual representations by Piero di Cosimo, J.M.W. Turner and Benjamin West.