lol no thanks, I've closed up shop to giveaways in the last few years, just breeding my own and sticking to my own dogs

But in the beginning, when I first got my owner/trainer's licence, (I started out when I was 16) I got my first hound as a giveaway, his race name was Mersey Wonder (by Ding's Wonder) he was an ex Victorian who had about 40 starts for a win, was the world's slowest ever dog, however I got him going and he won 2 races for me, he was a doofus of a dog lol but such a hard trier and I learnt so much from training him. He even ran 3rd in a country graded final after winning his heat in the world's slowest time lol was lucky I guess, he had box 1 and got out in the lead for the first time in his life and hung on.
He was my first winner and it was a great feeling!

That's what new owner/trainers should do, don't ruin a potentially good pup/young dog, always start out with an old dog first, so that way, you can learn the ropes. An older dog can teach a novice trainer so much.

My 2nd ever dog, I purchased with my money that I earned working as a vet assistant (I was 18 by then) was called Calm Cookie. I got him for $300, he was unfashionably bred by an unknown sire and a hopelessly slow dam, and he had already had 14 starts for 1 win and 2 placings when I bought him.
He went on to win 7 races, 15 2nds and 14 3rds for me in 84 starts, was a pleasure to train. I had to put him down at age 5 years due to throat cancer.. broke my heart! He was still racing then, won his last race at age 4 half years old.

From that point on, almost every giveaway that I got, all won for me even after people/top trainers told me that they couldn't get these dogs going and these dogs would never be any good. So to see them win, was always such a great feeling.

All they needed was individual hands on TLC, not being in a huge kennel treated like a number.