come and see my new puppy! ridiculously excited.

[jooseyfruit]

getting him tomorrow.
There's a picture on my profile.

I cannot wait to give him a hhyyyooooge hug

dropping in to say hello as I think I may be hanging about the doghouse quite a bit in the weeks to come

Off out to buy everything for him tomorrow morning, as he was a very sudden rescue, needing a home.

awww. I'll post some photo's when we've got him for dd to see.

I am so excited I feel sick and shakey. off shopping now for all his bits and bobs.

squeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Jooseyfruit your puppy is beautiful. We have two lurchers who we've had for a few months now. They were my Cinnamon Trust dogs and when their owner died we were able to offer them a home. Buying dog stuff has become my new internet obsession so must go and check out all those links.

Oh wow. Gorgeous.

All the best

he's at home with us now. He's a crazy boy but I'm sure will settle down. Already bowled over two year old in excitement.

His fur is so soft and he is a real character.

Cat not happy, but not run away yet!

More pics! Please!

Oh he's gorgeous. He looks just like my boy did at a similar age - minus the beard! Mine is now a lanky great soft thing whose favourite hobbies are worsurface surfing and bin-dipping.

more pics soon!
he is a lot big and lankier now, than he was in the pic on profile.

he farts......... a lot.

He jumped up at a lady in the park to nick her gloves today (luckily she was a lurcher lover so was understanding)

he ate 5 huge solid goose poo's at the park today (must avoid park) and has upset stomach all afternoon.

He was awake all night whining last night, I spent from 12-6 lying on the floor next to his crate.

Didn't know what else to do

any advice gratefully received. He is a completely adorable lovely though, and if we put the effort in know he is going to be an amazing dog.

Hmmm, farting might be diet related.....

Sighthounds are kleptomanics, they seem to need to accumulate stuff, out of my whippets crate yesterday I retrieved -

1 comb
1 dustpan
1 abc book
3 small dinosaurs
1 of the kids teddies
1 fork
1 tub of playdoh
1 plush and 1 small plastic Peppa Pig

All of these were unchewed and well hidden in his blankets, he is supervised pretty much all of the time as he is still a puppy, I didn't see him pick up any of them.

My whippet also has a taste for goose/duck poo, maybe it's a sighthound thing?

Unhappy at night, if you stick with it he will settle at night, he is probably just feeling a little unsure atm. Alternatively you could always let him sleep in your room or bed . He will sleep like a baby .

thank you WTWTW. That made me laugh, even got a giggle out of my 13 yo ds when I read out what you'd found in your whippets bed!

We are pretty determined that he is not allowed upstairs. Although I secretly would love it if he was snuggled up with us. eek.

Upstairs is the only refuge of our poor old moggy who is really put out.

have read up about BARF diet, and like your (I think it was you on another thread) take on it ie: a mixture of complete food, sardines, fruit, veg etc.

thanks again.

I missed raw green tripe off of that list which he sometimes has for breakfast.

Totally understand you not wanting him upstairs if it is yours cats sanctury, I woke up this morning wearing a whippet scarf.

It is astonishing what he steals, this morning I did catch him stealthy making his way to his crate with a screwdriver from the toolbag in the kitchen.

I think it I left him to it with all his collected bits and pieces, one day he would drive out of the crate in an armoured tank, smoking a cigar, A-Team stylee.

Lol WTWTW. They really are intelligent dogs, I love it.

slippers (£50 sheepskin beauties) eaten today.

excellent walk through busy city centre then by river on way home.

really worried about letting him off his lead. Need to test recall, but he is loopy when he sees other dogs.
socialisation classes are on the cards I think.

Ah, recall. Sighthounds. The two words go together like bubble and squeak - not! Sighthound recall is what you might call their Achilles heel - tends to be variable, to put it mildly. Most of us sighthound owners tend to err on side of caution, use leads a lot, and let off where we feel confident of safe play.

Classes an excellent idea. Please, please don't be tempted to let him off lead unless it is safe to do so. You have to do this thinking for them. Once they see "prey" (such as a flapping plastic bag half a mile away) the instinct will kick in, and unfortunately they will be oblivious to traffic or other hazards.

Am loving WTWTW's list. We've got a collector - he amasses kitchen implements. And occasionally DH's running shoe (just one). And other odd random things. It's the randomness that makes it so funny and so surreal. Clever ninjas are very good at stealing things in a secret and un-noticed way - think it is part of their training...

thank you Scuttlebutter for your advice.

I feel terrible not letting him off, but that has made me feel better.

He's currently barking constantly in his crate waking whole house up.

Ignore, ( we have neighbours) or sleep on floor next to crate? He was fine last night !

Any words of wisdom?

For recall I would thing about training to a whistle as it carries no emotion like your voice so you can instantly avoid lots of issues. The training is Pavlovian and goes like this-

Buy whistle

Every day for a week before feeding a meal, blow the whistle (I use three quick pips, you may use what you wish).

You now have a dog that associates the whistle with food and will salivate on hearing it, half the battle is won.

For the next few days (when possible) get someone to hold him at increasing distances from his bowl at mealtimes, blow the whistle,
feed him.

Now you have a dog that knows on hearing the whistle he must run to you then he gets food.

Now abandon the feeding thing and blow the whistle at random times, start very easy, ie when the dog was wandering towards you anyway, when he reaches you he must get a magnificent treat (chicken, hot dog, liver cake etc) and he must get it instantly.

Keep increasing the distance in house, garden, even hide a bit, but work at his pace so he is always successful.

Now start outdoors in a safe area and again build up.

Imortant points, go not let children etc randomly blow the whistle for fun, always have a treat at the beginning, though once he is doing well outside, start rewarding only the best responses, this will make him work harder, but don't become stingy! Most recalls should be food rewarded and all others with praise, never become complacent. Don't ask him to do other things on his return to you (like sit), this is slightly skewered training, and for it to continue to work it need to be on the simple basis of 'hear whistle, get fed'. Once trained, don't forget your whistle!

Rudy was trained this way from 10 weeks and his recall is atm 100%, I can even turn him from squirels, however I am aware that he is very young and as he matures and his prey drive increases this may well not be the case,but I feel he has a good grounding.

How did he sleep in the end?

I have to say my loopy lurcher is brilliant at recall! that is where he breaks the mould, he has lived with our cat and have never chased cats, in fact he sleeps with them! He is not interested in small furries either, totally ignores rabbits etc, when we see deer he runs after them then over takes them so the deer are chasing him . He just wants to run, unless it is a bird they ar4e his enemies, but he stiol comes back when called. He is 2 and i have had him for 12 mmonths. He is fab .

My boy has a super recall as well, but he has collie in his mix so also has a supreme love of playing fetch with his ball on a rope or frisbee.

Have to admit, I was worried when we firt got him, so made recall and instant down my first training priorities, thankfully all that hard work seems to have paid off.

morethanyoubargainfor, my lurcher's only enemies are the two great big fat pigeons that torment him in our back garden. They seem to spend a lot of their time settling near him, making a lot of effort to get him to notice them, then flying just out of reach so they can sit there and taunt him. The only time I have ever heard him bark is at that cheeky pair of birds.

I knew as I was writing my words of wisdom that HUNDREDS of sighthound owners would emerge to tell the world about their dog's perfect recall and ability to frolic happily with bunnies, squirrels, chinchillas, butterflies and a whole Bambi forest of cute woodland creatures. Sigh.

We have two with high prey drive, so forget it, and one who is Mr Mellow but variable and erratic - treats calls as a suggestions rather than commands. Working on it with training. The key point, I think, is that even with training, prey drive can kick in at unexpected times and places. So we prefer to be cautious - two dogs are always muzzled and we only do off lead play for all three in safe areas. When advising new greyhound owners we always give the "Sighthound Doom Talk" about prey drive, distance, speed etc. I'd rather that than a dog in a traffic accident or a dead small fluffy.

I know some homecheckers/volunteers in our charity prefer to gloss over this but I feel it is fairer to new owners to give them the "worst case scenario" so that they can then make an appropriate risk assessment with their own dog. Each owner will have an individual approach, based on their own attitude to risk, the dog's character, and their approach to training. There is also the issue that with more than one, this can ramp up the behaviour in the group.

Good point Scuttlebutter. None of us should ever underestimate the innate strength of the prey drive in sighthounds. Better to be cautious than sorry.

I apologise, its easy to say 'my dog has an excellent recall' and not expand further about precautions we take regardless of it.

I agree that is vital for new sighthound owners to be made aware of their potential, both good and bad.

Despite having a really good recall and being very well trained in general, I am always very careful with my lurcher and he is never off lead on countryside walks, near livestock or anywhere I don't know really well and have a lot of confidence in iyswim.

I think the training has stood him in good stead, but the fact that he lives with a ball obsessed belgian shepherd x border collie and a totally people oriented (and now very old, blind, deaf and lazy) Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier has helped as well. The fact that his 'pack' doesn't consist of sighthounds means that they don't gallop off and he sticks with them. Getting him hooked on a frisbee as a A grade reward was one of the best things I ever did, as its something he can 'sight' and chase safely.

Absolutely the best place to watch him run is on the beach near my Dad's place in Ireland. Not another soul anywhere, no other dogs or bunnies or anything else to worry about. Its a beautiful sight to see him really 'go' when we are there.

Ooops sorry, I wasn't trying to imply that it was easy, or that it would always work, just that when you have a puppy I do think it is worth trying to install a good recall, regardless of the breed, cafeful as you will be one day it might save their lives. I do think the methos I have posted is a good way to teach an almost unthinking, automatic recall.

I should also have added that I do only have him off the lead in what I would consider a 'safe' area and like I said he is just a pup, come adolesence/adulthood I am well aware things may be very different.

I wasn't try to say 'my dog is the best' blah blah,

i was just saying that my lurcher is really good at recall, i was trying ti instill some confidence in the op. Of course i would only let my lad off when safe, i would never set him up to fail. He loves his time of the lead but is equally happy on the lead once he has had a good sprint.

He is lovely. What is he lurched with? (IYSWIM!) Whippet/Greyhound?

Whippets can be really whiny. And anxious chewers.

But they grow out of it....

Eventually.

I think definately greyhound and someone on Lurcher link thought bull terrier(?)

Took him out to the racecourse for the first time. The wide expanse and all the different scents sent him wild! Tearing around on a long lead.

He lunged at daughter 10 and ds2 (2yo) and nipped today

we've basically adopted a boisterous teenager and it is harder than we imagined tbh, and this is only day 3.

so much training to do.
feel a bit down about things today, but just tired after not much sleep.
thanks for all your advice and viewpoints

WTWTW -he barked for about 45 mins on and off (quiet by midnight ish) then settled. He started whining at 5 ish. not too bad but of course I can't sleep because I'm listening out for him!

He's had 3.5 hours out on the lead today and is flaked out now, so hopefully will sleep ok!

How old is he?