People with Greyhounds, where do you keep your food?

[DooinMeCleanin]

I used to have a bread bin to keep the bread in. Not anymore. Nor do we ever have any bread.

I also used to have a butter dish.

I no longer have any porridge, since she has just learnt how to open the 'cereal and tins' cuboard.

My higher up cuboards are too small to fit everything in!

High cupboards. And they haven't yet learned how to open the fridge or the cooker. Fortunately we have a utility room but if that door is open, the recycling gets raided.

I too used to have a butter dish. I loved it. I bought it when I left home aged 19, and it survived through umpteen house moves, marriage etc until a thieving bloody hound came along one day and decided he could reach up to the top of the microwave, that was standing on the worktop.

We still find food and other items "stashed" in odd places over the house. Like under the pillow. Not nice when it's a piece of tripe.

Basically, we now have lovely clean worktops - after a while it becomes a habit. The kitchen windowsill is safe too. It's not easy - I'm constantly amazed by how far the lanky buggers can reach. Sigh.

Yes my kitchen work surfaces are looking a lot clearer. I'm going to have re-jig my whole kitchen and only keep plates and pans etc in the lower ones aren't I?

i dont have a greyhound.

but i do have a gate on my kitchen. [dont i ralph]

pantry. with a high lock

In a big food container skip thing. In the pantry. Behind a closed door. With a catering size bag of rice on top.

I really want a greyhound...even their bad habits sound endearing. Are they naturally greedy or is their height advantage ?

child locks on the cupboards?

My girly grey doesn't steal food. I have no idea why- I can't take any credit for it. I've accidently left packets of choccie biscuits within her reach all day and she leaves them.

I have lurchers and have a clip-lock lidded bin for food. All surfaces kept clear and fruit bowl shoved to back of counter (or we find banana skins down the back of the sofa cushions later). Non-food items only in bottom cupboards. I used to be safe with dry goods but have had to be more careful of late. I really can't face a repeat of the yellow split peas theft.

I occasionally use the microwave as a safe which works fine, until you go to warm up your milk in the morning, and find last night's supper looking at you - oops!

We have nothing on our worktops, fruit bowl ontop of the breadmixer and the larder door firmly shut at all times, or else! And we don't have a grey, just two thieving labs and two thieving cats.

Ah - thinking about getting a lurcher too so would a pull out larder be hound proof?

Once sat in BIL's kitchen when their donkey walked in and stole an apple from the fruit bowl - now that's what I call cheeky

Weirdly enough, I was thinking last week ( that in itself is weird )

Racing greyhounds have a diet and excercise regime to keep them fit and at their racing weight (which doesn't include raiding cupboards I assume)

So when they retire, and spend their time lounging about with better/more food and more oppertunity for self-service- how do you keep them trim?

I have seen some 'fuller figured' greyhounds out there, but most of them are still slender (as in can feel some of their ribs) even though they have a light muscle/fat covering.
Are they naturally like this or is their racing weight really spare?

Maybe they are like those annoyin people who can eat chips all day and gain nothing...

I had a dog who was good at opening doors/packets/jars. My friend had a dog who was a bit dim, but had a great sense of smell and could find the food. We made the mistake of leaving them together once while we went out to rent a DVD...they proved that dogs can do some very good teamwork...

Valhalla and I have a mutual acquaintance who takes his greys to the pub for a nice roast lunch. His grey is on the, ahem, portly, side (but is very much loved and gets loads of exercise).

In general terms, a grey's racing weight would be below what most people would consider acceptable as a weight for a pet dog, but there is also a real issue of many pets actually being a bit too well covered. When a grey comes off the track, there is a gradual adjustment over about six months with a gain of a little more weight and often a slight scaling back of fitness levels - even after retirement though you should be able to see ribs, and I like to see/feel hip bones, but not have them sticking out too much, if that makes sense.

Like all dogs though, they do vary considerably. We've got three - one is naturally slender though she eats like a horse, one is a permanent struggle to get weight on him though he eats plenty, and one is a natural porker who is prone to lardiness so goes running with DH to keep him in good shape. I think it's really important to consider fitness/muscle tone as well as just weight though - there's nothing worse than seeing a dog (of any weight) with no fitness or poor muscles - it really affects their appearance. I think it usually takes a grey about six months from track to getting a new balance in terms of weight, fitness and coat quality - important not to rush it, and it can take longer if they are in a bad way to start with.

Morning routine here is husband making work sandwiches, greyhound stealing breadbuns as fast as he gets them out of the breadbin - then the Benny Hill-esque chase sequence of half-dressed man and grinning hound doing laps around the lounge, kitchen and garden!

at DW

Yes, that sounds very familiar. Comedy chases involving joints of meat, cakes, and various other comestibles have been known.... most embarrassing was after entertaining chair of local greyhound charity ("yes, of course we are responsible, sensible dog owners") and speedy hound vanishing upstairs with remains of large roast lamb leg. Sigh.

My friend's lurcher vera is very keen as they say and last xmas the two mums and Vera had to travel in a small car with a cooked turkey

the idea still makes me giggle

We went on hols with friends and their whippet.
The caravan wasn't foodproofed effectively and we came home to find a loaf of bread with a whippet-head-shaped hole bored through the middle. It was like she'd made a bread mask while we were out.

Mum's lurcher can open the fridge and her dogs sleep in the kitchen at night. Fortunately she's really thick not yet worked out what to do about it when they put her bed right in front of it, so presumably lies there all night balefully glowering at the door