Pointy hounds thread! For new, old and prospective owners!

[SpaghettiTwirlerAndProud]

Share stories, advice and ask for help if you need it! There are a few resident hound experts (myself not included) in the doghouse, so, feel free to share! :)

Awww Betsy they sounds gorgeous. Can't wait until we move so that I can start looking for my hound :) Only a few months to go!!! sigh

Spaghetti have you heard about any girly hounds yet??

Well kate there is one called Helena, I think that might be who we end up with. She's black with a white chest. I need to pin DP down on a day we can go meet her but that won't be for at least 2 weeks! We can only go at weekends and DP is decorating the front room at the mo and will more than likely still be doing it next weekend.

We'll get there. Eventually. . . . .

The nice thing about black hounds is that once they've lost their kennel coat, and had a few months on sardines, and with some decent grooming, you get the most gorgeously glossy, satiny soft coat you could imagine. In sunshine, it looks dazzling. Even though our blonde boy has a soft coat which is healthy and shiny, nothing is as dazzling as the two black ones. You get this play of light on muscle which is just entrancing.

That's a lovely image I've got in my head now of powerful speedy pointys with glossy black coats. Met friends with three whippets down the beach yesterday and it was a joy to see the two younger ones racing with each other.

Can I pick your brains for a minute please? I go out with mini whippety every hour into the garden to 'potty train' and he eats everything he sees. Twigs, leaves, grass, pebbles everything and now he has a runny tummy. Do I need to stop him eating everything, will it do him any harm or is this just normal behaviour? I thought about a muzzle but it would have to be minature!

Oh, a yes for the black hounds. Billy is really really shiny. He loves being groomed; his coat was lovely even when he came to us after 6mo or so in kennels as the lady who owns the kennels asks for donations of pilchards/sardines for people when they come to charity events and I think when they do the stall at the dog track. She reckons it's one way to help the black dogs get adopted a little faster!

Ooh lost, I feel your pain. I have seen tiny muzzles on tiny terriers if that helps?

Sorry I meant from people, not for people.

It's happened to me too, I walked past the middle aged woman (who lives round the corner from us, 2 greys) and I smiled at her and said "Lovely dogs you have there!" and she shot me a nervous smile and hurried off :( surely a 20yo woman with a 6mo baby in a buggy isn't that intimidating?

betsy sorry I forgot to say earlier, torn muscles? Ouch! I hope it heals quickly, it sounds very painful. Silly Billy! (see what I did there? :o )

Uhm, spaghetti, don't want to be a doombringer, but is your dh comitted to operation grab-a-grund? When we decided to get a houndy nothing would have stopped dh from going down to the rescue kennels, and colour would not have come into it if the dog had the right personality...
(although we had in our heads the image of a black, blue or brindle greyhound girlie, we fell in love and came out with a cream and white whippety lurcher and he is just the perfect fit)

I hope for your sake I am wrong but if your dh had been this hesitant when dealing with the lady who runs our greyhound trust she would be calling him in for a further chat to ascertain his enthusiam / commitment to have a grund...
The fact you are the one doing all the phonecalls is a bit of a giveaway too....

That is not to say that I think you should rush into this, far from it, but to not go and see a potential new member of the family because you are busy decorating seems a bit....

And I think Sox deserves to be seen, if the charity have child tested him for you and he has passed then he could well be the right dog... I find the whole 'not seeing him because I don't like his colour' does not sit well with the idea of rescuing a dog....

And does dh only want a girl dog because he does not like Sox? Or has he thought about the differences between girl and boy dogs and made an informed decision? For me the only reason I originally wanted a girlie hound was because the few I had met were smaller than boy hounds. But there is currently a girl at our local rescue, which dd and I have fallen in love with, who is the same size if not bigger than some of the boys so clearly that theory would not have held much water...

I don't know, sorry, am not sure what I am trying to say, and I don't know your dh so hopefully I am way off the mark... but he does not seem very enthusiastic about it all?

Lawks, lost, just saw the pic on your profile of mini whippety and that top one of him asleep looks too much like my DS2 (v small, v blonde, v skinny) for my liking!

Sorry, maybe one too many here!

Oh, and he's beauuuutiful of course too! So tiny! So cute!

I've just put another one up MissBetsy, he looks very sorry for himself which considering he is the most pampered pup ever is astonishing! Hope your muscles are healing, what a pain (literally!) if you have dogs to exercise (I can't put walk, pointys don't walk do they, they just hurtle)

Oooh lost, he is just beautiful... am in love...

I am utterly pathetic in the face of a small dog, he's won our hearts completely and we haven't even had him a week. I am embarrassed at my soppiness

I would be too lost... he is delicious...

What is his colouring, is he white and cream?

Lost your pup looks fab, makes me realise how big my boy has got.

He was a slivery grey colour when he was born but now he's a silvery/fawn colour but with the creamiest neck and chest. He's got blue tips to his ears, eyes and nose. A real hotch potch, I had my heart set on a blue when we started looking into a whippet but when the breeder said I could choose when the litter was born I told her just to pick one as I would love him because he was mine not a specific colour (IYSWIM) and I was right. Although I think she chose her favourite

Today we are mostly going to be working on 'leave it' after this mornings poo seemed to be 90% grass, d'oh.

Hope all the pointys are well this morning, not much of a day for a run here, brrr.

Met him when he was less than 2 weeks old btw as we'd already met the breeder before he was thought of, they all looked the same then really, little sausages!

Okay, it is waaaaay too early for me to start looking properly (as we don't move until late March/early April) but does anyone know of any good grund rescues in the yorkshire area? We are west Yorks but I don't mind travelling a bit for a good rescue!!

Lost just looked at your pics.... oh my.... melts

kate not really, I started making enquiries and looking early november and we still don't have one! GRWE rehome all over england, and they have more than just greys, they have all kinds of pointies!

Lock I know it may seem like he's not really into it but he is, wrt me doing all the talking it just seems easier that way if they're only dealing with one person rather than two, it could get confusing iyswim? And the decorating, we are currently living with both the front room and dining room in the dining room, we are constantly tripping over everything and we just want it finishing asap, the woman from LGT keeps telling me that she will bring dogs to us so they can meet DD in her usual natural territory (eg, at home) but I would like to go over there to see all the dogs. We just want to get the room finished 100% before we go get/meet a dog.

And DP is used to picking and choosing a specific dog that he likes the look of as that's what he has done in the past as a child with his parents. He doesn't get the concept of rescue dogs, if it's the right one it's the right one, regardless of his colour, age etc.

He only wanted a boy, because he is the only male in our house, there is me, DD and the rabbit is also a girl. He just wanted to even things up a bit. But now he is saying he doesn't mind too much if we end up with a girl.

I know sox deserves to be seen, which is another reason I want to go over there. I know there's no point asking DP to go see the dogs before the room is finished as he will stress out about it and be an arsey git and not pay much attention to any dogs as he will just want to get home and get finished. I could describe him as hormonal really, because he acts like a hormonal pregnant woman sometimes!

God this post makes him sound like a right miserable git. But he's not really, he's lovely 99% of the time

This is Helena by the way

spaghetti she is gorgeous... if your DP doesn't like her I will gladly take her!! :)

Spag, many greyhound rescues don't encourage you to go and see all the dogs, because after doing the homecheck they will have a much better idea of who would suit you. If you go and look, you may well end up falling in love with a completely unsuitable hound. The rescues really do want you as an adopter to go home with the right dog, as nothing is worse than when an adoption breaks down - misery for everyone, including the dog, who will find it much, much harder to settle in kennels and to be rehomed for the second time.

It really is something where both of you should be committed to the choosing process so better to wait till domestic distractions are out of the way - anyway, imagine a greyhound tail and all that paint!

I looked on the website and loved Helena but totally fell for Jet - would love to bring the dear old boy home.

Scuttle we're wallpapering and painting, imagine that Did you see Harvey? He only arrived the other day. I'd love to go meet him and a few other dogs they have there but those kennels are 60 miles away and DD doesn't do long journeys. And it doesn't seem fair to ask them to bring dogs to us.

We asked to be matched to a dog. When we went up to the kennels they had our chap waiting in the outside paddock. I was a bit taken aback by his size so it wasn't love at first sight. It was pretty soon after though - DS2 has SN and some mobility problems and fell over in his paddock. Billy just went straight up to him and gave him a snuffle and a nuzzle and I think then we knew he was right (the staff knew all along of course!)

We took him out for a walk and that was that.

I did want the staff to matchmake us though. I think I had a really romantic idea before we went and visited a few branches of the RGT that our eyes would meet through a crowded kennels and we'd just know when we found our dog but as they all mostly run up to you at the door of their stable thingies that was never going to happen.