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! :)

Sorry about your friends betsy, that's terrible. My dad left when I was about 8. Weirdly enough his OW had a brindle greyhound, named Flecky. Or Fleckie. I don't know the spelling.

Hey scuttle, if you ever win the lottery you could open a pointy hound sanctuary and every dog would have their own PJs and a snuggle bed each and a giant wardrobe for collars, leads, coats and special occasion PJs etc. . . .

They've had to bear some really horrible homophobic abuse over the years, especially over their choice to become parents and I can't help thinking that this added pressure has been a contributory factor to their split.

Our chap and theirs get on well too.

On a lighter note,

Whoa there!

Whoa there indeed! I'm actually lost for words on that one, wow.

Sorry to hear about your friends btw, I just cant stand or begin to understand homophobia, why people have to think their way is the only right way and no one can do anything different I've never known.

I know lost. It makes me so angry. I'm not saying it's the only reason they split, just that I've spent a lot of time with them both - walking their dog, playing with the kids, school runs - and people can say such vile things that it must have some impact on relationships.

Sorry to hijack the thread. Just waiting for DH to get home so I can tell him - don't really want to discuss it with our friends as I don't think any of them know yet.

That picture is the only thing that's made me laugh today. That's an awesome dog. And that man's face is a treat.

Anyway... sorry... as you were.

Who got me back onto pinterest, I am blaming you completely for making me want to spend silly money on this fabric. I can't even sew!

Lawks, that's beautiful. Can you do a pinterest wishlist?

Betsy, that's awful about your friends. I am so sorry.

Lost that fabric! And the wolfhound pic!! In fact the other fabrics are lovely - I was very smitten by the chickens one. I'd love to have chickens but I'd need the space to ensure they were completely secure from our grunds. Still once that Lottery win comes in, there'll be several chaise longues upholstered in that fabric, a dressing room for the grund coats and collars, lots of roaring log fires a giant front door with a huge carved bronze knocker in the shape of a hound... (you can tell I've given this some thought...)

Betsy that's awful. Bloody homophobes is it an amicable split?

I've just had a thought. How are greys at obedience training? I'll need to train ours to wait/stay while I get the buggy out of/in the front door.

And WOW that dog. I showed DP it and he said
DP- 'Wow I want one of those!'
Me- 'Umm, they're the size of a house'
DP- 'Yeah and we have a house!'
Me- 'To have a dog the size of a house you need a house that's twice the size of that dog!'
DP- 'Oh :( '

Well, you're probably never going to see an invasion of pointies at an obedience competition! Having said that, many ex racers actually are pretty good - they usually come with loose lead walking, nice car manners and can do stay as long as you like. Weaker areas are recall (to put it mildly ) and of course many greys can't do a sit as it's very uncomfortable for them. They will also look at you as if you have gone completely bonkers if you attempt to do throwing/fetching exercises - this is a non starter for any self respecting grund.

Having said that I've done Bronze, Silver and Gold with one of ours and he was brilliant. Top tips - take a comfy rug/bed/blanket. No grund is happy to lie on a cold hard floor - they will moan and complain and do their martyr act. Ours had his fave Ikea sheepskin and all was well - the stay exercises went like a dream and in fact our main problem was that he kept going to sleep and had to be woken up for hte exciting bits.

DS3 is very proud of the fact that he has taught Silver 'stay' I haven't pointed out that he puts him on a rug on his fave sofa so the dog gets bored after, ooh say 5 seconds, and goes to sleep .

I'm not sure if I could cope with a dog the size of a house (even though we have a fairly large house) I have started lingering on IG sites, sigh, they look sooo pretty.

Looks like I may be digging out my sheepskin rug from under the bed then, we have the original wood flooring in our front room which is where our front door opens into.

So in general they're pretty good at stay (which makes sense when you think about it, as all it requires is not moving :o)

Hmm I left a message at LGT on wednesday and she's not rung back yet. Do you think I should ring them again? Although I do hate pestering.

Oh my giddy aunt - that fabric is beautiful.... I now have a desperate wish to make a cushion with it... (and I can't sew nor own a sewing machine!!)

Loving the idea of a comfy blanket to help with 'stay' training... Sam has actually not mastered 'stay' yet but I am blaming that on the percentage of him that is not houndy!
The flip side of that is that his recall is pretty good

He does play ball, in fact I throw the ball, he chases after it, catches it, then prances around the garden throwing it up in the air and catching it as he goes... Wonderful to see, especially when I saw it for the first time today after his months of being so ill...

Dh would like a Wolfhound too.... But the house is waaay to small. And the car - what size car would you need to cart that dog to the vets etc? Yikes... (but gorgeous dogs)

Aww, Lock, that must have been a very special milestone for you. It's so lovely that Sam is getting better. We need a sort of [heart] emoticon here though it's a short step from that to calling each other "hun" I guess.

I suppose you'd need either a big Transit type van or possibly a horsebox! Actually know quite a few pointy rescue peeps who have big vans, makes a lot of sense if you regularly transport a few, plus all the stuff they need (worse than kids emoticon!)

That's really lovely lock

Scuttle, it made my day to see Sam so bouncy He was also practising for the 'waggiest tail' competion this morning, he had not wagged for so long I had actually forgotten he had ever wagged at all...

He will always be a dog with a sensitive colon, he is currently costing us £100 a month in vet check-ups and another £100 per month in special diet food and prebiotics and steroids...

But he should at some point, hopefully, be on a lower dose of steroids and different (cheaper) prebiotics and a different, non-prescription food.
I also want to look into alternative treatments / additives for him to reduce the amount of steroids required if at all possible.

The main thing is though, he is still here (and even the vet admitted that he honestly did not think Sam was going to live) and he is happy, and that is the main thing

It seems operation grab a grund is doomed to fail, either that or just take a very loooooooong time. I just rang them, and was told the girl they did have (not Helena afterall, but Bella) that was suitable was rehomed yesterday :( And they don't know if they have any baby friendly ones over at the Boston kennels as I'm assuming they don't have any small children handy to test with. Jill (the woman who's dealing with us) from LGT is going away tomorrow for a week and as she only has 4 dogs at the mo she's going to "restock" soon after she gets back.

Lock that's so good! I bet you were so pleased to have him so lively and playful! He's a fighter that's for sure :)

It must just be me, but I think that fabric is hideous. Sorry but I can't stand things with patterns of animals on!

Good grief Spag, our two local charities are overflowing with grunds.

If you wish to consider another charity, then that might be an option?

Jill only has room for 8 dogs anyway, her kennels are at her house and because she is going away she didn't want to get any new dogs in for her helpers to deal with as she likes to settle them in herself.

I have considered another rescue but 1, I'd feel awfully guilty ditching LGT. 2, It would mean faffing around getting checked again. And 3, I don't think there are any other localish grund rescues to us.

Tbh I felt enough of a twat telling her we wouldn't be having sox afterall because of his colour. I hate the thought of telling her we're going elsewhere.

Oh Spag, that is a teeny tiny charity...

And I guess this has illustrated that when a suitable houndy pops up you must phone straight away...

Hopefully Operation-Grab-A-Grund is back on track soon...

Yup it's teeny weeny! At the other kennels they have room for 16 dogs, and there are 2 dogs at sheffield, so LGT at full capacity, with every kennel filled, they can have upto 26 dogs altogether!

Forgot to mention Jill told me the only dog she has who is suitable is Sox. I told DP who grudgingly said 'Well we'll have to go see him then.' Honestly I could swing for the git sometimes! And we'll have to wait at least a week as Jill goes away today but I don't know when she's back.

Has anyone got any advice about trying to integrate our returned cat with the dogs?
Full details here
Cat is still very friendly to both dogs this morning but The Lurcher is getting a bit excited. she got 'that look' in her eyes, she wants the cat to run IYKWIM. We'd like to let the cat out into the main house at some point but not sure how play it. The lurcher no longer fits into her puppy crate.
Has anyone managed to integrate a cat-interested hound with an adult cat?

Our ex-racing grey didnt take long to train with water spray and a tin can- but she'd already been deemed cat-trainable, so it may take you longer to train your lurcher. Basically, sighthound needs to learn to ignore cat- Sigthounds build up excitement whilst looking at small furries, so you need to break this cycle. When dog looks at the cat for more than a SECOND you spray dog with water and drop tin can to make a noise and say 'NO' firmly. The dog learns that to even look at the cat is bad. You can't wait for the dog to lunge or get excited.

To integrate dog quickly, you need to put a lot of intensive work in. We kept our grey and cats in the loungs together every evening (cats were hiding behind sofa at first, but gradually gained confidence). This helps dog to learn that they are part of the family and they have to get along. Grey first had box muzzle on (I recommend getting one from a sighthound rescue- it puts your mind at ease and lurcher will still be able to drink water and you can leave it on for long periods) and on a lead at first, then after we were more confident she just had the muzzle on with supervision. We also started feeding them treats alongside each other after a week or so. This is good after the initial training as the animals are all together but have something else to concentrate on.

After a couple of weeks we did similar training thing in garden- it's harder here as dog has more freedom. We kept her muzzle on outside for about 2-3 months. Now she is without muzzle but always supervised outside.

As lurcher hasn't had chase instinct kindled this process should work eventually. The greyhounds that really aren't cat-trainable will not rest if they know a cat is around, they will lunge, not listen to you, and are wild with excitement. My grey did try and chase once or twice at first as well (only when cat moved quite fast) so there is hope if you stick at it!

This bit

'The dog learns that to even look at the cat is bad' should say

'the dog learns that to stare at the cat is bad'

Although water sprayers don't always work. When Robbie came we used one everytime he looked at DD, he didn't even flinch at it and ended up one very soggy dog!