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! :)

At Celia Cross they they give them sardines in tomato sauce. A dollop of that on top of their kibble for a tasty and healthy treat...All the houndies love them...

Btw, what did your grandma say about recycling?

When I told her we were adopting an ex racer she goes 'Oh so they recycle dogs nowadays then do they?'

Think I'll get tomato sauce then, just realised, we're going near PAH tomorrow, so we can nip in and get some ears or something!

Ahh, PAH. You will soon be on first name terms with the staff.

Even though our food comes via mail order we still get a fair few things there. Bonios, gravy bones, pigs ears, bird food etc etc. The odd bottle of shampoo - but that seems to last forever. We get industrial quantities of sardines at Aldi or Tesco depending on deals. If you know anyone with a Costco card or access to a wholesaler it may be worth stocking up on things like that.

We don't have a PAH, we're going out of town to nearest mothercare to get DD some bigger PJs, and PAH is a 30 second drive from mothercare, it's just over 20 miles away. I am, however pretty well known at our nearest indepent petshop, it's also where Jills son works :o

I mean it's just over 20 miles from our house, not mothercare, we can't do 20 miles in 30 seconds :o

Oooh exciting day for you today!! (am actually jealous, I think the acquiring of hounds must be addictive as it is sooo exciting to bring a new doggle home...)

We use PAH but are nor on first name terms with the staff - ovbiously don't go in there enough...

I remember that quote from your grandma now... it is very funny

What time is Sprocketybert arriving?

Soo exciting, keep us posted.

Mine is fond of pah fishy nibbles.

Oooo Scuttle, whilst I you are here...

Given Sam's history of tummy trouble (we don't have an official final diagnosis, we think it was an infection which has caused him a lasting sensitivity such as colitis or inflammatory bowel - what is the difference between those two? - ) do you think we could feed him raw or would we be best to stay clear?
When I spoke to the vet last week to to give him an update he said to stay on the ID for another two weeks and then slowly switch to a hyperallergenic food. His exact words were: "as natural as possible". But as he has said before he does not agree with raw I was not brave enough to ask him if that meant raw would be best...

Well we don't have a time yet, she just told me to ring her when we're home and she'll pop him over.

Today is the day!

Roll on 3pm. . . . .

Progress report:- No progress. He was meant to have arrived 2 hours ago but Jill doesn't drive and she's waiting for he DS and DH to get back from wakefield with a new car. I thought she'd forgotten about us or something.

Operation Grab A Grund:- Mission Complete.

I am now very proud to announce that I am now a bona fide member of The Pointy Club. He arrived an hour ago and has been very good so far, pee'd outside and sniffed then ignored DD. I'm just putting dd to bed now and just been informed by DP via text that he is having a nap next to the front door. Only problem is, he won't go in the kitchen, the floor is lino and he appears to be frightened of it :( and his bowls are near the back door through the kitchen. So I'll have to move them into the dining room now!

Oh by the way, he's gorgeous, way more handsome than anyone elses greyhound :o apart from his bare bum

AWESOME! Whooooohoooooo!

Well done. A lovely outcome for a lovely sounding dog. Adopt brace position for the farts. We have NEVER burnt so much incense.

We put a runner down in the kitchen at first so he could get from door to bed to bowl comfortably. A cheap one, a fiver off the market then when he was a bit more confident we took it up.

Ex racer owners... we checked out our chap's form again today on the data site (DH wanted to see some racer's names - don't ask) and it says that on his last race he was 'Struck into'. There's no time or finishing position for that race. Does that mean he had an accident? I ask because he has a long scar, maybe 10cm on that leg and he's started limping on it this week. The limp's gotten more noticeable over the course of the week and we can't see anything on his paw so we're taking him to the vet next week. It seems to ease up as his walks go on but we're a bit worried for the poor fella.

Betsy that does sound like an accident. Maybe another hound 'struck into' him during the race? I hope it's all ok, maybe it's just getting stiff, caused by the cold weather?

I've laid a trail of bath towels through the kitchen for now but he's still not happy. We have a narrow galley kitchen, can dogs be claustraphobic?

Scuttle he definitely is Recovery Lad, the one I linked to. Our dogs are brothers :o

If his food's at the other end to the entrance I'm sure he'll get over his fear soon enough.

I'm so excited for you Spaghetti! Congratulations and enjoy, I will think of you when I'm doing my morning walk with DS4 Silver.

Thanks lost :o at DS4.

I hope so Betsy, he puts his and head down and backs away from the doorway, I had to drag him through to take him outside for a wee!

Oh I forgot to mention, he is officially renamed as Sprocket on the adoption form, but we're going to take it slowly with him. We call him Bertie at the mo :)

Sorry, his ears and head down

Oh and I'll put pics up when I can be arsed get chance to.

Ooh, Spag, I am so, so happy for you - Welcome to Club Pointy! The wonderful world of collar porn, smelly bottoms, sofa invasions, dubious recall and completely addictive grund love. I give you no more than six months before you seriously consider a second one.

Betsy, yes, that means he didn't finish his last race due to injury. He would have just been taken off the track. He was very lucky - for many dogs, that would have been curtains at that point. If they didn't shoot him, it was either because they thought it was curable cheaply or he was worth more alive - potentially as a stud dog. If you want, PM me his racing name or post it here - would be interesting to have a look at his breeding. Do ask vet to have a look. Cold weather can definitely affect things like that. All joking aside, that's one of the reasons why I'm so keen on coats etc - they've retired from a very hard working life (in some cases VERY tough indeed) and deserve and need looking after in their recycled new life. (Scuttle puts on militant and determined hat).

Spag, you will be in so much trouble if there aren't pics soon...

Lock, this discusses colitis and its various forms.

I would imagine that you could for instance try Sam out with something like chicken wings and see how he gets on. Given his previous history, you'd want to move very slowly though raw could offer a good way forward. Try some of the frozen pouches too from PAH which are just rabbit, fish or chicken - these would probably be ideal for him - nice and bland and easy to digest.

Vets are often a bit about raw. Several reasons, and the best analogy I can think of is when (ironically) a person goes vegan. Yes, it can be a very healthy diet but you just need to put in a bit more thought and care. Also of course some vets are anxious about bones as of course they see cases where teeth are broken etc though I think there is a strong argument that regular chewing of a bone can in fact reduce plaque, especially for pointies who often have poor teeth. The other issue (sadly) is that of course some - not all - vets get a commission for selling various proprietary dog foods at their surgeries.

However, after saying all this, I was reading a report today that said over 50% of dogs present at vet surgeries being overweight - that's pretty grim, and I bet most of those are feeding "conventional" foods. You don't normally see tubby dogs who are fed raw. Also, let's not forget that conventional pet foods as a product have only been around for less than a hundred years and dogs have been doing pretty well for very much longer than that! I'm not anti -conventional food in all cases, but there really is some dreadful crap out there, which just has a huge marketing budget thrown at it. Definitely something to discuss with your vet to see if there is a particular reason why they are anti - raw and what you can do to work with them and most importantly keep Sam healthy and happy. And of course there is nothing wrong with a graduated approach or doing mix and match - whatever works for you.

Well I've been awake since 12.45, when he started barking. Let him out, put tv on etc, he was fine till 2.15 when he started again, saw to him again, then started again at 2.45. I'd had enough, so ended up dragging him upstairs :( I felt awful doing it though. But he's a little git. Decided his vet bed isn't good enough so he's made himself a bed out of my clothes and is now asleep curled up on the floor next to me on top of my dressing gown and a snuggly jumper DP got me for christmas! His belly is rumbling constantly but he isn't actually showing signs of wanting food. Oh, and he's also pee'd up a dining chair.

I'm not even tired now ffs

He loves to love too, quite a few times he's snuggled his head upto me for a cuddle :) :o

Going to measure him up for PJs and a nice collar tomorrow, after his marathon walk, I've been told he hasn't had one for quite a while.

Oh Spag, it will soon settle down. Sam has never slept downstairs, we actually bought a second bed for him which was initially in our room but now lives in DS (age 12)'s room. (ds would frequently come into our room in the middle of the night and 'steal' Sam and encourage him to come on his bed so we compromised and doggle stays on his own bed but is allowed in ds's room...)

Scuttle, thanks for that link. I am still not sure if Inflammatory Bowel Disease is the same as Colitis. All I know is that with both the bowel is inflamed and with both there is squidgy poo. Sam has been very runny for the past week but is so full of energy I have not consulted the vet.

Am very tempted to feed a mix of raw and home cooked (not at the same time) but for instance a cooked rice and chicken and veg meal in the morning, then some chicken wings at lunchtime and then another cooked rice based meal in the evening. Eventually one of the cooked meals could be swapped for a raw meal... What do you think??

I just want away from commercial petfoods. I don't like them and I don't think Sam's tummy does either....