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! :)

Oooo, Dorothy, I've just seen your pictures. What lovely dogs, especially the saluki.

Wow Dorothy, I love your dogs!! They are gorgeous!

It is my dream to have a saluki lurcher next....

My whippety lurcher is on my profile too [proud]

The saluki whippety is our Welsh maid. Shes such a sweetie, so soft and gentle. She s constantly overjoyed and amazed by everything she sees when you take her out, its such a pleasure to be out with her. At home she helps herself to wine or beer if we are silly enough to leave it on the floor for a second. Really enjoys it. Not keen on a cup of tea though. Rattle a bag of crisps or biscuits and she s there by your side.

Oh i ve just looked Locknumbernine - gorgeous! I think our dogs bought their coats from the same place!

Ooo, yours is cute too NumberNine (and another fan of soft toys, like our whippetty, who steals the dc's teddys and cuddles with them). I never saw the point of more than 1 dog until we had whippetty. Now, I see why people have mutiple dogs.

I have a question though, is it hard walking two dogs at the same time if you also have a pre-schooler?

I love the fact that I've reached the stage in life where I would rather look at pictures of people's dogs rather than small children If any of you are on FB there is the Whippet Appreciation Society, you can spend hours looking at the photo's of other people's pointy dogs. Gorgeous Dorothy, I quite love the idea of a wine loving dog too.

Do you have a link for those coats?

lost me too - I am definately no longer interested in cute (or otherwise) babies and toddlers....

But a cute puppy and I go weak at the knees....

Sam's coat was bought at Celia Cross. They have a shop (called the Doghouse) with allsorts of accesories, proceeds go to CCGT so it made sense to have Jane measure him and provide his coat.

Lots of nice dogcoats online though

It must have been idiot dog owner weekend this weekend, by the sounds of it. We took our lurcher for a snowy walk yesterday, as we got him out of the car a small dog came bounding up barking at him. Our dog was on the lead and we know that he tends to try to rag very small dogs, I don't think he realises they are dogs at all! So we stood there waiting for the owner and dog to move along so we wouldn't be following them around the woods as we wanted to let ours off lead. The owner just stood there grinning while our dog got frustrated as he wanted to run and rag play with the other dog, I got tied up in the lead and we stood there trying to calm our dog down.

Honestly drives me nuts.

Whippetty will try to take a snap at small, fluffy dogs too. I think he sees them as glorified cats. It will be interesting this summer when we go away with PILs and their miniture wire haired dachtshund .

Weekends mean our local walking areas are invariably filled with nutters and their dogs by about 9.30am. We always get out to walk by 8.30 so we avoid them. And then do a pavement walk in the evening when DH gets home from work. Even last weekend I had copped a load of 'Oh, poor dog, why's he muzzled then.' Well they did ask, so I did bore them for about 10 mins with all the reasons why... Now they think I'm a nutter too!

Ooh, a question; we've just booked two weeks of camping during the summer, one in June half term and one in August. Dog will not be able to come as we won't have room in the car for him. Also, I feel that Billy + camping will be impossible to manage as he's never off the lead when out and about.

We have two options: to board him at the RGT holding kennels he came from for the time or to send him to stay with our friends. I'm not sure which to plump for... our friends are lovely (they offered as they love him and walk him occasionally for us) but I think he might feel more settled at the kennels as he was there for some time? Or maybe he'll be so settled into home life that home life anywhere will be preferable to life in a kennel. Wwyd?

I think I d always choose a family home over kennels MissBetsy. All the kennels I ve seen are so stressful in comparison. I know the staff love and look after the dogs, but a family home is just so much more quiete and peaceful, more familiar routines - and if Billy already knows and walks with your friends, thats a bonus isnt it. Family home with familiar people would win hands down with me every time. I bet your friends would rather they stay with them too!

MissBT is sounds like either option would be good as he'll be familiar with the kennels. If he does go to stay with friends it might be an idea to send him for a night or two before you go, so he knows you are coming back and it's not another new home. We've got ours booked into kennels for the summer that have come highly recommended and this is what they suggested to us.

They will spoil him rotten, I'm sure! I take your point Dorothy. I might see if they want to take him for a day or night to theirs for a dry (I hope ) run before the whole week. He's had dogs before but she hasn't and as she'll be doing the lion's share of the walking etc I think it's only fair she realises what she's letting herself in for! No, I exaggerate, he's a really manageable dog but all the same, it takes a bit of getting used to. I also need to 'homecheck' their garden fences!

Ah, x post NotMostPeople, sorry!

Oh yes MissBetsy, make ubersure the garden and fences are invincible! If not, then it must be the kennels, you want to come home from holiday and find that you ve still got a dog, dont you.

I'd be reluctant to leave ours with anything other than an experienced sighthound home. And I'd also want to make sure the garden was definitely pointy-proofed! We do occasional overnighters with grund friends (the famed greyhound playdates/sleepovers) and these are brilliant if you have a special night out or something similar like a wedding to go to. DH's parents are also lovely and are happy to come and dog sit if we have a special night out occasionally (mainly for our Wagner obsession ).

A kennel that is used to pointies will offer a very high standard of care and security. The one we use is actually used by a number of greyhound charities as well, so is very used to pointies. We are hideously demanding PFD owners from hell and leave very detailed instruction sheets regarding medication, diet, making sure they wear their coats etc - we can do all this and know it will be carried out to the letter because they are a professional kennel - non dog owning friends, no matter how nice may not be so able/willing to accommodate. Because our kennel is used to pointies they will make sure they are not exercised at the same time as a fleet of Yorkies, will wear their muzzles if needed and so on. We don't often do it, and I am always in bits when we have to leave them (far worse than the dogs actually) but I know they will be having a great quality of care round the clock and they will be safe. If I had a dog with special dietary or medical needs, then that would really be the deciding factor.

Our kennel recommends that new visitors take up their offer of a free day spent at the kennel - so all concerned can have a little taster session and are always willing to show people around, discuss requirements etc.

One other thing - if you decide to have him stay with your friend, get an extra collar tag made and replace the normal one with your friends' contact details - unless your normal one has your mobile number on it and you will be contactable while away.

Mmm, yes, all points taken. The other factor in the kennels' favour is that his stays will be during the summer so he won't get so cold; he also doesn't get any greyhound contact otherwise at the moment so he might enjoy it!?

The kennel he came from was so loving too, maybe that will be better. Good to have lots of points of view too, so thanks all! Lots to discuss with DH next week on holiday (in a Welcome cottage so Billy can come too )

Our kennel had the heat lamps waiting for our three the last time.

Gawd, popped round today for a cuppa to refresh my memory of the garden and it's sooo not greyhound proof. The fence on one side only came up to my ribs! Sad though because I know he likes my friend and I know he'd have the life of riley there for a week (she'd saved him some FRESH sardines from their lunch!) Kennel it shall be.

I do love my dog. I love how he's got so much cheekier since we've adopted him. And how I can hear his tail whacking the radiator in the hall as I put my key in the door. And how gentle and affectionate he is with the kids... think I've gone all mushy at the prospect of leaving him in kennels and it's still about 4 months away!

Well I was going to come on earlier and boast about how good Sprocket is about not stealing, then I turned around and saw he'd nicked my sandwich! He dropped it as soon as he noticed I'd spotted him though. Cheeky little sod :o

Blimey scuttle your kennels sound posh! The one my sister uses allows you take anything you want to make your dog feel at home, and the guy said they had someone take an armchair and a tv for their dog once

Did you ring up about that lurcher mother?

Dh and I fell asleep on the sofa last night having had a late meal, I awoke to the sound of our Lurcher licking plates with gusto. He game me a 'who me?' look .

Ha ha I love the guilty look. Except for when you don't know yet what the guilty look is for...

We came down from putting the dc's to bed tonight to find Whippetty with an empty bag of haribo and a guilty look...

Not called about the lurcher yet, I am working up to it.