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! :)

Miss Betsy - can your friends who offered to have Billy dogsit and housesit while you go away, if their place isnt suitable. We used to do this with our last lurcher, she stayed put and the sitter came in for a week or two. She had all her creature comforts and familar surroundings, you know the place is dog proof, and if the dog does get out, your neighbours know who he belongs to, and the sitter gets a 'holiday' in different surroundings too? This worked for us on a number of occasions, and the dog didnt have to go through the stress of kennels.

That's a great idea but I'm not sure it would work - they have DCs so would have to move them over too. I'll put the idea to them and see what they think. Definitely one I'd like to use in the future though! I know the kennels can get quite busy with holiday returners so it may be that we have to book soon!

Given his terrified reaction to the fireworks this year DH has also made the point about putting him in the kennels for the opening and closing ceremonies... we live next to the Olympic Park!

Note to self - when giving the dog bones banish him to the kitchen. It is NOT fun picking bone shards out of my socks or the shaggy rug in the front room.

Blimey betsy I think if I lived where you do I'd go on holiday during the olympics, it'll be madness! I think kenneling him when your DH said is a good idea though, get him away from all that noise!

I am waging a one woman (small!) battle against LOCOG and their publicity machine. We are not going to find out until MARCH exactly how many roads are going to be affected and what times they (might) be open and shut on which days. Which, imo, is too late to organise any decent trip or alternative accommodation for us plus DCs plus Billy plus DH's work. And no, LOCOG, I don't want to rent my house out to strangers for six weeks.

Sorry about the rant. I just think they could have sorted this out by now, by the time lots of people might have booked their summer holidays! Think I might book myself into kennels for the duration of next summer. I'd even eat kibble for six weeks.

They want you to rent out your home to strangers for 6 weeks? What moron thought of that??

Sprockets snood arrived yesterday, a cream woolly one, I got it off ebay off this woman who knits them and donates money to GRWE from people buying them. I think he likes it :o

Gritters, I went to a sausage making party on Tuesday afternoon. My friend had grown and killed (not personally ) a couple of pigs and invited a couple of girlfriends over for an afternoon of bacon curing and sausage making. We had a fab time and at the end of it, i came home with some bones for the dogs. I have just been picking bone splinters out of the duvet cover. Sigh. They look very happy though.

Sprocket's snood sounds lovely. It's been bitterly cold the past few days.

Billy just doesn't want to walk on the bits that have gone icy where the snow was. He just goes all tiptoey and slow, so we've been sticking to path walks since the weekend. Just got his new collar and lead and it's luvverly - from 'Jan's Greyhound Gifts'. Super fast delivery too!

Snood sounds ace!

Bill's been having raw treats from some other dog walkers we know - chicken ankles? He's nuts for them but I don't think his guts are - we've had some naassty poos since. I thought raw stuff was meant to be good for them? A raw diet's not really a goer for us as we have quite a small freezer but is it OK to mix raw and kibble? Or do they have to stick to one?

Oh he eats plain kibble now too, I just pour a bit of warm water over them and he thinks it's gravy and wolfs it down! He still gets treats though, he had left over roast chicken and gravy on sunday and monday, and I've got a few sardine tins in for him :o

RE the snood, if anyone wants one I just went on ebay and searched 'greyhound snood' and these knitted ones popped up! They're only a fiver with 1.50 postage, and really well made. You just have to read what sizes they are though, different colours = different sizes

Scuttle a sausage making party sounds fab, way better than a Jamie Oliver party or an Ann Summers party :o
Bone shards, don't you just love 'em?

Oh and Betsy, Sprocket is the same in the snow, except he barges into me to try and push me in the icy snowy bit of the path so he can have the nice clear bit :o

He reminds me of a cat more than a dog really. . . .

Hi everyone! I am very jealous looking at all of your gorgeous pointy hounds!!

I have managed to persuade DP that we need a grund in our lives, and have found the rescue that I want to use as well, but I have a quick question with regards to being home checked - what does it involve / what are they looking for? In particular, do you have to have a massive garden??

Thanks!!

Hi kate, well done on persuasion! Operation Grab-A-Grund #2 is now in progress :o Not a massive garden no, just one that's got a tall enough secure fence (ours are 6ft). I was crapping myself before our homecheck and all that happened was they came round and told us exactly what having a greyhound involves, and they didn't actually look at the garden, just asked about it (it was dark). They then told us to think it all over and phone back with our decision on whether we definitely want to carry on or not. Easy as pie really!

Hi Kate, congrats on getting a pointy! Homechecks are fine. Someone from the charity will visit you, and will want firstly to assess your garden for safety. You will find most greyhound charities insist on secure fencing that is at least six feet high. If this is not the case, you would need to show convincingly that you had plans in hand to remedy this. If a greyhound charity does not insist on this for your dog's safety, then walk away (unless the dog is over 14, and only has three legs).

If you are a tenant, they will probably also want to check you have the consent of yr landlord. They will want particularly to meet all the adults in the house, to check that you are all equally signed up for the adventure to come. They will ask about children and existing pets. They will probably want to have a nice general chat to see what you know about owning dogs in general, and grunds in particular. They can advise you on things like what you will need, exercise, feeding etc. If your homechecker is local to you they can probably recommend good local vets, nice dog walking areas, safe off lead play areas, etc. Many homecheckers will bring a greyhound with them to the homecheck to see how you get on. They will also ask if DC have any allergies etc

Homecheckers DO NOT CARE about your decor, standards of housecleaning (unless it was a safety issue for the dog) or your domestic set up. Want to live in a menage a trois? NO problem. All we care about is that you and your household look after the dog. Thinking about the homecheckers I know, they are gay, straight, married, widowed, single, divorced, some having affairs, some with DC, some without - a really broad cross section.

Homecheck is also your opportunity to ask questions and discuss any concerns- this is normal. A reputable charity will "partner" you with your homechecker through the adoption process and a good charity will also follow up with a courtesy call a few days after adoption and another brief visit a month or so after adoption. This is not checking up on you but wanting to make sure you are supported, happy and things are going well. Generally, end of the phone advice is also on tap. Hope this helps.

Our homechecker was mainly interested in four things: how secure the garden was (5ft fences all around and pretty secure underneath to prevent digging); that the dog had a quiet space that was pretty gateable so he could have secure time away from kids and vice versa; how dog savvy/gentle the kids were and that the general vibe of the house was, well, nice! As our general vibe is kids, bikes, mud and misrule she was quite happy about that.

Our chap isn't that interested in digging (he doesn't seem to enjoy getting dirty!) and he seems to want to be wherever we all are, regardless of how noisy or busy. He's ended up having beds dotted all around the ground floor - ASDA super saver double duvets - one in the kitchen, one in the lounge and one in the hall! He's a downstairs dog - only goes upstairs for a bath and when he's terrified of fireworks.

Have you met your new family member yet? Good luck!

Oh, and our garden is not massive - just enough for him to do a few bonkers rounds in. It's 45ish ft and the width of a normal Victorian terrace.

Will a martingale collar stop Sprocket pulling so much? He's generally really good on the lead but gets over excited when he sees other dogs running around off lead and tries charging off to join them. He almost pulled me over yesterday trying to chase after a whippet (named Whippy :o) while I had DD in a sling!

Ok, his neck measures 15", do I go for a 12"-15", 14"-17", or a 15"-18" collar? It's one from GRWE. I'm

try a harness - they seem to work a bit better

Well, I called about the lurcher on Wednesday, but she had been reserved . (Stupid not to get in there sooner - pups always go quickly from rescues I think).

Still, it has put the idea into our heads now, so I think we will be looking more seriously in the future.

Funny you mention the multiple beds though, Betsy. Whippetty has several all over the house - a bed and a crate in the living room, a bed in the playroom, another crate in the utility room, none in the kitchen as I'm not keen to encourage him spending time in there for some reason . He does however, need to be crated when we go out as he seems to have such a problem with separation anxiety that even just shutting him in the utility room, he tore the room apart! (Including taking chucks out of the heavy fire-door). This is one issue where I was hoping that a second dog might help calm him down. Otherwise, does it get better with age? We've had him almost a year now and no real improvement yet.

I know a harness is an option, but I'd like it to be a very final last resort. It already takes me 20 minutes to get us all ready to go for a walk without faffing around with a harness.

Oh mother I am sorry. Maybe it's a sign, that she wasn't meant to be and that your dog is just around the corner!

Gritters, I personally would go for the 14-17" option.

We had a harness for Sam, actually, we had two, neither fitted properly (he must be an odd shape).

And once we had bought his coat we discoverd we could not fit the lead onto the harness. I know you can buy coats with a hole to fit the lead through so it attaches to the harness but of course we had already bought our coat without thinking about the harness situation. So then a cheap black leather fishtail collar was purchased to get us out of trouble and we actually preferred walking him on the collar.

I now want a nice fishtail collar for Sam. Want to shop for him again

That's what I thought lock but I wasn't too sure

I'll order one later when I go on the laptop.

My grandma gave me this catalogue for dog stuff earlier from this shop called Orvis and I just decided to take a look at the website. [[http://www.orvis.co.uk/store/product.aspx?pf_id=4X5T&dir_id=6259&group_id=6664&cat_id=11408&subcat_id=11409 Bloody hell]

I'll try that again

They even do Tempur-pedic beds!!! Look at the prices!