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! :)

I know! If you ever fancy a trip to sunny Hackney we're right here! And good on you for challenging that durrrrty lady.

Well the fine weather in this neck of the woods has certainly brought out unfamiliar dog owners from the darkness. Not in a good way either - lots of bonkers, not neutered dogs with 'laid back' owners about. Unfortunately, Billy, at his large and muscly size does attract his fair share of scary looking young men gangster wannabees and their mostly very friendly Staffies. Problem being Billy hates the dogs... The men make a huge fuss of him though and then my tiny, deaf DS2 which he loves and I find rather uncomfortable. Ah well, it takes all sorts!

Betsy I didn't know your ds2 is deaf, do you sign with him then? I'd love to be able to sign but I'm rubbish at languages and co-ordination :o

I get all sorts of dirty looks walking Sprocket wearing his muzzle and me pushing baby DD in a buggy. I can imagine they're thinking how bloody irresponsible I am for owning a large aggressive (hence the muzzle) dog with a baby. Makes me chuckle tbh :o

Although some people are extreme in their fright. I passed this dad walking his 2 daughtrs to school yesterday and today, 2 of them got right to the edge of the path and 1 of the girls actually jumped into the road to avoid him. And they are primary school age, look no older than 7 and it's a busy main road too! But what shocked me the most was the dad didn't bat an eyelid at the fact his young daughter had just jumped into a busy road!

Twinmummy, my adult lurchers have Arden Grange and I find it suits them really well. They both do much smaller, firmer poos on it too compared with cheaper food.

Wow vjg good timing! 2 posts at 20:33:41 :o

DS2 is, technically, partially hearing and can hear just enough at the moment to communicate and cope without hearing aids. Most of his loss is one sided and they don't give hearing aids for that most of the time. We do very basic signs like please, thank you, food, drink, stop etc. His hearing seems to be getting worse though so we just go from test to test and try to go on what he is able to do!

He's very dramatic and physical in his communication and talks very loudly. His speech is pretty hard to understand too but as he never stops talking after knowing him for a while it is possible to translate. He also has some other suspected learning difficulties but that won't really be apparent until he's a little older.

The dog's been awesome for him. He walks the dog with me each afternoon which also helps his balance problems and explains to everyone (who can't understand what he's saying!) why he's wearing a muzzle! And how much he loves him.

Gritters, if it is any consolation, I find primary school age children used to do that with our whippet, as he always used to do the school run. (The only reason he doesn't do now is that ds1 moved to a different, further away school). Apparently he is "skinny" and I've even heard a couple of parents say "yeeouw" - ah well, some people just don't appreciate the good dogs.

There was a cbbc programme on the other morning and I recorded it to watch later with two children who were very unsure of dogs helping at a greyhound rescue kennels to overcome this and it was really positive plus some gorgeous dogs to look at.

MissBetsyTrotwood, my older daughter has severe learning difficulties with moderate hearing loss and having our dogs has been brilliant for her. It has really improved general fitness and stamina with walking and she's allowed to hold the older dog's lead and be 'in charge'. He is a real trusty and not a chaser not like the younger dog .

Just received the paperwork for Sprockets 4 weeks free insurance from petplan,(that ran out on 25th feb), they've got his DOB as 29th jan 07, it's actually 19th. And he is apparantly an Alaskan Malamute. I could've sworn he was a Greyhound

vjg13 - the kennels featured in that programme is the lovely place we adopted our Sam from. In fact, ds helped out there last summer (which is also when the programme was filmed) and all of the dogs featured in the programme where ones he has walked / fed etc. We also know Jane quite well now as the Trust is always ready to help any family with their adoptive dog. (she says that once you have adopted a dog from them you are part of the family) Super super place!!

Oh, what programme was it? The DSs will go out of their minds with excitement for that.

It was on CBBC in the morning about 8ish if that helps on wednesday.

I'll have a look on the iplayer. We (occasionally) watch actual races on YouTube and if there's a black greyhound I just lie and tell them it's Billy. That's probably wrong on many levels though.

Tut tut betsy, what will they say when they find out?

It was Dick and Dom Go Wild, aired at 7.45am on Thursday 1st March on Cbbc.
It was fab, it was lovely seeing all the dogs on tv (all have been homed now) and seeing the lovely Jane doing her bit!!

Ohhhh, just watched that, what a lovely place and what fabulous dogs. Jane seems pretty just about all around amazing too. So, so good to see the hounds and children together too as well as them being good 'ambassador' dogs to dog nervous kids. My DS2's little friend was over today and she's scared of dogs but managed a little stroke with Billy.

Lovely. Off to early early bed now with a hot water bottle and a good book. DH is on tour so we're all alone for a while now and loving the fact that Billy barks his big bark at strange noises in the night though if it were a burglar he'd probably power lean them to death .

Betsy, Jane is amazing. She was absolutely wonderful when Sam was ill and I also had to deal with my father being terminally ill. She was supportive, kept me calm, helped liaise with the vets to get the best care for Sam (she used to be a vet nurse so I trust her implicitely), and she had Sam to stay when he was discharged from hospital and I was reeling from losing my dad - she said she could administer his meds, monitor him and give me a break from the stress and worry.
I absolutely love her.
And Sun Valley (where the CCGT is) is just the most magical place. Lots of volunteers, very happy spoilt dogs, a very happy athmosphere.

Once you have adopted a dog you become a member of the family, they hold open days, we help with fundraisers and lots of adopters pop back regularly to let their hound run in the field, walk some of the kennel dogs and just generally mill about and help out. It is a brilliant place to be and in my next life I am coming back as a greyhound and won't leave Jane's side ever!!

Sprocket really needs to work on his lean. He has no subtleness whatsoever. He just strolls up, stands infront of you and just kind of slumps against you :o

Lock jane sounds like a brilliant person, ccgt sounds like a lovely place to be, you're lucky to have such wonderful support from them!

Gritters - I love the greyhound lean. Sam does not do that (probably on account of not being a greyhound...)

Jane is fab, I cannot say it enough and I feel very very lucky to have the support and back up of the Trust with Sam. First with his health and now with his seperation anxiety - his adoption was a bit chaotic as he came to us, then went back to Jane as we had a holiday booked, then I left him with dh to go and visit dad in Holland, then he fell ill and was on a drip at two different vets (one vet and one specialist), then he came home and I was back in Holland, then he relapsed and went back to the specialist vet centre, and then he went to Jane's for a week as my dad had died and I was not able to cope with his needs, medications etc. So now we have sep anxiety and as always Jane has been full of advice and last week we popped to the kennels to collect a crate and full instructions on crate training Sam.

Blimey that is chaotic! I'm sorry about your dad. I can only imagine how tough it must have been having to deal with everything at once. Good luck with the crate training!

Gritters, it was horrid. Dad went from being fully healthy to a little unwell, to a cancer diagnosis to death in 12 weeks. Which co incided beautifully with the adoption and subsequent illness of Sam.

In fact we had Sam back home a week after dad's funeral. I can honestly say it was the most chaotic (and horrid) 12 weeks of my life.
Jane was a rock!

Woah that is quick. She sounds like it, I guess it must've been a weight off your shoulders when she took him back?

What a tough time for you all. I am so sorry about your dad. Mine died when I was a child from cancer and I've nursed my mum through leukaemia and I remember how fast the move from 'normality' to illness can be.

I'm sure one of the reasons why Jane has been so helpful with Sam is that she knows you are a good, loving, sensible and committed owner. People don't, generally, bend over backwards for those they neither like or respect.

Awww, am sure Jane would do that for all her adopters, not just me...

Crate training not going too badly. Sam now happy to be in the crate with the door shut whilst we are home for up to 45 minutes. He was not so happy when I was out with the dc and dh shut Sam in his crate whilst he was working in the garden. There were a few whimpers but nothing too dramatic.

Need to build it up tomorrow as I am working four hours on Monday.

That was quite something to have to deal with all at the same time, Lock. How fantastic though that the rescue could offer support with Sam (who btw looks gorgeous).

We've been at Dogs Trust today. We originally went to look at a saluki, but they thought he would be too destructive for us. They did point us in the direction of a gorgeous litter of whippet lurchers who had been found as strays and the vet aged them at about a year old (though tbh they looked much younger) - strangely all 6 from the litter were still together at that age and we couldn't go too close to them yet as they still had quite some nasties that they had picked up in the course of being strays. Anyway, whilst they don't have any history on them, but they clearly haven't had such a nice life - hence all the nasties - they did seem to think they would probably be OK with children. We're going to wait for the all-clear from the vet (about another month, they thought) and then go to actually meet one of them properly. Do you think this would be completely irresponsible given their background?

Awww, whippet lurchers, same as my Sam...

Tbh if the whole litter was found together, as strays, they were probably abandoned from a traveller camp. Sam was found with his brother, both aged around 2, stray but found near a traveller camp....

Not irresponsible at all, presume you will have plenty of opportunities to meet with the dogs and choose the one best suited to you and your dc. How exciting!!!