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! :)

My Lurcher has stopped the mega smelly farts since I swapped him onto a fish based food, apparently chicken is the worst for after effects.

I don't do two walks a day, just one in the morning but I do go for 45 - 60 minutes in woods/countryside so a proper walk. He then spends the rest of the day sleeping mostly, they honestly are very lazy and cuddly.

Sam does not smell doggy at all (we had a cocker spaniel before him and he was pongy in that wet-fur way)
He only farts when he is unwell (has a bit of a history of gastric issues) and yes, then they are eyewateringly awful...

As for walks, it depends on what day of the week it is - On Sat and Sun he gets one long (an hour plus) walk in the woods. The rest of the day he wil either sleep or amuse play in the garden with the children.
On Monday he gets 15 minutes off lead along the canal towpath in the morning and 45mins - 1 hour in the woods in the afternoon.
Tues, Weds, Thurs he gets 15 minutes along the canal towpath in the morning, 15 minutes along the towpath at lunch and 25ish minutes in the local park in the evening. He will also play in the garden with the dc weather permitting.
Friday he gets 15 mins along the towpath in the morning, 15 mins canal towpath at lunchtime and 1 hour in the woods in the afternoon. That evening is the one where he curls up on his bed and does not move for 12 hours!

Lol at all the smelly farts :o
Thanks for the input everyone :) 5 under 6 and three dogs fluffy I bet life is never boring in your household!
Wellllll....I gently sowed the seeds of a pointy hound to DH tonight; cuddly, sleepy, not too much exercise needed, non doggy smelling, not to mention a great cause, and he didn't reject it out of hand :o :o :o He didn't exactly give the go-ahead, but he knows me, and that I'll have taken it as his blessing to proceed! So, I will go at it cannily, and make sure I find the right dog for us, before telling the DC. DH and I are having a rare day together minus DC next week, maybe I can schedule a visit to a kennel as part of our day?
Am very excited :o

I would recommend picking a kennel in a vair beautiful spot so you can walk dogs and enjoy the countryside at the same time. My DH baulked at the idea of a dog but I showed him all the 'Look! Greyhounds are great beginners' dogs!' stuff (he kept dogs as a child) and he sort of came round to the idea of meeting a few. Then we walked some, he liked it, he met Billy and the rest is HISTORY!

Whippetty also doesn't smell (aside from when he wees under his fave conifer in the garden and returns to the house stinking of old wee after rubbing himself along the old wee on said conifer).

Our home visit today went well , though whippetty tried looked like he was seriously considering adopting the home-checker. So we are one step closer to our second pointy (hopefully).

Ooooh Mother how exciting! Hope you get pointy number 2 soon!

Is it just me, or have the amount of threads titled 'I'm getting a puppy!' etc increased since valhalla got the boot off MNHQ? There just seems to be an awful lot of them now compared to when she was still around.

Valhalla got the boot? When was this? (took a break for a while) - not sure I understand why anyone would want a puppy, our whippetty was 12 months old when he came to us, completely house-trained and with a few basic doggy manners.

It was a few months ago now Mother, she was called DogsBestFriend IIRC, and they kicked her off, I'm not quite sure why tbh.

Unfortunately, Val was kicked off as there had been a number of complaints about her posting style (mainly from the aggrieved people who buy pedigree pups ), she'd had a few warnings and then they booted her off (wrongly in my view) after a loon was posting who kept a dog with various children in an upstairs tower block flat in totally unsuitable conditions. Despite many people asking for her to be returned, the ban was upheld, though many of us keep in touch with her off-board.

Personally I strongly suspect her deeply held convictions were in a sense her downfall, as it had got to the point that people knew her reactions were predictable, and I am convinced that the person who eventually got her banned was a wind up merchant anyway. You would often see comments like "Ooh, wait until V see this" where people were expecting, almost anticipating her views.

Yes, there are more numpty "Ooh, ickle puppy" threads. Some of the current crop definitely demonstrate they are hard of thinking. Sometimes I will put the rescue dog case if a person has been thinking about buying a dog, but once the pup has arrived, I just tend to feel very sad and not post. Partly because of Val's experience, I try to make it a rule to only post if I can contribute something positive or informative (I often don't succeed) and generally stay away from threads completely where I think the OP is a loon/twat/incapable of understanding logical, reasoned argument. The absence of a post from me is usually an indicator that my twatometer has entered the red zone, rather than an absence of a view, if that makes sense.

Makes perfect sense scuttle, in a nutshell, you reply to posts that are worth it. I.e, not people who ask for advice and when you tell them the right thing to do they do their own thing and completly ignore the good advice you gave them.

It is sad that Val got kicked off just for standing up for what she believes in. I admired her passion for what she does.

Yes to all the above. Valhalla is one of the reasons why we came home with our chap. That thread with the rehoming the Staffy woman was awful. This woman had come on for 'advice' and then completely ignored the very sensible suggestions she received and planned to go ahead and do something silly again for the poor dog.

Billy's bad leg is back. I have a feeling it might be a result of vigorous space hopper play in the garden with the kids. He's to the vet Monday and I'm going to insist on an xray this time. We've been resting him (not hard!!) and giving him several 10 minute walks a day so it doesn't stiffen up. I refuse to give him the doggy ibuprofen the vet gave us as he's not crying, just limping and it upset his stomach before. Also, if we give it to him just before a walk it will only make things worse in the long run I feel as he'll put pressure on whatever the problem is as it won't hurt so much. He's still loving his walks though, despite the limp. He also has awful dandruff despite his high pilchard consumption and as he's just been flea treated, two horrible greasy patches on his back! He looks a right state, poor old hopalong.

Yay for pointy number 2 OMD !

Ohhhhh was it that wonan who got that staffy (pup?) and Val kept insisting she should take it to a rescue as she didn't know anything about it and she had small children? Am I remembering that correctly? Didn't it come from gumtree or something?

I hope Billys leg is ok Betsy, and there's nothing too wrong with it. Make sure you get that xray!

Scuttle how old are your dogs?

Sprocket is turning into a right tart :o he'll just sidle upto you, start the lean (he's getting much better at being subtle), give a long drawn out sigh and shove his ears at you for a nice rub.

I bought him a rubber knobbly glove today, could've made him a wig from all the fur that came out! He's ever so smooth and silky now though.

Ahh, the grooming. I LOVE it, and so does he. When he sees the rubber mitt thing he comes over immediately and goes all slitty eyed when we brush him.

Sounds as though Sprocket's settling right in! He'll have his own pipe and slippers next (or his pipe and your slippers )

I long for a pointy hound -we have a cat,so not possible I'm guessing. Before we got the cat my neighbour cautioned us about getting a whippet/retired greyhound as she was anxious about her cats. What do you think ?
I am an illustrator and at home all day- I draw lots of dogs,including pointy ones which can be seen on my facebook page kind dog

Jane, there is a cat (Bob) who lives in the cottages on the towpath behind our house. Sam trots passed him without a second glance.
He also ignores my friend's rabbits and is happy for a hamster to climb all over him.
You just need to find the right pointy!!

Uhm, that should be MAS Not sure who Jane is....

Mary of course it's possible to get a pointy with a cat! I know of a hound that lives with a house rabbit! Plenty of greyhounds and other hounds can be homed with cats and other small furries :)

Ha! He wouldn't dare rob my slippers :o

Yup, ditto the house rabbit, one of the dogs that CCGT rehomed lives with cats, little dogs and a house rabbit.... It can be done

Hi MAS . Cat friendly ex racers do exist but they can be thin on the ground. Or there are failed racers too, who don't race because they're either not fast enough or their prey drive isn't high enough.

Re your neighbour, I can understand her concern but she's no right to tell you what pets you can/can't keep. As long as your dog is secure in your garden that's all you can do. When we were looking, several rescues explained to us that it's more common to find a cat trainable greyhound rather than a friendly to all cats greyhound; you can train your dog to be good with your cat but that doesn't mean they'll be nice to every cat they see iykwim.

Our greyhound has learnt to swerve our guinea pigs. Every time he even started to look in their direction we gave him a squirt with the water spray and in about 2 days he'd got the message. He doesn't even approach the hutch now. And his prey drive is pretty high he nearly ate a squirrel this morning even though he was on the lead . He is also NOT the sharpest tool in the box, although we all love him dearly!

that's all very encouraging ! thanks v much x

Hi Grit, Andy is eight in April (funnily enough, his birthday is on the same day as mine!!). Boola is twelve. Our little "uppity minx" (to paraphrase Downton Abbey) is thirteen, appproximately, though we are not sure of the exact date of birth.

Ooh, the rubber knobbly glove. My friend gave me one and described it as a "hound mitt". Ours love it. They stand there in the garden while being groomed with an expression of almost embarrassing ecstasy on their faces, Andy particularly. He will even barge the others out of the way if he wants another go.

Betsy, keep going with the grooming, and you might also have to consider the nuclear option of (covers any greyhound ears) a BATH.... It does make a difference. But don't rush it - getting the coat and skin right is a long term project and I always say you should allow a good six months for it to be completely right. Also at this time of the year, ours do a spring moult. Good luck!

It's an interesting question with an intermittent limp. Andy has an old war wound that surfaces occasionally - a limp on one of his back legs. Round here, it's been quite dry lately so the ground has been hard when running and that exacerbates it. If I took him to the vet every time it flared up I'd be bankrupt. Now we just keep an eye on it, and make sure that if it happens we rest him and try to avoid too much sprinting about. Fortunately as we live in Wales, dry ground is not a regular occurrence.

We had the great joy of arriving at our local park at the same time as a man with two greyhounds the other day. Our Lurcher loved running with other dogs who could keep up although they were quite old and he's not one yet. He looked so happy, sometimes other dogs play with him but as soon as he starts running they look at him as if to say "well I'm not going to catch you up" and wander off.

Blimey, 12 and 13, Andy's a baby then really, compared to his elders, I hope they don't take any of his cheek :o

Do you know, the day we got Sprocket, we also got a new hoover and it's bloody fab (although rather lazy)! This hoover appears after DD has finished eating and hoovers up after her, and is quite happy to lick ketchup off the sofa. Sometimes needs a bit of encouragement though, while he decides if it's worth his while to heave himself to his paws and do his job.

Oooh, Billy, Andy and Sprocket are all family aren't they!? I wonder if Sprocket might end up with a limp too? Family trait perhaps. . . . ?