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! :)

Sprocket had his first taste of chicken wings today. He absolutely LOVED them, he ate 2 in a 'blink-and-you'll-miss-it' style it went 'crunch, munch, gulp, gone!' :o he'll be getting a couple a day from now on, his poos are too soft, but they're always fab (well, as fab as a pile of poo can be) the day after he's had a bone from the butcher, which to me, is a clear indication that he'd be better off fed raw!

How is everybody doing?

My dad, stepmum and little sister came over today to finally deliver DDs christmas present and easter egg. They are smitten with Sprocket, SM made me laugh, she made the observation. "Oooh he's very pointy isn't he?" they have boxers so used to smushed faces instead of lovely, long pointed ones. She is the Wendy who commented on my FB status.

That's great about Sprocket. First liver cake and now chicken wings - that is a very happy greyhound!!

I keep an eye on the reduced section in the supermarket and often seem to see the boxes of chicken wings reduced - as the ad says, every little helps.

Lucky old Sprocket! Well, he had to have a treat if the LO was having presents too, right?!

I've just bought Billy a memory foam dog bed off amazon. This one to help his arthriticky hips. I hope they let him have it at the kennels over the summer during his 'Olympic' holiday! Hope it helps.

Can I come and join the thread as a temporary Pointy Hound carer? I am dogsitting our friend's dear little whippet, which we do when they go on holiday as it satiates some of my dog-longing. This particular whippet is a heat-seeking missile, no trouble at all apart from having to negotiate with her regarding duvet/sofa hogging and her insatiable desire to snuggle up. You also have to be very alert and not sit on anything until you have checked under it as she is highly skilled at getting under things and then lying very flat!

Quod, you are very welcome!! Your whippy friend sounds gorgeous and I love the description of the "heat seaking missile" - spot on!

Betsy, let us know how Billy gets on with memory foam. I am always on the lookout for anything for our dowager duchess .

Think my first job though would be to make a new cover - why do the textiles used for dog beds always have to be so unremittingly grim?

Loving the heat seaking missile - so true

Sam is loving his two chicken wings a day - he stands by the fridge pointedly (pardon the pun) looking up at it and giving me imploring stares...

Yes, borrowed whippet is very gorgeous but also quite wimpy and spoiled. Yesterday she sat very nicely and pointedly looking at us whilst we were eating our dinner on the couch, and when we didn't give her any she went and stood by her dry biscuits (obviously inferior) and cried pitifully.

I am loving all these retired greyhounds you've all linked to - I could look at them all day and not get any work done at all

I know . Faux suede is not really to my liking. It's very soft though so I might have to bear with it! All the duvets just got a bit much - our house isn't small but there are lots of us in it a lot of the time and the greyhound bed making all over the ground floor was getting to be a bit of a hazard. He'll have the proper bed in his 'room' at the back of the lounge and duvets in the kitchen now (so we can take them into the garden easily!)

Behind , rather like Sam Billy has 3 nemeses: bin, dishwasher and fridge/freezer. They shut with the most delicious treats inside and he can't open them! He just stares at them, dolefully.

Welcome Quodlibet.

Ok, question.

We have free tickets to Whipsnade Zoo. We want to go this weekend as DH is working for the next 6 and the tickets expire. It would mean leaving Billy for 6/7 hours, with a visit from our friends to take him for a walk and probably hang out for a bit play with the DSs toys while they're not around. We'd give him a v early walk before we leave (we'd leave around 8.30am) and one when we return at around 3. So that's 3 walks but with a long period of being left alone.

Or we just don't go. WWYD?

Betsy I think that's fine as long as he's settled. We would occasionally leave my old lurcher that long, and tbh I think most of the time she'd just sleep! If you've got a friend popping in to let him out and have a bit of interaction then leaving him occasionally won't do him any harm. Enjoy the zoo I say.

DH was saying the same. The longest we've ever left him was 3/4 hours, and even then our friends popped in. Tbh, it's just me getting anxious about him being unhappy to be left! He probably would sleep most of the time and we'd stuff his Kong good and proper and leave him his favourite cuddlies. DH or I would exhaust him in the morning too...

It would be a shame to let the tickets go. It'd cost us over 50 quid to get in otherwise.

Agree with Quodlibet, aslong as he gets a visit in the middle he should be fine, maybe leave him a radio on for company?

Your DH works away doesn't he Betsy? What does Billy think to that?

As a one-off I guess he'd probably be OK if someone comes after 3-4 hours to walk him and entertain him. Whippetty is left for 3.5-4 hours each morning whilst I am at work (dp starts later than me and I finish at lunch), which he is used to now. On the rare occassions we need to be out longer e.g. going to hospital when ds2 broke his arm recently, he has gone to my mum's house, but I appreciate we are lucky with this and not everyone has family on-hand for this kind of stuff. Otherwise, is there something like a doggie day care thingy that he could be dropped off at to save worrying?

I think it's because it's a one off I'm getting flustered and finding it hard to make a decision. We do need to sort out a pro dog walker for moments like these - DS2 has a lot of long doctors stuff coming up, the sort that can drag on as you wait for test results to come back etc. We can't call in favours for all of them!

I know our friends will make a fuss of him and give him a good walk but it's not the same...

DH is Billy's number one favourite person, but I'm his everyday carer, iykwim. Bit the same with the human DCs!

I think we will go.

Betsy, Billy will be absolutely fine. Have a lovely day out.

BetsyT we found that the Kong takes longer to get through if you seal it up with cream cheese and freeze it. Enjoy the zoo, it's not like you're doing it every day and he'll be fine.

This time tomorrow we will have collected our lurcher girl! Scary! I am just hoping she won't be car sick on the way home - it is a long drive.

Good luck Magrat! am so excited for you! Have you got something protective down in the car just incase she is sick?

I'm going to put down some of those mattress covers you use for children when they might wet the bed (we don't buy newspapers so can't use those), just in case. I think it will be just me collecting her, so she doesn't get overwhelmed by excited boys.

Oooh they're good they are, we had one on our bed when I went into labour, was a mattress saver that was! Up until last week I used it to put over sprockets bed when he has a bone, I say up until last week because he ripped it :(

That sounds like a good idea - I guess they won't have fed her much in prep for the journey. How long is it?

It's a bit over an hour. DP went to visit and walk her again yesterday, but she didn't pay him the slightest bit of attention as she spotted a cat taunting her.

Magrat I bet you're nervous. Why is it that dogs are always more anxiously anticipated than babies? I wasn't nervous before having DD at all but all day before Sprocket arrived I was bricking it!

Sprocket was most displeased yesterday, there was a cat on the other side of a garden wall we were walking past, he stuck his head over the wall (v. Narrow path otherwise I wouldnt've let him) and this cat ran right upto him, got right to his face and said "meow? :o" I swear he was that excited and frustrated he was about to combust :o