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! :)

Ooh exciting! I'm sure she'll be fine once she settles in the car.

Billy's new memory foam bed arrived today. Let's just say he's not moved off it for about 3 hours! Very, very heavy though!

Good Luck Margrat, how exciting!!

Sounds like he loves it then betsy! I bet he prefers it to his duvets now doesn't he?

Let us know how it goes magrat! V. Excited for you :)

Lurcher girl arrived home at lunchtime today. She travelled very quietly in the car (aside from being sick just as we pulled into our town), though Whippetty's nose has well and truly been put out of joint - he has now adopted both their beds and was growling at her everytime she went past, though now seems to have calmed down and they are taking over the whole playroom floor together! The collective noun for more than one sighthound - a snore.

Ooh, exciting! The house must feel wonderfully full, furry and cosy with two. I don't know the etiquette for introducing a new dog but is it like when a new sibling comes along and you have to give lots of attention to the older one too?

Good luck!

Oooh Margrat, how exciting! Ams sure whippety will soon grow to love his new housemate!!

We went on a walk this afternoon with my friend S and her adopted whippety lurcher, her pure whippet and her jack russel poodle x. We were joined by a sprightly 69 year old and her two jack russels - one of which was a 11 week old puppy, sooo cute...
Anyhoo, we ended up getting lost and walking for two and a half hours. Two and a half fecking hours!! During which time S's whippety lurcher and pure whippet went missing for what seemed like an eternity (5 minutes max) and my Pointy One rolled in fox poo.
I am exhausted, he is exhausted. The only person who is not exhausted is 9 year od dd (who ended up carrying the JR puppy most of the way...)

What an adventure, at one point we were crossing a small airfield and small planes were landing practically brushing our hair as they flew overhead...

At some point my friend S and I were giggeling maniacally as we were so exhausted whilst the sprightly JR owner led the way in a sprightly manner and pointing out bits of scenery as she went... Dd and S's ds loved this and even looked enthused when she pointed out a stream; "and this is where the sewage from the little airport runs into" and a set of horses fields: "this is where the horses live"...
Very very funny....

(Actually, I don't think we really got lost, but the JR's owner is a bit eccentric and purposely kept leading us in the opposite direction we needed to go in and S and I let her do it.... I think the JR owner was a bit lonely and does not walk with others much and thus was relishing the company...

Hello pointy people, haven't had much of a chance to get on here recently between work and the Ds' hogging the computers because it's holidays I watch you from afar on my phone but can't post.

Magrat how exciting, I'd love some kind of lurcher as a pal for whippety boy, I've seen some absolute beauties but I'll have to wait another year or so to let my baby grow up and stop pooing under DS3's bed. I bet she's beautiful, is she bigger than Whippety?

Holidays are great for making new friends down the beach, met an absolutely stunning lurcher last week, they said the mum was a whippet who gave birth in a shelter but this beautiful boy was near greyhound in size and very whippety looking with the shiniest black and white coat I've ever seen, I could have kidnapped him . There was a beautiful pair of Grey's down the beach today too. Have there always been this many pointys about and I've just never noticed?

We had a panic on Easter Monday when he discovered he could jump straight up onto the table and ate a huge amount of chocolate without me realising. He was absolutely mental hyper biting the children (not hard) and actually literally bouncing off the walls, it was only when he was very very (very) sick that I realised. Thank goodness it was crap chocolate, he vomited and drank loads and loads of water and then vomited again until he was bringing back just slightly choc stained water. The vet said he's basically treated himself and we just had to keep an eye on him. Sleepless night and then he was right as rain. Lesson learnt there I think.

Just been watching the Grand National (not by choice my family are visiting) so I am feeling very at the thought of those beautiful horses who had to be shot. What a bloody stupid race.

I added a new photo of her on my profile. Tbh, whilst she is only about an inch taller than whippetty to the shoulder (he's tall for a whippet though), she is more greyhound-like in her head and body size and length so she's much more clumsy than whippetty. She seems pretty smart (for a pointy) and has learned how to sit now - she couldn't do that yesterday, but with following whippetty's lead and a lot of treats, she now gets it, which is not bad for a day! Tonight I also started to introduce her to the delights of home-made food, which she loved - I'm hoping it will solve her halitosis problem .

Unfortunately though, ds2 came down with vomiting and diarrhea yesterday evening though (he's very small for his age and can't afford to lose weight), so I've had a "fun" day of trying to juggle the dogs and cleaning up child vomit every couple of hours.

Oh Margrat, what a fantastic picture of your new girl in her bed - she looks like she is smiling!! What a lucky dog to have been adopted by you

Magrat your new one is lovely. Lucky dog, lucky you. Has your whippet relinquished one of the beds?

Ahh, lovely, smug, cosy looking newbie Magrat. Hope Whippety has accepted his new friend.

She's gorgeous Magrat.

Thanks, yes whippetty seems to have accepted her and there have been only a few minor grumbles so far between them. I am amazed though at the strange reaction that some people have when they see a brindled dog walking along. With whippetty (who is admitedly, beautiful) they all want to fuss him and admire him - with her, people start steering their children away. Yesterday the next door neighdoor even hurried her jrt into the house quickly as she saw me walking down the road with lurcher-girl.

sorry, typing! I meant neighbour of course!

Oooh, Magrat, you've got a tiger stripe!! She's gorgeous... and I love the pic of her in her bed. That is definitely a grin.

Lost, so glad the chocolate was resolved I worry so much about this with ours particularly Andy since he is a very tall, determined and accomplished food hound.

I didn't watch the GN. I love horses and I can't bear to watch it.

Betsy, I thought of you when we were up in London. Saw a pub in the Holborn area named after you!! Glad Billy is liking the memory foam. Could you give an update in a few days (when it/he has "bedded in" - groan!) as I'm seeing how you get on with it and thinking about it for our darling girl.

We picked them up from the kennels yesterday as we'd been away for a few days in London and had a very emotional reunion - I was just so pleased to see them all, even though the kennel is excellent and very pointy-friendly. So nice this morning to wake up and hear one grund genly snoring and then have another leap on the bed for his morning cuddle.

Know it well Scuttlebutter. In Clerkenwell, Farringdon Rd? A nice place for a catch up. Not that I sally out in that neck of the woods much any more! Ahh, must be lovely to get them back, snoring and snuggling.

The memory foam is working well. It's been 3 nights now. I was a bit sceptical at first, but seeing as he'd not had a proper 'bed' since coming to us, just lots of folded up duvets it was time. It's a lot tidier for a start and he's noticeably less stiff at the start of our walks. Even DH has noticed . I'm not sure if it's the memory foam or just having a big old bed of his own but I have seen a difference. It is very comfortable too. Some git let a bunch of fireworks off last night so I came downstairs to settle him down and fell asleep with him on it.

He's been off the lead too but only in the mostly secure dog paddock bit on the Marshes. There's a blardy great hole in the railings where a tree's fallen down and he legged it out a couple of times [panic emoticon] but didn't bother much with whatever was out there and turned back in immediately. He'd sort of wander aimlessly for a bit then suddenly bomb around for a bit. We started calling him between us and he was mostly reliable. I almost feel like trying it on the Marsh proper next week, calling him between us with MEGA treats. Recall is near perfect in the garden now too (though I know this isn't much of an indicator.) There's a fairly elderly couple, (diamonds) we know with a pair of greys and as he says, I guess there just comes a point where you have to take the risk...

LAWKS about the chocolate Lost . Forgot to mention that earlier. How scary for you all. Clever boy though, self treating.

Magrat pay no attention to the silly brindle worriers. I get that all the time with Billy, being so huge and all and my skin is very thick now.

BIL over from the US was telling me that a friends dog had eaten a whole Easter egg and when the owners took it to the vet he was jokingly taking bets on how many would be in with the same thing. Apparently it's one of their busiest days as so many dogs steal chocolate eggs.

Oh I'm so glad it's going well Magrat, can't believe your neighbour though! People are the same with Sprocketty boy though, they take one look at his muzzle and then drag their dogs as far away from him as possible :( poor love.

Why are people funny about brindle dogs though?

She is gorgeous though, love the one of her on her bed :o how is she with your DC? And vice versa.

Good to hear from you lost! How is Silver doing with his obedience? How old is he now? Good job he was ok with that chocolate! Little piggy!

Sounds like you had a nice break away Scuttle, bet you missed those pointy leans though :o I'd love a break, DD is 10mo on tuesday, and I have had 1 2hr break since she was born to get my hair done.

BetsyI take it you Billy loves his new bed then! And it's good to hear that even after such a short time it's helping his arthitis so much already. I bet he feels much better for it too, and that's great about the recall too :)

Our very very very old arthrickity lurcher has one of those memory foam beds and it works really well for her.

Had to wash the borrowed whippy today after she rolled delightedly in fox pee. Eurg. She is being a right little weirdo today, has been trying to hump my leg a lot for some reason - not very helpful when you are trying to do some yoga. She mainly does it when she is excited and wants to play so I am putting it down to over-exhuberance and ignoring her. Caught her trying to steal a bar of very nice chocolate the other day but luckily the foil foiled her - she was being far too dainty about it, luckily for me (and her).

Magret it's so weird with brindle-dog stereotyping, isn't it? Someone I know has a lovely brindle staff/boxer/something cross and people react to him like he's the hound of the Baskervilles. She always responds to people pulling away and saying 'well, you never know with that kind of dog' with 'what, brown ones? '

So far, we've been separating the ds's and the dogs because ds2 had awful tummy bug all weekend and I didn't want either lurcher-girl to get stressed out by it all, or otherwise the dogs to start eating the sick (lovely!) - as whippetty has tried to do in the past when I've been trying to clear it up. However, what contact she has had with them, she tries to lick them constantly. The house feels very full of dog though atm (even though it's not really small and the dogs are not huge).

Can anyone tell me though, do greyhounds also have this sticky out, slightly curved shaped spine that whippets have? I am just wondering because lurcher girl doesn't look to have non-pointy genes to her (I think they just used "lurcher" to describe unidentified specific breed with sighthound in there), she is clearly at least half-greyhound, but she has this curved back like whippetty. I thought that was a whippet thing, but dp sayes greyhounds have it too.

Spagetti, I sympathise with the lack of breaks since your dd was born. I think I have only managed to get to the hairdressers once every 4 months or so since ds2 was born (he is 3.11 now).

I have not seen many greyhounds with the curved back, perhaps some have it but I don't recall seeing many and it jumping out at me... whereas with whippets it is the first thing I notice (partially because personally I am not overly keen on the curved look...) Or perhaps they have it but not very pronounced??
Sam is at least 75% whippet and someting else (but not greyhound asfarasweknow) and he does not have the curvy spine but his halfbrother, who has far less whippet in him (judged by looks, nothing scientific) has a very pronounced curved back...
Genetic lottery I guess...

I feel for you Spag. When you do get that time 'off' it feels amazing. I felt as though I could do anything!

Magrat, one of our grunds has that curvy back - our elderly girl. The two boys have much flatter backs. It's common in whippets and crosses, and in Borzois. Less common in greyhounds.

Spag, sounds like you need a bit of a break!

I'm trying to figure out what she is - I suspect whippy crossed with greyhound - she's 23 inches to the shoulder and 16.5 kg. (but underweight at that) , so bigger than a whippy but smaller than a grey. She does the greyhound lean though which whippy doesn't do.

Our elderly grey girl is only about 24" to the shoulder and weighs around 25kg - she has a very small and "dainty" look when compared to the two boys.

To be honest, she looks to me like a small grey with possibly a whippy in there somewhere (perhaps a grandparent?) but I wouldn't be at surprised if she is just a small grey.