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! :)

We have a lovely pointy of the spotty big lurcher variety - she was a failed foster, she was only meant to be with us until homed but I fell in love with her on sight, still tried to find her a home as my brain said we shouldn't keep her, but she had an awful, awful phobia of cars when she came (involuntary pooing and weeing, rigid as a plank of wood and drooling all over the place, she couldn't even manage a 5 minute journey without losing control), and not one of the prospective homes could take it seriously enough - they were very blase about it, but as soon as you made it quite clear that they would definitely be adding 'shit scraping' and 'piss mopping' to their car cleaning list they lost interest, oddly enough. The one family who could see past that rejected her on the basis of a congenital foot deformity which means her front left 'toes' aren't held in the proper shape, and she has a 'flat foot' - the vets had no issue with it but the family felt she wouldn't keep up with their lifestyle - what a pile of tosh, she can take my other two 'healthy' dogs to the cleaners :(

As it happened, it was agreed with the rescue that we would stop trying to find homes for her until we had cracked the car issue, and in that time, it just became fact that she was staying. Nearly two years later she can manage the car long enough to drive to nice local walks, and long enough to get to the vets - I hope some day we will be able to take her on our yearly Dartmoor holiday, which we always used to do with our other two but have had to abandon as it would be unfair to leave her alone.

But she's gorgeous and such a character and I loooooove her

notjustme she sounds lovely!

LOTF that's sad :( but I don't like Gelert. DP has just suggested Gillette, as in the razors

You'll probably have to let your boys personality unfold a bit and it might give you inspiration. Why do you want to change it from Robbie?
You'll come up with all sorts of knicknames for him (Rob, Bob, Mr Blobby)

I'm sure they answer to their names (really but the surefire way to get their attention is a food bowl or a bit of sausage or cheese.

LOL @ Gillette BTW - razor sharp witted dog with blade like figure and scalpel sharp cunning.

Yes, Ruby came as Ruby and has stayed as Ruby :)

I can't stand Robbie Williams, and I have a cousin called Robbie (with middle name William!), and neither me nor DP really like the name Robbie. I still really like Sprocket something about it just makes me smile everytime I see or hear it!

Although Gillette is kind of growing on me

Does he know his name? How about Bobby? I like the old skoolness of a doggy called Bobby.

But Robbie Williams loves you and buys all your records

Sprockett is a cute name, bit loopy for a loopy grey.

(My names for our rodents which the DCs rejected were Heston, Merlin, Bart, Kermit, - they ended up Chester and Ninja)

ROFL @ a guinea pig called Ninja!!!! Ours are friendly, slightly overweight with laaaarge bottoms and called Patty and Frankie.

Me and my sister used to have 3 rat sisters called Wilma, Betty and Pebbles :o

When we took him for a walk last week he didn't seem to respond to Robbie, although I think he was too interested in bird watching . . . .

Notjustme your dog sounds fab and so do you.

I've uploaded some doggy pics to my profile now :)

Notjustme, your lurcher sounds gorgeous. I've just tried to look at your profile but without success.

I think both Sprocket and Gillette are actually fabulous names for a greyhound, Sprocket particularly...

at piggy Ninja!!

Whoops, added photos but didn't think to make my profile public, doh!

What a gang! Love them all. Well done you.

Gorgeous the lot of them.

Yay! A vote for Sprocket! thanks scuttle!

Oh crap it's tomorrow! I'm such an idiot! I went in town yesterday fully intending to buy door mats and fleecey blankets, and totally forgot. I did get food though :o I'll just have to get up uber early and walk to town in the morning. Are pedigree dentastix any good? Or should I steer clear?

Oh and notjustme, I can totally see why you fell in love with her, she's beauuuuuutiful! As are all your pooches!

Ok never mind about the dentastix, I just googled them I think they'll be staying in the shop.

Also for any accidents what should I use to clean and get rid of smells? I've seen on here that bio wash powder does it but we only have non bio, would that work?

You've decided on Sprockett haven't you Spag -it's a really good name and it's two syllables with an 'oh' like Robbie, so he'll cotten onto it quickly.
He won't need much at the start , I think have a dental check before he comes to you and you can get those brushes that go on your finger to clean his teeth .
(Do people give bones to clean teeth or has that gone by-the-by)

NJM my DD loved your dogs photos- and she doesn't even like dogs!

I think he'll have had a dental check-up before ( Pah, proof read.)

Do fix a vet check for sometime in the first week - ours gave us loads of useful independent info and a general checkup. Billy's teeth are awful - bleeding gums a plenty but I think this is fairly normal for an ex racer. He told us to steer clear of bones (he had one off mil anyway and loved it .) We've started off with a little dog toothpaste on our fingers and he told us that any soft toothbrush would do if you have problems finding a finger brush.

Spaghetti - it's got to be bio unfortunately as it's the enzymes in biological washing powder that breaks down the urine and removes the odour - that's really important for making sure he doesn't keep returning to the same spot if he has an accident. There are products on the market that do the same job - UrineOff and Piss Off to name but two!