A new Cushion for Pointies!

[SpaghettiTwirlerAndProud]

Pointy hounds include-
Greyhounds (Grunds)
Whippets (Whippys)
Lurchers
Italian Greyhounds (Iggys)
Salukis
Afghans
And any others I have forgotten. If you are a new pointy hound owner, an old and experienced owner or looking into getting one of these fabulous creatures, come and have a seat (that's not taken up with a hound).

Share advice, stories and shopping tips!

I didn?t really want you,
I wasn?t really sure,
And I?ll admit I had my doubts,
When you first came through that door.

Not small, or cute, or fluffy,
With big, soft puppy eyes,
But tall, and thin, and bony,
With bald, pink, bulging thighs.

You weren?t the kind I had in mind,
Not in any way,
?Perhaps it would be better if I took you back today,
Before we know each other,
It really won?t be kind,
To keep you here for one more day,
And then to change my mind.?

But against my better judgement, I decided you could stay,
And quickly I discovered you were kind in every way,
Your gentleness and patience, they really stole the show,
?Why these dogs are wonderful, I must let others know!?

For you?re my gentle giant,
Who just needed the chance,
To show us all what you could be,
To wipe away that history,
And dispel our preconceptions, which put us all to shame,
And so we come to know and love,
What lies beneath that frame.

And now I?ve come to understand,
What I missed right at the start,
That greyhounds need that great deep chest,
To house their great big hearts!
:)

Cunny, I'm about the same distance away, but in the other direction .

How exciting, Wombat! When do you get to bring her home?

So DH and I had a serious talk just now about getting a nice little girl for Billy to share life with here. I asked him what exactly he didn't like about it and he said it'd be like having another child. I explained all the reasons why that'd not be the case.

And we left it like... not right away! Better than not at all, eh?

So can all you multi dog owners tell me the cons now 'cos I've done all the pros and I need to show him how I've thought it all through. And I could be missing something about the double dog situation that would really make it not a goer for us.

So the cons I thought of were:

• Small garden
• Twice the poo to pick up
• Costs
• More ishoos like off lead, other dogs etc

Note: garden small (but not tiny!)

Betsy, our garden is fairly small, but the dogs seem to manage OK (they haven't even churned it into a mudbath, yet - thankfully, as I do like my flowers). With respect to poo, as ours are walked 3 x per day for around 30-40 mins each time, they don't tend to poo much in the garden anyway, so it's not like the dc's are playing on a poo-riden lawn - disclaimer - I do pick it up when we are out!

I will admit however, when we first got lurchergirl I did have a moment or two of thinking "my god, what have we done?!" the house, which is not small, did suddenly seem very full, but now I am used to it, that doesn't seem the case anymore.

The downsides for me:

1. Walking two dogs and a preschooler alone is not always easy, even though both walk well on the lead. I did try one of those lead divider things, so you can walk two dogs on the same lead, but whippetty managed to pull lurchergirl over once in his enthusiasm to try and chase something, so I ditched that idea and now just walk them each on separate leads, one on each side;
2. The house is distinctly more messy now, even though I hoover/clean the floors every day and even though the dogs are not allowed to enter the house without having their paws cleaned first - it may be fussy, but I do have cream coloured carpets;
3. It was necessary to train the dogs that they may not go on the stairs when the dc's are going up/down to prevent children getting bowled over;
4. If you use crates more than one takes up a lot of space, we have therefore opted to now get rid of the crates and simply put a pet gate across the utility room doorway if we want to separate children and dogs (the dogs don't like it if we close the utility room door);
5. Other dogs can be a problem for us, but only because whippetty does not like being appraoched by off lead dogs if he is on lead - he is fine if the other dogs are also on-lead.

We haven't had a problem with both off-lead so far, mainly because the only times we have let them both off both dp and I were there, so I kept an eye on whippetty and he kept an eye on lurchergirl.

The pluses definately outweigh the negatives though and coming home to double waggyness is the best.

So not a massive distance away from me really then Magrat :o

Betsy I don't have any advice considering we have only 1 pooch and we aren't looking to add another one, but wrt garden size, I imagine a small garden will be fine! IIRC the poster ToBoldlyGo has 2 huskies and no garden at all, and she got them from rescues :) I think I've seen D0oin mention before she has no garden either (I think), and she has 2 dogs and is a fosterer.

Ooh I met two rather lovely greyhounds today with fabulous owners. It's amazing who you bump into in Pembrokeshire

I'm guessing one of the greys was black and the other was blonde?

Might have been beautiful the pair of them and their owner wasn't bad.

I bet they were dapper too.

Betsy how is Billy's arthritis? Keep meaning to ask you that :)

Lost I'm jealous, I'd love for Sprocket to meet his brother from another mother :o

So much better for the superbed. He's still a bit stiff of a morning sometimes but overall much improved.

Will Sprocket get picked up or will you have to take him over to Jill?

Oh that's good, memory foam is good stuff!

Not sure about Saturday yet, she's going to call on friday to finalize details. I'm hoping we get to go over there, we've never actually been to any Grund kennels before! It's only 10 minutes up the road anyway so not far to go.

Ah, the visit to the kennels. That'll be hazardous. I hope the boot of your car's not big enough to fit another dog!

I say that about the bed but in the last two days Billy has 'mastered' the sofa. He only attempts it when the DSs are in bed though, interestingly. They staked it out good and proper when he first arrived and he's quite timid of it. It's OK if you sit at the head end of him for a snuggle but heavily unpleasant if you have the misfortune to be at the rear. As DH found out this evening...

I should add that Billy stole six slices of baked ham and another six of serrano ham off the kitchen worktop this lunchtime. I spent about 15mins looking for them. Then from the corner of my eye saw the distinctive white deli packets in a sneaky corner of the lawn.

He proceeded to have diahorrea about 4 hours later. [eww emoticon]

Re paragraph 1 - unless you fall in love and have to take one home that is!

Oh yes, food stealing is Sprockets newest hobby. He is in very bad books today he stole half a bag of maltesers when I was out, and when I got home I put down half a (proper, from the bakery) cheese straw on the table in it's paper bag. It was in the middle of the dining table. I nipped upstairs for 5 minutes, came down, bag in exactly same place as I'd left it, minus the cheese straw, and he'd pissed up my bridesmaid dress. LUCKILY it was in it's plastic bag so didn't get any on it. But I had to be so so careful cleaning it off because the bottom of the dress was milimetres from the bottom of the bag which was open. I could've cried!

We have to keep the kitchen gated at all times now otherwise he'll be in there, raiding the cupboards (no doors yet) or the bin. Just have to be extra vigilant from now on!

Aw, you poor thing. If it helps at all, I'd have had a go at your cheese straw. It sounds lovely!

DS2 has been sent home with vomiting. I've caved and given him his birthday present early. It's the Octopod. He was so very miserable and he can't go back til Monday (48 hour rule and all.) He's happily playing now and I'm beginning to think 'oh dear, what shall I give him for his birthday now?!'

Unfortunately Billy keeps trying to eat his sick out of the bowl/lick DSs face after he's vomited so he's been banished to the kitchen behind his gate (Billy that is, not DS!) He is not happy dog...

Cunny, I know it is mean, but your post did make me laugh. Sorry. I do have symphathy though, honestly - I caught lurcher girl the other night in the process of removing a freshly baked loaf of bread from the counter in the kitchen.

Betsey, I am also home with ds1 today who has also come down with a vomiting bug. Thankfully the dogs are behaving themselves they just keep on going over and sniffing him. Going to have to brave leaving ds1 home alone in a while though whilst I walk the dogs - he has never been left before, but I hope he'll be ok for half an hour if I take the long range walkie talkie to keep in touch with him (he is 7).

Ah, the joys of the vomiting bug.

He'll be fine Magrat and you won't be far. We are watching Alvin and the Chipmunks for the second time today and are both welded to the sofa. Billy's only had one walk today but that's going to have to do...

Ooh Betsey I see you've added an 'e' :o

How are your DS' now Magrat and Betsey? Hope they're ok now, vomiting bugs aren't nice.

Thought I'd better correct my spelling!

The vomiting has passed now and he's spent the whole day moaning about being hungry. Except, being mostly deaf, his speech is very unclear so he spent the whole time on the bus today shouting 'I'm hunnee! Hunnee!'

Billy's sooo hot. We've been giving him iced water etc but I think he's a bit afraid of the ice cubes! And could he be smellier in hot weather?

It passed here too, which is good because ds was on a school trip to one of these petting zoo/farm type thingys, which he would have hated to miss. He came home telling that he touched the underneath of a python - sorry, but I have a phobia of snakes.

I came home from work today though to find the dogs have figured out how to open the door to the cupboard under the stairs and sucessfully found and ate all their treats (which were on the top shelf in there, so lurchergirl must be the guilty party who got them down). They ate 3 large bags of treats between them. They are Dogs in Disgrace - though they did at least look guilty before I even saw what they'd done as I walked through the door. Sighthounds are sooo good at the guilty look.

Hello all, I'm back from a wonderful week in Pembrokeshire. Met some fab people, including the utterly lovely LostinWales and her scrumptiously adorable whippy. We went for a nice walk on Newgale beach and even managed to pick the one sunny day of the holiday. This was rounded off nicely by going to a lovely cafe on the beach and enjoying one of the nicest veggie breakfasts I can remember. And did I mention how adorable her whippet is? Pics on FB.

Also staying at Dumpledale were a great bunch from LurcherLink. I felt like such a lightweight as one of them had NINE lurchers - they also had an adorable deerhound. The couple who run the place have a gorgeous collection of assorted sighthounds and I was introduced to their latest lurcher pups - was completely smitten.

Magrat - the cupboard under the stairs !! Aargh!! YY to the guilty sighthound look.

Hey Cunny enjoy the wedding today. And, er, don't show Sprocket your dress!

I'm so glad you had a good hol Scuttle - funny who you bump into on the beach, eh!

And Magrat - that took ingenuity. Cupboard under the stairs... I wonder how long she'd been planning that one for!

Mornin' folks!

Welcome back Scuttle :) sounds like you had a lovely time, is Silver as gorgeous as his photo's then??

Betsey thankfully the dress is safe at my sisters house, hopefully it doesn't smell of wee (I can't smell it but you know dogs!), she has an (un nuetered) boxer and if he catches a wiff of male dog wee on it. . . .

Bloody hell Magrat! What are they, ninja pointies? How the chuff did they open a door??

Welcome back Scuttle!

With the cupboard door, I think one of them must have jumped up on the door handle to make it open - our collie x used to do this to open doors (but then, he was a collie x and super brainy, I rather thought the intellectual powers of our sighthounds was somewhat limited). Of course now that we don't have any treats in the house they look all offended when we for example go out without leaving them anything. It's amazing what dogs left to their own devices will manage. Oh and that's another (sort of) negative of two dogs - they gang up to cause much more mischief than one dog alone can manage .

I hope you are all sorted for today, Cunny. Did Sprocket go off to the kennels last night?