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!
:)

Welcome Weblette :) don't mind at all, this is the place to be for pointy talk :o

Hopefully a whippy owner will be along soon, but from what I know about them they would make good first dogs, my greyhound is my first dog and he is sooooooo easy, brilliant for first timers!

Although I do know that whippets are an excellent dog, and don't end up in rescue very often, so s/he may not be there for very long!

Welcome, Plomino - love the cockerel story!!
Welcome Weblette - yes, whippies are gorgeous and are a super first dog. A study I saw recently researched dog breed aggression and greyhounds and whippets had the least aggressive natures of all dog breeds.

They are very laid back, affectionate and gentle. What more could you want?

Hello weblette
WE have a whippety lurcher (but he really is predominantly whippet) and they are truly the nicest dogs.
Whippety boy is gentle, affectionate, quiet in the house, docile, loyal, loving and happy to curl up on the sofa next to us all day long...
He is happy with a few short walks a day if that is all we have time for, but equally happy with a long energetic walk.

He loves to go off lead for a few speedy laps around the park, and to be fair as long as he gets that he is happy.

Pointies are not known for their recall so that is something you need to check with the rescue you are adopting from, but whippeties are imo quite trainable.

And a final warning - they are addictive and a great opportunity for some pointy shopping, they feel the cold so a wintercoat and a fleece housecoat for the winter months are needed. Then there are house/tag collars and collars for walking... Great fun for the keen shoppers amongst us

Go for it, it sounds like you can offer a lovely home and a whippet is a perfect first dog!

Oh they sound so lovely Alas I've just heard the rescue won't home that particular dogs with under 7s. Never mind, there's bound to be another one out there that's right for us.
BTW would it be an idea to get a home check done in advance?

Oh that's a pity.

Rescues will homecheck you before they allow you to adopt a dog (or indeed, any other animal).

Another 'hello'from me and a big thank you for all the helpful advice. We have adopted two greyhounds over the past three months. Both are settling in really well and becoming part of the family. DDog1 is a silky black 4 year old girl who is very timid outside but Queen of the Sofas at home! DDog2 is a velvety dark, dark brown who is an affectionate 6 year old who has a keen interest in small furry things. Already we can't imagine being without them x

Hi weblette, we have a whippet and a greyhound x whippet. I'd definately recommend whippets as first dogs, ours is lovely. Very gentle, kind and eager to please. His main fault though is that he is not reliably dog friendly with non-pointys (he was attacked by a staffie x rottweiller shortly after we got him and I think given that he had bite marks on him when we first got him, this was not the first time he'd been attacked). In particular he dislikes very full-on dogs such as labs That is obviously something which is very specific to him though, though I've heard the same from others.

Our greyhound x whippet actually looks more like a mini-greyhound than she does a whippet (aside from the knobbly whippet back and being too short for a pure greyhound) - she makes our (lazy) whippet seem energetic, is also eager to please, but is much more of an unsophisticated country girl at the side of whippetty!

If you are interested in a whippet, have you tried Scruples Whippet Rescue? We were home-checked by them recently, but in the end a suitable dog for us came up somewhere else, so we didn't rehome from them, but they seemed very good (and the foster family ended up adopting the dog we were interested in).

Amber, two greyhounds in 3 months? Wow! That must be quite a change!

Oh, I forgot, weblette, our ds2 was 2.10 years when we got whippetty and just shy of 4 years old when we got our greyhound x whippet. Both are rescues and we never had a rescue discounting us because of the dc's ages (though they were very careful to point us towards dogs they thought would be suitable with very young children and steer us away from those they thought would not be).

Yes Magrat, they have rather taken over (but in a good way!). It was always our plan to adopt two. We have the space, have had a dog before and our DCs are late teens and happy to get involved with walking etc.

We adopted DDog1 and let the rescue know that we would like another when a suitable one came up. As luck would have it, we got a phonecall a week later . DDog2 needed to be rehomed. As she had already been in a home, they wanted her to go into a home rather than kennels. They thought she would get on with DDog2, but as she was a bit of an unknown, they suggested we foster her first to make sure there were no problems. If it hadn't worked out, I would have felt a bit better about handing her back than if we'd adopted her. Anyway, it all worked really well so she is now ours .

Our whippet gets on brilliantly with other dogs, acts as a brilliant therapy for my asd son and even likes next doors todders (as opposed to tolerating them) .

All the benefits of a greyhound in a smaller package that's more suited to our small home. She just a total sweetheart.

Her ONLY fault is that she is not keen at all on heavy traffic and is scared of buses (poor socialisation as a pup). We knew this when we took her on, and it's individual to her - not a breed trait iykwim.

We got her via lurcherlink, an alternative to scruples and another rescue that fosters nationally so is able to match owner to dog properly. I personally feel that getting a dog from a rescue that takes a bit of effort over matching owners preferences to an individual dogs temperment is really important if you are bringing any animal into a home with children. We got "exactly what it said on the tin" in regards to our dog, and I honestly couldn't be more pleased with our choice.

Weblette, there's a gorgeous 5 month old lurcher pup on the dogs trust website - he's in south wales www.dogstrust.org.uk/rehoming/alfred1087323.aspx#.T6azWcXAJvB.

(I am addicted to looking at pictures of all the gorgeous doggies on the rescue sites)

So Amber you got both your dogs within a week of each other? Your brown one sounds lovely! I don't think I've ever seen a dark brown greyhound before.

Sprocket's paw looks much better now already and he's stopped licking it :)

Pleased to hear Sprocket's paw is on the mend

Amber, I too have never seen a brown greyhound - she sounds beautiful!

And finally, awwww, Alfred is sooooo cute!!

Well maybe brown wasn't the right word to use . it's just that she is not black in the way that DDog1 is black and is not grey either. Very dark brown (almost black?) seemed the best desciption!

Glad Sprocket's paw is better. Welcome all!

I saw two brownish greyhounds at the place next to where we adopted Billy from and they looked lovely. bochead our chap hates traffic too - tail right between his legs and all jumpy when we're on the main road.

He's been on the charm offensive today with my mum. She's not a natural dog lover but seems to have capitulated for him. She calls him 'Your Lordship'. He responds.

:o 'Your Lordship' a very fitting name for a greyhound I must say!

I think Sprocket's too fat I noticed today that I can only see a shadow of his ribs now, whereas I used to be able to see the actualy ribs, not a faint outline. Can hardly feel them either

Actual, even.

We took the dogs to a transport museum today (if they live in a house with small boys, they must accept regular visits to all kinds of weird and wonderful transport places ). Lurcher girl actually accepted travelling on an old-fashioned tram relatively calmly, but was not amused at a rather over amorous and insistent (entire male) cocker spaniel, being quite quick to tell him "I'm just not that kind of girl, now go away", in no uncertain terms. I guess this is a whole side of dog ownership I've never dealt with before - only ever having owned neutered males before.

Thanks for all your messages, we now have a plan!

Because next year's going to be very chaotic here we'll look to get a whippy next Autumn and in the meantime will help walking neighbours' dogs etc to get the kids used to looking after them. It'll also give us lots of time to jump-proof the garden properly and also at the place we go to on holiday every year.

In the meantime I will keep read this thread and drooling over your gorgeous pointies!

Weblette have you thought about volunteering to walk dogs for your local rescue too? That'll give your DC plenty of experience with lits of dogs, not just neighbours dogs :)

Lots

Ooh fab idea! Thanks Spaghetti

No problem Weblette :)

Can't believe we're almost on page 6 of the new thread already!! We talk too much :o

I wonder where KateBeckett is.

I posted a little while ago about my whippet losing weight this spring & thought I'd update in case it helps others. I took vet advice .

Reason for weight loss:- Nothing more than increased excercise levels cos it's spring.

I envisage using this regime for a couple of months every spring from now on as we do increase our activity levels significantly as a family in spring and virtually hibernate in winter lol!

What's worked, (after quite a bit of trial and error!)

Changing her kibble from a "greyhound one" with a protein content of 14% to "nutrience" a brand with a 26% protein content. She has this at night.

Her morning kibble has been replaced with a bowl of tripe (yeuk!). You buy it in frozen blocks and let it defrost over night, before tipping into the bow at breakfast time. I'd advising feeding 1st thing as it STINKS!

The tripe has done wonders for her coat and general condition too.

We'll continue this regime for another fortnight or so until her weight is back at her usual 10kg and then switch back to her normal working dog greyhound kibble.

Oooh page 6 already!

Bochead it's good that you've found something that works with your dog! Maybe suggest that to D0oin, I know she wants to get some meat on her (possible) Iggy.

Can you remember Sprockets bed got a hole in? And I got a half refund from the company? Well I got an email from them yesterday saying they will send me a new inner cushion completely free of charge, so I'm going to ring LGT and donate it to the greyhounds. We don't need it so may aswell send it to someone who does!