Are you a Greyhound, Whippet or Lurcher owner? Come and have a seat on the new Pointy Hounds cushion!

[TheCunnyFunt]

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!
AK Creations
Bonnie dogs
GRWE shop
Our very own Scuttle's Milgi coats
Silver Peacock

Jake
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!
By Denise Dubarbier
:)

We've already found out about the counter clearing. And bin raiding. We've had him since August and still haven't cracked the house training thanks to his history. I had similar problems with my staffie/whippet but GSD never ever ever messed in the house. I think my new one doesn't much care what I think - he just goes for wherever's most convenient! He is by far the most playful and sociable dog I've had and is nowhere near as laid back as I was expecting - maybe that'll come with age. I'll post a picture once I can get to my pc.

Margrat im in Gateshead, The bull lurcher came from deerness kennels in Durham

@Power, im having problems with mine who came from the shelter, he has separation anxiety. He doesn't poop but wee's if i leave him alone in the house and he knows i have gone out.

Ah, no. I'm in the east midlands. Your dogs are both the absolute spitting image of my neighbours though. How freaky is that!

Both of them came from BYB'ers. I know some of Reds history as i didnt get him directly from the shelter, a friend of a friend did. The owner emigrated and the wife was going to follow so he got put into the shelter. The friend of a friend got him out, split up with his partner and got rehoused to a flat. The neighbours complained he had 2 dogs and he had to get rid of one, the other was a 13 yr old collie so Red was going to go back. I took him instead as he got on with my staff. The people who emigrated apparently took him off some breeders who bred a staff with a Lurcher, they decided they were 2 big got rid of them all then apparently tried again to make smaller ones. He has deffo been beaten of someone, a woman i think

Fifi the staff, she came from someone who bred KC staffs. They had a litter and kept a boy. The boy then got hold of the mother so they are inbred. One was born with a deformed leg. He was just getting rid of them for free so the ex dp took one. Dp worked with his relative. The one with a deformed leg went to a vet as ex dp's grandad owns horses and told her. His vet kept her sister. I think she still has her or did last year.

Im not sure about red, are Lurchers not fluffy, maybe he's a greyhoundxstaff

that someone would let inbred pups be born!

Wrt Lurchers, they're just what you call a Greyhound cross so
Grund x Collie = Lurcher
Grund x Lab = Lurcher
Grund x Poodle = Groodle (Poohound??)
Etc etc. So they can be anything really, smooth, wiry, fluffy. Depends what the other dog is.

Info on Lurchers here, this says any type of sighthound cross though so I was slightly wrong.

Yes that's what i thought, any hound crossed with another dog is a lurcher. So i think he could be a greyhound cross staff. He does look very much like a greyhound so thats what i think

The vet said he's a bull lurcher, do you say this because hes obviously crossed with a staff or is he just a Lurcher.

Do you know what i mean lol, i refer to him as a bull lurcher now as so many people say what sort of dogs that, it looks like it has staffie eyes, they always pick up the staff. Or some say he looks like something and when i say staff they say ahh yeah.

As I understand it, a 'bull' lurcher is any bull-dog type breed crossed with a sighthound - doesn't have to be a staffie, but just because of the numbers of them about, that's probably the most likely. And it might not be 1/2 one of those either - as soon as its got the wider 'bull' type head it tends to get that nickname.

Ours definitely doesn't have that side - very long thin head and extra long nose. Don't know where she gets her rough coat from though - Bedlington doesn't feel right - Deerhound, perhaps... might be grey/roughcollie though (although she doesn't really seem to have much of the collie side, although she does love playing).

Cunny, my understanding is a lurcher is a greyhound cross - so greyhound cross collie, or indeed a grey cross Staffie. Unfortunately bull lurchers are now very popular with the working fraternity, especially for illegal quarry such as badgers . A longdog is any other sighthound crossed with another breed so say you had a saluki crossed with a collie that would be a long dog. Slightly confusingly though, whippets are often included in the lurcher category so if you had a whippet crossed with collie, most people I know would refer to it as a whippy lurcher IYSWIM.

From LL:

Post subject: What IS a Lurcher?
This is a "how long is a piece of string" question................lots of things ARE Lurchers and equally lots of things AREN'T. The accepted wisdom is that a Lurcher is a form of sighthound crossed with another working type of dog ...typical example is a Greyhound X Border Collie. This gives you a hunting dog with speed and brains.

However, a Lurcher is a TYPE of dog NOT a breed....so there are many different crosses which are Lurchers. Some of the most common are :

Saluki x Greyhound
Bull Terrier x Greyhound
Bedlington Terrier x Whippet
Bearded Collie x Greyhound
Border Collie x Greyhound
Border Collie x Deerhound
Jack Russell Terrier x Whippet

but there are endless variations- the crosses are normally chosen for their ability to work a particular quarry. For example a Saluki x has the speed and stamina to work hares, a Bull x has the tenacity and strength to work foxes, a Bedlington x makes a good rabbiting dog. The terrain can also play a role in the dog's make-up - the vast open spaces of the Fens and Moors mean a bigger dog can find its pace, but the small drystone walled fields in parts of Yorkshire and Derbyshire mean a smaller dog with a quicker turning speed would be of more use.

There are also Lurcher x Lurcher strains, which the owners can trace back through generations of careful breeding and throw a certain "type" of dog. It's quite common at Lurcher shows for knowledgable folks to say "that looks like a Joe Bloggs dog" and be right

Yes that rings true as the story i got told was they tried to breed a smaller dog than what mine is so im thinking they must have wanted a more compact dog with power and the prey drive. He's got a very high prey drive compared to the staff, shes terrified of smaller dogs and cats. I have to be very very careful he doesn't get out as i think he would kill a cat from the way he reacts to them on the leash. No idea if anyone has previously used him for hunting, if they did he would have been very young

It's a good point, Mistle about the variations in size and type and the fact they are bred for very specific prey/jobs. That of course is also what makes them so endlessly fascinating. One of my close friends has two lurchers who are not much bigger than terriers (def from whippy strains) and we are currently making a custom coat for a lurcher tripawd who is a gorgeous dog and as fast as greased lightning - prob whippy x collie with a dash of saluki in there somewhere too.

Lurcher Link do regular Lure Coursing days - I'd love to do this with our greys.

I'm going (again) with ours at the weekend

BTW, there's a person that does made-to-measure coats on the on-line shop on their forum - and some of the tripod owners who have one of those coats say that they are really good and don't twist round despite the lopsided dog (front tripod). We're picking our coat up on Saturday (I hope) - the length of our dog was commented upon, even though she's used to measuring lurchers.

Actually - I'm not doing the coursing, I'm doing the racing in the greyhound stadium (very small, not at all posh one) - its lovely to see a huge range of lurchers there, and they also run a couple of whippet races - and a special one for the terrierists (who generally seem to work out that they can cut the corner and spend very little time on the actual track) - and you let your own dog go so there are no traps to worry about etc - its all very low-key and friendly. Given current restrictions on off-lead time (although I have some of the paperwork!) I like to take ours to have a good chase!.

Sounds fabulous, Mistle. Bet you'll really enjoy yourself. I ADORE terrier racing - it's complete anarchy and hilarious.

On a completely separate note, I wanted to share something that might be handy for Christmas. We've got several young nephews, and I've bought the youngest aged 7 some of the Speedy books from the RGT as part of his Christmas present. These are dinky little books, each one featuring Speedy the greyhound. The illustrations are really beautiful and each is just a nice, quirky little story about Speedy and some of his adventures. For instance, I've got Speedy Does Christmas and Speedy in the Snow for our nephew. In the Christmas book, he does things like wear a paper hat for the queeen, pinch the sausages round the turkey and "help" with present unwrapping - all very typical greyhound stuff. The books are lovely, only £2 each and a very gentle, observational sort of book. Great for stocking fillers or small presents. I ordered mine from the RGT website, but I know a lot of the RGT branches carry them as stock items too.

what sort of age range are they appropriate for Scuttle?

BTW, it looks more likely that ours is a failed worker - DH said that she was very wary of a transit van they had to edge past the other day - and at the weekend we heard shooting and her tail went right down.

Mistle, I have no children myself so am only able to give a very qualified guide. Each page (about 20 pages per book) has a large illustration and a couple of sentences below. Definitely for children who can read, though younger DC would enjoy looking at the pictures and having the stories read to them. 7 year old nephew will be OK with the occasional long word as his mum is a teacher and dad is a librarian! I'd say for 7 - 9 year olds but I might be out on this as so much depends on whether the child enjoys reading or is good at it. I'd also say that I see it as a good thing that there are occasional long words - but I regularly come across adults who think otherwise - depends on your viewpoint.

Hmm... my 7 yo read the first Harry Potter (after being read the first chapter) to himself aged 6, so I think that they're going to be a bit too easy for him unfortunately

HOw many collars do you think I'll be able to justify to DH when I get back with DS and dog after Saturday?

Hmmm, I think most DHs of wives with greyhounds probably know that arguing on this point is a pretty pointless exercise. Interestingly I see this with the coats too. Usually the husband is towed along in the backgroud and may be allowed to wrangle dogs or actually hand over the cash/card but in general I'd say 95%+ of purchasing decisions are made by female halves of couples.

The coat (made to measure, colour specially chosen...) is currently in production. I have held off from the towelling one and a fleece (for the moment).

Booked Sprocket into kennels this saturday night. DP and I are off to finish our christmas shopping and we'll be gone hours and it's too long to leave him. LGT can't have him and he won't get out of his bed for anyone but me so it's no use asking anyone to let him out for the loo! I hope he'll be ok

we should do a mn pointy dog-sitting-service.... [grin}