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
:)

[TheCunnyFuntIsAGrittersWife]

How long is a piece of string I think. It was with the rescue where we got Sprocket from anyway, we got homechecked early November (irrc) and didn't get Sprocket until the end of January! We almost got a different grey early december but it didn't work out. I know of owners from the same rescue who got homechecked then got the dog the next day!

[bryte]

Hello. I am new here too. We're 4 days into adjusting to life with a lovely lurcher in our home. She's 3. Great on walks. Friendly with other dogs and so soppy around people. I wonder if she'll ever be loyal to us. She looks like she'd go off with anyone who will give her a belly rub So far she's fitting in nicely.

I'm going to be the person with lots of silly questions that show me up for being a first-timer. Does anyone mind if I ask here rather than generally on the Doghouse forum?

Toilet training. When I brought her home she had one wee accident in the house but since then has been clean indoors and either goes when on a walk, waits to be let out, or even told us by pawing us and making a scratching motion on the floor. But this evening, I took her out for a walk around the block. Actually, we were out about 40 minutes and even though I stopped to let her sniff here and there and lingered near grass, she didn't go to the toilet. She got back inside the house and then had a poo in on the carpet. It was raining outside. Did she just not fancy squatting in the wet grass? Or was it my fault for not lingering longer outside? Do I need to start treating her for going outside or was this likely a one-off set-back?

I've enjoyed reading the pointy hound thread over the past few months, in anticipation of getting a pointy dog.

[TheCunnyFuntIsAGrittersWife]

Welcome to the cushion Bryte :) congratulations on your lovely Lurcher!
Ask as many questions as you need to, that's what the cushion is for!
I have no advice for toilet training as Sprocket had already lived in a house for a couple of years before we got him.

But I will say that pointies are quite often weather phobic :o and dislike weather unless it's nice and mild outside. But it is still early days so it could just be the weather, even so, still do big praise for every wee and poo outside just to reinforce that her loo isn't indoors. I hope it goes well :)

[LostInWales]

Someone has found a lurcher

[LostInWales]

Welcome, I asked a million questions this time last year when I had my boy at first. (Although I'm still not really sure where to put my dog poo, no one ever resolved that for me, sometimes I put it in the main bin and feel bad for the bin men, sometimes I take it to the dog poo bins at the beach and then I just feel silly)

Cunny, so excited Sproket is home

[MagratGarlik]

Hello bryte, welcome to the cushion.

Good to 'see' old faces too.

Jess has had to go to the vets overnight tonight. She ripped her claw on something, so it must be removed. We will collect her in the morning .

[Scuttlebutter]

Welcome Bryte - congratulations on your new lurcher. As Cunny said, pointies are often very reluctant to go outside in the rain. Don't forget also she is still very, very new to you. Four days is no time at all, and she is still adjusting, and more importantly her tum/bottom is too. Once she's settled and into a routine you will find that she will poo regularly at the same time each day, eithe out on your walk or in the garden. I'd treat this as a one-off especially while she is in a period of adjustment with new food, new routines, new people and a lot to cope with. Even the best dog will have the odd accident from time to time. Good luck!

[Scuttlebutter]

Magrat, so sorry to hear about Jess. Fingers and toes crossed for a speedy recovery. That sounds ouch!

[Scuttlebutter]

Smiling, I've mostly come across location queries in relation to homing cats, cos obviously owners have far less control where they wander and this can be dangerous if there is a busy road nearby. Usually with dogs, the presumption is that the owner will not be letting the dog out unsupervised so this should not be too much of an issue.

[mistlethrush]

Bryte - we've been through this fairly recently - ours is about 2 and wasn't housetrained (at all) when we got her. In fact, the first day we took her out every 30 mins, and round the block at least 4 times and then she got home and did both in the hall... Ours had got used to 'inside' being the place that you did that sort of thing, and outside wasn't a 'normal' place to do it.

What we did: We had her on a lunge rein in the garden to start with (fence not sorted out) and we would go out with her and use the phrases we use, make sure that if she stops outside that you use those phrases, and praise when it happens in the right place. Our dog was reasonably clear if you knew what to look for - she would go to a certain place and then start moving round as if looking for something - if you could catch her before she did anything and took her out that was really good. Ours didn't know how to ask to go out (she's getting the hang of that now, 3 months in). She didn't know that you could actually do it on walks, so would often need to go in the garden immediately after a walk. At this stage you do need to go out with her and supervise so that you get your key phrases in before to encourage and can praise immediately that she does something.

Our previous dog knew exactly what the phrase meant - to the extent that, if she didn't need to have a wee she would do a quick squat down and get up immediately to make sure that we realised she didn't need to have one!

Smiling - sorry to hear about your dog. It must be heart breaking when you must have thought you had so much time ahead with him. We were homechecked and got a dog just over a week later, but only because we couldn't go the first weekend for some reason. We had our dog on a foster arrangement to start with (which I think is an absolute ideal situation because you can make sure that the dog's going to fit in and be happy with you (and vice versa of course) before making it permanent. Scruples is a specific whippet rescue, and I'm sure they have dogs they know about that are not on their website.

[MagratGarlik]

Jess is home!

The welcome she got from Woody would have been worth a photo, he missed her so much.

The vets have been spoiling her though and she got two bowls of breakfast this morning and was able to lounge in a big breed, quilts and all.

[MagratGarlik]

Big bed, I mean, not breed!!!

[TheCunnyFuntIsAGrittersWife]

Lost I actually suggested a poo bin for your garden. I'm not 100% but I think you bury it and pour some chemical over all the poo every so often and it composts it. Here

Magrat so sorry to hear about Jess, glad she is back home though. I hope she feels better soon. Sounds like she was well spoilt at the vets though :o

Sprocket was very miserable on Monday when he came home, he barely even looked at me, he started to perk up in the evening though and demanded a few cuddles. Yesterday he was much better and much more normal. Today I don't know yet, he's still in bed

[mistlethrush]

I'm glad Sprockett is home! Sounds as though he's remembered what life's about for a whippet again!

Our dog is not that bothered about eating first thing (our last dog was practically beating down the door from going down the garden first thing and she would sometimes try to bypass actually having to go down the garden for the proper purpose if it got breakfast sooner...) and sometimes returns to bed (upstairs) or slopes off onto the sofa after coming in - she has something later then.

Does anyone know what the thinking behind 'taking bowls up after 15 mins' is? I've now had 4 dogs who have moderated their own food intake - getting 'extras' at meal times and eating some at that stage, but leaving food in their bowl and having a bit of a snack when they feel like it. Our current dog seems to be heading a bit in that direction and rarely eats all her kibble in one go. To me it seems to be a sensible thing to do if they're eating the right amount over the course of the day, rather than forcing them to have two bigger meals, but I'm interested if there's any good reason for the opposite approach....

[TheCunnyFuntIsAGrittersWife]

Sprocket's a Greyhound

I'm not sure if there is a reason for taking food away after so long, I suppose if you feed raw then you have to take it away otherwise it'll start to stink after a while. Not sure about dry food though. Sprocket got into the habit of eating all his meals in one go after he had his leg ripped open by that Staffy, he had to wear his muzzle for 2 weeks constantly to stop him licking his stitches, only taking it off for meals. He never really got out of the habit of it so he eats it all up in one go now.

[mistlethrush]

Why did I think he was a whippet??? (But at least I hadn't got him confused with a lurcher - right? )

mistledog did inhale her meals in one go when she first arrived - but now has worked out that no one else is going to eat it and that it doesn't disappear so will eat some and then come back later for another little snack....

[bryte]

Me again. Thanks for the warm welcome. I've hardly had time to be ont he computer, adjusting to a new routine of having a dog live with us. She's doing well though. No more accidents in the house. Her claws are a bit long as she came from a home where she was walked on grass or mud only. She's scratching my children when she jumps up (we're working on the jumping up) Do I cut them myself or get them done at the vet?

She also needs a bath. Any tips?

[mistlethrush]

Hmm... if you've not clipped nails before I would get the vet to show you where to clip them. However, if they're clearly really long, you could at least take the tips off where you can see that there's no 'inside' to the nail (you don't want to cut the 'quick' of the nail - if you look at a claw you should be able to see where it starts growing forward and not have a central, underneath bit - if your dog has pale claws its easier as you can sometimes actually see through where its still necessary to have it) or you could even file them. Lots of walks on pavements should help too.

Jumping up - I've always found that if you get your hands down to the dog before they jump it helps - you can push them down for one thing and prevent them from jumping up. Get the kids to realise if they hold something (particularly if eg food) up, the dog will jump up for it.

I'm trying to get through to DS that if he constantly calls her, talks to her, uses squeeky voices etc etc etc, she actually stops listening to him - and that he needs to make sure that he is very specific about what he asks her to do and when he does it (ie at appropriate times)

[TheCunnyFuntIsAGrittersWife]

I've heard that some vets aren't too good at nail clipping (although don't get me wrong, some are, I believe Scuttle gets her hounds clipped by the vet nurse). I just get a groomer to do Sprockets nails, same with a bath. Much easier and no wet dog shaking itself off inside :o

Re the jumping up, Victoria Stilwell says to turn away from the dog with your arms crossed, praise heavily when houndy stays with all 4 paws on the floor.

[mistlethrush]

We gave mistlehound a bath on day 2 of her being with us (as she smelt of kennels). We got some shampoo from the nearby pets place and put her in the bath, using shower attachment and making sure the water was warm but not hot. She was remarkably good - and didn't seem to mind it as much as our previous dog. Be prepared for a slippery escape artist though - almost certainly just as you're about to start rinsing.

[Scuttlebutter]

Bryte, we take ours to the vet for nail clipping (the vet nurse does them). Dog has face of woe but she does it quickly and v professionally. Our lovely vet actually clipped a nail when we took one dog in recently too.

I'd strongly suggest taking hound to a training class. Most greys are very good already at loose lead walking etc but need work on things like recall, jumping etc. Find a positive local trainer, you can look on the APDT website, or do a bit of Googling. I take Norty Minx at the moment, and have previously done KC Good Citizen Bronze, Silver and Gold with one of our old dogs (now sadly no longer with us). Doing the training massively strengthens and enhances the bond between you and is super rewarding and fun. Our current trainer uses clicker and it has been a revelation for me. After six weeks Minx was literally jumping through hoops! Her recall has improved astronomically, so much so that we now regularly let her off lead in the park. She has also become much more attached to me and will either sleep with me on the bed, or insists on sleeping right by my side of the bed. When she sees the clicker she gets very excited as it's such fun, and she loves going to "skool".

Re bath, you can do it yourself but prepared for fun! Or groomer.

[TheCunnyFuntIsAGrittersWife]

One of Sprockets claws came off today! DD handed it to me, I thought it was a piece of wood at first until I realised what it was.

Photo here
And here

When we first got Sprocket, he had a claw missing, and it's been slowly growing back. So I inspected his paws when I realised that it was a claw, and discovered that the claw is the one that was missing/was growing back. The thing is, it was growing upwards, and now it's off, I can see that it hadn't actually formed properly at all, it appears to have a chunk missing and it doesn't look like a healthy claw (it looks like a piece of dried rotten wood!). I poked and prodded his toe and he doesn't appear to be in any pain at all, he didn't flinch. Just looked at me like I was barking (:o)

As it isn't causing him any pain, is it worth a trip to the vets?

[Scuttlebutter]

Darling Boola used to have one like that. It grew at a funny angle and never looked healthy, and regularly used to fall off. Bizarrely, our nephews were fascinated, and regularly would take nails home with them.

We asked the vet - damage to nail beds is a very common racing injury and though the nail grows back it is wonky and stunted and will fall out easily. Nothing you can do, and just one of those things that is a legacy of their working lives.

[TheCunnyFuntIsAGrittersWife]

Oh good, I'm glad it's probably nothing to worry about. I'd be more than happy to send the nail on if they wanted to extend their collection :o maybe send them a couple of gross chickens feet too :o

[Scuttlebutter]

I will see if I can find a pic of Boola's feet. God this is as bad as talking about poo all the time - deformed toenails!! They'd probably find the chicken's feet awesome as my SIL is a veggie so they could wave them at her. They are coming to stay for a dog show visit in April - they will be interested to hear about other people's collections of strange bits. Occasionally one of the dogs will shed the outer layer of their dewclaw - they liked that so much they put it under their microscope and sent pics to their grandparents!