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 bought Billy an RGT coat last year, fleece lined and waterproof. It's very warm and he's had some cracking runs in it (actually of both kinds ) and it's washed well and been very warm. The velcro is very tough. I know from experience as it gets very very stuck on everything remotely fuzzy that it comes within 1 ft of.

My mum walked him this morning. He refused to get off the sofa for her and when she got him to the pavement outside the house he refused to move! Cheeky dawg.

I love the blue fleece sheep pyjames but dh won't hear of it! He does have a rather fetching blue fleece house coat though which will do nicely as his winter house coat (won't it, Scuttle, or is it not suitable?)

Sam has gone freckly all over, all his white patches of fur now have black freckles on his skin, and as he is so thin furred it is showing through. Bizarrely though he is growing fine fuzzy hair on previous bald areas (thighs, tummy, the thin bit of skin on what I would call our achilles heel etc) so he is not going bald... ) I can only assume his skin pigment is coming out as he has been in the sun so much....
He does look rather bizarre, like he fancied being a dalmation for a while...

Lock, absolutely that Sam's housecoat is suitable for the winter!! It's beautifully lined in snuggly cotton flannel so will be warm and soft and cosy for him. And he has the option of wearing the roll collar up (and looking like Roger Moore in the 60s) or down.

Reading about his freckles is lovely but sad, as Boola was the same. His tummy had a mixture of black freckles on it that were much more apparent during the summer months.

Arf at Billy going on strike!

Scuttle, that's what I thought, I love that coat, quite fancy one myself. Just wanted to double check I could use it as pyjamas - Dh does not believe in keeping heating on throughout the night so in deepest winter we all live in pyjamas, joggers over the top, three pairs of socks etc. (except for DH whose only concession to cold is to put on a pair of socks (sexy )
Sam solved the issue by crawling under the duvet with us but now he is sleeping in ds's room (and we are training them both that Sam needs to stay in his own bed!!) a cosy coat is just the thing

I hope Sam's freckles don't make you too sad (hug). Just find it so strange to see them peeping through his fur. He really does not look white anymore Will they fade in winter?

Yes, they faded a bit in the winter. Didn't disappear completely though. It's a good sadness, if that makes sense. I have so many happy memories of him, and some are so physical - reading your description made me picture Boola's tum so vividly I almost felt I could turn round and see him on the duvet.

Callie is starting to wear a coat at night - she is still underweight, bless her, and I want to make sure all her calories are going on gaining weight not on heat generation. And it's getting quite nippy now. In the winter, we generally have the heating on till about 10.30 at night and then the timer kicks in again at about 6.30 a.m. but that means even in a modern, well insulated house, it does get surprisingly chilly by about 4 or 5 in the morning.

Yes,we'll have pictures soon, but they won't be of the plague - not the sort of gift I'd hope for!! The plaque, on the other hand is gorgeous.

Yikes, sorry about the plague / plaque confusion - can I blame it on English being my third language?????

I love Sam's tummy spots. It is the ones all over his back that leave me puzzled. Because they are visible through his fur he does not look white anymore, more a blotchy dirty greyish white...

Dh does the same with the timer, and it gets chilly!

Have a fab day and with Norty Minx around I am sure it will be a fun one!!

Betsey :o I can't imagine Sprocket ever refusing to go for a walk! Did Billy just want you to take him instead?

Plague :o :o english is your third language Lock?

We don't have the heating on at night either. I'm itching for it to get cold just so Sprocket can wear his gorgeous new housecoat.

Your third? Wow. Obviously Dutch first, but am intrigued about the second?

He wanted one of us to take him, the old bugger. He's on the muzzle all the time now too, after another cat lunging incident on the pavement. For the amount of bother it is to him, it's not worth not doing it iykwim.

YY Lock what's the other language? How clever are you!!!

Sprocket needs a new muzzle, but the ones LGT sell just have plastic crappy straps and fake plastic leather noseband. The noseband on his has split and I meant to get him on on saturday from the GGG but totally forgot! Where can I get him a good one with nice leather straps?

Ours is just the one he came with - it has a plasticky leather nose thing but the strap that goes behind his ears is quite soft leather. Think it's an RGT one but I've looked on Greyhound Superstore etc and it seems just a standard kennel one. I always think the wire racing ones look a bit sinister!

It's the plasticky leather noseband that I'm most bothered about, his has split and his muzzle was brand new when we got him at the end of January! That's the only type LGT sell so I don't want another one from them. I'd prefer one with a proper leather noseband.

There was a stall at GGG that sold them with all leather straps and nosebands for about a fiver. Bloody forgot to get him one

Can't comment on muzzles as Sam does not have one - although I won't rule it out as he is becoming more and more 'switched on' to furries and he seems to be getting faster too

Second language is German. We lived there on and off whilst I was growing up and I did Dutch nursery / German kindergarten, Dutch and German primary schools and Dutch and German secondary schools before going into an international English speaking school at age 13. T'was a bit confusing at the time but am glad of it now

I've told DH he either has to keep the heating on overnight for the hounds or buy them PJs. He settled on PJs. Last year we had a special oil heater just for Whippy but it cost us a fortune to run. PJs will be cheaper.

And I've just discovered the rescue we fostered our last greyhound from has started selling them, so I'll see the foster co-ordinator about buying some next time she comes round to check on puppy. They don't sell muzzles I've just checked. None of mine have ever needed one. We have a cat so we only get furry friendly ones.

I've just had a lovely walk with puppy. We met some terrier owners who did not tell me to put him back on the lead in case he ate their dogs, which has been happening frequently lately. In fact they actively encouraged their dogs to chase him so he'd wear them out

That's a novelty then is it D0oin? :o
See, even though we have a rabbit and Sprocket has learnt he can't get to her and he's not allowed to get her, he leaves her alone. He would quite cheerfully kill any cat or other small furry he came across. He is also a bit iffy with dogs with bollocks. He only ever seems to get aggressive to entire males. The rescue lady says it's because neutered and un-neutered males smell different and it can make some dogs unsure of the other dog so they get aggressive.

Lock that's ace, are you fluent in all 3? The only thing I can remember of German is 'do you sell stamps please?' which according to google translate (I needed the spelling) is 'verkaufen Sie bitte Briefmarken?' but when it's translated back to english it says it means 'please sell stamps?'

D0oin has puppy been eating dogs? "did not tell me to put him back on the lead in case he ate their dogs, which has been happening frequently lately." :o

Ooops. No puppy does not eat dogs. He does morph into a kangeroo when he spots one

There is an elderly gentlemen who has two westies going around telling everyone greyhounds are dangerous and should not be let off lead in public spaces. I do understand his apprehension, I over heard him telling someone a pack of three greyhounds chased and almost killed one of his dogs not so long ago , however it was not any dog to do with me, nor did it happen in the park by all accounts he has just started walking there because he daren't go back to his previous haunt. It is very sad and I do feel for him and would gladly talk to him about it if I could get close enough, but I won't keep my perfectly socialised, awesome with recall lurcher on a lead to appease just one person. I do call him to me when I see this man and let him pass.

@ Lock. I have always wanted a second language but I struggle enough with my own much of the time

Lock, how wonderful to have grown up being tri-lingual - what a wonderful gift for a child. I wish I spoke German - but I don't travel overseas very often and I think with all languages (especially ones learned as an adult) you have to keep in practice. Do your children speak Dutch? My cousins are bilingual French/English as my uncle married a Frenchwoman so have been brought up with both which is lovely.

Dooin, arf at kangaroo puppy!

Don't forget there's this, ahem, rather nice online shop based in Wales that does very smart fleece housecoats, ideal for the lurcher or greyhound of distinction....

Norty Minx is enjoying squirrel season over the park. She does an impressive vertical take-off and a kind of mad leaping to follow the squirrel up the tree. Last week she got as high as my head. She has also done some spectacular leaps but then in her excitement forgot about poor Andy and landed on him. Fortunately no harm done.

Scuttle where do you get your muzzles from? Are you sure Norty Minx is as old as they said she is? She sounds more like a puppy!! :o

Kangaroo puppy :o :o

At the moment, now that Booty's no longer with us, Andy is the only one who regularly wears his. We got given ours by GRW when we adopted Andy and Booty. They are red lightweight plastic, with leather straps. I keep the straps soft with saddle soap and the plastic is very easy to clean, but there is no special padded area on the nose. However, I'm thinking of putting Mick in one as he's prone to being a bit barky with some other dogs (though not all, and I'm still trying to work out what his particular triggers are, since it only happens sometimes) .

Unless her tattoos are wrong, no she is definitely a "veteran" . The park hosts a regular Saturday morning 5K run and Andrew is thinking of doing that with her - she is so lively and bouncy I think she'd really enjoy it. Obviously we'd build up the distance first...

Sprocket's like that and it tends to only be dogs with balls that he gets barky/slightly aggressive with, could it be that?

Evening everyone - just dropping by again.

I've caught DH looking at the dog PJs several times now... and have pointed out that our very warm house means that the poor hounds will swelter in them (plus our boy grey is camp enough without putting him in fleecy PJs).

We've got a couple of very brave cats around here that keep looking in our back door - so far the dogs haven't seen them, but cats had better move quick if they do! The lab has no strong feelings about cats, but she can open any door if she can reach the handle so just need her and the greys to work together and we might be upsetting the neighbours. Fingers are crossed that this never happens (and back door kept locked just in case)

Out of interest, did anyone go to the 1000 greyhounds attempt a couple of weeks ago?

So DH and I were chatting and he says he'd like to visit a trainer's, to see how the dogs live when they work. To give him a better idea of Billy's life before us. Anyone else thought this?

Hi Sanity,

We have an ad on the 1000 greys site, and would love to have attended. Normally we would have, but it clashed with our local RGT show, and I had a long standing commitment to judge at it, so didn't feel it was fair to drop that. I met the organisers in August at the SW Greyhound Gathering at Upottery, which was a lovely day. Are you in that part of the world?

Betsey, that's a very good idea. The kennels where you adopted will probably have contacts in the racing world, possibly even the kennels Billy came from.