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

[TheCunnyFuntIsAGrittersWife]

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).

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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
:)

Wow 7! I bet they're fun to walk at once :o good to hear yours are tough, at the leg breaking though, bloody hell! Mind you, I can't say I'm surprised. They look like they'd break in a strong wind :o

Made a right prat out of myself on Tuesday. Took Sprocket to the pet shop with me and he was chatting up one of the staff, I looked round at him and said 'Ooh you big tart!' the woman fussing him looked up and goes 'What!?!' cue bright red face and me saying 'Oh I meant him not you!!!' Luckily she saw the funny side

How is everybody else doing?

I'm nowhere near Jim Greenwood but thanks for making me look at his website and see his gorgeous set of lurchers.

The county I live in does have a group who meet up for greyhound and lurcher walks. I've not been able to make the last 2 dates but have put the June date on my calendar as a must. It will be useful to make lurcher-owner contacts, people who might be able to recommend a trainer.

I looked at APDT website but there's no-one near me.

I have said to DH that we need to focus on her positives a bit more. She is a super dog. Utterly soppy in the house with us. She's calm and happily shares her love around to anyone who will give her a tummy-rub. We were letting her off lead in small enclosed parks but (as per another post a few months back) she rushes straight over to any dog and wants to play roughly. We can't recall her from other dogs so had to make the decision to only walk her on lead. I don't know if we'd ever be able to let her off lead in open countryside. When we are in the country near scrubland, she's instantly attracted to it, she goes on high alert, so she may have been worked in the past. She likes to chase birds, and one we let her off lead in a big, but empty park and she chased birds and was out of sight within seconds. Very scary.

I would eventually like her to be off lead if possible but I don't know what's the most feasible to work towards. Off lead in a small park with her not harassing other dogs, or off lead in the countryside with no other dogs around but her not running off chasing birds (or whatever else might pop up)

I'm going to try the clicker training with small goals. She knows some commands but consistency cannot be guaranteed. I could introduce the clicker and see if that helps.

Bryte, we found our trainer by recommendation from a lady we know who fosters dogs for a rescue nearby. I have to say, she is fab (the trainer went ballistic when one woman brought her whippy in with an anti-bark collar). She does clicker training, though we just used treats with ours, both did their bronze awards and whippy started attending the silver classes, but then other things started getting in the way.... Both dogs loved going and it was good for socialising them.

With respect to off lead - we never let our two off in the small park near us, as there are too many trees and people and when we tried it once, whippy caused chaos. We will let him off in a large field where we have good visibility and there are few other people - then he can run at full speed without causing chaos for others. Jessie can only be let off in a secure field due to her prey-drive. She literally goes deaf when she spots something. Both go off lead on the beach, but unfortunately we live a long way from the beach!

Its peculiar isn't it... ours is almost certainly a failed worker. She loves chasing rabbits - and is interested in finding all the perfect locations and checking them out (and this morning chased a few) but she wants to be with me more than continuing chasing the rabbits or squirrels. It might be because she's already been in the pound 3x. However, we're not going to let her off at twilight in the future as she does go deaf then. We did wonder whether we'd ever be able to let her off - but its been fine.

We have had to teach Whippy to bring Jessie back if she starts to go deaf, because whilst she might leave us, she won't leave him. The only problem is, she runs much, much faster than him even though she is an older girl. It must be her greyhound genes, her legs are massive next to his!

Hello

Not sure if I've ever introduced myself on one of your lists before, but thought I would put my head round the door and see if it's ok to join.

I have a large-ish rough-coat lurcher boy who will be 8 around the end of beginning of November. We've had him since he was around 16 weeks old.

No-one at the rescue was quite sure of his 'mix' but the apparently the original owner mentioned both deerhound, saluki and collie. He's a blonde brindle pretty boy with incredibly expressive eyebrows. He certainly has the saluki sensitivity and I think they may have been right about the collie as well, because he's pretty bright, is easy to train and loves to retrieve - although you can't actually see any collie in him.

When he arrived we had two other dogs, a Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier and a Belgian Shepherd cross Border Collie. We lost our lovely SCWT girl a to cancer couple of years ago and sadly had to say goodbye to our other old lady just last week due to osteosarcoma. He has never been an only dog before, as he went from his litter to foster with other dogs and then came to us.

He's been very sad ever since, took up sentry duty at the front window waiting for her to come back and took to howling at night. Fortunately I remembered that when he first arrived we'd used a DAP spray and set up a baby monitor in our room, with the parent unit near his bed, so that he could hear us and the same trick has worked this time to keep him feeling less abandoned.

I've been distracting him with lots of clicker training and playing with toys in the garden and he's perked up a little, but he's still a sad boy, although it's early days.

Unfortunately, where we live the other dog walkers tend to be old ladies who clutch their (usually tiny) dogs away from him in terror, so he doesn't have anyone to play with anymore (well other than dh, myself and the three dcs - but that's not the same).

We haven't had just one dog since before we were married (almost 21 years ago) and the house seems really empty and quiet. I'm not ready for another just yet - still missing my old girl too much and we have quite a few weekends away and things booked over the next couple of months - but I'm pretty sure we will be on the look out for another later this year. It will probably be around September time, as that's when my youngest dc starts full-time school and I will have all day to play concentrate on training etc.

Having said that, I'm not averse to being pointed in the direction of any suitable candidates in the meantime, iykwim. It would have to be after the middle of June though, because that's when things quieten down and we don't have anything else after that other than a very dog friendly holiday towards the end of August (family holiday home in South West of Ireland with miles of beach to gallop on).

In the meantime I am continuing to make my husband pull a face that looks something like a cross between and by indulging lurcherboy with a new lead and harness, frisbee, ball and a big supply of liver and garlic treats and myself with new clickers and a lovely new bright orange whistle and lanyard! Haven't told dh yet that I am also going to buy lurcherboy a lovely new cushion for the living room, because I know what he'll say - for some reason he seem to think that two dog beds is enough for one dog to choose where he lays his head.

Does anyone else have a pointy hound that prefers to sleep curled up in a tight ball, rather than stretched out upside-down? Our boy often does the stretched out thing when he's with us in the living room, but when he wants to sleep , either on my feet or in his bed he curls up really tightly. In fact he's just decided to prove my point by coming and curling up on my feet as I type.

We have a curler. His nose is so long he can properly tuck it under his 'arm' when he sleeps. He's massive but bunches up so small! Our newbie is a loller though, which seems to disturb the old man's sense of order and neatness.

I say yes to the new cushion. If it's out in the lounge the whole time and you have to look at it it may as well be nice, right?

Lurcherboy sounds lovely.

My boy tucks his great big pointy snoot under his tail. Like yours, he's a pretty big lad, but he can curl himself up so small when he wants to.

I like your thinking re the new cushion - will definitely try that one on dh.

Ps - I think he's lovely, but then I'm just a tad biased.

Our two are curlers too, though Woody more so. He puts his nose under his bottom and sniffs his own farts! He doesn't do the legs up thing for more than a few seconds, but I think his knobbly whippy back prevents it.

Oh, and welcome, Moose

Thank you Magrat.

Lurcherboy doesn't need to put his nose that close to sniff his farts - he can clear a room in 2 seconds flat.

I am quite relieved to hear of other curly hounds. I only ever seem to see photos of them stretched out, belly up online and was starting to wonder if lurcherboy was a pointy dog anomaly.

Jesus Christ, I've just been reading the guard dog thread and saw Scuttle said that proposed changes in the law in Wales could mean owners being jailed for a dog chasing a cat out of its garden with similar things in England!?!

That is scary. Most cats avoid our garden, but if one did come in, I have no doubt Jessie would chase it and I'm pretty certain the 6ft high fences all around would not stop her from chasing it further, even though she's an old girl. She's gentle with people but we think she was worked in the past and her prey drive is very high.

Better get the orange jumpsuits out then....

I know, it's scary isn't it.

Cat's avoid our back garden, but like to sit on the fence outside the living room window.

Lurcherboy used to be ok with cats. Well at least with my PIL's cats, but is not so good now since our neighbours got two cats that used to sit on a low branch overhanging our garden from theirs, mew loudly and then swipe at my dogs with their paws. He never did more then tentatively stretch up to investigate them, but as it became a good game, he is now far more interested in cats than I'd like him to be and I no longer have any cat owning friends to help me work on it with him. The neighbours that had the cats have now moved and I think he misses them, he still trots up to the branch every day to see if they are there and they've been gone for about 6 months now.

Forgot to say. He encountered a muntjac deer for the first time when we out were walking last week.

He didn't know what to do with himself. First he stopped dead and barked (well bayed - he sounds proper 'houndy' if/when he starts being vocal) then I told him to sit and he sat down looking really confused and watched it leg it across the field.

To be fair, he was on the lead at the time - I'm not sure what he would have done if he'd been off-lead. He has a really good recall and also responds to the instant down, but I've not had to try either against the temptation of a good chase - yet.

Hello Moosemama - sorry to hear about your recent loss.

Can I suggest Willow or if you're looking for a complete contrast, Wilma. This is presuming that you want a bitch as a companion? There are others... but I'm not going to list them all!!!

Thank you mistlethrush.

I have to confess to already having had a look at both those girls.

I don't think we're bothered about whether we have a bitch or a dog really. Lurcherboy has always lived with bitches while he's been with us, but he's fine with dogs too. Wilma seems so happy in foster though, it seems almost mean to move her, even if it is to her forever home.

I have to confess I have a soft spot for Ellie. She sounds like a real character, in fact she sounds very similar to how the girl we just lost was as a pup. She was a nightmare - the hardest dog I've ever had to train, but turned out to be the most solid, steadfast and reliable dog we've ever had the pleasure of living with. I still have fond memories of her legging it round and round the middle of the sodden flood plain with a red setter pup in hot pursuit. They kept it up for over half and hour - round and round, complete with 'ha ha come and get me' play bows to both me and the setter's mum'. The only way we could get to them was to wade up to our ankles through stagnant standing water - so we just let them run it off - much to their disappointment. Stubborn terrier types don't phase me either - having had the most stubborn wheaten in the world for just shy of 13 years!

I'd love the challenge of taking on Ellie, but the thing is, all that was when dogs were my life (pre dcs). I now have 3 dcs, the youngest of whom is 4 1/2 (although the other two are 11 and 9). All three are dog savvy, know how to behave around dogs and when to leave them alone etc and are well aware that pups nip and what to do if that happens, but I know lots of rescues aren't keen on rehoming to families with children under the age of 5 - or sometimes older.

Also, having just got back form lovely laid back day out at a VW show with lurcherboy, I have to admit to a few collywobbles thinking about doing it all with a bonkers pup on board. Although those shows are fantastic for socialisation purposes. Lurcherboy was the the perfect gent with dogs of every type and size, even the little shih-tzu type that flew at him from where it was tied up when he was walking past, despite him not even looking at it. I did notice he seems to have a particular penchant for mini terrier types. Not in an over-excited prey-drive kind of way, more like he thinks they are all puppies and goes all soppy with them.

It feels like a long time since we had a pup, but I think I'd rather a youngster than a dog I don't know the history of, even though the dcs are very sensible around dogs. I feel bad for it though, as I know adults are harder to rehome.

Still pondering it all at the moment, as we have several things booked over the coming few weekends, so realistically wouldn't be in a position to take a new dog on until the end of June. Also, am not quite ready in myself after losing my old girl.

I was thinking of sorting some home-checks for mid-end June, so that we are approved should the right dog suddenly appear. Both lurcherboy and the girl we just lost came to me from seeing them on the web and instantly getting a strong gut feeling that we were meant for each other. In fact, we had been very sensible and decided not to go for lurcherboy, already having 2 dogs and 2 dcs, one of whom was only 18 months at the time, but someone I knew adopted him and then had a relationship breakdown within a fortnight, so he came to us while she sorted herself out and never left. We contacted the rescue to ask if it was ok and after a couple of checks they were happy for him to stay. Seemed like fate was determined he would come to us one way or another.

So, moose are you a VW fan too? Or is this VW's of the modern variety? I have a classic bug.

Excuse the intrusion, but is there by any chance, someone in the West Yorks area who has a space to what we think is hairy lurcher? We found him on the way to work a couple of months ago, and he has been living with a colleague. He has now been castrated and he groomed and is gorgeous...but...he is young (less than a year) and no one we know has the time or space for him. He has become destructive in the house when left alone, but is really affectionate.
We've done all the necessary checks with regard to a micro chip and the dog warden etc btw.

We are on our 6th Type 2 bus Magrat. It's a late bay, tin-top, twin sliding door.

Just contemplating giving up on T2s though, as it's getting harder and harder to find decent quality spares etc and our bus is reaching the point where it's going to need a full resto, which we can't afford. We are going to have to take it off the road when it's MOT is up in a month or so's time. First time in our dc's lives we won't have a camper for our summer holiday.

Been to look at Type 4's today, but can't get excited about them - plus no room for a dog crate behind the back seat. Doesn't help that we've had the current one for 10 years now and it's really part of the family.

We looked at hundreds of T4's today and not one configuration would allow for one, let alone two dogs without a crate taking up all the floorspace in front of the rear seats. The best I could think of was to fit lapbelts behind the back seat and have them on harnesses facing the wrong way - but it's not ideal.

Am just perusing ebay car sales looking for inspiration actually. We could do with finding a good quality rolling shell and building one good one from the two, iyswim. We did that with a Westy when ds1 was a baby and really enjoyed it, restored the whole thing using NOS parts, but decided to sell it on, as it was too perfect for slinging kids and dogs in and not stressing.

In truth though, we need to fix this one up and sell it on to afford the next one, which is far from ideal. I can't imagine life without one to be honest. We've only ever been without one for 10 months in the whole of our married life and love the freedom you get from just being able to sling everyone in escape for a day/weekend/week. Felt really sad driving through the sunny countryside today, thinking it's probably the last show we'll go to in that van.

Just realised I have sunburned by shoulders and nose at the show today. It didn't feel that hot.

Reluctantly, I think you'd be better getting him to a rescue as a rehome via the internet could result in him ending up in the wrong hands. Lurchers can be very desirable as bait for fighting dogs, so do be careful.

Moose, I feel for you. By neighbour recently sold his type 2 when baby 2 came along. He had tears in his eyes as he talked about selling it. Mine OTOH is a Mexican beetle which I've had for a couple of years now (I used to have a modern one as a sensible car and the classic for fun, but then I sold the modern one and use the classic one all the time now). I am very lucky to have a garage who specializes in bugs and campers just down the road, so he takes good care of it.

Reluctantly I have to agree with Magrat. Have a google for Greyhound and Lurcher specific rescues in the West Yorks area or even better, go to LurcherLink and ask if they have any advice or where is the best place to go in your area. There are loads of knowledgeable and well connected people on there and if they can't offer a rescue place themselves (which may well be the case as many rescues are full to bursting at the moment) they should hopefully be able to point you in the right direction.

Magrat We have a really good guy who works on our campers for us. Unfortunately, since having the dcs we just haven't had the £££s to spend on it's upkeep as we should have done. We ended up putting off jobs that now can't wait and are now all desperately needed at the same time.

We just can't justify the amount of money it needs spending on it, when once you have dcs etc there's always something else that needs money throwing at it. Dh reckons we are looking at at least £15,000 for the resto it now needs and there's just no way. We need to find another cheap and cheerful camper so we can keep on 'dubbin' and having fun as a family, rather than spending hours and £££s on fixing one up.

He is registered with some rescues, with my friend acting a foster carer. I just wanted to try another angle as the situation is getting desperate.
The dogs trust won't take him because he was a stray.

Reluctantly - message Lurcherlass on Lurcherlink with as much info as you can - I think she's bursting at the seams at the moment from the sound of it, but she might now someone that could help out. Chompski is turning into an amazing looking hound - I hope I'm going to meet him at the racing next weekend!

Moose - yes, she's in foster - however, if she's homed from there, one of the other barn dogs can go into foster. Its much easier to home them from foster as they have been tested in a home environment. Ours wasn't and they didn't even know whether she was housetrained - presumed not (they were right), and they didn't know whether she would be OK with children (she is) etc etc... Some of the fosterers do fail and end up adopting - but quite a few of the fosterers do foster one dog after another and sucessfully get their charges adopted.

We would have been much better getting one of the fostered dogs rather than one of the barn ones!!!

Oh - Moose - they don't have a children issue with LL either. They will only let you take a suitable dog to try out though....

Will do- thanks!

Mistlethrush, I know they need to move dogs out of foster to create space for new ones, but sometimes I feel so bad for them when they've obviously bonded so well with their foster family and wonder how hard they'll find it to settle and bond again with a new family.

I've considered fostering, thinking I would have the time and opportunity when dd starts school full-time in September, but I would be a hopeless failure at it and end up keeping every dog that came through my door.

Chompski does look rather fetching doesn't he - love the pictures of him with the cat!

Ds2 and I were talking the other day about the fact that black dogs tend not to get rehomed as easily and he said he doesn't understand it, because he likes black dogs best - that said - he's daft over our blonde brindle scruffy boy.

Just shown Chompski and Wilma to dh and he was suitably cuted-out, but frowned at me and said "Moose, we are not ready and you know it." So that's me told.