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).

Share advice, stories and shopping tips!
AK Creations
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
:)

I think that the initial observations in that report that 'highest - potentially bad, medium, ok...' is not particularly helpful as you need to read the 'breed specific' bit first really - ie a high tail for a beagle is fine - but for a grey hound it would be very peculiar. Then that's all muddled up further if you get a cross - like one of our collie crosses was terrier / collie - and her naturally 'relaxed' position was with a fairly vertical tail that was swiping all over the place - where as the other collie cross had hers much more mid-range, below the horizontal. However, the degree of relaxation in a tail is probably quite key to mood.

Furthermore, I would not class what I call a 'quiver' as a wag as it is clearly something completely different. Its a bit like equating the lurcher 'teeth bared' greeting (which some have) as a snarl, just because the teeth are bared - it isn't remotely the same.

'Tis complicated, Cunny.

Love the description of the 'low-slung' tail of whippets or greyhounds - whippy's tail is very frequently in a rotor-wag, whole body helping wag the tail type wag these days. We keep telling him this is unbecoming of a whippet, but he doesn't listen .

Both a asleep now. A breakfast of mackerel clearly hit the spot.

Our last lurchery type dog (which I grew up with) used to use her tail in a helicopter movement to slow down quickly...

Re. greyhounds and the bookies - we go up to our local shops all the time. We mostly take the dogs too but we can't take them into most of the shops and they hate being tied up so I've taken to putting my head round the door of the bookies and asking if there's anyone who could hold them for 5 minutes. Generally, there are also a few men outside having a fag and they're always willing.

The dogs get loads of fuss, the punters get to chat dog knowledge... it's not ideal I realise but for a few minutes it seems to work. And now the woman behind the counter knows them she seems to slip them a few little treats (little pieces of ham mostly I think, from her packed lunch).

Wrt the playing, Billy is TERRIFYING when he 'plays'.

Hi, I'm new

I have a lurcher (Addie- known as Copter), and two Iggies called Guido (because he's an Italian greyhound, right?) and Kipper (don't ask).

We don't have a problem with bookies, but Kipper is MAD about wine, beer and anything like that. He has a sixth sense- open something, pour a glass, do anything, and a previously sleeping dog will come bounding to your side, whining for some. When passing the local...he whines madly and if we have to stop at the gate bit for the traffic lights, he will lick the gates and whine a bit more and look at me, then look back at the outside beer drinkers hopefully. He was clearly a lover of alcohol in his former life

Yes to the rotary tail. Our lurcher is known as Copter as I swear, one day she'll be able to take off.

Also, can anyone reccomend some nice dog beds? We are moving to a very cold place and have had to buy dog snow suits for winter (it's North Iceland) but as their old beds are falling to pieces, we would really like some nice comfy beds for them. They seem to prefer snoozing on the sofa though!

We got our last dog a memory foam mattress from PAH - current dog will lie on it only if its got one of her duvets on top - but old dog loved it.

Have you got them boots too? My cousins in the US had boots for their dalmations for the winter

Tuffies beds are great.

Someone tell me about whippets! Pros vs Cons. Prey drive? High/Low? Good with smalls? How do they compare with lurchers?

Already got one dog and thinking of another at some point. Was thinking Daschund but having researched I'm not sure they are right for us, shame as I was smitten!

Thank you. Yes, we have boots (they match the snowsuit thing which made me ridiculously happy ) and because the snowsuit won't cover the tail, he's got a slip on and do up tail coat thing!

I will look up memory foam from PAH and Tuffies. Thanks!

Silversky - I've met some nice whippets. But I've met lots of nice lurchers to - and they come in 'small' as well as 'medium', 'long' and 'large'

Hello, TheHerringOfDoom.

You have to show us pictures of your dogs in their winter gear! They sounds fabulous, like the trendy ski-set - canine style.

I love the sofa-style beds that Orvis sell, but they are £££s. If I ever win the lottery I am going to splash out on a lovely bed from there for my dog/s though.

Lurcherboy has a memory foam bed topped with a huge snuggly fleece blanket and another plastic traditional style dog bed layered up with loads of vet-bedding. He saunters between them - when he's not sleeping on my feet. We are planning to get a nice big mattress style one (like this or this) for the living room as well soon, in the hope that he might finally decide to sleep somewhere other than on my feet, which effectively renders me incapable of getting off the sofa without falling over.

Memory foam is particularly good at keeping things warm. I have a memory foam mattress and I swear I could cook overnight sometimes.

SilverSky, sorry, can't help re whippets - but there are lots of whippety people on here, so hopefully someone will be along to help soon.

Always had duvet as a bed for mine :)

Loving the idea of a doggy snowsuit!!

Billy is doing so well, slept or at least didn't cry all night last night. I only had to tell him twice today and he left the kids lunches alone and he's relaxing a lot more. We have some lovely walks but we're still not doing great with the cats. He's a bit less whiney I think but still trying to lunge :( don't want to lose him, been reading lots on the Internet but do wonder of its just such a natural instinct you cant train it out of a dog that has that drive? The cats are getting braver though so still really hoping the more he sees them the more it will become normal to see them iyswim.

Well, we have managed to get our chinchilla back into the sitting room, having banished her to the dining room when we first brought mistlehound home. And she is VERY rabbit / squirrel like and bounces around her cage... We took it very slowly and made it quite clear that she wasn't to be chased, and made sure that mistlehound got praised when she just looked interestedand effectively ignored rather than aiming to catch...

I also like lurchers ESP hairy ones but wonder that they may be too big. If we had a bigger house I'd have quite a few dogs!

Ours can make herself Quite Small when needed to (she sits in the front passenger footwell of a fabia) but also expands to use up available room...

I never knew you could get boots for dogs!

My GH sleeps on a duvet folded up, and has a big fleece blanket she uses as a pillow, or looks at you pitifully until you cover her up with it.

Cinnamon was billy a racer?

Interesting stories about bookies and beer. ShyDog is garlic mad having been fed on left over takeaways. Anything garlicky and she is sure it is for her, gets all excited, etc .

Yes he was but so was Nelly and she learned really quickly to leave HER cats alone. She still chased anything else while out and about. He's just so excited I feel it's just his nature and it wasn't hers.

Lurcherboy is a big old hairy lad (pic on profile if you're interested), but he folds up quite small and doesn't seem to take up much space in the house for some reason.

He absolutely hates being tucked in with a blanket, but I suppose he's hairy enough to keep warm.

He also loathes garlic, which is a shame, because we eat a lot of it and every single time I start cooking with it he starts sneezing, snorting and rubbing his snoot, before grumbling at me and taking himself off as far as he can possibly get away from the smell.

:o :o @ dogs in snowsuits! You have to show us some pics :o I can't imagine it being that cold that even the dogs have to wear snowsuits.

Ok, am really upset and would appreciate some perspective.

I have just got back from the school assembly, where my ds1, who has ASD, was receiving his star of the week certificate. Was out of the house for just shy of an hour.

Came home and found a sticky note stuck to my front door saying "DOG HOWLING AGAIN!" - unsigned, but obviously from the attached neighbours as no-one else would ear through double glazing and our unattached neighbours are at work anyway.

We have always got on with these neighbours. They complained when we first moved in that oldgirl was barking when left and I did a whole SA programme with her, which I assume worked, as we had no further complaints and we've been here 10 years now.

How the hell can they put "AGAIN" when they haven't bothered to speak to us and let us know he was doing it in the first place.

I am home 99.9% of the time. Go out to lunch with my Mum 1-2 times a week for an hour-ish at most and when we go out as a family we generally take lurcherboy with us, but obviously I can't take him to the blooming school with me.

Poor dog has been through the mill, first he lost oldgirl and this week he's been an inpatient for exploratory surgery and scans etc due to repetitive water infections and blood in his urine - when he's never been ill, let alone left at the vets before.

The house is quiet from 8.45 am until 3.30 when the dcs get home and all three dcs are in bed and quiet by 8.00 pm, with no noisy night waking.

They are a retirement age couple, with no kids or dogs and they never answer their door - so I can't even confront them speak to them about their unpleasant note and explain what's going on and that we are trying to resolve the problem. Actually they've gone out anyway, so obviously don't want to speak to us about it.

What am I supposed to do? I am at home most of the time anyway - so he's only ever left for about an hour at most and I always leave him with a stuffed kong. I do three to four ten minute school runs a day, depending on after school clubs, so he knows I always come back. I know closing the living room door is a trigger for him, so have been closing it when I am home to try and desensitise him to that, in fact I am sitting on the sofa now with him in his bed in the kitchen and the door shut. He yowled once, but shut up when told. From past experience, when I've been ill in bed and he's thought the house was empty, he does the occasional haunted howl and whines a bit, but he doesn't bark or howl continuously.

I was hoping he'd settle down as time went on since we lost oldgirl, but it seems he's getting worse. I can't contemplate getting another dog until his SA is under control, as he'll just teach a pup to howl along with him.

I am so upset about this, I really don't need the stress and am not confident I can stop lurcherboy howling when we're not in, so that means I am pretty much housebound and no pup.

OK, first a ((hug)) - there's no need for the crappy way they've told you about it. It just makes the situation worse as you're more stressed about it and I'm sure he'll pick up on that.

Do you have any idea whether he's doing the odd howl as you described or is at it constantly? Can you creep back when you've gone out and find out how bad it is - or leave a tape recorder going?

Does he need to be shut in a single room?

Have you tried putting the radio on - we often leave the radio on for ours so that it is not totally quiet.

Oh - and its not that bad - he's not throwing himself at the upstairs window in an attempt to get out and find you (recent story of SA dog I've seen)(she now knows why the glass of the front door is cracked)

Thanks mistlethrush.

Unfortunately I don't know how much howling he's doing - if they'd just spoken to me, instead of leaving a rude note, I'd have been better able to work out what's going on.

I have dug out the dictaphone and am going to record him when I do the school runs for the rest of the day today and see if that helps give me some idea.

I do know that he was dribbly when I got back this morning though and he dribbled for the first time the day oldgirl was pts. That time he saturated the kitchen floor, as he'd never really been completely on his own until that day.

I never hear a peep when I get back, whereas with oldgirl I could hear her kicking off as soon as I got out of the car.

He's not confined to one room, just kept in the back of the house, as he get's over-excited if we leave him where he can look out of the front window. He has the run of the back porch, pantry/utlility, bathroom and kitchen.

We leave the tv on if we go out at times when it would usually be on, but will try leaving him with and without it on and recording his response.

I do think he's getting over-attached to me since we lost oldgirl and I have perhaps been a bit too soppy with him, because I feel sorry for him. He doesn't spend as much time in his beds in the kitchen as he used to, preferring to spend all day with me. I like the company as much as he does, but if it's that that's making him over-attached and struggle to separate, then I will have to make sure he spends some time in another room every day.

I do know it could be much worse. When we moved here, oldgirl shredded the kitchen door in her desperation to get out and she really screamed and barked the whole time we were out. I'm just really worried, because I know SA can be a really tough nut to crack and can take a very long time to deal with as well. Which would be fine if the neighbours were willing to be a little patient, but it doesn't seem that they are, given the tone of the note.

I should add that he doesn't seem to bother much with his kong. I have tried to get him to eat it, but he'll only bother if the food pretty much falls out on it's own. He's either too lazy or dim to work at it. Was considering a buster cube or treat ball, but the neighbours would probably complain about him crashing about with that too.

Kong - that's interesting as my lurcher seems completely disinterested in biscuits stuffed into her kong, whereas they kept our last dog happy for quite some time - I might try something else that is more tasty, but don't hold out much hope. However, she does like her treat ball - its one of those yellow spotted ones that the food comes out of a hole (that you make smaller once you've put the food in). I'm not sure that she would do it if we were out though.

We were told to try lots of things with ours when she started to develop SA - putting her in a different room some of the time (this one didn't work for us as she simply jumped the dog gate); putting coat on and not leaving for a while - similarly picking up keys etc; going out and coming back in immediately - then 5 mins later - then going out for 2 mins and coming back in etc etc - lots of short ins and outs so he doesn't know how long its going to be; totally ignoring her when we got in until she'd settled down - then nice calm greeting (this one's slipped ).

Of course, it could be that, if you got the right companion for him, he wouldn't do it anyway... But that is so difficult to tell. I wonder whether you might have even considered fostering a dog for one of the sighthound rescues? That might give you a bit of an idea.

An idea I got from a friend who wanted to see what her dogs were up to when she was out of sight was to set up a webcam to record them on the computer. Could you do something similar?

Shitty way of your neighbours to approach the problem though. I'd be tempted to return it with a note through their door saying, 'you are being rude AGAIN' . (I am probably not a nice neighbour).