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[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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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 I will try a treat ball and see how it goes. I'll try anything to be honest.

Have just removed my front door key from the keyring as well, as he always notices when I pick up my keys.

We did the whole SA programme with oldgirl when we first moved in, all the non-attention signals, coats on - coats off, door opened and closed, then go out and come in, then out for minute etc, building it up. It worked with her, in that she stopped the barking and door scratching, but she was never really happy being left.

We've always done ignoring on return, but I will admit that that has lapsed a bit since we lost oldgirl - so will be stricter with myself about that now as well.

That's the thing about getting another dog. It might help, but it could just make things 10 x worse. So hard to know what to do for best.

Just spoke to dh - he's livid with the way the neighbours handled it as well and is going to try and speak to the husband hopefully tonight, but if not, over the weekend. Like I said, they never answer their front door, so it's not easy to speak to them. He is going to be reasonable and polite, but at the same time let them know that we aren't happy about the way they've gone about things.

The thing is, I take the responsibility of keeping dogs very seriously and honestly believe it's my job to ensure that no-one else is put out or inconvenienced because of my dogs. I go to extreme lengths to make sure this is the case and my dogs are rarely left for very long. Other people get a dog - or several, never walk it/them, lock it in the house for 8 hours a day to howl and bark and don't give a damn. Mine howls a couple of times in an hour of being left and I get a bloody complaint.

I have to take dd to nursery shortly. Will leave the tv on and door shut and record what happens. I've kept the living room door shut since we came home and lurcherboy has been sleeping in his bed quietly - since I told him to be quiet at the first moan. I've been in and out a few times, made dd's lunch and a cuppa and then come back in here and shut the door again. Think I need to do more of the same to desensitise him and and make him less aware of when I leave.

I have a busy week next week too. Have ds1's Annual SEN Statement Review and meeting with his secondary school on Tuesday - which is mega stressful. It's my birthday - for which I am supposed to be going out to lunch and shopping - on Wednesday and I have physio on Thursday - so three days I need to leave him - although will cancel my birthday plans now, as he clearly can't cope with that ... actually, we will go to a local pub where we can sit by the canal with Lurcherboy and have lunch there instead.

Magrat, I like your idea for an rsvp but I think dh might be a tad cross with me if I did that - although I have warned him that if I do cross paths with them today I won't be able to be very civil. He did say I should tell them that they had no need to stick a note on the door and they c/should have come and spoken to us about it when it first started - but I said I'm not sure it would come out that polite from me in the mood I'm in now.

To be honest, I think they would scuttle away if they saw me. They never speak to me. I think they're scared of me after hearing me lose my cool with the dcs (I have three, one with ASD, one who is a primadonna who has quite a few ASD traits and a 4 year old dd ).

I have thought about a webcam. We have a macbook, so it should be possible in theory, but I have no idea how to go about it. Dh is the IT bod in our house - will ask him about it.

Lurcherboy is always in his bed when I come home and gets up as I open the living room door. Same when he's occasionally howled when I've been ill in bed - he's in bed - he just lies there and howls.

Does anyone have any experience of thundershirts? I wonder if that might help to keep him calm.

I've seen lots of positive stories on thundershirts - just a bit concerned about overheating potential in this weather. To see if its worth investing in one, find an old Tshirt that you can get on him and then pull in all the slack at the top of the back...

No danger of overheating. It's freezzzing in my kitchen - in fact it's the best place to be on a hot day. I will try the tshirt trick, thanks for that. I wonder if he'd object to dh's old 'fat-cat, thin-cat, head-first-in-the-bin-cat' tshirt.

Just took dd to nursery and left the dictaphone going. Have come back in and left the living room door shut.

I made sure the door was shut for half an hour before we went out and he stayed quietly in his bed without a peep. The minute I opened the living room/hall doorway he was up and standing behind the kitchen door and I heard him behind the door again when I came in (I can hear his claws on the quarry tiles). He's quietly whining at the moment, hardly audible, just under his breath, iyswim. I will open the door when he settles down and is completely quiet.

Am going to spend the afternoon going in and out of the hall and opening and closing the front door. What an exciting life I lead!

Its worth it!

Clip it or elastic band or knot at the back, depending upon how much spare material there is!!!

That really isn't the way to go about anything, sorry you such rude neighbours!

We have neighbours who we've had loads of problems with started with being able to hear their music through next doors house and having their 17 year old son tell me my children were too old to have a nap and then his music wouldn't be a problem. They've had 3 dogs in the 7 years we've lived here and got rid of all of them at one point. The last one was a howler but they literally shut him out for hours at a time (whether home or not) and he would howl the whole time :(. As far as I know Nelly never made a sound when we were out and I don't know about Billy but he's stopped crying at night now which is great. I really don't have an advice other than try not to let it stress you. You are a responsible owner who is doing the right thing and having an hour away from the house is nothing to feel guilty about. I hope that your tactics (not sure of right word) work and that your recordings put your mind at rest.

Ok, so have listened to the tape. It's actually whining, not howling and not all that loud, although there are one or two short, louder ones thrown in, but we live in solidly built 1930's houses and rarely hear the neighbours, so not actually sure how much of what he did they would be able to hear. He isn't pacing, I think he's in his bed the whole time, as no claws on tiles sounds recorded.

It's difficult to assess how loud they actually were though, because I daftly left the dictaphone on the cupboard by his bed and I notice even me picking up some paperwork before I left the room sounded really loud. I also can't tell precisely when I actually leave the house, some am going to leave it in the living room when I go to pick up the dcs and see if that give me a better idea.

I presume he must work himself up to doing full-on howls the longer he's left then. I do know he was doing full-on haunted howls at night the week after we lost old-girl and it took dh sleeping on the sofa in the next room, followed by having the baby monitor on so he could here us in our room to stop that. He now sleeps quietly downstairs all night without the monitor on.

It's mad. He knows I got out for ten minutes at a time at least three times a day and always come straight back, yet he starts whining and moaning after five minutes.

He has just decided to have a proper go at the contents of his kong now as well - now I'm back. I was going to take it off him, but I want to go in and reward him with some attention while he's lying there chomping on it, so am leaving it a few minutes.

Thank you Cinnamon, I dread being thought of as the kind of neighbour you have struggled with. I don't want them to be upset and inconvenienced by my dog/s and I really do take my responsibilities as a dog owner extremely seriously, both in terms of the dog's welfare (ie I don't want him feeling upset and stressed when left and in terms of not letting him bother anyone else.

Well, I was out for 16 minutes. He didn't make peep for ten, then did three whines - none of which were loud - between then and when I came back. The dcs listened to the recording withe me and were like 'what's all the fuss about' .

To be fair, it was just me going out and I did go in and out of the hall door several times before slipping quietly out of the front door and I left the tv on - but then I left it on when I took dd to nursery as well. I think he finds it harder when we leave en masse, but organising everyone to do the -in-out-in-out thing would be a bit challenging to say the least.

Hopefully, if we persist with enforcing him having some 'alone' time and random times shutting the living room door, going in and out of the hall and then in and out of the front door he should start to relax a bit with regards to being left.

Moose, is it possible that they can hear a dog howling/barking and have incorrectly assumed it's yours? Where we live, there's a Mal which lives outside a few doors away from us and it's a noisy barker/howler. I was on the phone to one of my friends a couple of days ago and even through the phone, she commented on the barking, thinking it was ours. It wasn't - it was the neighbours' dog, and at this time of the year, lots of windows were open and the wind was in right direction, so it sounded really close. Could something like this be happening?

Alternatively, they could be irritating fussbudgets.

No, unfortunately I'm pretty sure it's him. He was full on haunted howling at night the first week after we lost oldgirl - we'd never heard him do it before. Dh slept on the sofa with the dog gate closed and the kitchen door slightly ajar for a couple of nights, then we set up the baby monitor so he could hear us in our bedroom for a few more nights and now he's sleeping fine at night without the monitor.

Then I recorded him today when I was out for 10-15 minutes and he was winding himself up. So, as I was out for an hour first thing, I presume he must have managed to get to proper howling pitch in that time.

I am so fed up about it, not least of all because if I'd half a brain I would have seen it coming, knowing that he was so much younger than my girls and would inevitably be left behind at some point. I should have trained him to cope with being alone for periods of time while we still had the girls. Definitely something to bear in mind when we get our new pup.

Moose - don't be hard on yourself - particularly as the end was rather quick with your old girl - you had other things on your mind than your fit dog...

Sounds to me as though you know exactly what to do and as long as you stick to it he'll come round and you'll be fine.

I think that the neighbours heard him during the night early on and it made a BIG impression on them - so that the fact that he's howled once or twice since then has made a big impact - I wouldn't worry too much - if they can't be polite enough to come and tell you that he's doing it, they're not worth worrying about - just concentrate on him and forget about them!!!

Interesting you say that, moose, something for us to think about. Our two do everything together except going to training classes. She is much older than him. Perhaps it's time for us to give them some individual time too.

On a different note - does anyone know any charity doggy shows this weekend in east midlands? I've been googling but drawn a blank.

THere's one next weekend Magrat

Cool - where? Doncaster?

Thanks mistlethrush. We only let him howl once the week we lost oldgirl. We pre-empted the other nights by watching how he was behaving when we started getting ready for bed. So they weren't inconvenienced, other than perhaps being woken up that first time.

I have had lots of advice to just ignore them and keep on doing what I'm doing.

Thanks for all the support today folks, it's really appreciated.

Definitely ignore them, it's not like he's howling all day and night and they haven't even given you chance to discuss it! My neighbours are total arses in everyday, about everything and I wouldn't give them the time of day, that is not you!! They are irresponsible people who've dumped each dog as soon as its been a problem and are rude and inconsiderate on every other aspect of life. You are doing your very best for your dog and your neighbourhood!

Magrat - racing tomorrow at Askern, near Doncaster - turn up at 12.30, book in, racing from 1pm ish - very informal but fun, you can borrow muzzles, complete novices made very welcome....

Then there's a show on the 16th details here

Took Billy to parkrun with me today, he went mad at the start chasing other runners but settled down well and then was knackered at the end! We did 5k in about 28m 30, including two wees . He's had some scrambled egg with his breakfast and passed out on his bed for last 20 mins!

My cats are getting braver! One was in today while Billy was in the living room, not quite sure how he didn't notice her considering how much he was sniffing around with them having been in overnight but guess that can only be a good thing.

Ooh, fabulous Cinnamon. DH loves running with two of ours.

Sounds hopeful on the cat front cinnamon.

I'm impressed at your running - I got out of breath racing home from the school to get back to lurcherboy yesterday and it's only about a 3 minute walk. (To be fair, I am still having physio for an ankle injury I did last August. I was on crutches until Christmas and have totally lost all my fitness as a result. I did used to be fit - 2 Jillian Michaels DVDs a day, plus walking 5 miles a day - prior to my injury.)

Are dogs allowed at ParkRuns? I run badly with mine. Doing Couch 2 5K slowly but surely. Getting into it too.

I have been looking into whippets a bit. Quite like the sound of them!

Cinnamon - I'm sure you know about it, but just be careful about feeding close to exercise -one of the LL dogs died of bloat last week, even though the signs were acted upon immediately and the dog taken to the vet straight away -and I'm sure that she hadn't been exercised immediately before eating either

On a more positive note, mistlehound did really well yesterday - the bunny chasing in the dunes has clearly done some good and she came in 2nd to a larger dog in the 3 races that she did - much better than normal - and she was running beautifully smoothly too. I think we'll try to keep her weight as it is at the moment - a little lower than it was - she looks just right.