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[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 :o).

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Come The Day
Come the day I take that final bend,
Can I count on you to be my friend?
To see I?m treated just and fair,
It means so much to know you care.

For, what the future holds in store,
Now that I can race no more,
Should be addressed for every hound,
Who parts the punter from his pound.

Tell them I don?t ask for much,
A kindly word, a gentle touch,
Somewhere warm to lay my head,
A meal each day to keep me fed,
Not just life- but quality,
This is how it ought to be.

Do not see me swept away,
I long to live another day,
With peace of mind, tranquillity,
And those who care surrounding me,
So tell them all- you have that choice,
I beg of you to be my voice.

By Denise Dubarbier.

Mistlehounds sounds awesome and loads of fun.

Lurcherboy dd and I have been for a lovely walk this morning, keeping to the edge of the field for shade.

Can't believe how hot it was at only 9.00 am. We kept it short this morning and I'll take him for a longer one when it cools down this evening.

Now I've sussed he isn't being beligerent, but just wants me to play with him when he doesn't come back on a recall I've started using a different call for him and then indulging him in his game. We're spending the first half of the walk without any toys just telling him to 'go play' and then working on reinforcing his 'proper recall' and his recalls have been fab. So it seems we definitely need a distinction between - 'come here now' and just a general, 'you're too far ahead, please head back in my direction but you don't have to come right back'.

Not getting very far with the separation anxiety training here as I am constantly in an out for varying lengths of time for the next week. :-/ I have taken her with me when I can, and when I've had to leave her done it with DAP spray, kong, activity ball, etc after a nice long walk. She does settle eventually, when I come home she is always laid on her bed.

When I got in today after driving lesson she didn't seem to have gone as nuts. But even after 10 mins of me being home and her calmed down she was doing the odd little short whimper. If she was ill or in pain she would have SOME other symptoms wouldn't she?! She does it at random intervals but only a few times a day, it's really odd! I've felt and inspected her all over and can find nothing obvious to feel or look at and she doesn't seem to be tender to the touch anywhere.

I think I worry about ShyDog as much as DS, and she definitely is just as costly! Good job she's adorable!

It's a slow process YourHand. We've been at it for a month now and although we've started seeing positive progress we still have off days, where things regress and he yells the place down from 3 minutes after I leave until I get back - fortunately no longer than 10 minutes though, as I never have to leave him longer than that.

We've got a busy week school/end-of-term wise this week and both sets of grandparents are away on holiday, so no-one to dog-sit.

I've decided to drop a note to my neighbours saying we're doing everything we can, but they may well hear him howling over the next couple of days as I have to go out to some things that are unavoidable. One is ds1's last sports day at this school, the other the last parents' stay and play at dd's nursery. I shouldn't need to be out for longer than hour either time if I'm careful - but the longest he's gone without howling so far is 5 minutes and I know leaving him longer is guaranteed to set him back for a while.

I'm planning to drop dd off, come home for an hour, then go back for an hour then come back before school pick-up. Think I'd better prepare plenty of extra tasty treat toys in advance.

Could ShyDog's whining possibly be boredom do you think?

I am 99.9% sure Lurcherboy's howling is now due to boredom and loneliness, rather than true separation anxiety.

It might be worth throwing in lots of little 5 minute clicker training sessions and seeing if her whimpering stops.

If you are at all concerned it wounds like she's in pain or feeling off though - I'd get her checked out at the vets.

I'm dreading this week and can't wait for it to be over.

Almost forgot. If you can find some way of recording what she's up to (sound only is fine, as you can usually work out what they're up to) it will really help, as you'll know how long she goes before starting to fret and when/if she settles down again.

We have a dictaphone (we got it from Argos iirc) and I just press record as I go out the door and leave it up against the closed kitchen door. It's been a big help in knowing what's going on and the reality is nowhere near as bad as what I'd been imagining.

I did wonder if it was for attention/boredom. When she did it earlier I took her in the garden for a grooming session, and then tried to show her how her treat ball works (she's not the brightest!).

I should try to get a Dictaphone, like you say would be helpful and hopefully reassuring.

It sounds like you are working really hard to help Lurcherboy, I'm sure he'll get there in the end but like you say it takes time.

Blimey you guys don't half talk some rubbish :o

Congratulations on the new hound Cinnamon, I hope it's going well :)

Good luck for this week moose, fingers crossed it doesn't set him back too much. I'm sorry to hear he's still getting upset when you go out.

We're all ok here, I don't have any exciting/interesting news to bore you all with :o
Although I am thinking of changing Sprockets food. He doesn't like CSJ anymore, but I have just discovered that what I thought was a complete kibble, it's actually a mixer! In big writing on the sack it says 'Complete working dog food' and on the label in tiny print it says it's a complimentary mixer I've been feeding it as a complete food for around a year and a half!! Not sure now if I should change it, or add wet stuff to it this dog food malarky is a chuffing minefield.

It's my bad influence Cunny. I can talk/type for England.

Thanks for the good luck wishes. He is much better than he was. He's actually howling then settling himself now, which is a big step forward. Most days he doesn't howl at all and on those days he does, with a couple of exceptions - he tends to only do one or two howls with big long gaps in between. When we started out he was really going for it, full on haunted howls interspaced with yapping/barking with barely time to draw breath in-between. He's no longer showing any signs of anxiety either before I leave or when I get back - whereas he was drooling bucket loads intially.

So there's progress, but ultimately I think having a little friend to wear him is what he really needs.

I saw your food thread. Lots of people recommending Barking Heads - which I've never heard of and looks ok, but no better than Canagan or other similar high-end, grain free brands, imo. I didn't post, because I didn't have a suggestion that would save you any money. We raw feed, and buy Canagan when Lurcherboy has kibble, but it's not cheap. I know a lot of people speak highly of Symply, but I've not looked into it myself and as far as I can tell all the higher quality, grain free kibbles are all very close in price.

Scuttle suggested Harringtons on my thread and that looks good, just under £24 for a 15kg sack, so I think I'll try that when his CSJ is nearly finished.

Plus you can get it on amazon subscribe and save ehich makes it just over £22 which is even better :o

Lurcherboy sounds like he's made excellent progress, I fifn't realise just how bad he was before. Sounds like the howling now is just him being indignant at being left :)

Which, didn't.

Mistlehound is on JWB Lamb and rice. The Turkey and Rice has a drastic effect on her though, which is strange. But we're going with lamb, with a small amount of either the duck or the ocean in smaller kibble as a 'treat' on each meal - she has the 'large dog' pieces of the lamb one and definitely sees the other as a treat - probably as she gets less of it. It also fits in her treatball - luckily that's fairly simple with just a hole in it for the food to drop out of so even with a somewhat challenged dog, its fine

Question - cool coats - does it have to be microfibre or is towelling OK too?

I think you've hit the nail on the head there Cunny. He's gone from desolate and despairing to bored and indignant. Never thought I'd see him being cheeky as progress!

Mine were on JWB Lamb and Rice before going onto Canagan Mistle. Interestingly the turkey didn't suit them either, despite one of them lapping up turkey sausages for training treats. We shifted them onto Canagan because our local petshop owner kept badgering us to try it and offers us a good discount.

Lurcherboy was totally raw fed other than when he was in the kennels, but now gets one Canagan meal a day distributed in his treat toys and raw in the evening. I know you're not technically supposed to mixed feed, but the raw is so good for his coat and teeth and you can't stuff a chicken wing in a treat ball!

Cunny we have Harringtons. 'Twas the only thing that agreed with Billy's tummy when we first got him. Lamb and Rice.

They altered the meat content though a while ago so there's less in there now but it still agrees with him. We tried him on Burns which I know is lovely but it upset his tummy terribly.

I think we'll definitely go with Harringtons, it seems the best possible one for my price range :o I like the sound of the Turkey and veg one but I've read a few reviews that have said it didn't agree with their dog. Sprocket appears to have a cast iron stomach (in the 18 months we've had him he's never had Diarrhea or been sick ) so it probably wouldn't matter which one I fed him. When we got him he came with no food so he went straight onto CSJ and didn't even have the runs then!

It wouldn't surprise me if his insides didn't notice his food had changed :o

i know you can get small bags of Harringtons at most Asdas now and some Tesco - it might be worth trying a small bag of each of the flavours to find out how he gets on with the flavour and the effects at the other end!!

Moose, we do a mix too of raw/kibble - i think there's actually a lot of bollocks talked about not mixing the two. Ours manage brilliantly and do beautiful small firm poos. And let's face it, especially in this sort of weather, kibble is very convenient for meals out of the house etc or when we visit relatives and so on. Not sure how my MIL would feel about her beautiful home filled with bits of tripe and raw stuff

I just remembered that I'm 99% positive that I've seen Harringtons in our local Tesco! I've never really taken much notice of it before so I don't know what flavours/sizes they do, but we'll have a look when we do the food shopping on Wednesday.

Scuttle, thank you. I have been worrying about it since we started his SA programme.

Previously he only had kibble if he had to go into kennels and for the first couple of days of our holiday - until we could get to the village butchers. Actually the kennels have now started feeding raw if you request it as well, which is something I'm very impressed about.

Dh was telling me that whenever he's in our local pet shop lots of people come in asking for a specific brand of dog food that costs even more than the high end, good quality, grain free stuff but comes in clear bags. He couldn't remember the name of it, but apparently every time he's in there at least a handful of people come in and ask for some. Wonder what it is?

Moose - why would you want to pay EVEN MORE that we already are? I just wish mistlehound would get her act together and start catching some of hers rather than watch it run off into the woods....

We took a different route towards the bunnies this morning - round from the back of some bushes - and she actually managed to run after them - although she then managed to stand, looking into the wood, whilst a small rabbit ran round the back of her and into the wood . I'm wondering whether the stalking that she seems to want to do is something to do with her past? If you go lamping, would your dog go slowly and silently and try to pounce in the last few metres?

I think you're right about the lamping thing. I think they start them off getting them to stalk, rather than run hell bent for leather towards them, as they need to learn not to scare the prey off by thundering around.

Well .... I tried a different line of tack this morning. Was awake early, so took lurcherboy before the school run. He had fun and came back exhausted, but obviously all that extra 1:1 time before I took the dcs was a bad idea, because he was already standing behind the kitchen door whining before I went out. Left it as late as possible and did lots of going in and out the front door, but had to go in the end anyway.

Was dreading getting back, sure he'd have howled. Fortunately, as we went late ds2's line was just going in so I could dump him and run home, meaning lurcherboy wasn't left as long as usual - think I was only out about 6/7 minutes.

Came back, turned the tape on with trepidation and .... he whined for a few minutes, then went off to play with his treat toys!

The great thing is that, because I was really quick, my early return was a huge reinforcer to his self-soothing/settling behaviour.

He did start whining again as soon as I came back, so I've left the door closed and will only go in when he's been quiet and settled for a few minutes.

Going to take him for another on-lead walk an a while, just keeping to the shady edges of the field. I need him to be really exhausted by the time I have to go to dd's stay and play this afternoon.

My plan is to take her at the last minute and stay ten minutes or so, then come back and spend some time in the garden with lurcherboy. I don't think I should pay him any attention, so will hang out some washing and pull up some weeds etc. Then I'll re-settle him and head back. I have no choice but to push his boundaries to an hour, as dd will be really upset otherwise and I have to balance everyone's needs here. So will stay an hour then come home and spend some quiet time in the other room until say, 20 minutes before pick-up, when I'll head back so I'm there at the end.

Fingers crossed it works. Pretty sure we're going to get some howling, but I don't see how I can avoid it today and he sorted himself out pretty sharpish after the summer fair howling episode. Just hope the neighbours are out this afternoon!

Fingers crossed Moose!

Good luck moose!

I'm ever so pleased! Just had an email from Harringtons saying I've won a 5kg bag of dog food because I entered this competition and guessed Scunthorpe correctly before anyone else did! It'll save us buying a small tester bag anyway :o

Congratulations Cunny - and how timely - must be fate!

Well, I am just listening to the tape.

This morning's walk ended up being longer than planned, as somehow I managed to drop his lead out of my backpack and had to retrace my steps to find it. Fortunately a lovely lady had seen it on the grass and put in on the only bench for me to find. Luckily I bumped into her halfway round and asked if she'd seen it, so she was able to tell me where it was. Still meant I had to do a double circuit, rather than the single one I'd planned though.

I stayed with dd for 15 minutes in the end and he was quiet for the whole 20 minutes I was out.

Then I came home and took him outside with me to hang out the washing before taking him for yet another walk in the shade. We just did one lap of the park, keeping in the shade but he was still exhausted afterwards. Came home and spent some time stuffing kongs with stinky sardines and other disgusting canine munchies, then left him in the kitchen and did lots of going in and out of the living room and front door. Finally took him outside in the garden again half an hour before I had to go out and he was clearly fit to drop. So came in and left him in the kitchen with the door shut. Gave him his kongs and treats just before I left and slipped out the front door quietly.

I was gone just over an hour:

• He started howling 8 minutes after I left ... but only for 3 minutes and only a couple of short howls, not continuous yowling.

• He then stopped and was quiet until I'd been gone 26 minutes, when he started some quiet whining and did one quiet solitary, moany and not too loud howl at 29 minutes.

• Then another moany howl at 33 minutes carrying on and gradually winding himself up to doing horrible yappy yowls from then until 40 minutes.

• Took a break for literally a couple of minutes until 42.5 minutes then continued to howl until 47.5 minutes. Really angry yapping - not mournful distress.

• Slight moan at 50.5 minutes, then all quiet until 52.5 when he did another massive howl and kept up howling proper big howls interspersed with the angry yaps until 54 minutes.

• Started yet again at 56.5 minutes with some really big howls and really angry yaps getting worse and worse until I walked back through the door at 1hr 3 minutes.

• Sods law would have it that he was mid-howl when I opened the front door, so he was rewarded with us coming home.

When I got back he'd almost emptied his ufo treat toy, but his treat ball was still full and he'd only licked the top off his kongs. There was no sign of anything amiss, no drool and he didn't appear anxious or stressed.

To be fair, I knew half an hour was going to be his upper limit, but was really hoping he'd go at least a little a bit longer after all the extra time and effort I put in to wearing him out and leave extra tasty treats etc today.

He is now sleeping soundly in his bed and looks like he's settled in for the night.

Dd of course barely acknowledged my arrival at nursery and all but ignored me the whole time I was there! So it feels like it was all for nothing. He didn't manage to go any longer without howling, despite all the effort - and in fact started howling earlier on than usual regardless of everything I'd put in place.

Oh - and the bloody neighbours were in all afternoon.

... and I have ds1's last ever sports day at this school first thing tomorrow morning. Bless him, he's said it's ok if I only go for the last half and hour - but I feel awful about it and I have a feeling Lurcherboy is going to kick off anyway, after beng left for an hour this afternoon.

Thanks to Cunny I have also managed to snaffle a bag of dog food.. mistlehound can have it as her next bag of topper! Thanks Cunny!

Will have to check out our pets at home store in case it's one :) Congrats TheCunnyFunt!!

Sorry to hear your afternoon wasn't so great moosemama! At least it isn't constant howling and the neighbours will have to put up with it, you've been very reasonable to them IMO.