Are you a Greyhound, Whippet or Lurcher owner? Come and have a seat on another 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 :o).

Share stories, advice and shopping tips!
AK Creations
Dog O Nine Tails
Doggy Bags Bakery
Kitsch Collars
Meggie Moo
Milgi Coats
Silver Peacock

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.

Thank you :) I did cheat a bit though I went on PAH website, then went on Harringtons and then typed in my postcode to see which stores closest to us had it in stock :o

Well done Mistle :o happy to be of service!

Oh dear moose, not a brilliant afternoon then. It must be so frustrating for you. I really hope you manage to conquer it soon.

Thanks cinnamon and Cunny.

I've broken it down, very roughly and this is what the hour looked like:

8 mins quiet - 3 min howling (very few short/intermittent) - 15 minutes quiet - 7 minutes howling - 2 minutes quiet - 5 minutes howling - 5 minutes quiet - 7 minutes howling - 2 minutes quiet - 8 minutes mega howling and yapping

So out of an hour, he was howling for half of it.

That said, he's barely howled in the last 5 weeks, while I've been managing him and when he has it's only been for a few minutes, so not persistent or prolonged.

As you say, the neighbours can't really complain much at that. Unfortunately, he's only not bothered them because I haven't been leaving him and after 5 weeks and with lots of end of school year stuff going on I'm starting to get a bit stressed about it all.

Ultimately, I think the only thing that's going to get us any further is getting him a friend for company. I don't think he's anxious anymore - he's very relaxed in the kitchen on his own now - he simply doesn't like being on his own and needs someone/somedog there to keep him company.

That's longer than your initial post sounded moosemama, good luck on your puppy search

It's so lovely to see peanut enjoying his walks! He trots and sniffs and pee's on everything and will poo now if he needs to. He's got a bit nippy the last few days though, when I get back from the school run he's so excited and jumps and nips which I've been trying to discourage while still giving him lots of fuss. Yesterday the children were quite vocal in the garden and he watching intently my friends dd then moved forwards on a trike and he ran to her and nipped her. She was upset but no skin broken and my friend was fine about it. From then on if he got too interested I said no firmly and he's stop and I gave him lots of fuss but the children were much more interesting. I guess he is still young and wants to play but other than when I get home when he runs and jumps around he doesn't seem interested in play until the children start getting excited!

He sounds like a puppy cinnamon! How old is he?

If anyone has Facebook, please can you like this photo of Sprocket? I'd be ever so grateful :)

He was 2 in April, he's so lazy most of time we forget how young he is! He actually played today was lovely, he tore up the grass running around like a loon!

Liked :)

Thank you very much :) I posted it on my local greyhound rescue FB page and can't believe the amount of likes he's had in an hour! It's over 20 already!! I hope we win :)

Aww, he's practically still a puppy compared to Sprocket! It's lovely that he likes to play, Sprocket doesn't get the whole 'playing with a person/other dog etc, he just likes to chew on toys. Nevermind being behind the door when brains were handed out, he couldn't work out how to open it!

Hmm mistlehound clearly had her nose around the edge of the door compared to Sprocket... clearly from the non-grey/whippet side of her heritage. In fact, I have (last night - so 9 months in to having her) identified a saluki bit - the underside of her neck is definitely saluki in terms of the coat and feel... (so that's about 1/32th then)

The rabbit thing is very puzzling. We went again today, first thing. So we crept up on the rabbits that were going to be by the side of the wood from behind some bushes - but she went round the side then stopped and was clearly back into stalking mode rather than running (which might have got her somewhere). Given the rabbits had seen her and were already pootleing off (there was no real urgency given frozen dog) I ran up to her and encouraged - and she ran forward but not that much in front of me - I think I had more chance of getting one than her. We had similar when we got back to this field after a large circle in the rest of the park (does anyone else's dog drink water whilst swimming around?) and again had the 'freeze' issue - and again I had more chance of catching something. So I walked on back up the field towards the car, and mistlehound was happily rabbiting in the wood - then thundering of paws and she rushes past me up to some trees and bushes, does a fast circuit, goes in the middle and round again, then goes in and comes out in quick pursuit of a small rabbit - she was about 1.5m behind and closing fast, head down, following very well - and then went crashing into the long grass in the wood beside us, lost it but chased something else. So... she clearly does have a good idea about what she's meant to do and is very happy to get on and do it - but why, oh why doesn't she do it when we see the rabbits in the open on the field????

Mistle - I don't want to start an argument, just a genuine question, but why would you want mistlehound to go rabbiting? I know one of mine has been worked in the past, but I cannot imagine wanting to take her out now. I do know it is popular with some people around her though, I just don't get it?

I want her to enjoy her walks - rather than stop and tense up and not to know what to do. Whilst I don't live 'in' the country now, I live close to it, and I grew up in the countryside - our dogs used to kill rabbits regularly, it was one way to help to keep the numbers down, and it meant the rabbits at least didn't get myxi or get gassed which was the other alternative. I really don't mind if she never catches anything - I just want her to have fun racing around and leave the baggage she's brought with her so that she can enjoy her walks more.

Oh - I should add that I didn't take her rabbiting as such this morning, I took her on a walk where there happen to be lots of rabbits. We would have done the same walk if there hadn't been any.

OK, thanks.

I would never go out with her for the express reason of catching a rabbit. She's definitely not a working dog, she's a pet. However, if she does catch a rabbit when we're out its fine by me. And I wouldn't mind if either she or DH then ate it (of course DH would butcher it first... ). Perhaps its the country upbringing?

There is a full scale battle going on in my house this morning over what we're going to call our pup. (That would be the pup we haven't even applied for/chosen yet then. )

It has however enlightened me to just how poor my dcs' taste in pet names is! Mind you, dh's suggestions have been worse - if that's even possible.

One thing I can say for certain is that my next pup will not be named after anything Star Wars or Pokemon related - or any other computer game for that matter.

I have also called power of veto and final decision, as the person who is going to have to stand in the middle of a field and shout it - so hopefully our newest addition will end up with something half decent.

Names I like are Jasper, Dexter and Flax for a boy. But dh doesn't like either of the first two and the last one kind of depends on the pup's appearance.

I think we're more likely to end up with a boy than a girl, but if we do get a girl I still like Seren.

We'll probably choose something and then meet our new pup and decide it's definitely not their name - but it's fun thinking about it.

Anyone got any suggestions to add to my list?

What kind of pup and would it be a rescue?

I really want a dog to take running with me. Do you think whippets would be willing?

Definitely a rescue lurcher - preferably scruffy. Seriously tempted by the whippet terrier mixes (whirrier). (Although in truth I fall in love with every lurcher pup I see so could be any mix.)

Sorry, have no experience of whippets - or running for that matter. I do know that Lurcherboy would only go so far before he gave up and lay down. He loves his exercise, but preferably in several short bursts, rather than one long one.

Wouldn't recommend a greyhound for running, mine is knackered after 5k! Thought he might be better than my other dog as he's only young but he still isn't keen. My friend runs with her lurcher and he'll happily do 10k +.

I love the Scruffs too! Gorgeous. I've always wondered what a Whirrier was. Thank you.

I had a feeling lurchers would be like greys and be happy with short bursts of energy rather than constant trotting. Saw a guy today in one of those funny horizontal bikes with his Springer lovingly following him.

Well, I'm a bit biased when it comes to scruffs (pic of my boy on my profile if you're interested).

Whirriers - again I lean towards the scruffies, but am a sucker for a pair of big brown sighthound eyes.

sorry just read the last few posts and wantes to reply. Our lurcher is collie x greyhound is is my husband's running companion. She's getting on now but still sitting whining tonight because he's out running without her. (He's out for over two hours, wouldn't be fair on the dog).

Anybody looking for a rescue whippet? Here's Joe

I should have said that. It probably depends on the mix. I'd think some of the bull x lurchers and collie lurchers would have more stamina than say any mix purely consisting of grey/whippet/deerhound/wolfhound/saluki etc.

Basically you want something in the mix that isn't purely smooth muscle. Sighthounds are built for running, but can't store energy like a lot of other breeds due to their body composition - hence the thing you hear bandied around that they only need 20 minutes exercise and will sleep for the rest of the day.

My boy is deerhound/saluki x grey/border collie and there's no way he'd be happy with just a 20 minute walk around the park. We tend to do roughly 2 hours a day, sometimes more, but split into 2-3 walks, generally 2. If we do 2 walks I tend to do an hour in the morning and an hour and a half in the afternoon and he is free running and/or retrieving for around half of each walk, but lets me know when he needs a break and we intersperse the more intense exercise with a bit of slow walking, hedge sniffing and basic training.

That said, he's currently grumbling and giving me stroppy looks because he's only had an hour today, as I'm not feeling very well.

Hello

Don't know if any of you got your dogs from Greyhound Gap. Very ethical rescue who take "death row" pointynosed hounds from the pound and re home them across the country. Also organise transports runs to get dogs in danger to places of safety.

It's their 10th anniversary and their founder, Lisa, is doing a sponsored event that some of you might like to support.

Thanks.

www.justgiving.com/Lisa-Cartwright2tattoo

Bit more info about Greyhound Gap