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.

How weird Magrat. Your post wasn't there when I replied to cinnamon, but appeared when I posted my reply.

Which animal do you think Whippy would like to sleep on?

Moose - I've got mistlehound some lovely fleece covers for her duvet - I got a special size so that a double quarters up inside - and mistlehound loves it (except in this hot weather). I got them from the LL website from the person that makes made-to-measure coats.

The pig would be very apt for Whippy. He is looking rather round for a whippy (even if Dp says not).

Moose, I LOVE those beds. Actually they look really comfy. wish they had something similar for humans, I'd like one.

I thought we would be we really shouldn't have, 4 cats is enough! I couldn't get hold of the owner so out a note through the door and she collected him last night. My boys will be :( when they wake up dh was too

mistlehound has managed to lose a little weight on holiday and is looking in fine shape - we're going to try to keep her about this weight. Its more difficult to work it out right with a shaggy - but she has a nice but not too significant covering on her ribs, and a nice waist - but not sticky out hip bones.

Its been too hot for her to sit on her normal bed at night... so she's back right by my side of the bed !

I've seen those fleece covers Mistle, but need something quicker, so we have a bed ready when we get back off holiday. Thought they'd be too hot for the summer as well. Was thinking of ordering one for the living room later in the year, ready for when the cold weather kick in.

Cinnamon, you know there are thousands of rescue kittens that need loving homes ...

Just been to ds1's leaver's assembly. Poor ds isn't coping at all well and ended up setting me off, which didn't help at all. I'm so cross with myself for not holding it together for him. Dreading afternoon pick-up today.

I love that moose bed.

ShyDog just has a duvet folded over which I have a couple of duvet covers for, and a fleece blanket.

My girl is at the vets getting spayed today - I hope she's okay bless her!

Good luck at the vets today ShyDog.

I have just made Lurcherboy get all panicky and worried by coming back from dropping dd at nursery for the last time ever and sobbing all over the place. He's not used to me crying and doesn't know what to do, bless him. He keeps coming and snouting my nose, then sniffing my tears and looking puzzled.

Need to pull myself together before afternoon pick-up. Is it too early for ?

Aaw moosemama I think I'd have had a sobfest too, hope he wasn't too perturbed by it!

Poor ShyDog is feeling very sorry for herself and still seems a bit out of it. I didn't realise they took out the whole lot! She came home with a cone of shame. Do you think it's okay to take it off for short spells when I can keep an eye on her? It seems awfully uncomfortable and cumbersome. Plus pointless - she had it off less than 5 minutes into our journey home due to her head being smaller than her neck.

DS sobbed at the vets and all the way home when we went to pick her up - he has autism and shows very little interest in ShyDog, a blessing really as when she arrived you'll remember she was quite wary of him. I was really surprised he cared so much about her!

Poor old Lurcherboy has had to cope with major emotional meltdown from ds1 this evening. He held himself together so well on the way home and then I managed to distract him with computer stuff, but leaving primary really hit home at bedtime.

Not sure if they'd work for a Greyhound but there are alternatives to the cone of shame. There's the comfy cone, [http://compare.ebay.co.uk/like/261107187871?var=lv&var=sbar&_lwgsi=y&cbt=y&device=c&adtype=pla&crdt=0&ff3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=66&ff19=0 Buster Collar]], Kong Collar and finally The Medical Pet Shirt that seems to get good reviews.

Ds1 was the same with our dogs for years YourHand, he also has ASD and it was like the dogs (all three of them) just didn't impinge on his consciousness. Then, when we lost our Wheaten Terrier girl a couple of years back, it was like the sudden loss of her woke him up to the other two. He's still not overly demonstrative, but according to his TA he talks about our dogs (well dog now) all the time. He likes to watch me train and ask a million questions about how I knew what Lurcherboy was going to do. Then when I explain about body language, he tries to see if he can spot the subtle signals I'm looking for. I figure it might help him in some small way if he can, at some point, possibly, start to transfer those skills to humans.

Buster Collar

That Medical Pet Shirt may be the way to go instead of trying to get any kind of collar to stay on her neck rather than sliding off her head! It does look good doesn't it. I wonder if they do a skinny fit...

Aw your poor DS, I am dreading the end of primary school for mine. I try to explain about the dogs thoughts and feelings to my ds and hope for the same as you do. I was pleased with how well he "got it" that she was scared and didn't understand household things when she arrived. He also gets a lot out of walks in terms of fresh air and exercise but also chatting to the other dog walkers we pass. Out these poor unsuspecting people go to walk their dogs not realising they are about to be a socialising experiment for my DS!

Love the idea of transferring body language from dogs to humans!

I think as long as she's not pulling the stitches I'd leave it off. Better to be spayed than not though our westie we had when I lived with my parents got a toxic womb (which is apparently quite common in bitches over 8 who aren't spayed) and it nearly killed her :(

Yep I agree many more health benefits to having her done than not, and we all know there are enough dogs needing homes without adding to it.

When she was ill last month they actually scanned her womb for infection due to her not being spayed. I was very cross to discover she hadn't been done, or microchipped, and nor did we get a vaccination card so they also had to be done again. I felt so irresponsible going to the vets and saying she had none of it. But never mind she is all sorted now.

Yep am just going to keep an eye on her, if she starts itching/scratching the area I will pop cone back on and order her one of those medical shirts.

I would get my dogs 'done' even if that wasn't a requirement as part of ownership. One of my mother's dogs died as a result of ovarian cancer.

... the inflatable dog collars look good - although I would be leaving any lampshade off when she was supervised to ensure that she wasn't licking.

I met a lovely lady who has high level as through mn. She doesn't take part often now due to problems with some non-as people ganging up on her. But it has given me an insight into how some people have to learn how others see things - and how hard this is.

It's a funny concept really cinnamon, really interesting though. Dogs are so clear in their body language that it's easy to point out to a child who has ASD. So for example, play bows, high and low tail wags, crouching with ears back, lip licking, yawning, shaking off etc. Discussing canine body language helps me to raise the subject of human body language and kind of highlights to ds that we all do it, even if he doesn't see it. I'm hoping that eventually he will start looking for visual clues from other people, the way he's started looking for them in Lurcherboy.

He particularly loves it when Lurcherboy has a daft half hour and does the whole leaping around, play-bowing and side leaping thing around the living room. Ds1 wanted to know what it was that I was doing to elicit that behaviour from Lurcherboy - which meant ds had noticed that it was something that I was doing, rather than just the dog being a nutter! I showed him that I was very subtly emulating a play-bow, without actually getting onto the floor, by kind of hunching my shoulders, moving forwards slightly, extending my arms slightly and dipping my head, whilst doing an averted eye movement Every time I did this Lurcherboy went wappy, leaping around and rushing up to me etc. It took a while, but eventually ds started to see elements of what I was doing - which is incredible progress for him.

I do think it's helping him, even though I have quite unravelled how in my mind, iyswim.

Our rescue GSD bitch nearly died of pyometra not long after we found her. It was terrifying how quickly she went downhill. It's such a horrible insidious illness, with very few outward symptoms until it's practically too late.

My sil's Cocker Spaniel also had it at the start of this year and it was touch and go. While she was in they found numerous mammary tumours as well. If sil had listened to my nagging and had her spayed, she probably wouldn't have had either. They wouldn't get her spayed because she's a pedigree, yet they had no intention of breeding (well at least not by that point, as there was much talk of - just one litter for many years ) so it was totally illogical. Thank heavens they didn't breed from her, she's tiny, sickly, has a terrible temperament and a nasty auto-immune condition. I spent years trying to talk to them about her welfare but have had to admit defeat after 8 years. We don't discuss dogs at all these days.

YourHand, did she come from a rescue centre or gh rehoming? I'm really surprised she wasn't spayed, chipped and vaccinated before they rehomed her.

No doubt about it mistle, having AS is a very hard path to tread. He has to spend every single minute of his life making an effort to read and understand every situation he's in, whereas the rest of us do 99% of our evaluation effortlessly subconsciously. It's constantly exhausting and that's without the huge amount of anxiety and OCD type problems that come along with it for my ds and many others. Add to that the problems he has with generalising what he has learned from one situation to another and struggling with emotional regulation and impulse control and pretty much every waking minute is a monumental effort.

One of the experts on AS, Tony Attwood, once said that if you put a person with AS into a room on their own, they cease to have AS. Basically, when they are alone, is the only time they get any peace and can relax and be themselves - unfortunately, my ds has a massive fear of being alone, which means he rarely gets any downtime. For him, immersion in a computer game is his only escape and we have to restrict him to an hour and a half of screen time a day as a result or he would just escape from real life by seeking out computer screens 24/7.

Daft thing is, so many people think people with AS have no empathy, when in fact it's the opposite, they usually care very deeply and are extremely sensitive souls. What they struggle with is reading the signs in other people that give them a clue to how they are feeling. So they react inappropriately and people then judge them as lacking in empathy.

The other pre-conception people have is that all children who have ASD are disruptive and/or badly behaved. My ds was so well behaved at school that they couldn't see his AS (this is called masking) and this year won a medal from his cricket club for being the most polite, best behaved club member.

Anyhoo .... ranty, ramble over. Sorry. It's just been a very long day ... and is probably going to run into a very long night.

Interesting to read comments about ASD dc's. I have worked with a few and without doubt all have been amongst my favorite students.

Sorry to change the subject though, but just been reading a puppy thread. Now, maybe I'm very naive, but, we knew nothing of the history of our two dogs when we got them and to be fair, many grunds are referred to as puppies in an adult body, so why all the emphasis on the narrow socialisation window when many grunds live happily with dc's etc who almost certainly were not socialized with them in this window. Am I missing something?

My mum didn't have our westie done because she didn't think it was fair for her not to have a litter but then never did anything about mating her. The vet said she was lucky that she had an open pyometra and she spent the entire night drinking bowl after bowl of water which probably saved her life. I keep trying to get my friend to get her bedlington terrier done but I don't think she's high on their priority list :(

It makes total sense why it works, think its lovely that you can help in that way. Perhaps you should write something on it :)
Hope tomorrow is a better day!

MagratGarlik I've wondered about that too. I think when rescues advise no DCs due to not knowing history they are advising it just to err on the side of caution. They will have more dogs that are fearful, perhaps have been abandoned or badly treated, have had to food guard for survival, and so on.

I know my ex racer didn't have any contact with dcs until she went into rescue (she came from a greyhound rescue organisation) but she was then kid and cat tested and I guess they knew her background more than you would know that of a stray or abandoned animal.

moosemama you put that so well, and summed up my DS to a tee too. He is incredibly sensitive and caring but every moment he is having to concentrate and try to figure out this puzzling world that everyone else just "gets".

ShyDog couldn't climb the stairs last night so she slept on her bed in the hall, and has just refused her favourite scrambled eggs (which I had put her tablets in thinking it was a sure thing).

Poor girl! I do feel sorry for her!

Magrat, I think it depends on the individual dog and early socialisation is the easiest and best way to pretty much ensure the dog will cope with new experiences and situations later on. I know of a few ghs that have struggled to settle into their new home. One of the girls in ds2's year's family rehomed a retired gh at Easter and she is a bag of nerves, terrified of children and any breed of dog other than ghs, scared of traffic, household noises etc. She has improved, but only very, very slowly. Poor girl.

I had dogs long before I knew about early socialisation etc that were fine in just about any situation, great with kids and other dogs, despite not having wide ranging socialisation at 'the right age'.

Our first rescue was a complete unknown quantity. Whe was a 7 year old-ish, huge, long-coated adult GSD bitch that was close to death when we found her under a hedge. Vet thought she'd probably been a scrap-yard/guard dog, as her skin was awful and she was covered in oil, but she was the calmest, most sensible dog we've ever owned. Absolutely nothing phased her and she loved and was loved by everyone she ever met, from my baby nieces to dh's great grandma and everyone in between.

Coversely, I've also had a large breed who developed panosteitis and othef health problems as a pup and was too big to carry for socialisation purposes, although we did as much as we could and he was well socialised prior to becoming ill. He developed pretty severe fear aggression to both people and other dogs that took years of hard work to sort out. At first he was also scared of silly things like litter bins and skips etc that he didn't expect to see on the side of the road and it took years of work to reduce his anxiety levels enough for him to start ignoring those sorts of things.

I think early socialisation is vital, because at such a young age you can't possibly know which way an individual dog is going to go. Just like people, some can be so laid back they're practically horizontal and nothing phases them, whereas other seem to be programmed to be anxious and insecure from birth. I think genetics probably has a lot to do with it, as some studies have now shown that fear aggression can in fact be hereditary. Although I suspect it's the tendency, rather than the actual aggression that's inherited.

cinnamon, thank you. Ds1 is a little better today, after a rough night. He's having a pj day and we've agreed to treat the summer holidays as he normally would, as he wouldn't be at school anyway, iyswim, so that's helping as well.

YourHand, poor ShyDog. Hope she's feeling better soon.

I have to admit the neuter op is something I have considered with regard to taking on a new pup. I've nursed lots of our girls through their spay recovery and I worry so much about them every time, as it's such a major op. I always think about when my Mum had her ovario-hysterectomy and how she had to do literally nothing for weeks and weeks afterward - she wasn't even allowed to lift a full teacup! It's just such an easier, quick op for the boys and all the male dogs I've had over the years barely seem to notice anything's missing. One or two of my girls have been fine with it, but several have been very depressed and sore for a few days afterwards - athough all have recovered much more easily than my Mum did.

My Wheaten girl had me so worried I slept on the sofa with her for a week. She was limping around all hunched up, refusing to move off her bed, off her food etc, so we arranged to take her back in for a check-up and the minute we picked up her lead she perked up and jumped in the back of the car like a baby kangaroo! I've never known a dog like her for acting skills.

I hope Shydog is feeling better today YourHand, has she got her appetite back yet?

My friend has given me an excellent challlenge! She's giving me £25 (inc. p+p) to buy one of her dogs a collar, a Brindle Greyhound, and I CAN PICK IT!!! :o It has to be red, and a martingale. I can't wait to start :)
This is her.