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).

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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.

houndgirl, I think you may be right about that being what they think.

YourHand, it might be worth getting her checked over by the vet if she's been crying while you're with her and it's out of character. It's always better to eliminate the possibility of an underlying health problem first, before you start trying to adjust behaviour.

If you feel she is generally anxious, you could try a thundershirt. Some people have apparently had some very good results using them on greyhounds. I'm not sure it did much for Lurcherboy, but then he's not generally anxious, he's happy to sleep in another room with the door closed and for me to go upstairs, outside on the drive or in the garden without him etc - he just doesn't like me to leave the house for longer than 25 minutes.

Valerian tablets and compound ordered. Hope they come quick, poor girl I do feel for her.

Houndgirl and moosemama hope yours settle soon too.

DS has just come downstairs and asked if we'll be sending ShyDog back as "she's wrecking the house". He does like to be dramatic! I've explained to him she's sad and missing us when we go out, and isn't used to being on her own.

X posts again!

I wondered if she could have tummy ache from eating a whole big loaf of bread in one go moosemama??!?

She has been ill in the past and seems healthy apart from the odd sad little cry. It's not like a yelp of pain, she is running and walking ok, happy as larry on her walks today, pooing and weeing ok and not at all lethargic. Will see how she is tomorrow.

When dh and I were first married we had, what I now know was a lurcher - being a sheltie cross whippet. When she was a pup, we went to visit friends in Wales - quite a long drive for a young pup. Stopped at a service station to nip to the toilet and in the 10 minutes we were gone, she escaped the dog-guard and got into our food bag. She ate an entire fresh white bloomer that was actually bigger than her whole body - not a crumb left.

We still puzzle sometimes about how she managed to fit a loaf that was physically bigger than her into her stomach. She earned the nickname tardis-dog that day, but apparently had no ill effects from her gluttony.

Could she be missing your mum do you think - if she was treated like a princess and totally spoiled for a week?

Tell your ds, she's not wrecking the house until she's eaten an entire kitchen cabinet, emptied and scoffed the entire contents of the fridge freezer and turned all the gas knobs on the cooker on, like one of mine did back in the early days of me having dogs. We were only gone for just over an hour as well!

Hope she starts to feel better and settle down soon.

Sorry to hear so many are struggling with lonely doggies :(

I've had my neighbour listening out for peanut when I go out as he cried so much when we shut him in the room next to ours the first night I assumed he wouldn't like being left and yesterday she texted me to say he was crying :( think I may set up some recording as moosemama did and see how it is. It's the first day the cats haven't been in so an empty house but with tv on. He's manic when I get home and has started nipping a bit, made me realise actually how afraid Billy biting me has made me. I have never been scared of a dog in my life now I am constantly looking for signs of aggression/upset.

My cats are all locked back in, they all left and didn't come back until last night! Several tried to but saw peanut and ran despite having been sniffed by him and not touched. My ginger Tom has him whimpering in a corner if they meet but still won't come in past him so think they need longer in!

Ds2 let peanut out yesterday! He disappeared round the corner so fast I thought he was gone. I had two children so could run after him too far but I ran up the road a bit, called him and he just came back! So relieved but also so lovely that despite having the world to explore he chose to come back to me

I got up earlier today to give peanut a longer walk. He spent the first 10mins with his tail half up looking like he needed a poo. Eventually went and then cowered his head I have him huge fusses and he looked so pleased with himself! So pleased for our patio and peanut of course :)

She could be missing my mum bless her. Mum came for tea on Friday just gone and shydog was sooo fussy to see her! Unfortunately my mum works full time so they'll have to remain holiday buddies. She was definitely spoilt there. Before going she was really good with not nattering for food but when she came back from my mums she was trying it on a bit. That's settled back to normal though thankfully.

I know what you mean about wondering where they put the massive bread loaf. Greedy sods!

Well done to Peanut on his poo outside the house!! I'm sure he'll soon get into the routine of realising he can do it on walks. Mine goes fine on walks but also on my lawn and it's starting to look a bit worse for wear.

Those thundershirts look promising!

As I'm already buying the tablets and compound, and a dap plug in I think my bank balance would thank me if I waited though before ordering one of those too. At least they have a money back guarantee though - that's good.

Yourhand, you could try an old kids Tshirt pulled tight at the back and knotted or an elastic band put on - if that helps a bit, a thundershirt might be better (and less embarrassing for the dog ).

Our first dog was a lurcher - she ate 2lbs of Dorset Blue Vinney when it was incredibly difficult to find - and there were no ill effects. Our last dog could eat curry hotter than we can. Mistlehound has a much more delicate stomach. We moved her onto KWB kibble (lamb) - fine - then DH went and bought some more and got the turkey variety and it was drastic... Now we've got her back onto the lamb she does seem to be able to tolerate some extras without ill effect, although the pig's trotter (baked) that she's been eating does seem to have created some problems.

Nelly got like that as she got older, couldn't cope with any treats at all without having a really upset tummy :( felt so guilty we couldn't treat her but she was so miserable afterwards.

She did however steal a whole fruit cake, leaving the silver board clean on the floor with no ill effects about 7 years ago

Yay congratulations to Peanut on his first non-garden poo!

YourHand, we got our thundershirt from Pets at Home and they've been really good. We took the first one back because they'd given us a damaged, returned one by mistake, then we had to change the size and they were happy to exchange and said they will refund the whole price if it doesn't work.

Lurcherboy had a good day at PILs yesterday and was ridiculously pleased to see me when he got home, which was lovely. He pulled dh off his feet as they came through the door and launched himself onto my lap!

The only thing my ILs said was that FIL had to pop out for five minutes to the local shop and Lurcherboy must have thought he had been left alone, because he started howling literally the minute the front door shut. MIL was in the other room and just said his name and he stopped instantly. To be fair, he's only ever been there with us twice before, as they've recently moved, so he was in a strange place, without us for the first time and then thought he'd been left on his own. Praying it hasn't set him back at all now and can't test it out until this afternoon as I have dd home sick today.

Hmm, very interesting school run this afternoon.

As I had feared, he refused his treat toys when I put them down and just stared at me going out the door instead. He then started howling just 3 minutes after I left BUT he only howled for 2/3 minutes then stopped. He then did three separate short howls over the next 10 minutes and none at all for the last 5, just some quiet whining. He also ignored his treat toys until 13 minutes in, when I could hear him start to bat his ball around. (Both his ufo and treat ball were still pretty full when I got back as well.)

Finally, I took dd in the pushchair today as she keeps spiking a temp, so he could hear me putting the pushchair down etc before I came in the house. Interestingly, he did one short, very indignant, howl after he had heard us return. So clearly calling me, rather than just howling in distress.

Need to have a think and process it all, but I think and hope this might be a sign that something is shifting and he is finally learning to self-soothe, as he was able to stop the howling after he'd started and was relaxed enough to start eating the treats almost 15 minutes after I left.

Just back from cricket club pick up, having been delayed because ds1 won a medal for politeness, having the best manners and not once having caused a problem in 4 years of attendance and ....

Lurcherboy only howled once, 6 minutes in, then a little soft whining and that was it - for 25 minutes!

Maybe I should send him to the ILs more often!

Well done to DS for his medal! Perhaps he should make a medal for lurcherboy too - as he seems to be sorting himself out gradually, even if he's still complaining about it.

Looks as though I'm doing a transport run at the weekend - someone took on one of the rescue's dogs and then threatened to dump her with the RSPCA because she stole some food off the counter. She reminds me of mistledog too... and is an older lady, just wanting a place to call home. I happen to be going in the right direction ish at the weekend so can probably pick her up from someone else that's going to foster her temporarily.

Thank you mistle. I am so proud of him, especially as people have a pre-conception of children who have ASD being disruptive and difficult to manage. He's definitely changed the cricket coach's preconceptions. I can still remember his face when I went to talk to him before ds joined the club. To be fair, he didn't hesitate to say it was ok for him to join, I could see he thought there were bound to be problems.

I was so shocked when I read about those people threatening to dump her. Honestly, it makes my blood boil. They must have said all the right things at the homecheck and her bio did say she was a food thief, so what were they expecting. Bad enough that they want to give up on her so soon - but threatening to dump her with the RSPCA just smacks of their attitude being that dogs are just disposable toys, rather that living, breathing creatures.

We were told yesterday about a local litter of pups that are the result of an accidental mating. They're gorgeous obviously, but dh and I aren't sure. It's not a case of backyard breeding, just a mating mishap (although obviously if they'd had their dogs neutered it could never have happened) and the owners have really stepped up and done a fantastic dog of raising them. They're super healthy and really well socialised to adults and children, raised in a family household, so used to tv, vacuum, washing machine etc, but we still feel it's not right to go for one - although they're not ready to go yet anyway. I think it's just bad timing this week after seeing the behind the scenes competition for rescue pups, especially when people (like those people threatening to dump the LL girl) must lie through their teeth to get the dog they want and aren't anywhere near as committed as we are. Not sure what to think really. They're lurcher x springer spaniel and it doesn't help that they're such cute cuddly fat little bundles and are so forward going and keen to interact with people. They've had the best start possible and are going to make fantastic family pets.

Moose they sound adorable! (we were contemplating Sprollies at one stage of the 'what sort shall we look for' phase) but the springer is going to make them much more high energy for more of the time than the lurcher side!!!

I thought that about the Springer side mistle, but actually that doesn't bother me. I'd quite like a dog that's actually awake for more than hour a day and doesn't give up and decide to lie down and enjoy the scenery on a walk after 10 minutes chasing a ball! Also think they would be great at wearing Lurcherboy out.

Both parents are lovely. Mum is practically permanently horizontal in her lurchery laid-backness and patience and Dad has the softest nature and plays beautifully with the pups all day.

Still not at all sure though. Have to talk it through with dh a bit more, as we did say we definitely wanted a rescue. (Although I think some of these may well have to go to a local rescue (a lovely one) in the long run if they can't find homes for them all.)

Just noticed the typing error in my last post 'fantastic job of raising them' obviously. Honestly - I have dogs on the brain!

I can see why you want to get a rescue but I also think that you are taking in a dog without a home and doing something for you and your family. I felt guilty when I got my kittens as I know there are so many cats out there needing homes but I have rescued 3 adult cats as well and with the last one a kitten was for the dc to have an animal that was truely theirs (although I do think rescued cats are a bit different to rescued dogs). Sometimes you have to be a bit selfish and you are working so hard yourself with Lurcherboy perhaps it's time to take a dog without any baggage as such and just enjoy watching him/her grow?

Thanks Cinnamon.

I have had 6 dogs over the past 24 years and only one wasn't a rescue. We got her for exactly the reasons you say, our boxer x boy had severe fear aggression as a result of illness throughout his socialisation window. We adored him, but we just wanted a dog we could enjoy taking to places and going to dog club with etc and actually she turned out to be really good for him as well as us.

It's really down to dh now, as having just been pointed in the direction of some articles about the not so palatable reality behind some of the so-called UK rescues, I think I'm feeling that going for a pup that needs a home and has been really well brought up wouldn't be the crime of the century.

Unfortunately dh is having one of his usual 'money's a bit tight this month' moments. Which is his default position whenever he we plan to spend some money. Doesn't help that the vacuum cleaner blew up this morning either.

I just texted him about the articles I read and asked about these pups again, but he appears to be ignoring me - although he will of course say he was in a meeting.

Moose, do you have a link for the articles?

Hang on a minute Scuttle I'll link you to the blog ...

I was directed to this one in the first instance and then read earlier and later posts on the blog.

I currently feel like the only rescues I can trust are the dedicated pointy ones. They seem to be the only ones that have true, honest transparency about what they're doing. In fact the Irish rescue I was looking at a week or so ago is one of the good ones that only send a couple of dogs over here if they can't rehome over there and work closely with UK pointy charities.

We have a very small local rescue that's fab, but only ever has a couple of dogs at a time, which is a shame, because I know a few people who've had dogs off them over the years and they've all been fantastic pets.

I'm really annoyed at myself for being taken in so easily and also for ignoring that little nagging voice that was telling me something wasn't quite right with one of the rescues they mention in particular.

Still, at least I found out before I'd got entangled with any of them.

Thanks Moose. That's a very interesting blog.

I've spoken out about MT on many occasions on here - as you know I am based in S Wales. Not a popular position, I can tell you.

I am aware of this trade masquerading as "rescue" - some time back another MNetter contacted me about a terrible case involving an alleged rescue on the S Coast which had awful standards.

Part of the problem is that anyone can set up a rescue, transport from overseas is easy and there is no oversight for the activities of the organisations you've mentioned. Some in particular have highly effective and emotive PR machines which swing into action the minute there is a whiff of criticism.

One thing which is good, is that some greyhound rescues in the UK are working hard with volunteers in the ROI to set up infrastructure and volunteers within the Republic to develop a different approach to greyhounds over there. At the moment, I'd say they are where the UK was about 20/30 years ago - simply not seen as companion animals. I've personally spoken out about this on many occasions - I fundamentally do not agree with simply importing more animals from overseas (ROI or anywhere else) - it's not sustainable and is not an efficient use of resources. I DO support helping and aiding rescues overseas in developing education and outreach programmes, spay/neuter programmes, etc etc. - not so emotionally high voltage but ultimately the way to go. And I think that the Irish pound situation is truly dreadful - but changes to that should be led by Irish campaigners.

I'm currently working on some research into British pounds (specifically in Wales) and there's plenty there for any welfare campaigner to get their teeth stuck into. Shockingly we still kill thousands of perfectly healthy animals every year in the UK. And I also simply don't buy the argument that pounds only have staffies - complete twaddle. Yes, there are lots of bull breeds but there are also plenty of others too, including sadly a lot of pedigrees, and a depressing number of pointies. Our very own Norty Minx was in one of the worst pounds in Wales before our local RGT branch got her out and into emergency foster, before she came to us as a "Twilight Dog".

There are some very good all breed rescues out there - I can recommend Hope Rescue for instance and also Four Paws Rescue, both based in S Wales but with national coverage, and I'm sure there are others.

I have passed the details of the blog on to several people now and dh has also read and shared it. As you said, there appears to be a very vocal and swift PR machine involved with many of them, so informing people in an under their radar, networking kind of way seems the most effective, if people aren't to be sucked in.

The problem is, once you know about the bad ones, you find it hard to work out who to trust and start to not trust anyone and between that and many rescues having blanket policies about not homing with children under 8 years or even older in some cases, some people just give up and go and buy a dog instead.

Not sure what the answer is though, because I totally understand why rescues need to be really careful who they home to, but if that leads to people buying from the free ads etc instead then it's not a policy that's working. I think rescues really need to assess on a case by case basis, but then that takes a lot more time and work, which they don't have.

I certainly wouldn't agree that "most" rescues have a blanket ban on adoptions to families with children. Just off the top of my head, Hope Rescue, Four Paws, Greyhound Rescue Wales, Greyhound Welfare, Wiccaweys (Border Collies), Dogs Trust, Lincolnshire Greyhound Trust, and stacks more will happily rehome to families with DC, with a few sensible precautions in place. TheCunnyFunt got her lovely grund when her DC was about 8 months old and there are quite a few others on the cushion with young DC and rescue dogs. Most of the rescues I've listed take it very sensibly on a dog by dog basis.

It's really sad when people take advantage of other good nature but when animals are being badly treated at the same time it's horrible. Our dog we had when I lived with my parents was returned as the owners split up so we took her but we had originally gone for a pedigree yorkie!

We couldn't go to the dogs trust because of the age of or children, but I think a lot of that is protection from litigation rather than anything else. When I got Nelly I had such a good experience with rescue but this time around I wasn't so happy. This time I didnt feel they had a very good attitude tbh. They didn't let me know about Billy being rehomed and sent me an email saying 'have you got Billy's vac card' and nothin else. I replied saying that I had given it to them and I was glad to see he'd been rehomed and that I was missing him. I know that they didn't know us and its not good to return a dog but we were both crying when we left him and explained to them about why we had made that decision. The trainer has been in touch more often already asking about peanut than they were with either Billy or Peanut. They haven't contacted us so I guess that despite asking to go through homefinders the trainer hasn't done it through them but we are ok with that. But having said that he's on their website as being reserved so they are obviously considering they are rehoming him and wouldn't have found him without them.

I just wish people would neuter their animals! Our neighbours have a cat who is almost entirely always shut out and she was clearly pregnant, isn't now and I do wonder what they've done with the kittens. It's not that expensive and if you can't afford it then really how can you afford to have an animal? All my rescued animals have been neutered but my two kittens weren't but were done asap and the female we kept in until she was done.

Peanut is really enjoying his walks now, sniffing lots of this and peeing on lots of things rather than the one of two he was doing. Plus he stayed downstairs while I got the boys ready yesterday which was the first time he hasn't followed me upstairs every time :)

I don't think it is 'most', but it does apply to many and unfortunately, a couple of the most highly publicised ones, iykwim, that people tend to try first.

Dogs Trust do rehome to families, but if you search the dogs on their website 99+% say no children or 8/12/teen plus, which is where many people give up and read the less easy to find info that advises you to go down there and discuss your particular circumstances, or that they usually recommend puppies, rather than dogs which may have a degree of unknown history, to families with children under 5.

Again, I've found that pointy rescues again are the most sensible with this and really do consider on a case by case basis.