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

Share stories, advice and shopping tips!
AK Creations
Dog O Nine Tails
Doggy Bags Bakery
Kitsch Collars
Meggie Moo
[[http://www.milgicoats.co.uk/ 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.

Exercise requirements? Are you taking him everywhere with you at the minute? Thanks Too.

Clearly too much time on my hands tonight as I have just had to order Bob the Xmas gnomes bandana from the Milgi Coats website. He seems very excited

Thanks Moose! I get grumbled at a LOT if I'm online when he is home which gets my goat.

Hi Peanut, first week; we got him home at 6.30 Saturday evening and had until I went to work on Wednesday together. I had read, and been advised here, not to be too 'much' with him at first so that he wouldn't become overly attached. I left him alone five mins, ten mins, fifteen etc. At first he whined, chewed the gate and barked. That settled in about five days.

The last two weeks I have been on holiday and so he has come with me everywhere I can realistically take a dog. We have done some long long walks but I have also gone through the 'going out' routine perhaps twenty times a day and then just sat down, or stood in the kitchen reading a paper, whatever to try to desensitise the going out cues.

Exercise wise, if he can have a half hour in the morning and a half hour in the evening he is very satisfied. He will happily do more but is quite relaxed and happy to snooze if he has had 2 x half hours.

Rambled a bit, sorry

Pip is gorgeous, I know i've said it before but he's a beaut!

Am I the lucky one tonight? DP has gone to Devon to take DSS back to college. Just me, DD and Bob, oh and a bag of tangfastics til Tuesday

I love tangfastics! DS and I will happily munch through a whole bag, DH and DD think we are insane, too 'spicy' for DD apparently.

I already have coat envy, looking on websites earlier I would like so many but can't afford another one till next month as the donation and other essentials has cleaned me out this month!

Well, she would NOT go out for a wee this evening as it was pissing down. In the end I put her coat on her and lead and walked her round the garden. She had a good sniff, I got soaked and still no wee.
I've put her to bed same as last night and although she didn't seem overly keen to get in the crate she was fine once in there and settled down without crying....we shall see!

I have work tomorrow so she will be crated from 9.15 till about 1.30 ish. Spoke lots to the rescue lady and she thinks she will be fine, given that she feels comfy in the crate. Going to leave a kong and maybe a pigs ear in there for her as new treats to enjoy (thanks for the kong stuffing tips further down thread).

Mistlehound is out for the count in her thunder shirt - she's hardly noticed any of the many bangs this evening.

Salukis - I believe some of them have a tendency for deafness when you really need them to come to you rather than wait 20 mins for them to contemplate the view....

Pat I've struggled to get Bob out tonight for a wee, every time we went out a blimmin' firework went off over his head and although he didn't react (by barking or whining) he just turned straight around and went back in the house. Imagine I am going to be walking around the estate in my dressing gown in a short while to save my carpets

Mistle - good friend of mine has just bought a TS for her super-anxious Japanese chin and it is working really well for her. Seems they can be great when they are working!

Someone let a firework off right outside our living room window last night - huge bang and flash that lit up the room and Pip didn't even bother to lift his head.

It was raining at bedtime here last night. Dh let the dogs out before we went up and they both got me up again at midnight desperate for a wee. Must've been something in the air last night I think.

Hope your girl stays settled happily in her crate today Pat.

My only understanding is the same as the others that saluki's can be aloof and don't have great recall or rather its on their terms. Mine settled reasonably quickly, other than car sickness Lola is settled and peanut is too but he still gets grumpy occasionally if the kids get very squeally. He wee's while we were out last night despite being let out before we went, dh blamed it on a possible firework

I took them out running yesterday, did two shorter loops so I could take peanut come home and then go out again with Lola only and still cover the 10 miles I wanted to. Was a disaster as our normal two routes overlapped a bike race, I wrestled both of them to walk on the grassy bit (they both like to be on the path) to get them out of the way and didn't get a single thank you, despite the path not actually being closed to the general public or sign posted until you actually arrived at the race . Also had to stop twice to cross the path of the race :(. Took peanut home as planned and went out on the other route, both are signed walking routes through the forest, this time I crossed the route three times and ended up at the start with all the cars parked, trotted through there and had to run against the cyclist twice more and got shouted at despite keeping Lola right at the edge. Luckily the last 2.5 miles were cyclist free and I saw a lovely rainbow. So annoyed that there was no notice it was taking place, no signs until you were on top of it and that they hadn't closed the routes so presumable had been warned that they may meet others who were entitled to use the paths. One man did say thank you at one point and one said hello. I did think perhaps I should have turned around but would have had no idea where I could go to avoid them!!

We later walked them at the river nearby, Lola was sick bth ways :( which was lovely and the boys decided it was spooky! We went over a very wobbly bridge which the dogs didn't seem to notice at all!

We've had some dogs that are very aware that they are going over 'scary' bridges and splay their toes out to make it safer - mistlehound managed to be so unaware of the fact that she was going over a bridge that she lost a foot down the crack - given the crack was probably narrower than her foot, quite how she managed to get it down there I don't know

Bike race doesn't sound good - perhaps you can contact the organisers and suggest that they should do some publicity or perhaps the management of the woodland?

Dh let the dogs off when he took them out for the first time yesterday and Peanut was very naughty! Ran off after two separate dogs and then wasn't allowed off again, Lola on the other hand was apparently perfect

Of course she was - she's a girl!

Have you thought of whistle training at all. It's so easy to do. Basically just peep the whistle every time you feed and treat. Do it in different rooms in the house, then the garden and eventually on a longline out and about and make sure they always get something super tasty with the odd extra- super-duper reward thrown in here and there.

I love it when I blow the whistle and see Pip hurtling towards me at breakneck speed.

This weekend I took a whole pouch of fish4dogs salmon mousse on our walk and gave Pip a huge jackpot reward when he recalled super fast. He couldn't believe is luck!

Lurcherboy always had a great recall, but has decided he doesn't need to bother now we have Pip. I really need to do some more 1:1 training with him, but can't walk him alone in the day, as Pip screams the house down if I do and it's too dark for recall training by the time dh gets home from work.

I need to take him back to basics and work through the Total Recall book with him again, but it always seems so complicated with Pip around and I live in dread of somehow weakening Pip's recall as well.

Fortunately, I have my secret weapon. Lurcherboy is oblivious to everything else in the world as long as I have a tennis ball and flinger in my hand. He literally doesn't take his eyes off them, so I'm employing full use of that at the moment, whilst trying to work on a plan for improving his recall.

Worth a try, the only worry is if you forget the whistle at some point. Hope I can say this, you wrote way too much moosemama

Lola has just come into season, so far peanut is not interested at all but seems very interested in her wee! She's definitely a bit less active than normal, quite quiet actually.

Cinammon - I'm surprised that she's not been spayed by the rescue before rehoming???

The lady she comes from doesn't believe in spaying them young, she's recommended we wait until she's at least 3. She has some quite controversial opinions but I think some make sense.

I can understand not spaying them young (I think that some cats, for instance, are done much too early)... however, there's 'not too young' and 'is it really necessary to wait quite this long'... Our first dog wasn't done until we moved to the country - and we used to get a regular suitor who used to sit outside the house and howl (think 3am). We managed to keep him away from her, but one time he chased me (I was cycling) to the post box and back - he didn't mind what he humped - it really scared me (I was still quite young then).

I think I might have a go at the whistle thing - mistlehound is sometimes very slow at responding - particularly if she's in the garden.

Feeling somewhat tired as she got me up at 12.30am to go for a wee as the fireworks had died down sufficiently to risk it - the ts helps a lot inside, but doesn't mean that she likes being outside when they're all going off.

We had a westie when I lived at home and she wasn't done and my parents never seemed to think about it. Nelly was spayed before she was homed to me as she came from RGT so haven't had to think about it before. My cats that I had from kittens were both done at 6 months so never had a season and the others were rescue so were done before I it them too. I am not desperate to wait really, kind of thought she'd have one soon as she's around 1 so thought it'd be her second. I don't know lots about the theories. I know some day it's better to have them spayed before they have their first season to prevent a certain cancer but I can also see that they need the hormones for growth to maturity so it's better to leave it a while. Our westie had a pyometra so I'd like to have her done sooner rather than later, obviously after she's no longer in season.

Sorry cinnamon - is my verbosity getting to you? I'm far too old to change now though.

Dh took Lurcherboy out on his own while I took Pip to puppy class and his recall was apparently bang-on. So it's as I feared, he's been negatively reinforced into not coming back when Pip is with us, as he either thinks he'll nick his tennis ball or wants to avoid being leaped on and chewed.

Pip was great at class today. Spent the whole lesson out in front of me taking part in the training, did an off-lead recall and even said a tentative hello to several puppies.

I just think you do a great job and you shouldn't worry so much :) that's great news on your pup training today!

I waited til our dog was almost four til we had her spayed. I wanted her to mature physically and mentally first.

I've started taking my gun dog whistle back out with us on walks as her recall was slacking a bit even with treats. So if she goes AWOL, can't hear me or locate me then a quick toto with the whistle and an extra tasty treats she comes belting back. How she's not knocked the children over I'm not sure. Been trying to get some of those F4D punches but can't find them anywhere.

I buy mine from here but you can also get them from the fish4dogs website and they're cheaper if you buy in bulk.

I've been thinking about getting some of the kitten or cat raw food pouches from Natures Menu as well for variety.

Ds2 was lurchered by Pip last week. He came back full pelt and literally threw ds2 up in the air and forwards. He landed face down in the mud and his shoulder popped out (he has joint hypermobility syndrome). The only thing that cheered him up was telling him it's a lurcher owner's right of passage and that LL do 'I've Been Lurchered' t-shirts. I've ordered him one for Christmas in his favourite colour.

Peanut is great as long as the kids carry on in a straight line but Lola is awful, she's run straight into my shins on more than one occasion!

Ow ow own Moose!

Mistlehound hasn't lurchered any of us (yet). Probably because she doesn't like doing recalls back fast....

I must say, though, that we spend very little time calling her - her job is to stick with us!