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.

[PatTheHammer]

Ahhhh, they are beautiful Jessie.

Congrats on your news too, hope the scan goes well.

No advice on the new baby and dogs as we only just got our girl a few weeks ago and my DC are 7 and 4. Have they met any babies before that you might be able to work out how interested they might be? I think generally most dogs are very accepting on new babies, they like to smell them and give them a lick. The more worrying stage is when the baby is mobile and pestering the dogs but if your dogs have a safe haven they can retreat to and the young child learns not to poke dogs when asleep or eating then this can help minimise problems.

[mistlethrush]

For anyone that's wanting to improve the relationship between child and dog I would get the child to do very simple instructions and give them a treat when they do it. You need to make sure that the child is very clear and uses any hand signals you use, and gives the treat at the right time (DS has a tendency to get a sit and then ask for something else rather than delivering the treat immediately). The commands need to be ones that your dog already knows. I'm sure that this has really helped DS and mistlehound to get a good relationship - and also made mistlehound much happier to comply when DS has the lead - she knows that she gets treats from him too when she does what he asks (just need to get DS to remember all the time to ask for it properly!!!)

[cinnamongreyhound]

A question for those more knowledgeable! Should I keep my two away from my mums puppy until he's had his jabs? Both are vaccinated up to date but wondered if they could potentially carry something and spread it to them?

[cinnamongreyhound]

to him

[cinnamongreyhound]

That's the problem I have with mine mistlethrush, they want to give treats but spend so long messing around I'm sure the dogs have totally forgetten what they've done to get the treat in the first place so I feel it's almost negative training. Perhaps I should be more persistent with them!

[mistlethrush]

Cinnamon - I would have a training session for the children and the dog... sometimes I think I have to train the child more than the dog (even though the dog can only manage very basic 'tricks'). Mind you, I was really pleased when she came 'close' when I was trying to sort her lead out and she stuck with me rather than trotting on after DH and DS.

Puppies... I don't know - however, if you had a new puppy in the house, it would meet your two dogs - and because they have been vaccinated, that should cause no problems - so, thinking about it logically, I would have thought it should be fine. You could always ring your vets and ask for advice over the phone? I would have thought it would be ideal socialisation for the puppy at an early age if you could introduce them!

[cinnamongreyhound]

They met him yesterday because I didn't know she had him but wondering if we should keep them away until then. Want to bring him to mine too as we will look after him when they go away at any time or if they're out for a long time during the day.

[PatTheHammer]

Never been so glad we got a greyhound. Met a lady out today walking her beautiful Doberman cross. Lovely dog but she told me she needed 3 hours of exercise a day or she chewed up the house.

3 hours!!!!
I didn't tell her that Dee was happy with just over an hour a day in total.

[PeanutPatty]

Three hours?! That's fine if you have nothing else to do all day everyday. Thinking about it, in reality that's 2x 9min walks that would be doable if kids were in school and I had a cleaner!

Cinnamon my understanding its more a case of the pup being exposed to unvaccinated dogs that is the issue?

[PatTheHammer]

I know peanut, the first 90 mins of which is a run, the woman was in running gear with a running lead and said she does over an hours running every morning with her.
Bugger that, I used to run up until recently and there's no way I'd want to do 90 mins every day.

I suppose the good thing was she was with owners who understood her exercise needs. So many other dogs are not sadly.

Tried some recall off lead in an enclosed basketball court today and she loved it, chased around after a stick and came back when I blew the whistle 3 times. I'll count that as a success even though it was a small area. baby steps!

[cinnamongreyhound]

I think that's a success PatTheHammer!

If I had the time I think I'd run every day my two love running, it's a totally different experience running with me running too than them running around me iyswim. We used to run with a Doberman but she sadly died a few weeks ago :( she was quite over weight but very active, used to chase the trains the passed us.

[PeanutPatty]

I'd run as often as I possibly could. Going to run in the morning and probably take Pooch with me and then regret it later as I stop to look/wait whilst Pooch reads the doggy papers. Repeat repeat repeat. I simply cannot imagine having three hours completely free and to myself everyday. It's making my mind boggle.

[PeanutPatty]

Awesome recall Pat! I've reinstated the whistle for recall and it's going pretty well so I hope we can keep it up.

[cinnamongreyhound]

Just back from our run, my two have adapted so well to being out in the forest in the dark :)

[mistlethrush]

Pat - I hope that you have a 'safe stick' or similar rather than just a sticky stick - so many dogs can get hurt with real sticks (some die) - we got our old dog onto a frisbee - mistlehound isn't very good at retrieve so we have to be content to follow her to where she has stopped if we want to do throwing - although she is getting better and at least standing back so we can pick it up and throw it again.

[PatTheHammer]

Mistle- yeah it was one of them, got it off my neighbour as she has loads for her stick-mad Staffys .
TBH I didn't think she was mad keen on it so today I took a ball down there....................oh my god, she is crazy for the ball! Weird as I had read that grey's don't like balls. She loves them though. 100% recall on the 3 times I tried so she got lots of treats.
I have to admit I'm tempted by those Frisbees, it looks real cute when dogs are trotting around carrying those.

[PeanutPatty]

Ours is a stick monster. Real ones unfortunately What are these non sticky sticks? The only way I can keep Pooch off sticks would be to muzzle.

[mistlethrush]

Peanut this sort of thing - we've got a couple, picked up in sales at PAH. Mistlehound is also a stick monster, but I always worry when she has a real one, particularly as DS insists on throwing it even though we've told him not to. Our previous dog was also a stick monster, but we managed to totally divert that onto a frisbee - this needs to be a dog one that they can pick up (with a ridge on the top as well as the bottom) - we often used to throw it so it ran along the ground and she loved that. She used to play with it in the field, then it went back in a bag for a bit so that she had time to do normal 'doggy' things and read the mail etc - and there would be another session later on in the walk. We have always done that sort of thing with toys on walks so that they don't expect to play with their toy the whole way round.

Mistlehound has developed a lump on the end of one of her middle toes at the side - just near where the side claw touches it - its not hot and it doesn't appear to be particularly sore and she's not bothering it - its just bumped up like a wart or something but its fairly sudden.

She's also scraped the inside of her back leg and it was nastily manky last night - but I stopped her mithering it and washed it off with some (home made) saline and it looks so much better this morning which is good (I couldn't see it to start with - it was all nice and clean and dry!)

[cinnamongreyhound]

We went for a walk today with the lady we got Lola from, it was lovely with 2 of her dogs. Peanut went straight in the river and came out as quickly as he went in! He looked totally shocked, colder than he expected I reckon. She's got a new cat friendly dog in today Peanutpatty, he's a whippet cross 22in tts, called Winston, apparently a bit shy with new people but has got on with all her dogs.

[CMOTDibbler]

Ours loves a frisbee. Alas though, the frisbees don't last as he likes to run round throwing it up for himself and catching it again over and over which punctures them rapidly.

On Saturday ds and I came home to see a pointy on the green in front of our house, so he wanted to get cmotdog out to meet him. The dogs had such a fab time together, and it turned out it was the first time the other one had been off lead to play. Owner really pleased to meet another pointy owner too.

[TooOldForGlitter]

Oh god anyone help :( bob bit my daughter on the face about 40 mins ago. Im in tears and shaky so not making much sense so apologies. I wasnt in the room i was in toilet. DP was in his chair, bobs bed is at side against wall, dd went to bent down to stroke bob gnight i hear two barks then crying and run down and hes bitten her. DP was sat in chair sewing up holes in bobs bean bag literally twelve inches away. Wtf do i do

[mistlethrush]

Oh no, how is your daughter? I hope that its not bad?

[TooOldForGlitter]

Its not bad a cut above eye not deep and smaller one with bruising on cheek. Just completely thrown. Shes upset but calming down im gibbering and bob knows hes done something wrong and i cant believe fucking dp missed what happened a foot from his face.

[mistlethrush]

It sounds to me as though Bob might have been asleep, and DD surprised him and he simply reacted.... Mistlehound will sometimes jump and growl if her paws are nudged when she is asleep - its never been to the teeth stage, butwe do have to be quite careful.

You will need to decide whether this is the line for you.

If it isn't, I suggest that DD (and any children) are clearly instructed that, if Bob is asleep on his bed, he is not to be disturbed for any reason.

However, under the circumstances, no one would be critical of you ringing the rescue and saying that this is not acceptable, given you have children in the house.

On the practical side, arnicare ideally on the bruising and ice if necessary - and make sure the cuts have been washed out with something antibacterial - if they are not bleeding much I wouldn't cover them though.

[cinnamongreyhound]

Clean very well and ice will help.

Give it time! Let it settle and see how you feel in the morning. You don't want dd to feel frightened of him and not feel happy in her own home but you also have invested in Bob and he's starting to settle. I had never considered being bitten by a dog (probably sounds very naive) until we rescued billy after we lost our nelly. We had had him 3 weeks and he'd taken toy from one of my minded children I tried to take it back and he didn't let I don't want to rip it so left it and then went to take it again and he bit me quite badly on my arm and finger. One of my parents collected a child just after it happened and said you'll have to get rid of him now so we took him back. It broke our hearts and he cried as we left him.

We then got peanut and he does snap at the older children if they get very bouncy and noisy. We think he gets worried and that's his reaction. Luckily the one child he bit had a very understanding mum and as long as we muzzle him with them around she's happy. He hasn't grumbled at mine but has at minded children but then our house is busier then. It's very stressful worrying about it but they know how to behave with peanut and he seems to be more tolerant of mine and I don't want him muzzled all the time.

The children know NEVER to go to the dogs when they're on their beds or even if they are on the sofa alone as they consider that territory. I can sit with peanut on the sofa but I always kind of warn him I'm coming. He has grumbled at a friend who sat with him and then I make him get down so he knows it's not longer his space and then he's fine.

Before I was bitten and peanut bit my minded child I would have always said you can't have a dog that bites around children but I think that especially a dog that has so many new things to learn about as ex racers do if you can work out triggers and know how to manage it in a way that everyone is happy then you can. Don't be cross at dh he will most likely feel very guilty himself, it probably didn't even cross his mind that it could happen. I blamed myself when I was bitten by Billy and felt so bad for him not myself. I felt that it was my fault (which it probably was) and that he was suffering.

Just take some time and talk calmly between you all and don't rush into a decision x