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.

Mistlehound has that lovely bouncy wolf-type gait that can just lengthen if she wants to go a bit faster -but I have to sprint to get her actually 'running' rather than trotting. I'm sure that, if she built up to it, she would happily do a marathon. Cinnamon - they look really good together!!!

Would a "counter surfer" be a nightmare do you think? I'm thinking yes, where would I put the fruit bowl? What about food cooling down that you want to refrigerate? You'd have to stand guard the whole time!

Cin quickly nosed at your photos and they really compliment each other don't they?

I think any greyhound or lurcher you get will be a counter surfer and Lola can just about reach her front paws on the worktop and pulled something off tonight. My experience is that greyhounds are totally good orientated! You can train to improve it but you have to keep and eye constantly or just shut the kitchen door if you're not in there :)

Lurcherboy was a countersurfer, but has learned not to do it 99.9% of the time. Pip started getting his paws on the kitchen table almost as soon as we got him home - he pinched dd's tea while she was eating it last night, apparently. (Dh was in charge, whereas I always put the dogs on the other side of the dog-gate when the dcs are eating.)

We just live around it now, it becomes second nature. Fruit bowls are in the living room on the window sill where the dogs are never unsupervised, cooling food goes on top of the cooker or fridge freezer. Food waiting to be served just gets popped back in the oven if I have to leave the room for a second.

I have had a horrible weekend. Ended up at the oohgp very early yesterday, turns out I have a kidney infection. My own fault, I was trying to ignore the signs and taking cystitis powders. I should've known better as I was nearly hospitalised with the same thing this time last year and only escaped being admitted after a big fight with my gp. What a week though, I had dd's virus at the start of the week, awful migraine from Tuesday till Friday morning, then this kidney infection - all accompanied by the period from hell.

Pip has been pretty well behaved for dh throughout it all though, other than dd's tea and dh forgetting and leaving the kibble bag out twice, cue two comical episodes with puppy rear end sticking out of said bag, with delighted sounds of munching coming from within! To be fair, those times were all dh's fault, rather than Pip's.

Why countersurf if you can get on top of the table / counter so easily? That's mistlehound's take on things anyway. Oh, and kitchen table thievery is more easily achieved if you can push the chairs out to just the right angle so that you can use them for your front paws...

She's currently propped up upside down onto the corner of the sofa so that her head has to go round the corner. She seems very happy though (its difficult typing mind you as her back foot is in the way of my arm)

Mistle, Lurcherboy's preferred technique used to be to actually climb onto the kitchen table as well. The work-top was never as interesting as it involved standing on two legs, which of course required a bit of effort.

Several times we've arrived home and caught him standing in the middle of the table. When he got a bit older he went through a phase of sleeping on the table while we were out as well. Soon stopped him by putting the chairs up on the table whenever we went out and he seemed to forget about it after a while.

Pip has just spilled a whole cup of hot black-currant squash all over the sofa and my spare duvet. I went to the toilet and he was in the kitchen, but in my addled state I forgot to close the dog-gate. I just heard a bang, and loud yelp that sounded like it came from outside, ran outside the back - nothing - ran in the living room and there was one very shaky purple legged puppy looking very sorry for himself. Fortunately it had cooled a little, so he hasn't burned himself, but I bathed his legs in plenty of cold water just in case. The laptop, which I'd stupidly left on the sofa, also survived with just a couple of splashes. The sofa is dark red and got off lightly as a result, but the duvet and cover are now a rather fetching shade of purple. Chaos Monkey Puppy is now sleeping off his trauma and I am duvet-less.

I was meant to be either swimming or making the side gate higher or both this afternoon - but I've been feeling crummy so done neither of them. We shall have to just keep an eye on mistlehound until I manage to fix it.

Mistlehound is capable of just popping up onto the table as though its a 6" step - no real effort required.

Have you seen there's an auction on the LL site? Some potential christmas present opportunities. There is an absolutely stunning collar - but I think its too large for mistlehound probably.. although its a work of art that's almost worth getting in its own right.

Sorry you're feeling rough too Mistle.

That's what Lurcherboy does, gentle hop and he's up. Same with the dog-gate, leaps it effortlessly from standing - incredible to watch, but not very convenient.

Hadn't noticed the auction, will go and have a look a bit later.

'You want me to go in the boot? Meh. Ok.' Pop. thistledown landing. 'Now what?'

Oh no! Sorry to hear about your infection and spilled black current moosemama and sorry to hear you're feeling unwell mistlethrush.

Did anyone go to the GGG?

We've taken Lola out in the car a few short journeys, yesterday I was parkrun RD so went in the car which is only 5 mins and she was sick on the drive when we got back :(. Today we went about 15mins and she was fine but was sick on way home.

I let her off this morning and she stayed very close to me until her and peanut has a mental run around and when they'd finished she came straight back but I did worry about peanut he was so worn out :(
We've been for an 8 mile run tonight and she took it all in her stride, didn't even look like she was making much effort despite her little size! I weighed her and she's only 11.6Kg
Got her a tag with our details on today and a cheap harness for running .
She's very hit and miss with cats, my tabby girl is laying at my feet right now and Lola didn't flinch when she came into the kitchen earlier but my ginger tom hissed like mad and she bounces around barking :(
She laid on peanut in our bed this morning and he growled at her but they seem to be getting on well. I didn't take peanut to parkrun and everyone asked if I'd put peanut in the wash!

Sorry you've been ill, Moose.

Yes, we went to the GGG. Amazing.

I'm having to work quite a bit at the mo and leaving 12 mo greyhound home alone more than I expected. He gets let out to pee but not as much company as he has been used to all summer. A friend suggested I get one of those toys which you put food him to keep him occupied but I think it would just frustrate him. Has anyone used them?

My dog's fairly dim and even she managed to get the idea of the treat ball that you bash around to get it to drop food out of the bottom. Stuffed kongs are also a possibility - particularly if you freeze them with eg yoghurt mixed with kibble. However, my dog doesn't 'do' kongs so this isn't something that works for her.

My older Lurcher couldn't get the hang of Kongs unless the food is literally falling out of them - too much like hard work I think, but he loves his treat ball and busy buddy.

Been away for a while and when I return, many new faces seem to have popped up.

I think it'll take a while to catch up.

I didn't go to the GGG, but Dp and the ds's (and dogs) did. They've come back with more new adornments for the dogs than a little. New collars, tassles (ds2 to blame - ledgedly), whippet hats for the boys (though Dp wanted some for the dogs too) and new Christmas bandanas .

The dogs have a better wardrobe than I have!

I've got some lurcher and whippet hats to knit - thanks for the reminder!

Clare what about a dog walker or a neighbour who could pop in or have him for a couple of hours?

When is the show at Peterborough? Dh is quite up for it :)

Left Lola today for the first time not in her crate and everything was in tack when I got back . She doesn't eat treats I give her when I got out in her crate or out but she hides them up and eats them later on! Then peanut looks at me like I'm mean because she's eating and he's not :(

We let the cats out last night and all but one have come back in again, the one who hasn't is the one who's out most of the summer and as it's got warm again here it's no surprising! 23C yesterday and 21C today.

Ran with the dogs this mornin with their flashing lights and my head torch! Only needed head torch for first 10 mins then sun came up. We saw a herd of deer which Lola ran after for 20 seconds and gave up and peanut had a sniff in their general direction, what odd sight hounds I have!

Sounds like she's really settled in cinnamon. Lovely to hear how quickly she's become part of your pack.

Cinnamon - 12 / 13th October. The 'show' is on the 13th (has 'fun' classes as well as 'lurcher' ones - so mistlehound will be able to go in for the silly ones and the junior handler and not into ones where people will criticise her weight or her confirmation...

Lovely to hear how easily Lola is fitting in!

The greyhound walks show had a dog family one in the fun show, we could enter that now :)

I'm sure mistlehound is beautiful and who cares what a judge says anyway. When you posted before I couldn't tell if your post meant you were worried about her weight or that you were annoyed they critisised. It's hard to tell from typed words

It's lovely not to have had stress of her settling. We just have to take the trek back to return the loaned crate and make a donation at some point soon.

Mistle, I wouldn't worry about her weight - blimey they'd think Lurcherboy was positively porky, but he's a pet, not a worker or show dog and he's not fat - just not in prime condition.

Thanks! Mistlehound is fine - she could perhaps lose a little but she's certainly not 'overweight' in terms of what the vet thinks - and she does have lots of muscle too. She's not working fit - but then she doesn't need to be and she is very contented sleeping rather than pounding the metal to put some more muscle on and lose a little of the covering... She can happily switch to walking all day with a good bit of rabbiting mixed in so can't be that unfit...

And I can't really do much about her length in relation to her leg length either. But I think she's really beautiful, and she has a lovely character, and we couldn't have found a better dog to fit our needs.

Mistlehound is a gorgeous gorgeous lovely dog. I won't hear of anything else!