Are you a Greyhound, Whippet or Lurcher owner? Come and have a seat on another new pointy hounds cushion!

[WhenSantaGotStuckUpACunnyFunt]

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!
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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.

We lost mistledog in October 2012 - it was quite sudden and sooner than we had hoped as she got bone cancer - 3 weeks from diagnosis only. We picked up mistlehound 16 days later. We had done a fair bit of working out what we wanted and what we could offer, and most rescues remotely in the right location had had quite a lot of communication from us by then.

Mistlehound isn't remotely a 'replacement' for mistledog - she's a completely different animal and about all she shares is the same colour. Oh - and the fact that she's lovely and perfect for us - as mistledog was.

So - 8 / 9 months - sounds a long time to me.

We got another dog only 3 weeks after we lost our in may, dh felt if he filled the physical space I would miss her less. It was really too soon for me! I still miss her every day but I love my two loads as well. I think 8-9months is quite a long time and it's definitely not a replacement and I think we all talk about our old dogs as that's what we know :)

I still miss mistledog.

We lost two dogs in 2012, within three months - it was horrendous. I still miss both of them terribly in many different ways. The worst part was seeing the remaining dog grieving - he went through a terrible patch for around five months. However, we had already taken on a dog after we lost the first one, by the time we lost teh second, and actually it was a lifesaver, and hounds 3 and 4 arrived very unexpectedly within a fortnight of losing teh second as emergency fosters initially. We felt (and still do) that it was in no way a direct replacement and as rescue volunteers, we know how hard it is to place some dogs. I actually asked the rescue specifically for a dog that would be difficult to home - we are an experienced childfree home, work from home so can offer a sofa to dogs who might otherwise struggle. The day I picked her up, I can still remember walking round a garden centre car park with her, tears streaming down my face, not even particularly liking her colouring (she's a brindle) but making up my mind to do my best by her. Ironically, I am now besotted by her and she has developed a really close bond with me and I've grown to love her tiger stripes. Hounds 3 and 4 came at such a difficult time - if it hadn't been for their peculiar circumstances we wouldn't have taken them on, but I have never regretted it, and I really believe they have helped us enormously with our grief. They are not replacements - but we have enjoyed learning to get along together, and building new bonds.

Scuttle - out of interest, did you have any particular colour in mind when you got No2? We had said we didn't care about appearance - so were quite expecting a black dog. We didn't expect a scruffy tan who has developed strawberry blonde highlights and designer waves...

thank you all - im so sorry for your losses.

scuttle thank you for giving these foster dogs a home it is appreciated by so many!

I am seriously considering fostering when I have got this pup sorted. Probably once he's mature and starts to calm a little, so at least another 18 months or so.

I don't think I could offer long-term foster, as I would get far too attached, as would my dcs and end up failing every time, but I think I'll get foster-homechecks done with a couple of sighthound rescues so I can take in emergency short-term fosters and overnighters on their way into rescue or forever homes.

I often look at the urgents threads on LL and wish I could help in some way. I don't drive, so can't help with runs, but I am at home all day every day and won't be returning to work.

I keep looking at the thread on LL about the poor girl who was hit by a car and is being nursed so fantastically by her foster mum and thinking I could do that. I have my canine first aid cert and have nursed enough of my own ill and injured dogs over the years, plus the vet surgery is literally across the road from my house for back-up and I have enough time on my hands, but I know I'd end up keeping the dog every time and then not being able to foster any more for lack of room.

Moose - there's also the bully girl that's going to need her back leg amputated... The Tripawds do seem to make it out to permanent homes, but I'm sure some convalescing out of the big pack would be helpful. I'm sure the offer of, say, up to a week for 'urgents' would also be extremely helpful.

It was Fern and Bonnie that really got me thinking about it. Can't do it while I'm still sorting Pip out though and I think our house would be a bit too hectic for a poorly dog just at the moment, but when dd - and Pip - are a little older it's something I'd really like to do.

I also thought I may be able to offer short-term if they need to make space for new dogs coming in - like they did this Christmas.

Long-term thoughts really, but definitely high on my list of things I'd like to do in the future.

Moose, I am very good friends with the foster co-ordinator for EGLR - she is a fantastic person and hugely experienced. If you want to, and when you are ready, I'd be more than happy to make an introduction - you'd find it very interesting talking to her, especially about some of the more interesting medically challenging cases. We love bouncing ideas off each other and often discuss dogs that have come in - care, medication, behaviour etc. We invariably end up on the phone for hours.

Mistle - colour wise, no preference. In fact, we usually say we are happy to take black as they are the hardest to home and in fact I LOVE the sable hounds - nothing shines like a black coat when they are healthy, but coat colour is the least important issue for us. Boola, who died in 2012 was a stunning fawn hound - a blonde beauty - so we invariably ended up with highly visible dog hairs no matter what colour clothes we wore. Now we ahve three black and one brindle, so if I'm wearing dark clothes it's not so bad!

Its funny isn't it - when we were aiming for our first dog I thought we would end up with a black one with ginger eyebrows - I have no idea why I had that in mind. Mistledog was tan coloured - short haired - but she had the most amazing khol-like markings around her eyes, and had a dark muzzle with some white in it fading out to the tan, and dark tips to her ears. Mistlehound we again thought might be black but is tan with highlights and lovely eyes - she doesn't have the khol or so much dark muzzle, and she has a unusual white chest as its not the 'normal' diamond but is a sort of loop instead - as though half a diamond has been 'ink blotted' to the other half and not quite joined up in the middle. She's much more difficult than a black dog for buying a collar though as the combination of the tan with highlights and the really quite textured coat means you have to be rather restrained. Probably a good thing really!

Do any of you use the special sight hound collar ( wider than normal, think to protect their sensitive necks).

Also, my. 5 month old pup is very sweet, she occasionally gets an urge to bite/chew and then I give her an antler or chewy toy or she likes to chew tennis ball. Then after a bit the "biteyness" passes.

Tonight DH was winding her up, play fighting and actively encouraging her biteyness without offering alternative, just yelling "NO!" When she bit his hands/trousers. He is very different from me around her. Guess he is more fun, but am worried she will get bitey with kids and me too....

Any advice? (Maybe I should post this in relationships! Of maybe someone can tell me to get a grip).

We used to have the same issue with the kids when they were small, dH winding them up, then me picking up the pieces......argh!

All the young dogs I have had have learned to play nicely and get good bite control by actively playing with them - and yelping when they bit. Mistlehound has also learned to be a bit more careful too.

And, yes, I use a martingale collar on mine - although she's walked in a slip lead if she's going to be let off - or a harness and longer lead if she's staying on the lead - I prefer not to use the collar for actually putting the lead on. We have a leather collar for her too - next time we go racing / simulated coursing I'm going to use that as she can wriggle out backwards of the other one.

Mine have a thinish collar with a tag that they wear all the time and then a martingale collar with their lead on.

I agree FiscalCliffRocksThisTown and had the same issue! Mine where adults when we got them but dh used to play fight with the dogs and then with the kids and despite me saying it's not a good idea they don't know the difference it wasn't until Peanut bit one of the children while squealing on the floor, not badly but enough to make them cry that he agreed and stopped. The dogs loved it and I do feel sad that they are missing that but I don't want the children to be afraid of the dogs either.

Evening all. I'm still here but been a manic few weeks back at school. Plus my grandfather died on New Year's Eve so have had the funeral and all kinds of family stuff.

Lovely to read about all your old dogs, so special even though they have passed on. I have such fond memories of my childhood labs, they were really the driving force behind my adoption of Dee

Not much to report except; the crate has gone bye-byes ( not needed at all and was just taking up space, she now camps out on the sofa with her chews and toys whilst I'm at work. Recall has gone so, so brilliantly. She's a proper clever girl hiding under the exterior of quite a dim dog. She now runs pretty much free in the remote fields we walk across, she has also gone off lead with some friends dogs ( well trained border collies and staffies) and had a fab time, recall excellent even with the distractions of others. She loves a game of catch with the ball or frisbee and has been very good with approaching dogs, playing with other off lead dogs.

One small issue that 2 nights ago she did a wee on the living room rug for the first time ever. Bit weird as I had let her out a couple of times but it was chucking down and I think she just didn't want to go out and wee. I used the Simple Solutions to clean up and have had no repeats but just perplexed really as she has been such a good clean girl till then.

She's wearing her new martingale collar at the moment as we walked through a particularly smelly, muddy field the other day and her collar got covered. I swear if I didn't have wellies I would have trench-foot by now, the fields are saturated round here!

Its awful here too PatTheHammer and we have very sandy soil so any rain usually soaks in within 12hrs but the ground so wet I've never seen it like this. Glad to hear things are all going well :)

The only places that aren't flooded round here are the tops of hills, and they're bloody windy. No win situation!

This week I've had one dry afternoon walk where it wasn't pissing down, roll on summer

It has to stop raining at some point surely! I got wet walking dogs this morning but it was thankfully dry for school run :)

Pat - its the rain, she doesn't want to get wet and can't wee outside.... we have had dogs that have had to be forced out and watched carefully to ensure that they do what they're supposed to in the garden....

We've got heavy clay.. there's a moat around all of our flower borders...

Hello again all, im back with more questions :)

Me and dp had a good think about the saluki cross and come to the conclusion that we werent ready for the work involved. At the moment our circumstances would only allow us to have a low maintenence dog and we cant guarantee that with a puppy!

We saw a two year old lurcher who we were really excited about but when we went to visit they said they didnt think she had been in a house with kids before and encouraged us towards a different lurcher, a 4 years old. They are both gorgeous and im annoyed that im going to have to pick between them as i purposely wanted to avoid this. The 2 year old seemed fine with my daughter and it is more a case of the unknown rather than her showing any aggression.

I need some outside perpective on this and unfortunately people i know in real life are of the opinion that all dogs eat babies

Would you get a dog when you had a 13 month old not knowing how they were with kids? Dog rescue are really driving this home to us. Part of me thinks well a toddler may annoy her its not worth the risk and the other part of me thinks theyre being ott.

I dont want to factor this into our decision unless necessary.

Well, we waited to get a dog until youngest was. 8! Obviously, no one has to wait that long. But young children, especially tots simply cannot learn to not take the dog's bone, and may inadvertently pull dog's tail/poke dog's face. Also, lots of tits wander around with snacks at dog height.

You would need a fairly bomb proof dog around a tot!

Then again, lurchers are known for being big softies, and I don't think I have ever heard of a lurcher attacking a child, the way you can read/hear about other breeds.

Tits?! No, I mean TOTS

duh

Lump... I would be looking for a lurcher that is in foster with a child, given the age that is involved. Little ones that age are so unpredictable you will need to ensure that the dog can cope with that (our last one was superb). Our current (2yo) lurcher found 8yo DS somewhat worrying to start with - clearly he is less predictable compared to us. I know that there are foster homes with fostered lurchers where there are either resident or regularly visiting toddlers. If my child was a bit older and was used to living with young dogs, I would be more prepared to consider a dog that wasn't in that situation.

I have pm'd you lumpolead as there was a lot to say from my point of view :)