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.

Yay for the venue TheCunnyFuntIsGettingMarried!

I think it's great that you're trying to do the best by blue peanutpatty but I also think that perhaps you need to let him be as he is for a bit and feel safe and secure and see how his behaviour changes. It's very early days and he may have been like this before or it maybe because he's in a new home but it sounds like you'll never know the truth. He really doesn't sound cat safe to me but it doesn't mean you can't work on him. Peanut was afraid of our cats and Lola bounced at them but in a I want to play with you way. After a few hisses and hits she stopped doing it mostly but definitely doesn't want to eat them.
Our previous greyhound would get very wound up if she saw things coming from a long way away. It does sound like he has some anxiety but I am really not even the ex part of expert!!!
Peanut wee's on his front feet but only if there isn't something to pee up then he'll just pee up it! He is much more able to hold wee than he seemed to be when we got him but I wonder if he'd just got used to peeing when ever he fancied. Mine go for a walk at 6.30, let out before I do school run at 8.30 then let out around lunchtime but don't always go then, let out before school run at 3, walk 6-7 and let out before bed unless they ask but that's not very often. Some days they will go 8.30-3 without a wee by choice. Peanut drinks a lot more than Lola and will always drink from puddles when we're out. But when dh took him to work a few weeks ago he pee'd 4 times along the corridor and up his colleagues chair

Anyone in the NE, a LL is trying to get sufficient people together for a Jim Greenwood session just in case you're interested - he's a particularly sighthound-savy trainer.

Mistlehound is a different dog from the one we picked up 18 months ago. She's much more relaxed, has worked out how the family works etc. She's very content I think. Although she would like more walks all the time not just on holiday.

Can I ask some advice about training lurchers?

Roo is 7 months old and if we walk in the woods she is fine off lead, comes back to me and doesn't run off. In the park however she runs up to dogs, but more worryingly to all children, especially if they run, and jumps up to lick their faces ( in my defence, I don't let her off lead in busy areas, it happened with DH).

How to train her not to run up to kids is the question.

We have two boys, 9 and 11, and she loves them as they play with her loads, so now she thinks kids are a Good Thing, which is sweet, but how to teach her not to run up to them?!

I bought a long training lead but afraid to use it, as worried she might get tangled up in it.

I thought we were doing so well on the toilet front as no peeing in the house since Tuesday and he's peed all over the kitchen floor just now. I'm so annoyed with myself. We got back from a 2hour walk at 615pm. I fed them about ten mins ago. Like a puppy perhaps I should have kept an eye on him and taken him out right away after he'd finished. Poor boy has skulked off. I am so cross with myself. I really am. I'm losing my confidence a bit and each time he starts wandering around I'm anxious he's going to pee. I know this is ridiculous.

If he carries on with this there is no way our usual family member will look after them when we are away or out for the day.

It's very early days Peanut, please try not to be so hard on yourself.

Fwiw, I would go right back to puppy-style toilet training. Have a read the toilet training guide Lilcampers wrote for another person in a similar position, here.

One of my two wee'd on the kitchen floor the other night when I was on my own and ds1 had the mother of all meltdowns at bedtime. I knew I needed to get downstairs asap and let them out, as they'd just had their dinner, but I couldn't leave ds and when I came down their was a pond puddle by the back door.

It was a realy shock, as Lurcherboy has been toilet trained since he was about 5 months old (we got him at 4 months and he's now 8) and Pip hasn't had an accident in the house since last August, but these things happen. I still don't know which dog it was, but tend to suspect Lurcherboy as he's a bugger for holding on if it's raining or cold and Pip was still desperate to go out when I got downstairs, whereas Lurcherboy was snuggled up in his bed and didn't get up when I opened the back door.

Give it time, give him tonnes of opportunities to go out and he'll get it eventually.

It took 2 months for mistledog to be 'fairly' safe - we went to a holiday cottage with my MiL for christmas (no stress there then!!!) and only had one puddle - although I did have to take her out in the middle of the night every night.

I could scream! Been out for two hours and have come back to two empty packets of mini malt loaf on one of the dog's beds. Raisin content is 14%. I don't know if both dogs ate it or only Blue. He definitely pinched it. That I am sure of. Both dogs seem fine. Do I call the vets or wait and see?

Oh no!

Call the vets and ask if you should see them, is what I would do. Mini malt loafs are tiny? Like a single slice?

Not even a slice. Like a mini mini loaf. I'm so cross with myself again.

healthehelen.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/photo-81.jpg

Oh no! My previous greyhound are a whole fruit cake and was fine. They are such terrible theives of food, I get cross at myself too if I leave things in reach.

I would call the vet for advice. One of the vets on here said on another thread they knew of a Greyhound that died after eating just a couple of grapes and said you can't tell how it will affect one dog compared to another.

I'd imagine they will just tell you to monitor them overnight and take them in if there's any sign of them starting to feel poorly, but I don't think it's worth the risk.

Why do they always pick the worst possible things to pinch and scoff?

Mine ate rather a lot of cheesecake one time... She had got on the table to eat it comfortably. The awful thing was that it was a 'birthday' cheesecake and the birthday boy hadn't had his slice!

Saw this and thought of you lot ... :)

www.lifebuzz.com/these-intimate-and-expressive-dog-portraits-are-absurdly-brilliant/

Thanks cashew. They're fantastic aren't they?

I saw them yesterday and they really resonate with my life with my two pointy boys. The daft expression, crazy ears, big nose madness of it all.

The second and fourth ones in particular remind me so much of my pup. In fact there's a similiar, if not so technically perfect, image of him on my profile pictures. That's what I see in my mind whenever I think about him - he's one of those dogs that loves to connect with you through your face/eyes and I love that so much about him.

Cashew they're fab :o

Peanut how are the dogs?

Wedding dress shopping today :o

Ooh that reads like Haiku :o

Dogs are fine. No ill effects from their afternoon thievery.

Pooch is being a handful when walking. Getting to the point where I can't let her off the lead anywhere as she is bogging off into gardens searching for cat poo. This morning she had recalled brilliantly. I walked away in another direction away from the garden that she is fascinated by, we were miles away from it and when I turned round to check she was with me she had bolted like a dog possessed towards the garden. I called her and she just ran faster. I wish the house would close their drive way gates and block up the holes in their fence line. I KNOW I should have full control and she shouldn't enter...... MrPP reckons it cos I have put her on a diet.

Blue on the other hand trots along beside or behind me on his training line. He is starting to sniff a bit more. I have found somewhere to let him off lead securely but it's going to cost so I won't be able to do it very regularly but I thought I'd take him on his own and take some balls and toys and make it really fun.

Oooh Cunny shopping for THE dress is exciting!

Peanut - sounds as though you should take pooch too!

Moose swears by having REALLY tasty snacks on her and sometimes giving a big 'pay out' for a good recall - need to start working up to this at home first though.

I'm currently using Tesco's bitezise chorizo cocktail sausages and jackpotting with Applaws cat food pots. Both dogs recalls have come on in leaps and bounds since I started this combo.

Best of all I was able to get Pip to either drop sheep poo or completely ignore it if I got in first, the other day using the sausages.

Have you considered whistle training Pooch - I use both voice cues and the whistle, but find the whistle much more effective over longer distances - useful if they've done one to the other side of the park.

If I were you I'd have pooch back on a long-line while you do some recall conditioning work at home. Roughly speaking, with a dog that had a good recall previosuly, when she'll bolt down the garden like a rocket to get back to you in the house, she's ready to give it a go out and about. In the meantime, longline only and make every return a really rewarding event.

Cunny hope you're having a lovely time dress shopping.

Good luck on the dress shopping (hope you haven't been following the wedding saga on The Archers!)

Moose Pooch previously had awful recall and then I introduced a whistle and a cocktail of various treats and her recall was awesome. The improvement was amazing. The week before Blue arrived it gradually went to pot and its now simply depressing. She is absolutely intent of seeking out poo or stuff to eat. Lots of local gardens put bread out for the birds.

I will get myself some different treats. This mornings was ham and cocktail sausages which she glad scoffed on the good recall before shooting off with her hearing aids switched off. There was no point using my whistle as I was trying to follow "don't set up to fail" school of thought. I can't take toys out with them both as I think there will be argy bargy over them.

Glad to see the hounds were ok after the raisin eating! Hopefully the toilet training with the newbies is getting there, sounds like good progress all round.

Sooooo, I had my first experience of another dog-walker who I would cheerfully brain today. An interfering old busy body who insisted on lecturing me with all her great knowledge about greyhounds and how they are 'bred to kill' and should never be allowed off a lead under any circumstances.

For the record.....she is not or has never been a greyhound owner but all this accurate knowledge is from 'my mate Jackie' who apparently is the font of all knowledge on ex-racers.

I tried to have a reasonable discussion with her, whilst Dee was the epitome of a polite and friendly hound to her two little hairy things (on the lead btw.......don't really know why the off lead conversation came about). In the end I just had to keep nodding and hmmming. I then promptly walked into the nearby field, shut the gate and let her off the lead to have an amazing run playing with the two kids who were off today.

I know it's petty, but I hope she saw me do it. Especially as the kids got really worried on the way home and were asking me whether Dee would kill other dogs

Wellll? What does everybody think? My mum had to lop my head off so she could get the whole dress in the photo :o

So pleased both dogs were fine Peanut. They can't half be little tabards sometimes. Dogs eh, who'd have 'em? :o Us, obviously!

Pat you sound like you handled it brilliantly :) I have become a heck of a lot more confident and bolshy since having DD so I wouldn't have been half as polite as you were :o well done you! And I hope Dee enjoyed her play.