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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Dog O Nine Tails
Doggy Bags Bakery
Kitsch Collars
Meggie Moo
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.

Tabards??? I meant bastards!

Just popping back to the thread after a long time absent-we've moved house and our neighbour has a grey! Billy has a girlfriend and steps out with her every morning. He loves the girl next door. At a spritely 11 yo she is a bit of a cougar but he's enjoying her company and I never thought I'd see the day he'd be genuinely happy to see another dog.

Hope all well.

Beautiful Cunny.

MissBetsey, lovely to hear your boy has a girlfriend and is enjoying doggy company.

Pip had a girlfriend at puppy classes - she was a teeny little apricot Cockerpoo and he lurved her. At that point he was still really scared of other dogs, but he'd go all daft and wiggly as soon as she came in the room and would even go up to her and play bow. They did look a bit daft together, him being all legs and her like a miniature ball of fluff, but it was really sweet.

Cunny - looks lovely. What are all the little additions on the front - photo not big enough - are they little flowers sewn on or something?

I think that Tabbards would be a good alternative word. 'You Tabbard' has a certain ring to it...

Betsy - that's lovely to hear! I'm always amazed at how much more positively pointy hounds view other pointy hounds compared to 'normal' dogs.

Hey Betsey :) lovely to hear from you again! Billy has a girlfriend? What about Roxy or are they just friends? :o

Thanks Moose :) Pip and his girlfriend sound like they adored each other. Isn't it wonderful to see when your dog has a particular dog that they really get on with? Sprocket is okay with certain dogs but when he sees Grace (and Pippin before she passed away :( ) he goes wild with joy :o

Yes Mistle, they're flowers. Absolutely beauuuutiful it is :) I'm going back tomorrow to get measured up and to order it. Eek!!

Think I'm going to start using tabard now, much better with having 2yo DD within earshot most of the time :o

I usually have positive comments about greyhounds PatTheHammer!

Glad all ok peanutpatty.

It's lovely TheCunnyFuntIsGettingMarried

We went for a run this morning in the hail!!! Funny how Lola won't walk at all in the rain but she will run in it no problem! She came in and went straight to our bed!

Peanut has had a bit of an upset tummy today and I'm so proud of him he actually came to the kitchen to get me to let him out, still not noise but he wouldn't leave me along until I left the kitchen with him and then he ran straight to the door!

Ooh, thats lovely Cunny. The flowers are beautiful.

Happiest dog in the world, ever, today. Lovely and sunny, so we went to the park. And there were pointies, one of which (gorgeous blue broken coated lurcher) really gave cmotdog a run for his money which is unusual. And I got to chat to their lovely mum as ds had taken himself off to the playpark

mistlehound is flat out - we went to the friendly dog group where she knows where she is and who she can chase happily etc - she had a lovely time - and then there were left over scrambled eggs and a tomato on a plate at the cafe so I gave her those on the floor - perfect apparently according to her! (Does anyone else ever scrouge left-overs for their dog - I feel a bit about it sometimes - but its just going to go into the rubbish and landfill otherwise - so its rather sustainable as well as good for the dog isn't it???)

Lovely dress

Good to hear about the hounds having a lovely day, may this gorgeous weather last for a few weeks at least!

Dee did her first fundraising event as an ambassador hound for GRWE today. We only did an hour at their stall at the local farmers market but she was superbly behaved and enjoyed all the fuss from members of the public. Can't believe how much she has come on from the shy, timid girl who used to shake when strangers approached her. Raised lots of money in the charity bucket and quite a few people took a leaflet as they were very interested in finding out more.....lets hope it leads to at least one homing enquiry for a lucky dog.

Wish I could say DS was superbly behaved too but unfortunately not. DH had to take him for a strategic wander around at various points as he was so restless. He had a party to go to today so I think he was massively excited this morning. He tried to wake everyone at 6.15 this morning and was promptly told to go away by all

Good girl Dee! Sounds like a lovely day.

We've spent the afternoon at my favourite dog walking place. Unfortunately a trillion other people were also there. Anyways we were walking along with the dogs and the minis. A woman walking towards us with her teenage girls and husband makes a comment obv not realising I am with MrPP etc. She says to her girls "that dog has got a muzzle on AND they've got kids" in a very disapproving tone. Talk about judgemental. Talk about making observations when you have no actual basis to make them on. I was fuming and wished I had made a comment back to her.

We have been out to one o four favourite walking places this afternoon too. Almost as soon as we arrived we met two beautiful greyhounds - well I say met, they weren't interested in my two scruffy hounds, but the owners were as pleased as we were to see other pointy dogs, as we don't get many around here.

We were plagued with cockerpoos - blooming offlead, untrained, chaotic cockerpoosn totally out of control everywhere. If I was the owner of a rather small ball of loopy fluff, there's no way I would be allowing it to run up to and jump on two pretty big hound types that were obviously being kept on the lead. Pip was very worried by their bounciness and general exuberance, but did say hello nicely. We kept our two on lead until the field was quiet then let them off individually. Lurcherboy (or Fatboy, as he is currently, affectionately known ) just wouldn't go and run, he was all wiggly around us like a little pup, so excited that we were all out as a family again. Then dh sat on a bench with Lurcherboy and I walked Pip around the field on his own - big wuss spent the whole time whingeing to get back, so once we were on the other side I let him off and he was a joy to behold as he streaked back to them. Managed to get some really good whistle recalls in calling him back and forth between the two of us and he was beside himself when I produced a tray of catfood as a reward for the fastest response.

If only the kids had been as well behaved it would have been a lovely walk.

That's exactly why peanut didn't have one peabutpatty, people will make snap judgments and I wanted him to be able to interact with other dogs without people being afraid of him. It doesn't mean it's right and if you still feel happier with him wearing it then you'll have to close your ears

We had a very local post Mother's Day lunch to go and see the millions of tadpoles! There is literally a black patch in the water there's so many this year. We got home at 6.30 and no sign of dark, yay! We ran in the morning with two of our group and they went off after a herd of deer, there were at least 4-5 adults and some babies, most I've ever seen together. Peanut was back after 30 seconds but Lola was a bit longer, knackered when she did come back though and has grazed the inside of both her back legs. It's so warm here though, supposed to be all week probably just in time to rain for the whole Easter hols!

This woman didn't have a dog. The only reason I've been muzzling him is because I don't know if he is the bitey exuberant nippy type when playing or if he is likely to catch a squirrel or rabbit or a cat even!

I know why you've been doing it :) but others don't. I know how bad you'd feel if he hurt someone's cat! People without dogs are often worse about judging your dog! I wasn't meaning to critisise sorry if it came across that way!

I'm cross with myself for not pulling the woman up on it. I was offended that she thought I would put my children at risk. I wanted to tell her that there are plenty of dogs being walked round here who are a bite risk who are not wearing muzzles and she should be more concerned about them than my potential small furry hunting polite sweet boy.

Peanut - you could get him a pink or purple one - perhaps that would make it look less 'dangerous' (as its all about the impression) .

I think I will Mistle. I want to get one fitted as the muzzle we were given is a bit small I think. It isn't long enough nor does it allow him to open his mouth wide to really pant. I'd like to the LL event but not convinced its a good idea with preschoolers and toddlers and dogs on my tod.

Pooch instigated play with Blue today. She got more than she bargained for with a whirling twirling growling bouncing ball of Lurcher! Fortunately he had his muzzle on as I think he is the bitey kind. Whether he would just mouth I'm not sure. Anyways Pooch suddenly halted the game as she was out of her depth even tho she is quite boisterous herself. Was fun to watch Blue really let loose tho ! Can't wait to be able to let him off the lead and watch him really run.

If you wanted to come when things were a lot more laid back, you could aim for after the racing - once the lure had stopped whizzing round, we all gradually moved out into the grassed area in the centre of the track last time and all the dogs stopped being frantic to run and lazed about in the sun (this was the Ascot comes to Askern event).

However, if that does not suit, look on the thread that deals with muzzles and pm the person that's selling them - the more details you can give her the better - if you can do a photo of him in his existing muzzle and measure that it would be helpful. Mistlehound has a long greyhoundy nose and she has the long greyhound racing muzzles - I think there are a few in red and blue now as well as the normal white and black (if there are any left). Lots of people have the box muzzles for everyday wear - I think they might be a little sturdier and have a pad on the top of the nose to prevent rubbing - the racing ones don't have this but they are ultra-lightweight. Mistlehound can drink happily in hers and can pant fully with no problem.

That's the point isn't it, a muzzle means you are responsible rather than the other way round. My boys picked peanuts and it's green so you can get a variety!

My two are both very mouthy, peanut often has Lola's whole head in his mouth and she often bites at his legs and pounces on his head nibbling his ears and throat. The children don't like them playing as they think they're fighting :(

We've got red and black muzzles here, and we see a rainbow of colours at things like sighthound playgroup where everyone is muzzled for safety. I've seen black, white, red, green, a very funky purple and blue.

Quite a few rescues sell them, there's Jan's Gifts online shop and hte Greyhound Megastore.

I've also noticed that we get funny looks when Andy is wearing his - he's a big black male and so looks very imposing too, and we quite often see people giving him a wide berth. Ironically, it's much better for that than Mick's yellow bandana. Although I'm persisting with it, as I think the scheme is a great idea, in practice it's been completely useless.

Scuttle - you should try getting him a pink muzzle and see whether it has any different impact from his red or black ones! I don't think enough people know about the yellow dog thing -and have to get too close to read and by then its too late. I did see someone with a fantastic lead (on their terrier, not their lurcher!) that was a warning one which was very obvious from a distance.

My friends lurcher is going in for an op tomorrow to have mammory tumour removed. She had one removed when she was spayed by the rescue and she has another one now about 5 months later. Has made me want to have Lola spayed sooner rather than later, but even that is scary. Sounds really stupid but I still cry quite regularly over nelly and I'm can't bear the thought of losing Lola too.

Hope everyone else's hounds are good.

The lady we got Lola from has arrange a show/racing day in August and has asked me to go. Not sure how I feel about encouraging my two to chase a lure and then expecting them to live with small furries, anyone have any thoughts?

Mine does it - we have a chinchilla that lives in a cage in the sitting room (she's about 18 now) - going racing doesn't seem to encourage mistlehound to consider her any more than normal. She absolutely loves racing. I think that she likes simulated coursing even more. We don't cage them to race - we just slip them from the start.

so i need some advice from you pointy owners please this may be a long one so get comfy, story is i um talked dh round to getting a dog at the beginning of the year but quit rightly it was decided we both had to in agreement on everything so rules were dh definitely did not want a rescue and did not want a pointy thing so that was my first two ideas blown out of the water (i wanted a rescue lurcher/grey pointy hound type thing) we agreed on a border terrier puppy as i myself have terrier experience we found breeders found out how much the total bill would be i.e the puppy the vacs the spaying micro chipping etc etc. nearing £1000 but its ok thats what we wanted. The female we are meant to be getting a puppy from is not playing ball at the moment and so it is looking more and more likely that we wont/cant get a pup until next year. Soooooooo last night i broached the pointy subject with dh again and suggested that perhaps we need to reevaluate our options as we have time on our hands and how about we go and look at some rescue Greys this weekend? as per my dh he just laughs at me and says were's this going? and why are we back to these things called lurchers? (in a nice way) so i explain about the money side as in rescue dog may cost us £100-180 but is spayed, vaccinated, chipped, flea'd etc they come with collar, lead and sometimes a bed! also that they have wonderful temperaments and that in getting a dog we for go they puppy stage and the fact we cant walk the puppy as much as we would like for at least 6months (we are a very active family and this would impacted some what on our fun time) and even until it a year your not looking at more than 1/2 hour walks. Anyways im going on dh has agreed to go up and meet them but his main worry is that they will lack personality and that they are fragile (he makes a funny sucked in face when saying this lol) and agree's that they are lovely dogs (we do know some) but is worried about getting one with enough ooomph to fit in with our family which is by the way dh and myself ds5 dd7 dss14 advice on all of the above would be great thank you big

We got a lurcher partly because of DS (8, then 7). He needed a dog that would love to play football, play hide and seek in the woods, dig holes on the beach, loon about running round fields - you get the gist. When we go on holiday we can be out all day, quite often having a good walk as part of that - or walking on beaches more or less all day - last year mistlehound visited northumbria and started out at about 6.45am and probably came in at about 10pm with breaks for meals and tea etc - but spent the rest of the time on the beach and in the dunes. However, at home we have a dog walker who takes her out for an hour or so in the middle of the day and she sleeps on the sofa the rest of the time whilst DH works - she is the ideal dog from this point of view - you don't need to give her 4 hrs of walks and 3 hrs of playing a day (been there with a collie cross) but if you offer it she'll very happily oblige. We thought a greyhound might not be able to cope with the longer distances we sometimes do and the days on the go on holiday which is why we didn't go for a greyhound (along with the size!).

My lurcher is a real character. She hadn't been in a house before we brought her home (so housetraining was 'interesting') and it was a steep learning curve for her - working out what to do, finding out about the dynamics etc. She is really fabulous - she is so happy to see us when we get in, she tries really hard to contain herself and not jump up - often ending up upside down for a tummy tickle but then has to dash around and try to stop herself jumping up again. I read through the PAT dog requirements because she is so generally positive towards people - if there is some skin she will lick it - if not she will make do with a trouser knee. DH doesn't play with her during the day (reasonable as he's working from home) but it does mean that she will sometimes decide that she wants to play in the evening and tells me about it by sitting up and staring at me intently - she teeth snaps as a 'fun' thing to do (it is not at all unfriendly when she's doing this) - and I usually give in and tell her to find something to play with - she grooms her squeeky toys so they seem to be lasting remarkably well!. She is determined to rid the garden of blackbirds and courses her way down there every morning, just in case. She doesn't really do retrieving - she chases a ball and then will run around, playing with it - she has got closer now and will drop it so that you can throw it again if you walk up to where she has flopped down. When I'm at home she likes to be where I am - even if that means lying on the hard bathroom floor whilst I have a shower.

I hope that's enough on character for you?