Greyhound, Whippet or Lurcher owner? Here's another pointy hounds cushion!

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Pointy hounds include-
Greyhounds (Grunds)
Whippets (Whippys)
Lurchers
Italian Greyhounds (Iggys)
Salukis
Afghans
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 :o ).

Share stories, advice and shopping tips!
AK Creations
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.

Almost thoroughbred horse with legs the length of lampposts! Apparently they bond incredibly to their humans so are nightmares to rehome. and they guard. thanks Google!

I love Azawakhs, stunning creatures. I don't think I could ever have one though, they really don't sound like easy dogs at all. Plus they're a bit big, I like to be able to scoop my dogs up and snuggle them like babies

There's one that sometimes races when we take lurchers along - it only races on its own and is not really that interested in running - peculiar gait too.

What I found really interesting was how slow a couple of Podenco type dogs were when they came - my (slow) lurcher ran in a race with them to give the organisers some idea of the speed they were and even she finished a long way in front of them - apparently they have the stamina though and just keep going (I should point out its not very competitive - its just a question of making sure that the races are as evenly matched as possible as its better for the dogs that way as the lure goes ahead of the first one and if there's a big speed difference the slower ones lose sight of it!)

I love watching the Afghans race - their coats always get over the line before the dog . And its usually bedlam for the terrier race.

I have decided that puppy is much brighter than cmotdog. He can look for things under the sofa (to cmotdog its a black hole), and open the patio doors if left open a bit. He has also cracked sit, recall, and fetch, though alas house training is still a work in progress.

Does anyone know if you can predict adult height from height at 4 months?

I think height prediction is difficult because different breeds carry on growing for different periods of time. Feet and growth plates are some indication (but mistlehound has very large feet compared to mistledog)(the advantage of this is that when she treads on you it spreads the weight out so doesn't hurt as much).

Puppy has huge feet, but then cmotdog had big feet at 6 months but didn't grow into them iyswim, and they still look big

It would be interesting to do paw size to height ratio comparisons...

Just had a chat with Hounds First. Next stop home check. Then just seeing where a suitable match comes up with any of the 3 sighthound rescues we've been in touch with.

It was mentioned it can take 6 months to 2 years for a dog to fully settle down. How long do you think it took for your new dynamics to be normal for all concerned?

Good news then! I think ours has taken best part of a year to settle in really well - it was all a bit of a shock to the system as I'm not sure she'd been in a house before or lived with people properly. Littledog has been with us for 2 weeks now and has definitely come out of her shell and showing that she's a happy little dog in the house and on walks - still not sure of somethings, particularly in relation to mistlehound who is worryingly large for her I think.

Though I imagine she might have small dog syndrome soon, the I am Yorkie sized but will attack a Great Dane if it looks at me funny gene.

I remember my dog breed book from childhood saying, Yorkshire Terrier. Thinks it IS a big dog.

We've had Pip for 13 months this week and he's still not fully settled, despite coming to us as a 10 week old pup. I daydream about the day he will finally have matured and finished unpacking all his baggage!

Ah, this Border Terrier didn't even need a dog to 'look at her funny' to launch off into full attack mode. We can now get past about 70% of dogs with no comment at all, and probably only 3 - 5% with any launch and yap. The only one we had a really bad issue with was a golden retriever that was off lead and not under control and kept on circling round trying to get to her - can't really blame her for trying to get in first, but desperately trying to get her to realise that I'm the one that needs to make the decisions on which dogs are ok and that she doesn't. She may be a lot better off-lead - but we can't test this out until we have less of the launch and yap mode behaviour! Mistlehound just looks at her when it happens and avoids the other dog anyway.

I grew up with 2 staffies, one was convinced she needed to defend us against uppity over friendly dogs, the other was scared of them. You used to get stretched rack like between them as one would go forward and the other back at top staffie speed and strength!

One lurcher (at a time) here. Sensible head on. (She says with a 4 year old, 5 year old and two rescue cats).

Very sensible. I am currently wishing I only had one, as my old boy has decided to revisit his teenage delinquency since Pip started his teenager phase over the Summer holidays.

I'm now having to walk them separately as they were just winding each other up. Now you know what I mean about daydreaming about when Pip will have matured and started to calm down a little.

What is the average age a lurcher calms down to adult dog status? When do they transition from puppy/can't be left albeit very briefly to adult dog/can be left for few hours with dog walker and bone etc.?

There is a possible cat friendly child friendly 10 month old lurcher.....still a puppy puppy or maybe ok?!?

It really depends on the mix of breeds and size. The larger the dog, the slower they are to mature, generally speaking.

Pip is over 28" now. He's stopped rapid growth, but is still filling out and edging upwards a little. He won't be fully mature, as in enough to calm down, until between 2-3 years of age.

Having said that, he is a very calm boy at home and always has been pretty much. It's only out on walks he gets a bit loopy, fresh air, fast moving off-lead dogs, birds to chase etc = one over excited puppy who currently can't stop himself barking at everything. At home he mostly sleeps, but is always up for a game if the dcs want him to play with them. He has a couple of times a day when he tends to get more playful - first thing when we all get up in the morning and around tea time. That's when he will go and choose a toy from his box and bring it to you to encourage a game.

I would say you need to meet the individual dog and see how steady you think it is, most Lurchers do tend to be pretty quiet and calm around the house.

Don't ask me about when they should/could be left for a couple of hours though, as Pip has separation anxiety which has regressed massively over the summer. We used to be able to leave him for up to an hour, but now we're back down to 20 minutes and he's also decided we have to be woken several times a night, just to add to our joy.

This is not great timing, as dh is on a tight deadline at work at the moment, so has worked 14 days straight, including several overnights. As a result I've been on my own with the three dcs and two dogs as school started back. Ds1 has ASD so it's always a tricky time of year anyway, this year it's worse because ds2, who he shares a bedroom with and usually won't be upstairs without, is away for the whole of this week on a school trip. This means ds1 isn't sleeping, but has decided the time to wake me is in between the times the dog yells. I can't leave Pip to yell, because I have attached neighbours whose bedroom is on the side adjacent to where the dogs sleep, so I have no choice but to get up and deal with him - which of course reinforces the behaviour. I'm beyond exhausted!

That sounds really hard and all on your shoulders.

Could you stick Pip and DC1 in a room together at night?!

I'm calling EGLR to get more info on the dog who is 10 months and wee, just 19 inches. Though I suppose she may not have finished growing just yet!

Apparently a whippet/saluki/shepherd mix so no idea how that would pan out into personality!

Sounds very hard Moose. Mistlehound thought she would start getting up in the night and definitely wanting to head down the garden. Last two nights she did that I took her out on her lead and she clearly didn't want to have a wee, just go down the garden as it was rather exciting at that time of night. Two nights on the lead sorted it out.

Aw, ignore me, I am just sleep deprived and grumpy!

Ds1 would love me to put Pip in his room with him, unfortunately I don't think it would help Pip's separation anxiety at all. We don't have the dogs upstairs because dh is actually allergic to them and both he and ds1 have asthma.

Mistle, Pip doesn't even want to go out. He just lies there in his bed yowling and whining at full volume - just like he does if I try and leave him to go out. I would be more inclined to feel sympathetic if he was pacing the room stressing or waiting by the door or something, but no, he can't even be bothered to get out of bed and moan.

At first we thought it was the colder nights, so put him back in his Milgi fleece - that worked for about a week, then he started it up again. So I wondered if perhaps he was hungry, as although he's getting his full ration of food, he's not getting as many kongs etc. So we added in a small meal late on - that didn't work either. Checked there was no noise outside and can't seem to identify anything that might be disturbing him - but to be honest he starts not long after we've gone up, so I assume it's just another manifestation of his SA, which is clearly ridiculous given he's been sleeping down there perfectly happily since he was a couple of months old.

We tried reversing our old baby monitor, so he could here us upstairs and we could tell him to 'settle', when he started up, as that worked when he as a little pup and also worked with Lurcherboy when he was grieving for Oldgirl - but that was an epic fail this time too.

The only thing that shuts him up is either dh or I sleeping on the sofa. The living room is next door to the kitchen, but we don't open the door or give him any attention, but he stops immediately and goes to sleep as soon as one of us goes down there. Apparently us in the next room where he can't see us is fine, but us in the room above him, with a baby monitor on so he can hear us is no good.

Daft thing is, he can easily stay in the kitchen with the door shut and me in elsewhere in the house for up to three hours during the day. It seems I am just not allowed to sleep or dare to leave the house.

We are working on this, but it's painfully slow progress and three steps forwards - two steps back.

Maybe in the day he can hear small noises of people moving, but at night you are all too quiet. Could you leave him radio 4 on downstairs? Would voices help?

I'm sure you've tried a million ideas already.

My kids were the same. Slept brilliantly as babies, cot in our room, then cot in own room once 6 months .... Then when older they suddenly realised about monsters, rampaging dinosaurs etc and at 3 and 4 were sneaking in with us all the time.

I bribed them with marbles and a prize for a week of staying in their own beds til 7am...doubt Pip will respond to that though!

It's seems the EGLR dog has an interest already so probably not the dog for us.

(Puts Patience Hat back on again and starts stalking the sites...)

Thoughts on pure greyhound from the EGT v. a lurcher from the Lurcher rescues? I'm leaning towards the lurcher rescues because the dogs are used to houses, children, cats etc and assessed in a home environment. I am a bit wary of how well the cat tests may or may not have been done, I know a lot of dogs are ok on the lead but if a cat were to run across a lounge they might go for it?

Anyone any experience?

I wouldn't mind house training a dog or teaching it about the Hoover etc it's the cats and kids thing I really want to get as well assessed as possible as those are what would make the rehoming work or not.

The people that are fostering Karimah say that she wasn't interested in a cat that she saw on the walk...

She's lovely, but too young to be left for the odd block of time for my work. 10 months might be ok? But not 10 weeks I think.

I'm waiting to hear whether Cassie on Hounds First is ok with cats and being a lone dog, but a pure white dog!!

Also loving half a dozen others, Tucker on Hounds First has the best sad look I've seen in a long time, but they all either need no cats or need older kids so it's just a waiting game.

Yes, for a block that long I would be seeing if I could get someone to take her for the time rather than leave her and someone pop in... mind you, did that with mine last weekend as I didn't want to leave them together on their own after so short a time!