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.

Have discovered a Kong toy that Dpup actually likes. The Y shaped version, filled with cream cheese or dairy lea will keep him amused for ages. He wasn't too impressed with peanut butter!

Can't wait to be heading off to Peterborough tomorrow morning - I hope I meet some people there... If you've not got a ticket for Saturday, you won't get in, but there's masses on on Sunday with lots to do on the whole of the showground - donkeys and horses and dog agility (elsewhere) and poultry and sheep etc... Field agility, straight jumping and showing for lurchers and others on Sunday afternoon. I'll be the one with the airbourne tan scruffy in a turquoise peacock feather collar - possibly with a tiny scruffy border along on the Sunday.

Talking of which, smalldog has discovered mistlehound's squeeky toys. And is driven spare by them. She ends up crying quietly to herself about her inability to kill them whilst she pounds them into the floor and squeezes as much life as she can out of them.

Luxaroma, peanut butter makes my two do the stinkiest wind I've ever had the misfortune to smell - so perhaps it's for the best that your boy doesn't like it.

mistle I am so jealous. Dh is working both days this weekend. We were hoping to get to the RGT show on Sunday morning, as it's very near where we live, but I've been ill all week and don't know if I'm going to be well enough to go. Dh is also thinking he may have to work more hours than he initially thought as well, so it's sounding more and more like we won't be getting to any shows this weekend.

Just had one to one with local trainer - I've seem to have gone from the sublime to to he ridiculous. I have apparently done the wrong thing by allowing my puppy to play with other pups, I have been too soft and should tell him off more and to improve my recall I need to avoid areas where other dogs hang out - permanently...I should walk the fields, which I definitely do not want to do, for personal safety reasons and she said if I couldn't do this she couldn't help me. This was from a trainer who said she used positive modern methods, yet she used the lead and collar like a choke chain, jerking Dpup into place, she advocated grabbing him to remove him from something I wanted him to stop chewing with a claw like grab...my head is spinning.

Lux, does this "trainer" know anything at all about the breed?

I had a trainer once who was great with retrievers, but yanked my whippety around and shouted at her, and she was scared and worried, and I just canceled the thing.

Lots of training at home, little and often, is better IMO

Chandon I think you might be right, that she is used to dealing with large breeds. The time wasn't completely wasted, she gave me a few pointers on my technique but I didn't think the Babara Woodhouse style still existed.

She sounds dreadful Luxaroma. What kind of trainer tells you to keep your puppy away from other dogs ffs.

Best advice is to try and limit free place to controlled play with selected other dogs, to ensure only positive experiences and associations. You absolutely need to walk where there are lots of other dogs, but your pup needs to learn they can't just play with every dog they see and that it's you that makes that decision for them. The way to do that is to make 'you' the most exciting thing in your dog's life (not easy with a puppy I'll admit). As Chandon said, lots of short, fun training sessions at home, incorporating lots of play and yummy treats so your pup starts to think of you as the purveyor of all that is fun and tasty.

I entirely blame a certain pointy hound for why I find myself over 200 miles from home at a hotel overnight .....

Tomorrow I meet Meg!

The car is primed. I have a soft fleece across the back seat, a car harness, a spare lead, a bowl, water bottle....

Personal chauffeur for the new addition.

Hoping we all settle into the new chapter as easily as possible, DD says she is a bit worried because she doesn't know what the dog will do, and DS put his favourite soft toy on a very high shelf upstairs to protect it as I have warned them she won't know what are her toys or theirs for a while yet. The cats are looking suspiciously at why their food has moved upstairs, why there is a dog gate on the lounge door (with Catflap) and why a litter tray has reappeared in the house again.

Sleep first I think!

Well the sofa has been taken over by a hound.....who is finally snoozing next to me after hours of excitement and anxiety. Poor love had a thunderstorm going on this evening (which she actually seemed to be ignoring) then DD threw up, and I was trying to get DDog used to being in the lounge alone with the gate on while I dealt with the kids dinner......

I'm going in and the room regularly and ignoring her barks or whines. I am going in again when she is quiet. Anything else that helps? I'm really aware it's all so new and she's lost everyone she's ever known over the last month.

DH read the notes and has offered to sleep on the sofa so she has someone in the lounge for the first night.

I'd try her without someone in the room at first, but be prepared to go in and reassure her. Just see how it goes.

How does it feel to finally have your sofa inhabited?

I wouldn't worry too much about teaching her to cope alone for the first few days. What she needs most is bonding with and reassurance from you. Once she starts to trust and relax it will be easier to teach her to settle on her own.

If/when you do start leaving her, it should literally be for seconds to begin with. If she's behind a gate, but can see you, you could try tossing a treat to her every time she stops making a noise, rather than actually going back in to her.

Thanks. I put her in her crate after her last wee trip at 11pm, locked her in and then slept on the sofa in the same room just to ease her first time of being in a crate.

No whining or barking all night until we got up this morning just before 7. Dry all night too.

When I moved position on the worlds smallest sofa I could hear her lift her head to check on me (her tags jangle). Tonight I shall crate, then leave her to sleep and hoping it'll work ok.

She is so excited and overwhelmed she is a bit manic with mouthing and jumping onto us at the moment, not a problem for me but worrying the kids a bit. I am giving her a dog toy when she mouths at my jumper or arm but not playing with her iykwim? I presume that is the best way as she is 6 months so still needing to teeth and mouth play? So when the kids are on the sofa she is sometimes jumping at them and mouthing so I am sitting with them and getting them to offer her a toy instead.

DD and DS are doing good at turning their back and standing still ignoring her when she jumps up at them. I know it's just time and training but right now I am juggling madly between the kids, cats and the dog!

The cat I thought would leg it has been bold as brass and coming into the lounge staring at the dog who barks and jumps about. I've held her, blocked her view of the cat and was doing some treats for when she looked at the cat then didn't react. The other cat is unsure but slept all night on the sofa with me metres from the crate so can't be too alarmed.

Good luck with her. It is such an upheaval to start with!

Really hard work at the moment. She has fixated on me, understandably, so when I leave the lounge she barks, whines and panics. Trying to have DH in there and eventually she calms down but I think this could be a very tough week. She is happy to go for a walk with anyone though, she just wants to be in the same room as me in the house.

Sadly not possible with the cats to protect and kids to supervise, she just can't have the run of the house.

Exhausted already!

She will calm down.

It is like with kids, you give them routines, a feeling of safety, clear boundaries, lots of affection, mixed in with some common sense.

We got our lurcher in January, she was 5 months, it was a bit of a whirlwind.

She has really bonded with us all now, is relaxed and happy in the home and very trusting.

They come a long way very quickly.

The first 3 months is about settling on and having realistic expectations

How are there links at the start of the thread to websites ?
We have a beautiful lurcher - Mollie - our first experience with a pointy and she's adorable!
We also have a dogwear business and make breed style coats for greyhounds/whippets, bull/pug etc along with stopper pad protectors which are a boon for dogs prone to splitting their pads.
I was fairly sure I couldn't put a link on here - so I am wondering how you can be added to the list at the start of the thread? Sorry - new to this!

The links are just shopping recommendations, based on people's experiences and they get copied from thread to thread. If you want to advertise your own business on MN you have to contact MNHQ and ask to be included in their commercial listings.

Welcome to the pointy cushion though - we'd love to see a picture of Mollie.

Posting here in case anyone might be interested.

One of the Lurcher Link members has organised a Jim Greenwood training workshop, but they need a few more people/dogs to make sure it can go ahead.

It's at 12.00 on Sunday 26th October at Avon Riding Centre's indoor school , should last about 2 hours and will be around £30, based on 10 people attending.

It's a general workshop, where Jim advises and works on any individual issues and concerns of the group members, with no set agenda.

Pip and I attended the last one and will be there for this one too.

If you're interested in attending, you can either find the details on Lurcher Link under the Chat section here (think you have to be a member to view the chat section though) or there's a facebook event page here.

Training sounds good but too far for us.

ShyDog gave us a scare the other day. A boy came barrelling up to her and she slipped her collar and ran away! We were near some very busy roads but luckily she ran straight home. I was v.annoyed at the boy - why do people not teach there kids not to run up to dogs they dont know?!? Was also annoyed at myself that she slipped her martingale collar, it obviously wasnt on as tight as I thought and didnt seem to tighten when the collar /lead pulled as she tried to get away. Any advice on the whole collar tightness would be appreciated.

Would my dog be classed as a lurcher?

Mum was a Staff X whippet dad was a collie X German Shepherd?

Or is that too many breeds all in one?

Hello Pointy hounders. Sorry I haven't been on for ages. The lovely puppy has been taking up all my time. He seems to be settling well, a few ongoing niggles but generally pretty brilliant.

Just had a quick query. At the moment he has a standard soft dog collar for round the house (which his foster parents gave us) and a harness for walks. At what point do I need to get him a proper 'lurcher' collar? He's growing very fast and is currently about the height of a small springer spaniel. Also, will he still have his harness for walks or is it best to do walks on his collar as well? Apologies if these are really stupid questions - first time lurcher owner.

fishfingerSarnies, sorry haven't been on for ages.

She's lovely and does look very pointy, but wouldn't be classed as a Lurcher.

The definition of a Lurcher is a cross of any sighthound and a working breed (essentially sheepdogs and terriers). Lurcher x Lurcher are also called Lurchers and in that case they can have several breeds in the mix, for example my elder dog is Deerhound/Saluki x Greyhound Border Collie. So officially your dog has the right combination of breeds, but not enough sighthound, if you see what I mean - although I reckon she could carry the title off pretty well. .

hairy it's entirely up to you. Pip only went into a fishtail type sighthound collar fairly recently and he's 17 months now. Prior to that he had a normal collar for his tags. As your boy is walked on a harness, he only needs a tag-collar really, rather than a fishtail or hound collar - which are wider by design in order to spread the load across their delicate necks. If you want to start walking him on a collar then a wider/hound one would be a good idea though. My two are only ever walked on their harnesses, but both have fishtail collars, as I think they suit them.

Thanks moose Think we will invest in a collar. His puppy trainer has recommended a collar for training as he's started pulling in his harness and trying to escape from it which is a bit scary!