Whippet boy or girl? and list of basics, please

[issynoho]

So, we may, if Mum Whippet is pregnant, be getting a whippet pup. She was mated about 2 weeks ago, so fingers crossed.

Anyway, would you recommend a boy or a girl? We have cats and small DC.

And what will we need? Secure garden nearly sorted, crate, whippet collar and ...?

Bump

I have a lab boy giant puppy, so am biased towards boys.
Crate, food and water bowls, comfy bed collar and lead, toys, puppy pads if breeder is going to use them.

What toys has your boy enjoyed?

He has a puppy proof soft toy that he loves to carry around, and he adores anything that squeaks

I have a boy and he's fab (most of the time..) there's a big difference between neutered and entire male dogs though

His favourite toys as a little puppy were cardboard boxes, and the unstuffed animal toys like these

As he's got a bit older his faves are soft toys which he likes carrying around and the holy grail of toys, squeaky tennis balls

His whippet friend likes tuggy toys best

I've got a boy and a girl at the minute, and we've had both over the years. Personally I prefer the boys as they've always seemed to bond that bit more closely with me, where as the girls have always seemed to bond more closely with DH, and I've always found the boys, perhaps surprisingly, better with young children. These are vast generalisations, and often it is more about the particular dog, and we've never had whippets (have had irish wolfhounds and greyhounds) so not sure if they're different in that respect.

Our current girl is the exception, she's my shadow and foot warmer/teddy bear/cuddle monster, our boy is the same though, so I am never short of cuddles .

How about baby gates so that your cat had a dog free area?

We don't crate ours, they sleep on their own mattress on the floor at the foot of our bed. All of our dogs have done the same.

I know a lot of whippets (my friend is a breeder and I dabble in showing) and I can't say I've ever noticed any specific differences between dogs and bitches, they're all individuals.

I've got three boys purely because I've also got a (non-whippet) bitch who can occasionally be iffy with other girls.

I'd go with an open mind and ask the breeder's advice on selecting the pup with the most suitable temperament for you. As I've already got a houseful of very gregarious dogs I tend to gravitate towards the most confident and obnoxious outgoing puppies and they've always slotted right in from day one

Aw, thanks for taking time to post all of you.

Breeder is my MIL . Dogs is one subject I trust her advice on. She's suggesting a girl but I think she likes placid, submissive dogs for an easy house ( they have lots of dogs). All their whippets adore our DC, really fuss them, make allowances for rough play, etc.

Stars Do they really stay on the mattress all night? Does it take a bit of training?

Thanks for toy advice, too. She's being scanned soon so we'll know for sure whether she's expecting. I'm so excited, feel like she's our surrogate mum.

Issy no, they don't stay exactly on the mattress all night, they will get up and stretch their legs every so often, go through to their water bowl in the ensuite etc, but they don't cause mischief or stray more than a few yards from us, unless they hear something and need to patrol the house to make sure we don't have intruders, they are very quiet as they move about too, so it doesn't wake us up.

I've never felt the need for them to stay in one place all night, they've always been free to do as they like provided they aren't misbehaving (which they don't), and provided that they are obedient when I need them to be. Each to their own though, some people get on really well with crates and swear by them.

That being said a lot of all of that is their breed characteristics, they are very calm and watchful by nature, until they sense a threat.

I think it's the years of broken nights with the DC that gives me a horror of losing sleep. We don't have an ensuite though. Will tell DP it's vital we install one

Ahhh I see, I have insomnia so it's never been that much of an issue for me, and DH sleeps like the dead! DS is a toddler but sleeps in our bed, and apart from the foot in the ribs issues he sleeps pretty soundly, thank goodness. We don't live in the UK, and where we are ensuites are pretty standard, I've spent most of my adult life living and working overseas, but I still appreciate the ensuites . I have some health ishoos and having an ensuites makes my life a bit easier. It is vital for the purposes of whippet ownership to have one though, make it clear to your DP that it's a life or death matter .

We've got a female whippet. When we visited her as a puppy, she seemed the quiet one of the pack but she's turned out to be very, erm, lively. That's to be expected with whippets though. She's 2 now and is a typical whippet from what I've heard; sleeps a lot when not racing around like a loon, will steal food at every opportunity (leaving her alone in the kitchen is asking for trouble), chases small animals/birds which she is very capable at catching (has sadly killed a few pigeons in our garden - I don't enjoy picking up the corpses), LOVES meeting new people (complete opposite of our other dog), will pelt it through an open front door before you have any chance of reacting and loves snuggling up to another warm body to sleep.

I recommend getting one of the fuzzy Kong Wubbas, a martingale collar, crate for house breaking which is also a safe place to keep the dog when your front door is opened or when you have visitors who don't like overly friendly dogs, chew toys (antlers are fantastic), tennis balls for chasing round the house or garden and a waterproof coat (we had a cheap fleece for her as a puppy since she wasn't going to have it long before outgrowing it).

Just saw that you've got the collar and crate. Make sure you get comfy, machine washable bedding for the crate. I'd be worried about having our whippet with a cat but then she wasn't raised with one. You probably already know this but you have to be careful about not letting a whippet puppy jump off laps, etc since whippets are very springy and can jump quite high but puppies can hurt themselves since they're not cautious at all. Also, our whippet loves boxes, especially Amazon sized ones. She bounds around with them, tearing them apart. She also loves 1 & 2 litre pop bottles. Just rinse out empty ones and screw the tops on. They bounce around and are too slippery for her to bite down on, meaning they escape and she gets to chase them to her delight. If she gets hold of the top and chews it, I take it away since then she could break pieces off and choke.

My last bit of advice (I think) is be careful of anything on the floor. Our whippet will eat anything remotely food-like and ingested all sorts of worrying things as a puppy, including a couple of hair scrunchies which she later vomited up (they were disgusting to clean up but I was very relieved)

Thanks, Sammy, that's some really useful info. Actually, we haven't bought anything yet - still waiting for Whippet Mum to be scanned to confirm she is definitely pregnant. So excited though...