Brandiandwe

Maybe at some stage we could organise a swap. I'll take Andie with the taking off in the dark, and you can take my Paige with her cheerful destruction of a dog bed, stripping the covers off me to get me up, and her burping and farting in my face....... :D

I think I'll be speaking to hubby about joining both the deerhound club and the borzoi club and I'd love to come out for the day. Paige especially would love lure coursing, Brandi might enjoy it, and Hermon would probably see it an as unwelcome interruption to his extremely full programme of eating, lying on the sofa and the occasional gentle amble to scare the neighbourhood cats.

Yep Senjis may not bark but they'll yodel and make all sorts of great noises :) afghans geeze where to start, there's a reason I keep mine short I grew her out once with minimal success as it was taking me 4-6 hrs to de knot her lol! Oh and the washing and drying suck ;)

Given I sometimes forget to brush my own hair in the morning (thankfully it's short!), I cannot imagine coping with the grooming involved there. Absolutely magnificent dogs, graceful, elegant, gorgeous but, as my husband said, 'they just scream high maintenance!'. I really think the only way for me to keep them would be to be able to afford an army of servants to take care of the grooming. Hence my admiration.

Basenji, yeah. Glorious looking dogs. They reminded me a bit of the strut and spark you see in terriers (I hope I'm not being insulting here). But when they all got going, I had no idea what the noise was or whether I was supposed to take cover or run to help. They're my next breed to meet close up at some stage. However, I doubt I'd ever own one. They look a little bit too intelligent for me - I suspect I'd be outsmarted very quickly.

So, next question: if I wanted to become more involved in shows, what would be the way to do it? I don't mean in terms of showing my dogs (obviously,given how fantastic my dogs are I don't want to show anyone else up..... Yeah. Right.) But in terms of stewarding or whatever, would I be best just getting in touch with a relevant breed or group club and asking?

We never owned dogs growing up - both parents worked and they didn't think it fair to the dog to be left alone all day. But my extended family have had terriers, kelpies and daschunds among others. Dh always had country dogs so working breeds or bull terriers as a child.

We're both converts to sighthounds. We'll always have a couple of greys I think and later on, can see us downsizing to a whippet. But the real debate now is whether the next will be a deerhound or a Borzoi.

DH eventually learned not to leave anything on the countertop after he lost a kilo of beef jerky he'd just made. He waked into the kitchen just in time to see Brandi taking the last piece off the stove where it had been cooling. Insult was added to injury when he discovered that that much jerky has a quick and effective laxative affect. And he had to clean it up.

However, we sorted it out accidentally when Brandi tried again and succeeded in pulling down a couple of empty stainless steel bowls and the stove top onto tiled floors. The resulting noise sorted things out.

So I'd go with the Pringles tube or can of coins which is tied to whatever the dog is after so it makes a racket when it falls.

As the 'fortunate' owner of a leash reactive dog I regularly have bad experiences with others. Given that the reactive one is also high prey and a dominant bitch, and because other people seem to have a penchant for idiocy, and because one of my others is happy to follow the lead of the reactive one while the third watches confused, I'm better than I'd like to be at dealing with this. The mantra I keep repeating is that I can only control my own dogs, not those of others. And I can only take responsibility for myself.

I can say that you get much better at not beating yourself up. I've also found that carrying awesome treats which are used every time we see another dog (so dog = treat) has resulted in vastly improved interactions.

But I'm also excellent at thinking up brilliant put downs three or four hours later and, on the spot, am usually reduced to screaming a variation of 'Would you mind awfully leasing and or controlling your dog? Mine seem to be becoming somewhat agitated and are not always friendly with other dogs, cute though yours is.'

Ah! I know Shantiah through greyhound adoption and have always loved her dogs! The white and blue fawn girl is my favourite, but the pups feet were an intimidating size!

So after my thread on dog show etiquette I wanted to report back. Husband and I headed out to the Hound Club Show today. We had an absolutely wonderful time, met some fantastic people, saw some magnificent dogs and have fallen in love. Unfortunately with different breeds!

I had this very great pleasure of meeting Alyosha's gorgeous borzoi. Sadly I was unable to distract her for long enough to get Andy to my car. But meeting these dogs fulfilled a long held dream of mine and has confirmed my determination to add one to my pack at some stage.

We also met the beautiful Nelungaloo Rhys who unfortunately confirmed hubby's love of deerhounds. He wants one.

I also met in person a beautiful basest hound, two gorgeous adult greys and one exceedingly cute puppy, a whippet and several wolfhounds.

Other things I learned:

• Basenjis make really strange noises
  
• My admiration for people owning and showing Afghans is hugely increased
  
• Harriers and foxhounds are bigger in real life than in pictures beside horses
  
• Dogs with very short legs take much longer to show than ones with long legs but most are capable of moving those short legs at a very creditable speed
  

I had a really wonderful afternoon, spent a lot of time learning about sighthounds in general, and really appreciate the time people put into educating a newcomer to the whole world.

Hi Brandiandwe. :) It would be lovely to meet you. Come find me - I'll have two light red/orange & white borzoi, and one dark red & white one. Anytime other than breed judging - I'm pretty laid back with grooming and can groom and talk... or maybe just after judging if I'm completely out of breath!!

And the Borzoi people have a Club meeting at around 230pm so won't be available then either. Deerhound people will likely be with us or nearby.

Cheers, Natasha

Hi Natasha. I'll definitely come to introduce myself but will wait till after the judging! I think husband and I are hoping to get thereby about 11.30. Really can't wait to see your hounds up closer. Borzoi have always fascinated me and I've always wanted to 'meet' one.

Fiona

Money: check! Children: non-existent.

Does anyone have any ideas about timing? I see that judging starts at 10 and obviously the classes with more entrants take longer, but the breeds I'd especially like to see are the Borzoi, deerhounds, saluki, wolfhounds, greys and whippets. The breeders are whippet breeders but dh lurves deerhounds. Mostly I want a chance to find out a little about temperament and so on, to see about the 'click' which I feel with greys and if it extends to other breeds.

The drool factor is also important. Gorgeous dogs!!!!

Important point about not imposing and being careful. I'll remember that! Thank you all so much.

This Monday I am planning on heading out to a hound show being held locally. It's my first one, and I'm hoping it will be a chance to see some much coveted breeds close up, meet some for the first time and generally become better educated. Neither this in mind, I don't want to annoy people. So what behaviour is the right or wrong thing?

I've already contacted a couple o breeders and by have very kindly invited me over to introduce myself, meet their dogs and talk dogs. But what is the done thing? Are people happy to discuss their dogs with strangers?

I'm guessing avoid people before, during and immediately after their class, admire dogs from a distance, ask permission before taking photos, definitely ask permission before touching a dog, absolutely do not feed a dog anything but what am I missing? Anything I should do (besides complimenting their dog?). Anything I shouldn't do? My own dogs will be at home. All are disease free and up to date with vaccinations etc. am I over thinking this?

I'm hoping to come to the show as a spectator and to see and hopefully meet some different hounds. The Borzoi, Saluki, deerhounds, wolfhounds and whippets are all on my list to see (a bib will be worn to manage the drooling).

I was going to post about etiquette. I've contacted a couple of whippet people and they have invited me to come over and introduce myself. But what is the done thing? I'm guessing avoid people before, during and immediately after the class, admire dogs from a distance, ask permission before taking photos, definitely ask permission before touching a dog, absolutely do not feed a dog anything but what am I missing?

Everyone we meet is a potential future greyhound adopter :D

Yup. Here too. One of mine is a therapy dog so she's encouraged to interact with strangers regularly, to the extent that she has pulled my husband off balance and sideways to greet an elderly woman in a wheelchair. Fortunately Brandi was very appropriate and the woman loved dogs. So for Brandi it's always a training opportunity. Hermon adores open car doors, children of all ages and people generally so I'm happy to have people pat him. Paige is a weird little dog so she tends to sled away from attention. She's also the smallest so people go for her first although the others sort that out quickly. But very few people tend to approach me. Mine are all muzzled and Hermon is nearly 38kg of hound so I guess people are wary. Which is also fine.

Or your donkey???

Have pm'd you on this site. Can't call you now.

She looks fantastic! Has she been renamed?

SkySoaringMagpie, many thanks! I'll check those out

Please stop listing these books. Thanks to this thread, I have already bought three books and have started reading, and the last thing I need right now are dog books distracting me from my paying job.

OTOH, does anyone know of any really good books about sighthounds?

That seems about right!!!

GAP (Greyhounds As Pets) certainly adopts to Canberra and may consider fostering there. Not sure about the other GAP.

I have greys and I suspect they'd be miserable. I also doubt any adoption group for greys would work with her. Although they don't need so much exercise, they do need company any affection. Being locked in a courtyard or an apartment wouldn't work for any grey I know.

rusty&biscuit, they're just greyhounds. Those comments all came about my two girls who are small and black and larger and red brindle. The deer I think come from the shape from a distance I think. The tiger is just from the stripes on my brindle. The really weird guess has been the staffy, from a boy old enough to know better who said it very confidently because 'we have one at home who looks just like that."

Because it has four legs, a tail, two ears, two eyes, a nose and a mouth presumably? Exactly like a pitbull.

That's one advantage of having greyhounds, they don't get confused with other breeds.

???? Mine have been confused with: whippets, Great Danes, Dobes, deer, staffies and tigers.

But then one person said to me "it's so hard to keep their weight down isn't it? They eat so much".

Huh? She gets a set amount of food a day and that's it. Plus we exercise her regularly. Pretty easy I'd think.

I like that theory but since mine have figured out how to open the pantry (there's now a hook out of reach of questing noses) and open a sealed box of dog biscuits with no noise at all, mine have started to implement free feeding themselves.

About Brandi while on a therapy visit to an elder hostel: 'Does it bite?'

Um yes. I bring a dog who is human aggressive or unreliable into an environment with elderly and very vulnerable people in order to let them have some positive interaction with an animal. Seriously????