Understanding Greyhounds Part One

Most of us who are lucky enough to have a hound or two in their lives will begin to know and understand their beautiful companions fairly quickly. Most adopted greyhounds like the simple life. An early morning constitutional, followed by their favourite breakfast, closely followed by a long rest (ideally upside down on your favourite sofa). An afternoon walk, dinner, then more rest.

In between these very important events, fuss, cuddles and conversations with their adopters is a must. Your job is fairly simple as their adopter. Keep to the schedules (they know the time of day to the minute without clocks/watches), and woe betide you if you're late with walks & food times.

There are a few other tasks we should perform on a regular basis, including brushing - this helps stimulate the lymphatic system and blood-flow (after all that resting it's a good thing for their bodies). Teeth cleaning is really really important. Most greyhounds are unable to eat 'bones' that other breeds can happily chew on, which cleans their teeth beautifully - so we need to step in and take over the bone job for them. I use a scaler, and a soft toothbrush. If you've never done it before, introduce the concept slowly - as they'll spit out, resist, and generally be very uncooperative. After a few attempts they will consign themselves to the 'ordeal' and just let you do a tidy up in the mouth.

Sometimes the tartar builds up and becomes almost like a shield or another layer of hard substance on their teeth - particularly at the back where it's difficult to see. A soft toothbrush from the local chemist, a bowl of water beside you and an agreeable hound is the place to start. There'll be some huffing and puffing and resistance to start with, but persevere and do the bits you can get to, and as you soft-brush, you'll loosen the tartar (if there is any present) and you can pull it off with your nail.

If you think about it, the amount of food debris that sits in a nice warm environment at the back of the mouth is a wonderful invitation to bacteria. This bacteria then waits for the next meal to come along, and is swallowed down into the hound. This build of waste food continues to layer on the teeth. If the debris is not removed, it will eventually rot the tooth (or teeth) causing great pain, and eventually loosen the tooth which falls out. I don't know about you, but I know the pain of toothache, and would not wish that on any hound or anyone.

One thing to add. If you adopt an older hound with bad teeth, just start the process of cleaning. It IS worth it, and will save their system being poisoned, and prevent any future discomfort from tooth problems down the line. There is a great feeling of satisfaction when you finally remove a great chunk of tartar. It's really does come away if you beaver away at it. It also helps to keep the breath nice and fresh too of course.

Part Two - is on a slightly different theme, and relates to a book written by a friend from Ireland. I will be posting about it tomorrow.

Autumn is on it's way

The leaves are beginning to fall, and the nights are drawing in. Heating is now going on early evening...and staying on mostly. Mornings are now fresher and cooler, and coats are coming out for our hounds who feel the temperature change with their bald chests and tums!

So now is an ideal time to provide your hound with a nice warm winter coat from our collection! We have some lovely coats to choose from - double layer fleece coats in a large choice of colours that you can choose from our swatch page, or, if you want something waterproof (and ours are 100% waterproof) you can choose a Classic coat or the Chi Chi version which has a stylish vented 'bib' under the snood with a chest piece beneath. Either coat style can be fleece or cotton lined. Up to you. They are elegant smart and functional.

We use top of the range raincoat fabric (according to our supplier it is their best fabric - and they have a LOT of waterproof fabric), All our coats are washable at 40 degrees. The double fleece coats dry in no time, and the raincoats are not far behind though they must not be put in a tumble dryer.

If you're after a house coat or pajamas, I think you will like our version. They are very handsome and smart. They are fleece top, with a cotton lining, of your choice from our swatch page. All have a chest cover. There is attractive vent over the rump, which looks so cute as they trot around the house, and each one is trimmed with ribbon to match the fabric colour.  They are fastened over the back with twin ties - which are soft and do not impede comfort,

Check out the coats on the website and if you need help with anything, drop us an email either via the contact page or directly to info@lilypeeps.co.uk

We're going to be talking about black hounds next, so check us out if you have time within the next few days.

Thanks for visiting!