Newbie With A New Whippet Puplet

[amumwithapony]

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Hello all.

Been browsing around your forum for the last couple of weeks since a member of a horsey forum recommended it.

Last sunday I went to collect my first whippet puppy. She is 6 months old, red/brindle and I love her very much. Its like she has lived with us forever. She's just the right side of nuts to be fun, very loyal and affectionate and a very effective foot warmer on the sofa at night! She's come from a friend of a breeder who has kept her in kennels with his other dogs so its been a bit of a steep learning curve for her, but we are getting there! We are clean and dry in the house all day and mostly clean at night, but still need lots of piddle paper down, bless her. She learnt how to walk on a lead, that buses don't bite, how to travel nicely in the car, how to bring her ball back for more throwing and last night whilst on our before bedtime walk she met a big whippet (greyhound) and did a bit of socialising! So its all good. Here are a couple of piccys of my Maggie dog (I hope).

 

[Towy]

Welcome to this forum, looks like your pup is well at home already

 

[Welshfan]

Hi there! Maggie is lovely, she looks in bliss being in her rightful place...the sofa!

 

[sherry]

aww shes lovely

 

[JAX]

What a great choice of breed you have made ,

Lucky Maggie , sofas as s much better than most kennels .

She looks a sweetie .

Welcome to K9

Jackie and the MULCAIRS

 

[amumwithapony]

Thank you everyone.

She is very much at home on the sofa LOL, even though OH originally said 'no dogs on the furniture'. However, he is now most put out because she will only sit with him if I am not in there. As soon as I walk in she jumps on with me. She's very funny and is so pleased when we are all in the same room, and has a 'mad half an hour', jumping from one sofa to another and spinning round the room at 100mph. If someone is upstairs or in the kitchen she gets a bit cross and goes upstairs and whines at whoever is up there as if to say 'come on, we're all down here waiting for you'.

Now that I'm here I have a couple of questions for all you whippet people. The first one is collars. We bought her a proper whippet collar which doesn't seem to bother her, but last night I was talking to a lady who has a greyhound and she asked 'does she have a house collar?'. Should they only wear the thicker ones when they are out on the lead? We had greyhounds when I was younger and I must admit, thinking back they only had their collars on when walking. My little girl will be very pleased if she has to have a normal collar, as the whippet ones were not 'sparkly' enough for her LOL.

The 2nd question is feeding. What do you all feed yours on? And why? If you don't mind me asking. At the moment I have her on Wainwrights dried puppy food, and have been giving her 1 of the puppy pouches at nightime, mixed with the dried, and then dried down during the day so she can have that ad lib. She needs to fill out a bit more I think so don't mind at the moment her eating what she likes. She also much prefers the puppy pouch and because she prefers that will eat a good amount of the dried mixed in. I know some people think wet food is the work of the devil, but when I have looked at the ingredients it is nearly 45% chicken, and the blurb on the box says 'nothing nasty' like wheat etc. I also don't want her to be too food orientated. My brothers dog is fed exclusively on dried food and his OH is very strict about her having anything else, and I'm afraid to say its made a very food obsessed pouch. Who will grab at anything you have in your hand and will (given half a chance) raid the fridge and cupboard for anything that smells nice.

I've also been told I shouldn't give her any human food at all. I did plan on her having some of our left overs. I cook most things from scratch and don't use a lot of salt or anything nasty so thought the meat and vegetables left over would be nice for her as a treat, and to top up her diet with a bit of variety. Its all a bit more complicated than 10 years ago, which is when I had a dog. They were fed Pedigree Chum and PC mixer, and never had any issues whatsoever and lived to ripe old age of 15 & 17 respectively! But I know things have changed now so would appreciate any advice.

 

[Janimal]

Welcome to the forum, and Congratulations on chosing a whippet... :thumbsup:

I feed the BARF diet to my dogs...not for everyone but very natural and healthy....Chicken wings for breakfast...or sardines occasionally

followed by an evening meal of raw tripe/beef/chicken/lamb/rabbit with a mixer and meaty raw bones a few times a week.

 

[Welshfan]

Hi again,

Mine don't wear a collar in the house, when I come in from a walk I take the collar and lead off, hang it over the bannister and put the collar and lead back on the next time we go out.

I am also someone who hadn't had a dog for a while and was amazed how things have changed, however, I feed mine liver, kidneys and hearts which I get cheaply from the local abbatoir shop, boil them up, cut them up small and bag them in 200gramme bags in the freezer, at about 4pm they have that plus another 200g of 'fish for dogs' plus any veg leftovers, so they have around 200g of food per day each. They ate all day as puppies though, my boy went onto one meal a day at 9 months.

We all feed our dogs completely differently, but this mixed way is handy for me as they will eat anything haha!

They love sardines and pigs ears too which they have for a treat occasionally!

I give them almonds as a reward sometimes if we are out and about as they are not messy in your pocket...

 

[JAX]

mine dont have house collars on , but I can see the logic if you are near a road thats busy or have lots of callers , its somthing to hold on to when opening the door .

Mine ( 10!! ) all have left overs and always have done , wether its curry . chinese or what ever . I feed complete , I think there is already a FAQ section on food at the beginning of K9

Most whippets however are thiefs when it comes to food , hence the name LOL

 

[meddling]

When I first had Molly as a rescue adult she wore a collar 24/7, its important I think for grabbing them and just in case she did get out.

Now I just have walking collars, but they did have fine leather house collars until they broke!

I feed Raw meat for their main meal, but they also have some complete when I go to work...unless she has a dicky tummy I would relax a bit about food, extra bits and pieces do no harm at all!

If your daughter wants some collar choice show her this...

http://www.k9community.co.uk/forums/index....showtopic=53622

http://www.k9community.co.uk/forums/index....showtopic=56726

These are the type of collars mine walk on, the martingale so harder to slip

She is gorgeous by the way, enjoy her!!

 

[TTT]

What a lovely pup! She looks right at home there. Have a look at the for sale section on this forum - there are lots of pretty house collars and coats and leads and..........all manner of nice things to treat your whippy with! Handmade to suit your own dog. Mine mostly wears a leather whippet collar that has been well oiled and is now very soft. She also has soft house collars. If she is new to you, it is a good idea that she always wears some sort of collar with id. :luck:

 

[holwhisp]

Hi and welcome! maggie is beautiful :thumbsup:

Just wanted to say not all whippet collars have to be boring

Holly

PS i feed fish4dogs dry food

 

[eve]

Hi

Welcome to k9

Maggie is lovely and it sounds like you are doing everything right.

Celtichound collars at http://www.celtichound.co.uk/ do the most beautiful embossed collars for when Maggie is ready for her 'Adult collar' They are embossed with wonderful matalic highlights in your choice of colour and design. http://www.essenjayleathersupplies.co.uk/ do kangaroo leather house collars and the most fantastic flatline leads in oiled leather. It is amazing how much you can spend on a whippet especially with Xmas around the corner! :wacko:

With regards to what she is fed. Maggie is getting a good quality diet right now. Some k9'ers prefer Barf meat diet, it really is a matter of personal choice. I feed Burn's Fish & Maize as my little Diasy has LPE and is intolerant of many diets. They all love it.

Again welcome and congratulations on Maggie joining your family.

 

[whippetsrus]

Lovely pup :wub:

 

[amumwithapony]

Thank you everyone for all your lovely replies.

With regards to feeding I will be leaving her on the Wainwrights for now I think, supplemented with some left overs and anything else she fancies that isn't too bad for her. She didn't agree with the last part of that statement though (anything too bad for her) and helped herself to some lemon sponge from the bin last night. It was homemade, which I think makes it worse as I know exactly how much sugar and butter went into it. We had a mad half an hour after that massive sugar rush, to the point where I put her on the lead and took her for a walk in the thunderstorms we had, just to calm her down, much to her disgust. Anyhows, though I think the BARF diet looks very interesting and certainly appears to have its benefits, we have chickens at the stables, and I think she would perhaps think that her dinner just needed catching first :blink:

There are some beautiful collars and coats out there. The house collars on the Bleak Hound site are stunning, and I love the whippet PJ's LOL. I will wait until she is fully grown I think before splashing out. I am going to buy her a cheap house collar for now, just so she has some ID on her, though she is also chipped.

Now another couple of questions (sorry!). I have looked around on here and on the net in general and have tried to find some local whippet shows. I would like to take her to a few, just to see how she does, and for something for my little girl and my OH to maybe get involved in. Am I right in assuming that the shows have now fininshed for 2011, and that there will be a new season in 2012? We have ponies too and can show at affiliated or unaffilaited level. Is it the same with dogs? And do I need to be a member of the KC or any other societies to take part? Also, she is just 6 months old now (born apr 2011) so when the new season starts will she been in the puppy classes or classed as an adult? It is probably a silly question but ponies are classed as 1 after the 01/01 of the following year. So a pony born Oct 11 would be classed as 1 on 01/01/12 even though it is technically only a few months old.

Anything else I need to know/do before next season starts? I'm now off to read the archive section again about 'stacking' your dog and todays challange is to practise that. (w00t) (w00t) (w00t)

 

[meddling]

Minor Puppy is 6-9 months

Puppy is 6-12 months

and it is based on her actual age!

See if you can find some show training classes, Ringcraft in your area, they'll help you to get her used to show stuff and will also be able to let you know about local shows if she is Kennel Club registered.

 

[Esty]

You've been given some good advice but I just wanted to add that I would never leave a house collar on a dog when I go out as I have heard horror stories of them hanging themselves after getting caught on radiators/ crates etc Mine wear their collars for walkies and if we are in the house but I always take them off if I am leaving the dogs home alone.

Maggie looks absolutely gorgeous :wub:

 

[Sneaksy Whippet]

Maggie is beautiful!

I used to feed Wainrights food before I switched to raw and certainly found it to be of very good quality. Mine still have the wet food trays (adult version) when we go away sometimes if sticking with raw food isn't possible.

One thing I would say (forgive me if I have misinterpreted what you wrote) is that I wouldn't leave food down for her to just eat whenever she likes. I used to feed a bit like this with one of my whippets and it turned him into a very picky eater who wouldn't eat his meals properly. The usual advice is to leave the food down for ten minutes, then take it away if they haven't eaten it. This tactic certainly worked with my fussy eater who now eats his meals properly (and I always know exactly how much he has eaten)! If as you say she needs to fill out a bit I would just make her meals slightly larger (or possible give her a third small meal) rather than her letting her nibble as she wishes. Again, apologies if I misunderstood what you wrote!

I'm actually wishing now that my whippets were actually a bit MORE food motivated. It would certainly make things easier at training class!

Good luck with Maggie, such a pretty girl :wub:

 

[amumwithapony]

Thank you for all your replies everyone. Its such a friendly forum!

Shes getting less worried about food now, which I think means she feels more secure and doesn't maybe have to battle for her dinner LOL. I am still leaving her dried food down during the day for her, but as she gets older will just give 2 meals a day once I know how much she will eat in one session. She will sometimes eat all her wet food in one go, sometimes she will eat half and then go back to it so I don't think she knows how much she wants yet! But I do pick that up and throw it away after about half an hour.

I got all her KC paperwork through today and her transfer of ownership stuff so we are all official LOL. I still think she needs to fill out a little bit and get a bit more confident in new situations before we attempt any classes. We're working on saying hello to other dogs at the moment without either barking and growling or hiding behind me. We have a spaniel, a grey hound and a poodle we are friendly with at the moment, but need to work more on the spaniel puppy we see, and a couple of JRT who she seems to hate! Shes still shy with other grown ups, but will say hello to children and little people, but although it feels like shes been here forever shes only been here 3 weeks on sunday so its not a long time really.

I will upload some more photos of her when I get a 2nd. We've been practising standing up and I need a nice one of her sideways on to ask your opinions. Trouble is though I practise on the kitchen table when OH at work. And he doesn't know yet and probably won't approve so I need to wait for my friend to come around and take piccys whilst I hold her LOL.

 

[twinkletoes dylan]

i have a maggie too and they are both gorgeous :wub:

ask at your local vet and see if they have puppy play dates so she can meet various different types of puppies or ask around and arrange a play date with a pup near you and find a friendly jack russell to walk with.

i wouldn't put her on the kitchen table to stand her, she may think it is a 'doggy place' in the future when she can jump up when she likes, if you have a piece of wood or cardboard to practice standing her on on the floor that would be better.

she is lovely, looking forward to more photos xx