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El Domingo’s E-den

It’s here! The brand-new space we have created to offer your hound a relaxing, quiet space to take them for a good old pampering session.

Now known as “El Domingo’s E-Den”, after our old boy Domingo, who, if you were lucky enough to meet, you’ll know was the most chilled out hound you could ever wish to come across. Located in our rear garden “The E-Den” is the perfect zen inducing place for your dog away from what can be a busy house.

El Domingo’s E-Den diary is now open for bookings for those hounds who are staying with us who would like take a T.E.E.F.S. Emmi-pet teeth cleaning session, a Reiki experience, a relaxing Tellington Touch session or to have their nails ground.

We are delighted with the building thanks to the team at e-spaces.co.uk who did a fantastic job and we are sure your hounds will love being in there during their time staying at The Sighthound Savoy. To book, or to find out more about our new pampering sessions don’t hesitate to contact us via email, Whatsapp or over the phone.

Branching out at Oakwood

To celebrate Maria’s 50th Birthday (don’t ask how many years ago), Pete booked a surprise two-night stay at The Gilpin Hotel and Lake House, a 5 Star luxury hotel situated close to Lake Windermere.

Not only did we stay in a beautiful suite, with its own private hot tub, we were greeted with champagne on ice and offered countless additional services that we were more than happy to indulge in. A seven course tasting and wine menu by their amazing Chef at the time Hrishikesh Desai, unbelievable food, a spa treatment at their newly built Lake Side Spa with views of the Lake, we went for the full body massage, dinner at the Knipe Grill, cocktail tasting and all sorts luxury additions to tempt body and mind. We had a wonderful time.

It’s this kind of service that we want to emulate at The Sighthound Savoy, 5 Star luxury! With this in mind we have taken the decision to plough a large investment into a new “summer house” which will be located in our rear garden. It will offer a relaxing, quiet space, away from the busy house, where we can take your hound and provide them with the additional services we offer, as well as some new ones that will be coming soon. The order is placed and production of the “pod” made by E-space.co.uk has already begun.

We will be offering our already existing services of nail grinding, T.E.E.F.S our Emmi-pet teeth cleaning service and our Al Fresco Spa (bath, nose, toes and treat) alongside new services like Tellington Touch, ACE Free Work and Reiki. We are hoping the installation will take place sometime towards the end of August, beginning of September. So, keep an eye on our social media, we now have an Instagram account, for more updates and special offers for our existing clients and you can treat your hound to some serious 5 Star luxury.

Adopt a Greyhound Month

April is Adopt a Greyhound Month. So to celebrate we recently asked our super customers Bex and Simon and James and Hannah, to tell us the story of how they came to adopt their ex-racing greyhounds Elle and Wilson. Here’s what they had to say about two little greyhounds once know as Elf and Domino Blade.

Wilson

“Wilson, formerly known as Domino Blade, is now a much-loved member of Hannah & James’ family.

We had long wondered about adding a pet to our household but it was James who had his doubts having never had a dog previously. After meeting our friends Greyhound Missy, from Makants, learning more about the breed and her behaviour, James was finally convinced and we were keen to have a Greyhound of our own!

With the difficulties of visiting kennels and lack of dog availability during the lockdowns, we were made to wait. However, one early spring morning in 2021 we visited our local Greyhound Trust (West Yorkshire) and met 5 different dogs; we were immediately smitten with “shy boy” Wilson. He was 3 years old at the time but had been retired due to the owner of the kennel giving up all his dogs as a result of the lack of racing during the pandemic. Their loss was our gain! 2 weeks later we returned to collect Wilson (though slightly grumpy Wilson, now minus a pair of love spuds), and off we went back home. He settled in well during the day, although the first time we left him we came home to find him stuck and quivering at the top of the stairs, having mastered the ascent but having no idea how to come back down! Another problem was the dreaded curb - this trip hazard took a few times to master. Not to mention the scary kitchen appliances and all the strange noises they made.

The first few nights were certainly difficult with howling all night long much to our neighbours dismay. Fortunately, this did settle down and he quickly adjusted to our working lifestyle, being left at home during the day with the help of a wonderful local dog walker. He quickly became accustomed with dogs of all shapes and sizes despite initially not knowing how to interact with these strange non-Greyhound breeds! He is now friendly with all of them with comments of how sociable and well behaved he is (bar one hiccup with a cockerpoo who he nipped on the bottom a couple of times!).

In the house, it took him a while to get up on the sofa but having discovered how comfy this was Wilson now spends many hours sitting on guard on his favourite perch looking out of the front window. He required next to no house training, with the only accidents coming when a tree appeared in the kitchen over the Christmas period! Naturally, he thought this was somewhere he should mark his scent and duly obliged. We have now learnt our lesson that we must keep the tree barricaded off to avoid the festive yellow puddles.

Despite a selection of toys being on offer, it wasn’t until a visit to Hannah’s stepmums after a couple of months that we first saw Wilson engage in the world of play. We were sitting in the lounge and Wilson had headed off into the conservatory. He returned with a teddy bear dangling from his mouth and we couldn’t contain our excitement! He is still very attached to this teddy which he sleeps with every night but he also has a vast array of toys he loves playing with, especially those with a squeak. Seeing him learn about play has been so rewarding for us, giving him a life he surely could never have dreamt of in the kennels.

Alongside this, he has discovered the joy of affection during his time with us. He now enjoys nothing more than snuggling up between us on a sofa that doesn’t really have the room for 2 humans and a dog (even for “a small well behaved dog” as James’s mum calls him, after a cottage we stayed in stipulated this in the rules - Wilson behaved admirably in this role and we’re still not sure he’s aware of his size!). Learning about the “paw of more” and moving ever closer if you dare to stop stroking him regularly has him getting all the attention that he so desires.

Wilson has enriched our lives incredibly. We could not imagine life without him now. We are so pleased to have given him a happy life away from racing and can only encourage others to do the same. The joy we get from watching him run on the beach and chase his favourite squeaky ball is hard to describe. The only problem now is thinking about how or when we’ll add a friend for him…Hannah’s dream of a brindle girlfriend for him may yet come to fruition!”

Elle

 “Our awesome adventure hound Elle came to live with us on Christmas Eve in 2021. We’ve always wanted a dog and initially wanted a whippet however then we started reading about greyhounds we started swaying more towards them. Of course, we had very specific needs, we needed a greyhound that could get along with our wonderful cat Morris! 

Months passed and we thought we had found a cat friendly hound but he was snapped up straight away, so we waited and kept searching – on the off chance we rang the Greyhound Trust in Wolverhampton who said that they had some potential candidates, so we jumped in the car and headed down the M6 to Wolverhampton. There we met 5 hounds, all with different characters, but the final greyhound we met was Elf – “she is very shy and nervous of people” as Terry from the trust opened the door out bounded little Elf, full of life, “she’s going to make me look like I was fibbing” said Terry. We took little Elf for a walk around the field and instantly I thought – could I imagine walking you at home? Instantly I said yes! And Simon said he really liked her. I knelt down at the side of Elf and wrapped my arm around her and asked whether she would like to live with us? My heart was beating but we knew we had to make sure we were doing the right thing for our Morris. We said we would go away and think about it, the whole way home we said we would adopt Elf but then we hesitated, then we would but then thought long and hard again…. Then a few days later we rang the Greyhound Trust in Wolverhampton and said we would love to adopt Elf! With another pending lockdown due they said we could come to collect Elf on Christmas Eve, as they opened the kennel doors Elf came running out jumped up and gave Simon a massive kiss!  

The paperwork was signed and it was time to take Elf home to Lancashire – except the first problem was how do you get a greyhound in a car? We both stood there with Elf looking at the car trying to figure how we resolved the issue! The lady from the trust came over and explained that she would never have been in a car before and this is how you lift them in and out. With our new weight lifting schedule planned we had Elf in the car and off we went! Elf was a little unsettled, panting not really knowing what to do, looking at all the cars on the motorway but she made it to her new home. Elf is now Elle a combination of her racing name Elderberry Jade and the trust calling her Elf, so we kept a bit of her past, present and now her future Elle. The first few days we kept Elle and Morris separate, both knew there was someone behind the door and our first introduction Elle was muzzled so she could have a good sniff of Morris but knowing that they would both be safe. Morris spent most of his time on his cat tower observing the new creature in the house and they were supervised at all times. We had done a lot of reading and we started training “Leave It” and within a few weeks Morris was able to roam around freely with no reaction. 

Oh and did I mention stairs! That’s right the dreaded stairs! Elle had never lived in a home before and she had no idea what to do, we read about lifting her legs so she could start to understand what to do – it turned mostly into a sing song, of 1 and 2….. 1 and 2…. Especially when she scared herself walking between the lounge and hallway and the only way we could get her back was by walking her through singing the song – the neighbours must think we’re crackers! However 5 months in at 10pm at night Elle figured stairs….she now suddenly had a whole new world and was running up and down all night, when I say all night I mean all night! Poor Simon had to be up at 5am for work and it was a night I don’t think either of us will forget!

We also made the decision that we wanted to socialise Elle with other dogs and give her confidence, we waited for 6-weeks once she had started to feel more settled in her new world. Our first dog training class couldn’t have been more of a disaster! All these different breeds of dog with their owners who knew commands and words, the first task tell your dog to lie down…. Elle just looked at me rolling around on the muddiest field, gesturing, pointing, doing everything possible and had no interest! I went home and YouTube was my new dog training friend, we practiced and practiced, turned up the next week and we got a lie down! At the end of the 6-week course we had progressed massively and passed our bronze award! The silver award was a bit more challenging, with recall being one of the objectives – again this is something we will only ever practice in a secure environment/closed field. We had Elle on the long line and called her back, except as she turned she decided this was a great game – sprinted full speed ahead with me being dragged along face down in the mud, we had to drop the long line and the next thing Elle was running through the middle of the class with all the other dogs chasing her and owners running around after them. I was lying face down trying not to laugh at the carnage that was unfolding before us! Since passing our silver award we have raced canicross together, been on lots of organised greyhound walks across Lancashire, taken part in mantralling, hoopers and agility and have recently signed up to a trick workshop! Elle just has to see us pick up our trainers and she comes running to the door wanting an adventure. 

Adopting Elle has been the best thing we’ve done, and Morris the cat has welcomed her too – they often swap beds and sleep next to each other although he’s still not sure about her washing him! We were able to call on the greyhound Trust in Wolverhampton at any time, we did have some teething problems and yes there were a few tears, but we had wonderful support from the Trust and they’d seen it all before so it was reassuring to know that we weren’t on our own. We feel very lucky to have such a wonderful greyhound called Elle.”

Fund Raiser makes £130

In August 2022 we held another lucky draw to raise funds for Makants and Northern Greyhound Rescue. The prize was not one but two delightful, handmade Haberdash Hounds.

Maria has a collection of around 10 of these lovely items and decided to adopt another to use to raise funds. When she told the lady who makes them, Lynka Thomas, she very kindly donated a second hound so there were 2 chances to win!

We raised £130 which was split between the 2 rescues and had 2 very happy winners, Tracy and Craig.

Thank you to everyone who bought numbers. Keep your eyes peeled for the next fund raiser. If you would like to check out Lynka’s work then why not visit her Facebook page www.facebook.com/haberdashhound

Open Day Sesame

It was Greyhound magic all the way during the first ever Sighthound Savoy open day held on Sunday the 6th of March 2022.

It was wonderful to meet so many potential new hound customers and their lovely parents. They all got to meet us, Domingo, Bluebell and Toby, to take a look at our dog friendly facilities and ask us any questions about their worries over potentially leaving their dogs with us. They all left us being reassured that The Sighthound Savoy is the number one place to look after your sighthound when you go away, as well as taking home a gift or two for the dogs and the humans.

Thank you to Makants Greyhound Rescue NW for sending their Trustee, Adi along as a special guest. We are always happy to see Adi as he was Toby’s “foster Dad” prior to our adoption of him. Toby was especially please to get a great big hug for his old mate. Makants have always been supportive of our business for which we will always be grateful.

The day was such a resounding success that we are planning to hold another one as soon as the diary allows.

Pictured are Maria and Bluebell, Sue and Elvis (an ex-Makants dog) Adi and Toby.

Super Sighthounds

A closer look in to the curious world of sighthounds, a strange quirky realm of super-fast speed crossed with the zen mastery of bone idleness.

Sighthounds are hunting specialists, adapted to use their sight, rather than their nose, combined with their blistering speed to chase down their prey. They have flexible spines and long slender legs to help them run faster, deep chests to accommodate large lungs and, compared to other dogs, larger hearts, to help oxygenate and pump blood around their body more efficiently.

Their lean wiry bodies keep their weight to a minimum. From the largest (Irish Wolfhound), to the smallest (Italian Greyhound) they have unique anatomical and physiological features honed over thousands of years of selective breeding.

Sighthounds such as the Saluki/Sloughi type (both named after the Seleucid Empire) may have existed for at least 5,000 years, with the earliest, presumed, sighthound remains appearing in the excavations of Tell Brak, Syria, dated approximately 4,000 years ago. It is thought that these types of dogs were first bred by humans around 8,000 years ago, there are even paintings of Sighthound looking dogs on the walls of Egyptian tombs.

There are 25 breeds of Sighthound currently recognised by the Kennel Club, these include, Afghan Hound, Borzoi, Galgo Espanol, Greyhound, Saluki, Scottish Deerhound, Silken Windhound and Whippet to name just a few, but for all their serious hunting skills they have a playful, fun side as well as the ability to lounge around demanding treats and cuddles.

As well as being dog parents to 4 greyhounds we also had 2 lovely lurchers Leo and Sweetpea who were responsible for starting our love of sighthounds. So, at The Sighthound Savoy you can guarantee that when your sighthound boards with us, they are being looked after by true sighthound specialists.

Sighthound Facts

The Irish Wolfhound is the tallest of all dog breeds, with males standing up to a minimum of 32 inches at the shoulder. If an Irish Wolfhound stands on his hind legs, he may be 7-feet tall.

The Italian Greyhound is the smallest sighthound, weighing somewhere in the region of 5kg and standing 32cm to 38cm at the shoulder.

A crossbreed of two sighthounds is known as a ‘Long Dog’.

A crossbreed of a sighthound and another type of dog, normally Terrier types or Collie, are known as a ‘Lurcher’.

The long, pointy head of the sighthound is known as Dolichocephalic as opposed to a flat faced breed such as a French Bulldog which is Brachycephalic.

It’s thought the name Whippet possibly comes from the Old English word ‘wappet’ meaning a small yelping cur.

The Galgo Espanol is still used to hunt in Spain to this day, unfortunately this means that many are abandoned once their hunting life is over. The rescue charity Galgos del Sol has rescued and rehomed thousands of these dogs.

Glorious, Graceful, Goofy Greys

Being owners of three rescued Greyhounds we are first and foremost utterly biased about how wonderful they are.

Their sleek, graceful lines and portrayal in art have given them a regal air, along with the fact that at one time only nobles were allowed to own them by permission of the King. Yet this belies their goofy fun-loving nature that simmers just underneath all that ‘Royalness’.

The vast majority of Greyhounds you will see are of course ex racers. although Toby our youngest dog has thankfully never seen a track in his life, having being born in a dog home and recused at 7 months old. You may be amazed to learn that official Greyhound racing only actually started in 1926, but they were used for Hare Coursing and of course hunting for many years before.

Racing Greyhounds bear identification tattoos on the inside of their ears. These tattoos can be used to trace a dog’s lineage. Using this method, we have been able to trace Domingo’s family tree back to a Sire named Pilot who was born in 1820, some 32 generations ago. However, for all that sheer power and grace they are possibly the laziest dogs alive.

There is a reason they are known as ‘45 mile an hour couch potatoes’, given the slightest chance a Greyhound will climb on a sofa or comfy bed and dream the day away without a second thought, they may even have a run in their dreams, snorting and breathing hard whilst waving their legs in the air as they chase down some unassuming critter! They can also exhibit ‘sleep startle’ which means that owners should take care not to wake them abruptly.

They are normally extremely good on the lead when walked, although owners need to always be aware of their innate ‘prey drive’. Racing Greyhounds are also trained from a young age to chase small furry things so extra care should be taken in case cats, squirrels or rabbits are encountered on their walk.

With their short haired coats, they are very easy to groom, however, they can be prone to having bad teeth because of their long snouts where bacteria can form in their mouths. Many animal experts have come to believe that the Greyhound is perhaps one of the healthiest breeds of dog when it comes to staying clear of developing any hereditary health issues. It’s truly amazing how a dog breed as ancient as the Greyhound can have a practically perfect health record.

They can be a little unsure of other dogs and situations when they are first retired from racing. and go out into the big wide world. They are rarely exposed to other breeds during their racing careers and may not encounter heavy traffic, busy town centres and other every-day situations. They are also prone to bursts of running, spinning and prancing around in silliness, although this normally last for a few minutes before the batteries run out.

Care and patience is needed when rehoming a Greyhound and they need to be given time to learn how to adjust to being a pet. However, their calm and placid nature has enabled us to run our home boarding business and have three big resident dogs. Their ability to bring down the energy of another dog who might be stressed and unsure is something to behold.

There is a saying among Greyhound owners, ‘you are more likely to bite your Greyhound than it is to bite you’ because they are so friendly. They always welcome new dogs when they come to stay and are delighted when their old friends return.  Would you believe that Domingo’s best friend is a Miniature Dachshund?

Domingo has also assisted a friend of ours who is a Canine Behaviourist to help teach nervous dogs that other dogs can be friendly and nothing to be afraid of. He also has a habit of staying close to dogs who are new to boarding, reassuring them and helping them settle.

All in all, they are amazing dogs who have been our extra help in running the boarding side of the business. Greyhounds are packed full of character and make wonderful companions whether you want to walk hill and dale, or sit in front of the fire snoozing. If you are worried about who will care for your Greyhound when you go on holiday then get in touch with us and we can arrange for them to stay with us on a ‘luxury retreat’ being spoiled rotten and cared for at the best place for Greyhound wellbeing, The Sighthound Savoy.

Greyhound Facts

Greyhounds are the only breed of dog specifically mentioned in the Bible.

Greyhounds are the second fastest land animals on earth. Only the cheetah is faster.

When running, greyhounds spend 75% of their time in the air.

Most greyhounds are physically unable to sit due to the anatomy of their rear ends.

Due to their high metabolic rate the Greyhound has a higher body temperature than other dogs. But their thin coats mean you will see them wearing coats and even pyjamas when it’s cold.

Greyhounds have significantly more red blood cells and a bigger heart and lungs than any other breed.  In fact, they have a universal blood type and are used as dog blood donors.

Greyhounds have a stereoscopic, 270-degree range of vision. They can see objects behind them and over ½ mile in front of them, a true ‘sighthound’.

Greyhounds are mentioned in 11 of Shakespeare’s plays.

A content greyhound will often “cockroach” or "roach", lay on its back with legs up in the air, Domingo’s favourite position.