The next gathering/meeting is...

Sunday 11th January 2009

At 4 pm

in Elenbrough park (the usual one)

Please remember to bring muzzles and coats (and for the dogs if needed :) )

If the tide is out and/or we are able to I am hoping we could have a little walk on the beach too. With anyluck we can get some greyhound sand circles.

Hope to see you there.

Our second meet

A little cold, but we had fun anyway

A very handsome man

meeting the locals

Pepper as ever decides to play with her toys

a Lovely girl

Another lovely girl

The puppy from last time - my how he has grown

a group of dogs


Thank you for all coming, and will see you in the new year.

At last a date

I finaly have a Sunday free and cannot see any clashes with anything at the same time.

So here goes.

Sunday 14th Dec

at 3:30pm

in Elenbrough Park 

(not the kids playing field - is it north or south?  I can never remember)

Hope to see you all there.

Apologies for the delay in the next date

Unfortunately work is keeping me busy on my sundays, but dont dismay we still have a few sundays in December - fingers crossed for one to be free for me.

In the mean time, we have a fundraiser at the 

Cabot bar Friday 28th Nov

8pm sharp

A pub quiz in aid of leggit the lurcher who was found with a broken back, which has cost GRWE a lot of money to fix, plus ongoing costs so we are doing some great fundraising events to recoup the monies spent on this little lad.

Teams of 4, and £2 per person

winners prizes up for grabs

raffle prizes, and a fun night for all to be had

Hope to see you there.

And the next date is to be arranged but.....

Sunday the 16th November is GRWE christmas fayre, any one available or able to come along is welcome to do shopping for you or your hounds - why wait till christmas to spoil them.

I am unfortunately working on the 23rd - the date I hoped I would be free, but for an interim meet, a very informal meeting so to speak as I will be in the park anyway walking her

at elenborough park (bottom one)

at 3:30pm on  these days

17th November (monday - before the carnival)

19th November (wednesday)

21st November (friday)

I have brought the time a little forward to make sure we have as much daylight as possible, now the days are still shortening.

Anybody who is free is welcome to pop along, or wait for the next offical date which will be a Sunday afternoon.

Next meet -not yet

Watch this space for the next date, I am hoping that it will be later in Nov, after fireworks and everything.  

I am also waiting for the details of the fundraisers in this area for a lurcher called leggit, who came to GRWE with a broken back, at 12 months old.  Such a terrible start in life,  but we are currently arranging fundraising events up and down the south west to pay for this little mans operation.

So you can understand the delay in setting the next date at present, but please watch this space.

Pictures from our first meet

Thank you to all the lovely people and their lovely dogs for turning up on the first meet.  I was very pleased by the turnout, 8 dogs is very good for a first meeting (and two in the park already)

two lovely rough coated lurchers

two boys checking out the host, Pepper

Pepper gives a houndy kiss back to one of the boys


ever the good host, Pepper says good bye to the lovely black girl and one of the black and white boys

then returns to the party

she shares her toy with the second black and white boy

then welcomes a new arrival, a young lad who had a very good socialisation session with all the adults. A very pretty young lady watched on as they greeted


Thank you all again for coming along and I will set a new date for the next meet soon. I am hoping for some time in November, look forward to seeing you back again and perhaps a few more.

please note change of time

It was brought to my attention that the clocks go back at the weekend, and it will be dark at 5pm, so as you can see the time for the first meet is now 4pm, and hour earlier.

Sorry to have to change it at short notice, but would rather not walk in the dark.

The first date

Just to get things started I thought it would be nice to set the first date.  Feel free to pop along if you are free, or watch the space for more dates that you may be able to attend.

Sunday 26th October 2008

at Elenbrough Park (not the school playing fields, the one above)

start time 4pm till dark.

Look forward to seeing you there.

Not in this area?

Feel free to use this blog to arrange your own area meet, it is what this whole blog is for.

It is a source to arrange a meeting with hounds alike - a very valuable tool for all new owners, one I wish I had axcess to when I first took on my girl.

I only ask of two things.  Firstly follow the rules and guidelines - better safe than sorry.  Secondly post pictures, we want to share the fun with you.

So go ahead, arrange a meeting, have fun.

terms and conditions

Just to clarify the position on what will be expected when meeting up.

1) each person is responsible for their own dog or dogs, no responsibility will be held by the organiser for damage done to, by or from other peoples dogs.  All dogs should have third party liability insurance - which is either covered by pet insurance and/or your house contents insurance.

2) any dog who needs to be muzzled, must be done so.  Never be ashamed that they need to wear one, we will all understand.

3) any dog that does not have good recall or may have issues returning should be kept on the lead, it will be down to the individual owner to decide if the risk of letting them off is worth it

4) any dogs who have issues with chasing small furries must be kept on lead, unless there is an appropriate time to let them off (ie. none around and people able to warn other users to stay away, until said dog is on the lead again).  The parks and beaches are public places and open to all.

5) if your dog likes to play with toys then feel free to do so, but not all dogs like to share.  If there are dogs in the group who are not sharers, they should be put on the lead until those who do have been caught.  Equally some times playing with toys may cause packing behaviour, care should be taken when using toys in groups of dogs.

6) water and treats should be provided by the dogs owners, but be aware that some may want to eat yours.  Always check with the owners if they may have some - some dogs may have allergies/intolerances or owners want the dogs to only accept treats from them.

7) the dogs are under the care of the owners at all time, they are responsible for their dogs only.

8) poo bags are a must, picking up after their dogs is vital

9) have fun, this is for the benefit of your dogs

Some useful links

I find this forum very handy and very friendly

http://www.lurcherlink.org

they really are all about getting dogs in the right homes and doing all they can for these lovely hounds.

If you are looking for a lurcher or know of one that needs a home, this is a good place to visit.  Or if you just want to talk lurchers and hounds then they are a friendly and helpful bunch.

One other forum to visit and certainly worth looking at is 

http://www.thehoundlounge.co.uk

another friendly bunch, and a lot of greyhound and other hound owners.  Open to all who want to talk hounds or other stuff.  Again there are a lot of rescues and people involved in rescue hounds, a brilliant place to look at for advice or a laugh for your dogs.

If you are looking for a Greyhound or mechandise for your hound then visit

http://www.grwe.com

A couple of general dog forums for you.

This one is friends of the animals, a very nice place and deal with rescue and rehoming so always good to support them and chat about your own experiences

http://fotaauctions.proboards84.com/

and then there is dog chat forum, there are lots of trainers and behaviourists on this site as well as a lot of life experinced dog owners, again a friendly bunch

http://www.petcrash.com

I tend to go through this web page to get to the forum, there are clubs to join, blog pages to see, and photos to admire, then the forum is where the people can help with any general issues, or just for a chat.

A new group meeting point is created

Hello, welcome to fast dogs united.

I am aiming for this to be a meeting or rather social point for all of us fellow fast dog owners to arrange a meeting to let our dogs run free, or socialise.

Why?  Because all greyhounds, lurchers, whippets, salukies and such love to run, and love to meet their own kind.  I have one girl, she loves to be on her own, but she loves to run and play with her own kind.  I am hoping that others will find this to be a very useful place to arrange a meeting point so that we can have a get together.

I live in Weston super Mare and there are a lot of sighthound owners out there.  Meeting up is the difficult part, most of us work or only visit our usual haunts, so why not meet up on  a certain day with other people and their hounds when we can let them off lead in a secure place or just allow them to socialise with more confident hounds for those who need it.

Posters will be going up soon advertising this place and hopefully we can arrange a meeting soon, so watch this space.