On Sunday 8th December we are hosting our third Sighthound Social Club Santa Paws Walk at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Last year, we had 92 hounds in attendance, all dressed up in their Christmas finery.

Christmas Shoebox Appeal

Last year’s response to our Christmas Shoebox Appeal was amazing and we were overwhelmed by your generosity with over 200 shoeboxes, not to mention the dog food, beds, duvets and collars. As a result, we were able to give a shoebox to each of the hounds in our chosen charities and rescues.

What can I put in the shoebox?

If you would like to support the hounds in kennels waiting for their forever homes with a Christmas shoebox this year, they would love tins of fish (mackerel, sardines or pilchards), treats, strong toys, snoods, collars or dog blankets and coats (new or preloved).

Shoebox Rescues and Charities

Here are some of the organisations we are supporting this year with our Christmas Shoebox Appeal:

RSPCA York
Blue Cross Thirsk
Lurcher Link
GRSY – Greyhound Rescue South Yorkshire
Fen Bank Greyhound Sanctuary
Jerry Green
Greyhound Trust – Hall Green and Solihull
Dogs Trust Kenilworth
Bark Inn Greyhound Kennels
Greyhound Gap
Linbee Dog Rehoming

Shoebox collection points

Shoeboxes can be dropped off at the Team Pointy walks in York in November and December and at the Santa Paws walk itself. You can also drop them off at the Treats2Sit4 shop:
4 Chapel Street
Ryhill
Wakefield
WF4 2AD

Raising money for Hounds First in 2019

In 2019 Sighthound Social Club has been supporting the Yorkshire-based charity, Hounds First, who support all breeds of sighthound needing homes across the UK. For this walk, we have arranged a reduced parking charge with YSP. We are asking for £5.00 per car which includes the reduced £3 all day parking charge for YSP and a £2 donation to Hounds First.

More info

The full details of the walk are in our Events section. Please look on Facebook and Twitter or send us a message if you have any questions.
Please note, this event is organised by Sighthound Social Club. Please DO NOT contact the Yorkshire Sculpture Park for further information about the event.

We look forward to seeing you and your hounds there!

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There will now be just one walk, with the option to shorten it by missing out a specific section and wait for the main group to catch up at the bridge (or Damien Hirst sculpture) – Claire will be taking the shorter option should you wish to join her.

The walk starts and finishes in the YSP learning area, and they have very kindly allowed us access to the marquee (learning tent) in this area where we will be taking payments for parking. Please bring £5 in cash and remember you will need to provide us with your car registration number (if you fail to do so, the YSP number plate recognition system will not identify you as having paid and you will be charged the full amount – £12 for over 2 hours).

Please park in the RED CAR PARK at YSP LEARNING and NOT the Main Car Park or the Weston Car Park.

If you park in these areas, you will be responsible for paying the standard YSP parking fees which incur the full cost (£12) rather than our discounted parking. The Red Car Park is accessible via Park Lane, a little further on from the main entrance.

The £5 parking charge includes a £2 donation to Hounds First and entitles you to stay all day in the park should you wish to explore further after the walk.

The walk will start at 11am prompt, so please arrive in plenty of time, we suggest you arrive for 10.30am.

Marshals will be on hand to tell you where to park – please respect their instructions. They will also point you in the direction of the learning tent where you can pay one of our volunteers for parking – please do not use the kiosks to pay.

There are toilets and a café at the Learning area where you can grab a hot drink and a bite to eat and water for the dogs.

The walk route has been designed to pass by a number of the sculptures on display, including the recently installed Damien Hirst exhibits which are only on show until September.

The walk is roughly 2 miles long, and whilst we have suggested it takes 1.5 hours to complete, an average walker could complete the walk in 30 minutes. We have taken into account the slower pace due to numbers, people of varying abilities, a group photo stop, and a couple of catch up points – and of course you may want to stop and admire some of the sculptures.

The paths are good and there is approximately 50m of gentle descent and 50m of gentle ascent. If you are in any doubt of your abilities to complete the walk, please contact us prior to the day or speak to one of the marshals wearing a bright orange bib on the day.

Please note, this event is organised by Sighthound Social Club. Please DO NOT contact the Yorkshire Sculpture Park for further information about the event.

We will all meet back at the YSP Learning tent at the end of the walk. There will be doggy cakes and biscuits on sale in the tent (all monies go to Hounds First) and Treats2Sit4 will also have treats available with an honesty box for payment. There will be a few other stalls in the area and a sausage catching competition for your hounds.

Weather permitting, we will have a picnic in this area so bring your sarnies and pimms! Drinks and food are also available from the YSP Café in the Learning Zone.

Please remember…

All dogs must be on lead at all times
Please pick up after your dog(s)
The walk starts at 11am prompt – don’t be late!

Enjoy yourselves and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

Let’s make Yorkshire number 1 in the world for the largest number of Greyhounds on the GGGW 2019!

Download a map of Yorkshire Sculpture Park here – hard copies are available at YSP.

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These walks take place all over the world on the same day. For for the last two years, Team Pointy have topped the global leader board for the largest number of sighthounds on a walk – 241!

Join us and make Yorkshire number 1 in the world, again!

Discounted parking costs just £5 which includes a £2 donation to Hounds First Sighthound Rescue in York, our nominated charity for 2019.

There will be the choice of two guided walks (long or short) and we hope to have a few stalls on the day from Treats2Sit4 and more!

Weather permitting, we will also have a post walk picnic (+ water available for the dogs) so bring your sarnies or you can buy food and drinks at the Sculpture Park Cafe.

We will be raising funds for Hounds First Sighthound Rescue throughout the day so all donations will be gratefully accepted.

We will update this post with further details soon and on the event page. Keep an eye on our Facebook page for further details.

Further information:
https://www.greatglobalgreyhoundwalk.co.uk/
https://ysp.org.uk/
https://houndsfirst.co.uk/

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On Sunday 9th December we had our second Sighthound Social Club Santa Paws Walk at Yorkshire Sculpture Park – and with 92 dogs it was truly PAWSOME! Thank you to everyone who came along and enjoyed a walk in the sunshine with us.

A time for giving

We want to say a HUGE SSC Thank You to Santa’s elves from Treats2sit4, who gave every hound a Christmas box of treats! Our Santa’s Paws walk at Yorkshire Sculpture Park would not have been possible without Andrea Littledyke and the YSP team and we would like to thank them for their continued support and good will.

Shoebox Appeal Success

This year’s response to our Christmas Shoebox Appeal was amazing! We were overwhelmed by your generosity with 213 shoeboxes, not to mention the dog food, beds, duvets and collars. We would like to say a huge “Fank Roo!” to everyone who donated and to Team Pointy in York and Hounds of Twitter for supporting the appeal.

This meant that we were able to give a shoebox to each of the hounds in our chosen charities and rescues.

Shoebox Rescues and Charities

This year, we gave your shoeboxes and donations to the following organisations:

1. RSPCA York
2. Blue Cross Thirsk
3. Lurcher Link
4. GRSY – Greyhound Rescue South Yorkshire
5. Fen Bank Greyhound Sanctuary
6. Jerry Green
7. Greyhound Trust – Hall Green
8. Greyhound Trust – Solihull
9. Birmingham Dogs Home
10. Dogs Trust Kenilworth
11. Bark Inn Greyhound Kennels
12. Greyhound Gap
13. Linbee Dog Rehoming

That’s a lot of happy hounds! Let’s hope they all find a forever home in 2019.

Christmas Wishes

We wish you and your hounds a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all of us at Sighthound Social Club!

We hope to see you at our New Year’s Day Walk on Tuesday 1st January at Roundhay Park in 2019.

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As we’re based in Yorkshire, our members and their hounds visit the East Coast a fair bit for some fun in the sun.

Here’s Violet from SSC HQ to give you the lowdown on taking your hounds to the beach…

Taking your sighthound to the beach

SSC: What happens when the SSC go to the beach Violet?

Violet: Well, the humans have fings to do first which is very important, they find a date and then contact the SSC Captain of the Tides to make sure there is going to be some beach for us to walk on!

On the day we look at our checklist to make sure we have a) treats, b) water and bowl, c) muzzle, d) a towel for sandy paws, e) mat/blanket for after walkies. Then we sets off nice and early and us hounds get to snooze for an hour or so.

When we get there, we have lots of hound sniffs and the humans get teas, coffee’s and when everyone has arrived off we go for fun on the beach. Its great!

We do walkies for about half an hour then when there’s a big space away from other doggies we take 2-3 hounds into a small group and when they have their muzzles on they get to go free range for zoomies. Then leads go on and some more hounds can have play time. The humans are careful that we don’t get too excited because we don’t want any injuries and trips to the vet. No, no no.

Not everyone likes to go free range and that’s totally cool, you can just hang around and get given treats while everyone is busy chatting and taking photos. Its Pawsome!!

Then we all have a nice stroll back to the café for the big treat fest. If you put on your best begging face you can normally get a bit of fish or burger or a chip. But best of all, ice cream! Nom nom. There’s always plenty of water from the humans so we have a good slurp then have a lay down on our mats, zorstid. If it’s a hot day we keep super cool with our cool coats on.

After all that we go on the long road home and snooze until dinner is ready. Then snooze some more!

Are dogs allowed on the beach at Filey and Whitby?

In short, yes, they are, but there are times when we can’t go there, this is from 1st May to September. So, we go on different days out instead. Simples. There are some beaches that are friendly to hounds all year, like Fraisthorpe but they can get busy in the warmer months.

Dog-friendly accommodation on the East Coast

Fancy making a weekend of it and staying over?

For more, have a look on the SSC forum, there are a few recommendations on there for you to look into.

Please join us

It would be great to see you and your hounds on one of walks or why not join our forum and share your sighthound experiences with us? You can also like our page on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. We look forward to meeting you soon!

Tell us about your favourite coastal walks!

Where do you like to walk your hounds on the coast? Do you have a favourite beach walk that you’d like to share with us? We’d love to hear from you! Please leave a comment below:

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Hello and a very warm and furry welcome to Sighthound Social Club. We’re Fiadh and Violet, the brains and pointy faces behind SSC (our humans think it was their idea, but they’re nothing without us!)

We thought you might like to know what makes us tick, so here goes…

Name: Fiadh

Best feature: Look into my eyes…

My humans: Eve & Simon (AKA Whippet Real Good & Sighthound Si).

Best dinner: Chicken mince, veg with a sardine in tomato sauce on top!

Favourite walks: Any with my Sighthound Social Club pals and Yeadon Banks because it has great sniffs!

Favourite watering hole: The White Swan, Yeadon.

Favourite treats: Anything smelly, especially tripe sticks!

Favourite furshion: My olive green Milgi coat with my gold Kitsch collar.

Favourite pastimes: Roaching on, but more often in my humans’ bed and listening to BBC 6music.

Favourite holiday destination: Anglesey, North Wales because I can run free on the beach!

Worst habit: Taking up the whole sofa so that the humans end up on the floor or even sitting in my bed!

Name: Violet

Best feature: Big beautiful eyes and gorgeous snowflakes (swoon).

My humans: Steve & Claire (AKA Sighthound Snapper and Salty Dog).

Best dinner: Special Christmas dinner but everyday raw are always devoured quickly, variety is the spice of life but chicken is top of the list!

Favourite walks: I loves my morning Burley Park walks for sniffs and seeing my friends but Team Pointy walks in York are fab with lots of treats.

Favourite watering hole: West End House, Kirkstall, I relax near the fireplace in the snug and wait for my cuddles.

Favourite treats: Anyfing from Treats2sit4 are yummy and very partial to cheese, chicken feets and tripe sticks, oh yes!

Favourite furshion: Where do I begin… I have some great tweed and velvet, but love anything girly.

Favourite pastimes: Cuddles, eating dinners, snoozies, roachies, walkies and going to the pub – I’m a busy girl!

Favourite holiday destination: Warkworth in Northumberland and Whitby – I love the beach life and a nice big comfy bed at the end of the day.

Worst habit: greyhound gas yoga stretches *blushes*

Sniff you soon?

We’d love to meet you and your humans on one of walks or why not join our forum and share your favourite trips and treats with us?

You can also like our page on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

Sniff you soon!

Laters, Fi & Vi xx
PS Bring treats!

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Hello and a very warm welcome to Sighthound Social Club. So, you’re the owner of a special pointy face? You’ve come to the right place!

Who are we?

Sighthound Social Club was founded in Leeds by four friends: Simon, Eve, Claire and Steve who enjoy walking their girls, Fiadh and Violet, and talking everything “greyhound” over a pint of Yorkshire’s finest.

How did we meet?

Many of us met in 2015 when we made the momentous decision to home a retired racing greyhound – and the rest is history! We started off walking together on a Sunday morning at Kirkstall Abbey and soon we were walking all over Leeds, raising awareness of this wonderful breed whilst swapping stories about kibble versus raw and where to buy the best martingale collars.

Greyt Walks in Yorkshire

With Steve’s brainchild, Greyt Yorkshire Walks, a Facebook group with over 150 members, we went even further afield, taking trips to the beach at Filey and meeting up with our friends from the Hounds of Twitter at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.  We really enjoyed socialising with our hounds and made some great sighthound friends.  Members also told us that they found the support and advice of the group invaluable and so we decided to take this further.

SSC is go!

And so, in January 2018, Sighthound Social Club was born! We moved to a new public Facebook page for owners of ALL sighthound breeds with a dedicated website and forum.

Our group of friendly sighthound owners continues to grow and we enjoy regular walks and days out with our hounds all over Yorkshire.  Along the way, we hope to create fundraising opportunities for a variety of sighthound rescues in the UK.

Please join us

It would be great to see you and your hounds on one of walks or why not join our forum and share your sighthound experiences with us? You can also like our page on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.  We look forward to meeting you soon!

The SSC Team
FOR PAWSOME FRIENDS AND POINTY FACES

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