On Thu, 24 Sep 2020 12:02:27 +0100, newshound
wrote:

snip

I've always thought it very useful with dogs that are light enough to be
picked up to have a safe method of doing it. It's important that the dog
is used to it and knows what to expect, so it needs to be practiced.
snip

Well it does rather depend on the size and breed of the dog.

The two Bull Mastives that daughter had to collect on behalf of the
local council that had actually been 'dumped' at the side of the road
had to be slid up a ramp into the back of the van because they were so
heavy and in such a bad condition.

They looked like they were a breeding pair and (she) had been bread to
near death and both were covered in cuts and sores.

They took them to the vets and the vat said their was nothing he could
do for either of them, other then allow them to go to sleep forever.

Daughter asked if she could stay and had the bitches head in arm and
was stoking her. The vet said she could go but she preferred to stay,
so she could at least give the dog a little bit of love at the end of
what was obviously a highly exploited life. ;-(

The Pomchi that was my stepdaughters (before she died of cancer last
year) you could pick up by sliding one hand under her chest and
holding her to you, assuming she wasn't trying to get free and get at
something / one. The Cavashon that was also hers needed two arms, like
a forlkift, under her bum and chest. She would sometimes put one paw
over your arm, as per Bills dog.

Ex-racing
greyhounds are very used to being handled and normally put up zero
resistance (although my current, old one is the exception: any attempt
to pick him up results in the greyhound scream of death).

Yeah, we are still looking after the lurcher that was collected as a
stray (cut and bruised and hiding under a hedge) and you pick him up
the same way as the Cavashon (and how we normally pick up most dogs in
fact) but he's more like a big bundle of legs.

But for normal
greyhounds the technique is to pretend to be a fork lift truck. Bend
elbows at 90 degrees, taking due care of one's own back slide one arm
behind front legs into crook of elbow, and the other in front of back
legs similarly and then it is a straight lift.

I tend to do it from the outside so they sort of sit on you arm and
you are also holding them under the front shoulders.

Racing greyhounds typically weigh between 30 and 40 kg (depends on sex)
so you do need to be fit, and it's best if you have been properly
trained for industrial lifting.

Yeah, we meet a couple on our walks and they are big as ponys and make
the lurcher looks quite small!

It's funny to see the lurcher and daughters terrier walking. The (mid
sized) terrier looks like he's got clockwork legs with his head on
some sort of auto-aiming gimbal, nose always 10 thou off the ground.
The lucher walks like a horse with a much longer 'trot' stride (and
runs like the wind of course).

He's fun to watch when playing with a load of other dogs because he is
*sooo* manoeuvrable. You see him running in / round / between / over /
under all the others, seemingly turning 90 degrees or even 180 degrees
in an instant. Nothing else has yet been able to keep up with him,
with the other owners surprised as they thought 'they' had the fastest
dog on the block. ;-)

That said, sisters big whippet leaves him for standing (and you need a
pretty big field to get her safely get up to full speed) but I don't
think she's a manoeuvrable as the lurcher.

The terrier doesn't like anything he thinks could be aggression, like
if two dogs are playing a bit boisterously, running between them like
a referee. Mrs came back with him from a walk earlier as a mate
dropped something off and the Terrier was just sitting on the front
door mat with mate half way down the path and the Mrs by the front
door. Mate made a move, (punching his own hand) and the terrier
jumped up and barked at him because he sensed it was an 'aggressive'
action (and could have been done towards the Mrs).

If only they could really talk and tell you what they went though
before they came to you ... ;-(

Cheers, T i m