friends of the hound is a greyhound adoption group committed to the rehabilitation& rescue of Greyhounds in NSW

HOOVER

Hoover was adopted by his new Mum in 2006…here’s what she has to say two years on:

Hoover - the Invisible Hound

Hoover lives with Cooch and Ben, both Friends of the Pound rescued dogs. He also shares his home with pet mice and rats. When he first joined the family Amanda says Hoover was a bit scared of the rats, but now he ignores them. She says “On one occasion, a baby mouse got out of its cage, and started crawling up Hoover’s back leg when he was lying down. He picked it up, put it on his front paw and watched it. The mouse was a bit wet but otherwise unharmed.”  Hoover also visits Amanda’s horses, but finds them a bit daunting, so stays in the car and watches them from a distance.

Amanda says “Hoover is like the Invisible Dog. He’s so big, but you never know he’s around - he’s so calm and quiet. The other two will bark when visitors come to the door, but that takes too much effort for Hoover, who sticks with simply wagging his tail.”

Hoover does have one sneaky trick – he pretends to be asleep until Amanda leaves the room, then quickly checks out the table for food, takes what he wants, and goes back to bed. If he gets caught, he’s the picture of innocence with a look on his face that seems to say: ‘Me? I didn’t do anything…’ Amanda reckons he gets away with it because he’s such a nice dog, she forgets he has any sneaky habits.

He has a couple of funny things he likes to do:

He enjoys stealing Cooch and Ben’s bones and putting them in his bed. He doesn’t eat then, just takes them to bed…

He loves to visit Amanda’s Dad. When there, he takes a stuffed toy Mickey Mouse that Dad won and moves it from a bedroom into the main room, puts it on the floor and then walks away, as if to say ‘Mickey needed an outing, so here he is’.  Amanda says Hoover doesn’t have any interest in toys normally – just in moving Mickey from one room to another!

Like most Greyhounds, Hoover loves to lie on his bed. He also likes to know what the family are up to so he positions himself so he can see everyone without moving his head – only his eyes follow Amanda, Cooch and Ben around.  He particularly enjoys watching Cooch and Ben play – although that can get a bit tiring, so sometimes he has to snooze while they play to get up the energy to keep watching them…

When Hoover first joined the family, Amanda says it took a while to learn he could come to her for pats. “He loved to be patted from the first day, but didn’t seem to know he could come over to ask for a pat. This has completely changed now – he frequently comes to ask for a pat, and when people are over for dinner he’ll work his way around the table making sure everyone pats him.”  

Amanda says everyone who meets Hoover likes him and has a “positive experience.” She says people are amazed by how calm and quiet he is.