Stella Was Different Today

Those that are following the blog know that I decided a couple of days ago that I would walk Stella on the daily walk through the field – 20 to 30 minutes per trip – without a leash. That is different for a bloodhound, especially a bloodhound. Their nose is the strongest of all breeds. They are made to track scent and will become unconscious of everything else if they lock into one that is important to them.

Today was Stella’s 3rd day or walk in a row without being leashed. She was a little different today. It was one of two things, maybe a little of both.

• She liked what she had found so much that she didn’t want to leave
• She is starting to push boundaries already just to see how far she can go

It started with Heidi coming outside along with Sadie and Stella. She did not want to go on the walk and hasn’t in a long time, even before Stella arrived on the scene. When we returned from the walk, Heidi was headed to the tub for her 30 minute Epsom Salt soak and nail manicure.

It’s hard to tell but I can see her filling out again little by little.

Sadie was sure she heard the word “walk”. When she started running toward me, Stella followed. Sadie always likes to start the walk by grabbing my hand with her mouth and helping me get started before taking off at the top of the small hill.

 

 It might look the same every day but remember they are smelling new scent along the way. 

The first thing different that Stella did today was fall behind on the first part of the walk.

Yet by the corner where they turn right, Sadie was there waiting for her.

They were almost ‘out of bounds’ on this photo. To the right of the photo, is a large gully where all the deer stay.

Stella heads too far right due to what she smells. I thought there might be trouble ahead.

I could tell when I was taking her photos above that something might be different from the other walks. I was right .. she had found something interesting and she wouldn’t leave

Then she realized she had been left behind. Once again she followed our scent on the trail to come back to us instead of running to us directly. When Winston use to do this same thing, he would walk directly to us through the high hay at times instead of following the path.

You can see that Stella is following her nose.

She walked up behind me and acted ‘proud’ of what she had done. When I said “let’s go home”, they both get on that worn path to head home.

 They followed the worn path to the house and were asleep again within 5 minutes.

There are some bloodhound owners that would cringe at the thought of any bloodhound walking leash free, anywhere. I am still cautious and always keep an eye out for anything that would make her run off in that ‘unconscious’ state … yet with the area that we walk in, vehicular traffic would not be a factor, nothing but surrounding fields.