Hounds Maintenance Day

So before the kickoff time of 12 noon, this morning was time to clean ears, trim toenails, and brush all the hounds. Really, it doesn't take that much time to do all four hounds as long as it's done on a regular basis. The tool pictured on the left makes the hounds react different. The word was Stella would lay down and let you cut hers ... she did without any issues.

Heidi has no problems with it. I have to help her roll over so I can see the nail better and to keep from getting into the quick, thus cutting them to short. She came with very long nails and I've never been able to get them real short so we are trying a different schedule of more times with shorter intervals within cutting them and cutting very little each time.

Winston takes some bribing with food or a treat. He will not come to the spot to lay down but after I walk him to that spot, he lays down immediately and will roll on to his back, where I get a better view.

Sadie is a different story. She might let me do it one week but nothing is ever the same. Today and just seeing those clippers laying there outside, she took off sprinting around the field. She looked like next years 2016 Kentucky Derby winner. I went in to get the camera and when I came out I didn't see her. She was hiding around the corner, behind the giant ragweed that borders the field.

If she sees them inside the house, she will run to either her dog bed or under the living room coffee table, knowing that I cannot move 100#'s that easy with her laying down. I might try tonight as she sleeps, otherwise I'll have to have the vet assistants do it.

Winston is the only hound with bad ears. All the rest are clean, no infections and Stella won the "cleanest ears" award for this week. I use baby wipes to clean these long eared hounds. For Winston he has to have the 50/50 water/white vinegar in his ear, the massage the base, let him shake and start wiping.

I decide to move up Heidi's Epsom Salts soak to today. That would be only two days since her last one but this time I did not use any shampoo  after the 20 minute soak. I just rinsed her off with water and dried her. This was taken right after her soak and all that redness will calm down after it completely dries.

As long as she shows improvement, I am going to give those soaks to her on a more frequent basis. She is also a day or two away from finishing her first 28# bag of Earthborn Great Plains Feast with Bison Meal as the #1 ingredient. I wanted to change the protein source on the next bag to see if there was any change. So in a couple of days she will be eating Earthborn Meadows Feat with Lamb Meal as the #1 ingredient. Neither bag has any kind of potatoes.

I am seeing improvement since I started the Earthborn food on July 20. Her coat has never been better, really soft and shiny. Also hair continues to grow back where the skin was damaged.

It was another day of letting Stella off leash with no problems. She comes when called. There are no surprises with her. She is a typical bloodhound that has grown past the puppy stage. About the only way you can tell the difference between her and Sadie is their tails. If you see blackish it's Stella, otherwise since they are both wearing red collars they look like twins.

That is Sadie if you can't tell

I am pretty sure these hounds smell the yard mole traffic when they are sniffing the mowed part of the yard.

I took all of these photos from sitting in a chair at the corner of the house, using a 55-200mm zoom lens. I thought this photo of Sadie was interesting since it looks like I was kneeling on the grass when I took it ... but not the case ... sitting in a chair a long way away.

Well back to college football ... the next round of "good games" start in a few minutes. Shocking news is that I haven't fallen off my diet wagon. I am not drinking Pepsi, one after another like in past years, no chips, no dips....just water and raw fruits and veggies like any other day. I've lost 21 pounds since May 1 just by eliminating grains, bread, junk food, Pepsi and eating low carbs. I have a couple of days a month where I have a day where I can eat anything I want, including candy and Pepsi, but it's not the daily norm anymore.

Three more days of temperatures in the 90's and then it will drop to low 80's to high 70's here in "the tropics" of southern Indiana.

Thanks for the emails and comments telling me how you look forward to reading the blog and seeing the photos of the hounds. So far their popularity online has not gone to their heads ... yet ... otherwise they may ask for more food, less maintenance and more couch time.

Bloodhounds Off Leash

I had to try it ... of course it would be under my watchful eyes and a feeling of when to know that I would have to go get her. The previous owner told me the day I picked her up that she would stay around me if I were outside with her, that she wouldn't run off. Hounds will wonder off based on my experience but it always seems to happen when they see you are not around, some are bred with that wander gene.

She had been showing signs that I could trust her and also responding to her new name when called. I know that's hard to believe she is doing that within days of changing her name but it also happened this afternoon while she was off leash and pretty far away from me.

The time of day will also determine if I let her off leash with me around. I know that early in the morning and dusk it may not be possible this fall due to the amount of deer that are in the field in back. There isn't a lot but it only takes just one for bloodhounds to take off chasing it.

Although there was a time last fall where there five deer at the tree line in the field. I thought for sure Sadie was gone but she didn't see them and evidently didn't smell them. By the time I was able to round up my camera, the deer had seen Sadie and took off back into the woods.

Today I sat in my chair with camera in hand the whole time we were outside. At first Stella went all the way to the left side of the property, where I was mowing this morning when she found me after breaking out of the house. I was about to get up to go get her but instead yelled her new name. She came running immediately.

Her and Sadie headed for the field and eventually split up. Here are the photos of that test of Stella being off leash.

Can you tell which bloodhound is which?

That is Stella thinking about a nap

Here Sadie is looking for Stella

Looks at me as if asking for help

On to other smells

 It's cooled down a little and Stella decides it's time for a nap

Here I ask Sadie "where's Stella?"

Once Stella heard her name, she jumped up and came running towards Sadie

I can't say she will always be off leash, even coming outside from the house due to my fears of her taking off after a bird, squirrel and in Sadie's case  ... butterflies. Still she seems trustworthy and will probably get a little more freedom as time goes on just like I have done with the other three hounds.

Is it confusing to you if I have more than one blog post per day? One writer I follow has numerous posts per day with different photos. Almost all of the blogs on the left sidebar only have one blog post per day.

Well I am off for the night ... football starts at 6pm and I have some things to bbq.

Stella Proves She IS An Escape Artist & Musical Chairs

I was warned by the previous owner that Stella could open doors that have a handle that is a lever instead of being round. I have only one of those in my house and it is the main door I use to go in and out. It is the door from the kitchen (end of house) to go outside. There is no way I can lock that aluminum screen door once I leave the house.

So today as I was going to mow just the backyard and only part of the front since those were the only two places grass had grown out of control, I was going to let her roam the house with the other hounds instead of locking them in the bedroom. The basset hounds had already decided to sleep since they had been fed and it was nicer inside with the air conditioning than being outside.

After a couple of laps around the backyard, as I am bending over to pick up a small tree limb, I feel something nudge me from behind. There stood Stella, wagging her tail. Obviously I was surprised but more relieved that she was here outside and had not taken off in other directions.

As I led her back to the house, there stood Sadie inside the house looking out at us and the basset hounds were still asleep. I decided it was best to put the bloodhounds in the bedroom with the door shut, where they sleep at night.

She is a very smart dog, is starting to act more like a bloodhound every day and I can tell she is getting more use to this place being her new home and the other three hounds being her new roommates.

Here are a few photos from this morning and right after their early lunch. No matter what time of day they always have to see if anyone or animal has been in their yard since their last search and destroy mission.

Last night was also a time of "crisis". The first college football game was starting at 6pm local time and I knew I would be there on the couch for at least the next 6 hours watching multiple games. I will be doing the same thing tonight and Saturday ... it's my normal fall routine.

Yet last night the three hounds I've had for years, found out there is a new hound in the house that is beginning to act like a normal bloodhound instead of the shy dog that just moved into their neighborhood. She evidently decided the place on the floor by the stereo speaker she liked was just a temporary spot and that she prefers the couch a lot more.

That started the first problem. On the opposite end of the couch of where I sit, is where Winston has sat for his 11 years. He props his head on the arm of the couch or stretches out in the middle of the couch and sleeps the majority of time that I am watching ballgames or movies. After Stella stretched out, she took 3/4 of the small couch. It's a model where it is longer than a love seat but shorter than a normal couch.

Winston decided that since the corner was not available then the spot right next to me was the next best thing. There was no room available but Winston saw enough space he like any hound knows they can make room once they get up there. That didn't bother Stella in the least. She pulled her legs out from under Winston after he laid on them and put one of her arms over Winston.

Sadie took her normal position under the coffee table, Heidi in the other chair and things were good for the next few hours.

Of course just like me, the hounds will also get up to get a drink of water at times. In the old days before this past Sunday night, they could be assured their seat would still be there when they returned from the water bowl.

Not anymore!!

Once Stella got up to go get a drink ... Sadie out of her norm, jumped up on the couch and took her spot. Winston gave up and headed for his spot in the bedroom and Heidi only watched from a distant chair.

This is where it gets interesting. Stella comes over to my side, staring at the couch, acting like all she wants is to be petted while I am watching the game. Stella had other plans though. First it was one paw on the edge of the couch. Then it was both of her front paws as she glanced down at Sadie ... who even looks bigger since the thinner Stella has arrived.

That thought I had where she "might" try to get on the couch ... went to saying "no" multiple times and was fully ignored. Stella had jumped over Sadie on the couch and stood there over Sadie until Sadie slide out from under her and back to her normal position under the coffee table. NO growling was ever involved with all the changing of positions.

Soon after Stella had found the right spot for a few hours of sleep.

By the end of the night and the last football game finishing up, Heidi moved to her spot in the bedroom and as  you see below, both bloodhounds found their perfect sleeping positions.

Although the photos are a little grainy from using the iPad Mini camera, the night ended well.

I am really happy with how Stella has adapted to her new residence. She has been absolutely zero trouble. She follows a very similar schedule as the other hounds. She hasn't whined or barked once yet is very observant of strange noises. Last night it was the football official's whistles she heard on tv.

She has had no problems with her dog food change from 4Health to Fromm Senior, with duck as the main ingredient. She poops and pees in the field, not the yard. She is not a runner, doesn't pull on the leash when walking and is just a normal very laidback bloodhound. She's a great smart bloodhound and I am glad I chose to give her a new home.

Heidi is doing better today with her skin issue .. no photos. Winston is just Winston, nothing phases him and he just cruises easy through each day.

I'm doing a little housekeeping on the blog today. I'm sure others that use blogger as their blogging platform has seen the notice in the overview section of their blog dashboard talking about some European law where European Union visitors have to be told how cookies are handled????

Do we have to add this to our blogs? I don't feel any kind of responsibility like that. I don't have any Google AdSense, you cannot buy anything from my blog and I know personally being an internet addict that if I visit any websites I'm leaving a "cookie trail". Nor am I a fan of all the visits I am getting from Russia and the Ukraine.

So to appease Blogger I added a tab up top of my blog for those visitors they speak of. What is Blogger going to do to blogs that don't have the cookie warning visible? I think the whole thing is bullshit.

In part of the blog housekeeping I am going to update my "about me" page, since a 4th hound has been added. When I read that page now it doesn't make a lot of sense. I never know how little or how much to put on the "about me" page.

Once again with the temps in the low 90's, the hounds don't like to stay out long, so not many photos. Forecasts shows after 4 more days of the heat, we start having highs in the 70's ... so it's nice weather within a week.

Nothing new from "the tropics" of southern Indiana.

It's HOT Outside So It's Lazy Inside

"What's Up For Today?"

We went out early this morning and the humidity hit me immediately. High temps were expected again so I knew there would not be much going on outside today. There wouldn't be many photos taken. I still have some new photos but nothing out of the normal setting. As you can see, Winston is ready to start the day no matter how hot or muggy it is.






After a few days of Heidi showing improvement in her skin after Epsom Salts soak on Saturday, Heidi's skin flared back to redness late yesterday and she began to chew a lot. So instead of waiting for the weekend for her next bath, it happened this afternoon. Only 20 minutes in chest high warm water with Epsom Salts, rinsed off, towel dried and she was a happy basset hound again. She still thought it was too hot to go outside this afternoon after she was out early this morning and turned down the offer of taking her photo.

It Still Looks Like She Is Gaining Her Weight Back

Besides Stella showing a little more of her personality and Sadie getting more use to another bloodhound in the house, somewhat of a "big test" was passed today. Stella came with a reputation of having some separation anxiety while left at home while the owner was at work. That is one reason they were looking for a new owner that may work at home or was home most of the time.

The normal routine when I leave is to put the hounds in the non-destructible bedroom, the closet doors baby gated to keep Sadie from getting to my shoes and the door shut. They have water available, the AC running, plus it's their normal place for sleeping at night. A lot of familiar smells for them to feel more relaxed.

So that was where Stella was going today when I had to go grocery shopping and prepare for tonights start of College Football 2015. She or they will be in there whenever I am away from the house. I will say that she didn't surprise me and passed the test with flying colors. After loading up on too many carbs, especially that "The Greek God Yogurt" that Ed is always talking about on his blog, we decided it was time for a nice siesta in preparation for watching a lot of college football tonight on tv.

Around 4:30 we decided to give it another shot outside. It is REALLY hot ... the leaves from the sycamore tree by the drive are being fried and dropping onto the drive like flies. As I was talking these photos of the scorched leaves, what do I see but that "infamous crabgrass coming back up through my gravel driveway. As expected.

Here are a few photos of those oven toasted leaves along with my favorite green stuff coming back up through my gravel driveway.

Will I Pull or Will I Spray???

Not much else to write about so I'll leave you with some hound photos.

You Could Cut The Humidity This Morning With a Knife

Late yesterday afternoon, some nice shade and 91° at the time. Check out that sitting position.

Something Is Burning But It Smells Like Food

What Happens After You Lay In The Grass

Sadie Hears The Word "go" In My Question

We were not out long this morning. Enough to sniff a little of the area, dump the tanks but soon after that the hounds headed towards the shade and warm concrete.

Typical August weather has arrived later than normal, no complaint here, it's been a great summer.

She Likes This Spot Outside

It's Really Hot But It Feels Good

Heard The Auto Focus Beep On The Camera

Those Are Two Good Bloodhounds

Always In The Thinking Mode

That's about all for today from "the tropics" of Southern Indiana.