They Sprinted Out The Door & The Day Was On

I uploaded all of the photos I took of their play session today to my flickr account. Let me know if this link does not work for you. All settings are public so you shouldn't need a flickr account to see the album ... Here is the link to all 58 photos: Bloodhound Play

The very first trip this morning in the dark was short, they were back inside after a quick trip. Once it was daybreak and there was sun shining into the house, Sadie was at my computer desk to let me know she was ready to go out, as well as Stella. This normally takes place with me getting up to get a 2nd cup of coffee but I had not started the coffee yet.

As soon as the door opened, the bloodhounds sprinted outside and were playing by the time they were outside the carport. Running, sprinting in the yard and field. It was amazing to see because Sadie had not had any activity like that in 7 years ... only the first few weeks she was here as a 12 week old puppy when Winston would play with her.

This is one of the things I was hoping to provide for Sadie when I brought Stella home. I wanted a hound that was her size that she could run with, to wrestle with. Winston has become to old to play much and Heidi has always stopped playing once Sadie joined her fun. Sadie was just too big for Heidi to play with.

I knew that Sadie needed someone besides me to be a dog with. There were too many times she would come to me and drop a bone or ball to let me know it was time for a game of fetch. Those games still go on inside and out with me and her but I can tell she enjoys having another bloodhound around.

What shocked me was Sadie rolling all over her back in the wet field, then getting up and sprinting after Stella through the field and yard. She had ran like that very few times in the seven years I've had her.

The play session ended with a slight collision, where Stella was running full speed and caught Sadie in the lip as she bumped her. Of course like any good bloodhound, she stopped to check Sadie out when she heard Sadie's yelp. You can see Sadie licking her nose which was the point of contact.

There have been no fights over Sadie's favorite bone but this has been the feature of the day when they have been inside the house whenever they are not sleeping. It's one of the bones that has lasted the longest and just today they were able to chew off one of the four tips. It's made of very hard rubber and has been indestructible for the past two years.

Once one of the hounds will get up to follow me, get water or just walk away from the bone, the other bloodhound will jump in and take that bone away immediately. There are 4 different bones sitting with photo view they could use but of course ... they want the same one.

Heidi has been outside a couple times and seems to have had a pretty energetic day. She started barking for food at 10:15am, that's 3 hours too early. She is currently sleeping with Sadie on their living room blanket. Winston thought he might join the bloodhounds playing this morning but figured out real quick they were too big and too strong for him ... he moved over to the warm concrete and sat in the sun for a while.

I missed some good photos because my Nikon D3200 would not focus automatically when I was trying to take a photo. It has been working intermittent recently, even with different lenses. I've tried turning the camera on and off, exchanging lenses, or taking a lens on and off ... sometimes it will work after that, sometimes not.

I'm not sure about my camera. About the time I think it's time to take it in for repair, it will start working flawlessly. With the recent repair work done earlier in the summer, this camera has turned into a big disappointment. I see from reading Nikon forums my issues seem to be the norm for the Nikon D3200. When it works, it's fantastic.

It's another beautiful day today here in "the tropics", with a lot of blue skies and sunshine. There are two more NFL games on the tv schedule tonight ... then a couple of nights off before we start the college this weekend. I may need a pre-game siesta to make it through both games tonight.

That's it for today ... enjoy the photos.

Some Photos Of The Daily Walk On Sunday

This is the second post of today. The post for earlier today is below this one. I decided to split the photos of the walk into it's own blog post, which is this one.

It was kind of between football games. The games that started at 1pm eastern time were close to being over or you could tell by the scores of some that you knew who the winner would be. I decided it was time to get outside and enjoy the weather with a nice hound walk.

I thought I'd take the iPhone and see what kind of photos I could get walking two hounds on retractable leashes and Sadie would walk leash free. Heidi is having a bad skin day today and didn't take the walk.






These first photos were right before the first group of games at 1pm. I think Winston could have stayed in that spot all day, after he finished a little exploring.

Here is Heidi from today a little after 12pm. Nothing changed in her food or treats, clean blanket and the house windows open to enjoy the cool breeze with the temperature at 70°. She will be getting an Epsom Salt soak and shampoo early Monday morning.

The rest are photos from our walk. Some of these have a weird angle but I was having to hold two retractable leashes with one hand and the iPhone in the other hand.

Winston Is In The Trailing Position

Stella On Leash - Sadie Running Free

Stella Hears A Tractor Starting

Starting The Return Trip Home

It's been a beautiful day in "the tropics" of Southern Indiana.

Fall Is Here This Weekend - Temp In The 40's

We survived the full day and night of college football yesterday, a lot of great games and one that I couldn't stay up for in the end that probably had one of the most exciting finishes. I lasted until 1:30am and the Boise State and BYU game was just starting the 4th quarter. I see this morning that BYU scored 21 points in that quarter I missed to come back and win.

The hounds on the other hand were all asleep 10 minutes after coming inside and the first game had just started around noon. They are not into commercials and can sleep through them with no issues. I was beginning to wonder if Heidi was ever going to "come up for air". She had not gone out anytime in the morning, she was awake when I would check on her, but she continued to sleep.

I wasn't alarmed because when the fall and winter starts, that is her normal activity. She is a 70's degree basset hound, anything more or less than 70° and she is not real enthusiastic about doing anything outside. I glanced down from the tv once and there she stood staring at me. Sadie is the normal alarm for "its time to eat" but she was still sound asleep. I guess Heidi finally got to the point of being hungry, since it was about an hour past their normal feeding time.

"When Do We Eat"

After that she went out just long enough to do what she needed to do. At one time late last night Winston decided it was time for bed so he headed to the bedroom for his normal sleeping position. Stella had walked away to get some water and Sadie decided that was her chance to take her seat on the couch. For the second time today, both bloodhounds were on the couch.

It didn't matter, because they are bloodhounds. What that means ... if there is just a small spot available to sit and they want to sit there, then either one will move into that spot on the couch and then decide how they are going to move you and anyone else so they can fit. So at one time last night it was me being pushed to the corner of the couch and two bloodhounds sharing the other part.

By midnight for our last trip outside, the temperature had dropped a lot, into the 50's. By the time we went out on Sunday morning it was 45° and sunny. Of course that meant that Heidi was not getting out of bed, so it was the three hounds on their morning exploration.

Winston decided it was time to show Stella some new territory to smell and was about to lead her into trouble by going down over the embankment, giant ragweed and all. Now Winston has always thought about doing that but never has taken off over the side. Once I yelled "no", they both stopped their decent and walked towards me.

Stella is very good at coming when called. She will go to the edge of the property and I'm sure it's very tempting for her to be sprinting across the field in new territory but she always comes when I call her name.

Sadie was more than curious that Stella was going out into the field without her. She had to go out and retrieve her to get her to come back towards the house. She will do that anytime I tell her to "go get .... ", find them, touch their noses and the other hound will follow her to come back inside the house.

Sadie After Chasing Stella Back To The House

They still found time for a little play this morning. I'm glad they do this outside and not inside. It might be hard to believe with four hounds and two of them being fairly large hounds, but they are always quiet and well mannered inside the house. They either sleep or find a bone to chew. Luckily they are all at the age where running and chasing each other inside the house doesn't happen.

While on the computer doing my normal internet reading this morning, I heard a hound trying to get into the dog food container which is in the same room as my computer. It's usually Sadie that is the food hound but when I glanced over it was Stella trying to turn the lid of the container, which locks as you turn it. So I will have another bloodhound that is food driven at times.

Today starts the regular season for the NFL, so our Sundays will be identical to our Saturdays ... that's what football addicts do. We do take time for the daily afternoon dog walk. So far I have not had enough hands to take photos on that walk, not even with my iPhone. Sadie has been walking leash free since Stella arrived. Winston is on one retractable leash and Stella is on the other retractable leash. Both are 25' long. I am pretty sure Stella would be okay off leash and walk with Sadie ... as long as no other animals showed up.

Twice this past week on that walk, a large number of Canadian Geese, have been flushed out by Sadie, getting airborne before Sadie can get to them. I know Stella would be right there with her based on her running the other day when she saw them ... only to stop immediately at 25' with my arm in tow.

This week all four of the hounds and I will try to take a trip locally and get some different photos than just the backyard and the field. There are not any dog parks around so that is not a possibility. We will see what we can find though.

It will be back to the high 80's a couple of days next week but overall this time of year is a great place to be, in "the tropics" of Southern Indiana.

They Are Becoming Inseparable

Woke up this morning to a little sunshine and cool temps in the high 50's. It felt like fall. Add in a full day and night of college football, a daily hound walk between games late this afternoon and it's a perfect Saturday here in "the tropics".

Last night Stella finally decided she might like Sadie's dog bed in the corner of the room, instead of the blanket on the floor. Sadie had been giving her the space to use but nothing happened until last night. By the time I got the camera for a great photo, Stella jumped off Sadie's dog bed to follow me into the other room.

With the windows open and the temps reaching the low 50's sometime last night, both bloodhounds were sleeping close together and probably enjoying their warmth.

From the time they went out the door this morning they were together. Both basset hounds declared it to be a late sleep-in morning and neither showed up for the photo shoot this morning. I took a total of 34 photos of the bloodhounds and here are some of the best shots of that group.

Let me know if these large size photos were slow loading on your computer. If so I can reduce their size and then you can see the larger size by clicking the photo. I'm not sure how to make or insert an album like Al does over at The Bayfield Bunch, that will be something I will have to read about and maybe go back to Google+ to put my photo albums in. I do have a Flickr account set up and linked up in the upper left of my blog, so maybe I'll start adding more photos there so you can see the total number.

This is from Saturday morning ... I might come back later tonight with another post and some new photos. Their scouting started at the fence line along the drivway this morning.

They proceeded to follow the yard along the back of the house, curving around the bushes, and then moving out into the field.

They are both facing my neighbors to the north. I am not sure if they see someone or smell something. Anyway with that pose it is always time to call their names and get them to come back to the house because they have locked into something they might like to run to and check out.

Today they continued their sprint around the corner of the house into the carport and started playing. With the time it takes the camera to focus I only got this one photo.

They still had more of the field to explore, they can't leave it they don't sniff all of it. They never know who or what was in "their" field last night while they were sleeping.

After they were getting to the point it looked like they might move into the bushes which leads to a very steep and deep gully, I called "come on" and they both started sprinting towards the house. I find it amazing that Stella has picked up these commands so easily after being here for only a couple of weeks.

Sadie

Stella

Stella

After all the thoughts on whether to get a 2nd bloodhound, I've felt since day one it was a great decision to go get her. As usual, anytime all the hounds return from being outside they are asleep within minutes ... unless food is involved.