Temporary Anxiety ??

Just a couple of clarifications before I start. The title says "Temporary Anxiety" not "Temporary Insanity" and the old wrought iron posts are being replaced next spring or summer. I haven't made up my mind if I will reinstall wrought iron or wood posts. That project is in the Top 5 of my 2019 list. That's Heidi in one of her few outdoor activities lately. With the ground frozen hard as a rock this morning I don't expect much from her when she's outside. I have some good news on Stella's anxiety after Friday's results.

Because I am not sure if Stella's separation anxiety is temporary or if we are starting retraining for the next year or so I am trying a temporary first, non-destructive option. A couple of other reasons I have not attached a lock of some sort to the outside of the bedroom door to keep Stella inside is I don't like the idea of screwing a locking mechanism into the door and the wood door frame. It's a cosmetic thing with me I guess. Some would accuse me of being cheap and that might be legitimate. I hate wasting a dollar or two on something I might not end up using ... but strangely enough I never hesitate placing large amounts of money on a crap table. Go figure.

That cord is on a closet door handle about 10' or more from the bedroom door. I have a slip knot on the bedroom door handle, then I pull the cord as tight as possible toward the closet door, wrapping it as tight as possible. This worked three different times yesterday. On my last trip I was gone for two hours and when I returned home, the cord was just as tight as when I left. I checked the inside door handle in the bedroom for any bloodhound drool or wetness and find none all three times.

Stella had passed the test three different times yesterday and was back to normal. Temporary anxiety??

Sadie use to stare at me to get me on the morning walk around 8am. Stella will wake up and start whining in the doorway of my computer room to get me on the morning walk around 8am. This morning it was 21° with a slight freezing cold wind from the NE. My fleece lined Wranglers and the Mountain Hardwear parka did well in keeping me warm.

I was out of practice taking pictures while wearing ski gloves. Many of the photos this morning focused on everything but Stella because I was having a hard time pressing the shutter a second time halfway to focus in on the her. I also forgot to set the camera to 'single point' and it was too hard to adjust the settings with the thick bulky gloves on.

That's my excuse for bad photos today and I am sticking to it.

Two signs this morning that the Glycosomine supplements might be working, or is it the 1000mg of MSM, she was trotting away from me. When I caught up with her about where you see that path turning left, she stopped and crouching down on her front legs wanting to play. She would swing back and forth at me but never took off running.

Although, her walking feature today was to walk in front of me so slow I could barely walk and if I walked in front of her she would literally walk on my heels until I moved to the side to let her pass. Or she would trot by me and the walk as slow as possible. The funniest hound I have ever had I think.

I did not see any deer on the horizon so the only thing I can think that may have gotten her attention was her smelling the large turkey farm on the other side of the field that starts on the other side of those trees.

It was almost two years ago for some mysterious reason she lost so much weight, around 15 pounds, that she was skin and bones. She has gained all of that weight back plus a few more pounds to be where she should be for a smaller female bloodhound. I changed dog food at that time with hopes of clearing up Heidi's skin problems. The food fixed both hounds.

I let her do a little wandering today on her own time. I was trying to catch her possibly running toward me for some photos but that never happened. She eventually did catch up with me after I made the final turn toward home.

She always stops in this same place every walk and looks toward the small wooded area behind my neighbors house. I have not seen anything walk out of that woods in years. Then again, she might be smelling food the neighbors leave out for the stray cat.

By this time in the walk my face is frozen. I could feel it almost sticking to the monitor on the back of the camera when I was looking through the view finder to take a photo. I try not to remember last summer, with hot temperatures.

She has had enough for this morning.

I wonder how many people will make it to the end of this post to see my first Sadie on the left, rescued from the shelter and Harry on the right who was the first basset hound I had bought as a eight week old puppy. We were living out on San Juan Dr, about a mile from the Ft. Ebey SP on Whidbey Island. Sadie was a 'runner' where a door opened only an inch gave her enough room to take off sprinting.

Harry's personality was a lot like Winston's, only he was a 'wanderer'. While living in a condo downtown Oak Harbor Wa, one time he climbed over my fence gate while I was at work. My neighbor who worked at the BMV called me to let me know that Harry was taking his afternoon nap inside the BMV after he walked through the open back door to the office. He also liked looking for any kind of food.

After we moved to where we live today, the landscaping business that is within view of my house, use to call me to let me know that Harry was down behind their counter taking an afternoon nap. He lived a little over 13 years and survived all his 'wandering'.

That's about it for today. I have an IU basketball game to watch at 2:30pm and after that it will be what we've been doing most days ... reading books, surfing the internet, a few games of Mahjong with a possible siesta.

All is good here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Stella's Separation Anxiety Returns

Last Friday I returned from a trip to buy groceries in Bloomington, I found it a little odd that my door key was unable to move the lock so I could open the door. The door knob was installed sometime in the past year and worked perfect. I finally got it to move enough to unlock the door but it was hard. That wasn't going to be the biggest question of why, no ... the shock was when I stepped inside to see Stella sitting in the kitchen looking at me, with Heidi behind her. I had left both in the bedroom with the door closed, their normal hangout location when I am gone.

Someway somehow Stella was able to open the bedroom door. It has a round door handle. She has tried to open that door in the past, and obviously many times, before she could figure out just how to jiggle it enough to pull it open. I had seen signs that she had been biting the bedroom door knob hard enough to put dents in it. Before I leave I always check to make sure the door is latched and cannot be pulled open by her.

This past Monday I had a problem. I set up "Plan B" to keep her from getting out into the house, with a baby gate adjusted to it's tightest position and just for good measure I put a kitchen chair behind that gate ... at least if she jumped over the game (I've never see that happen) she would have to really be good to clear the chair. If she was able to shove the gate open maybe that chair would stop the gate.

After a trip to the recycling center only 12 miles away, a trip that took me only 25 minutes total, I return home to see the bedroom door open and Stella is trying to dig a hole to get under the gate. Luckily she did not scratch my hardwood floor in the bedroom nor tear a corner piece of carpet ... but she was digging fast and hard enough to do that.

So just like that Stella and I have returned to the first week she was here in September 2015. Her separation anxiety has returned after a 17 month vacation. Why was she doing this? What do I do next? I spent a little time thinking about both questions but not constantly.

Her next big test will be today when I go to the library and a short stop at the store for dog food.

We still take our two walks per day, in snow flurries sometimes but we will cancel them if it's raining or has rained. Believe it or not this morning was one of our "brightest" days lately. No sunshine but a much brighter overcast.

I have to admit that after almost three months I have still not gotten use to doing this walk without Sadie. Some of the time it really bothers me and the joy of taking this walk is lost. I think about her different times of the day and night and I find it very hard at times to crawl out of the past. She played a big role living in 'the tropics'.

Facing the woods to the north Stella has to be catching the sent of deer. There is nothing else in that direction that would cause this much interest.

Maybe I am not the only one that gets bored with this walk or taking the same photos ... I did have to wake her up this morning to take the daily morning walk. Sadie would have always been giving me the stare to get me started. I have found out that Sadie helped herding Stella on these walks more than I realized. Anymore it's almost like work trying to keep Stella moving in the direction of the path. She never falls back and runs to catch up. I always have to go get her.

After three weeks using the GlycoFlex Plus for her hips and joints I have seen slight improvement. She has never ran full speed like she use to but seems to be more active with occasional turn around hops and then short bursts of speed while we are walking.

A possible downside to this glucose and MSM supplement, she seems to be scratching herself a lot more than before as if there is something she is allergic to in the supplement. That is a hard thing to figure out as I did all that research into Heidi's skin allergies a few years ago.

Back to her anxiety when I am gone. In the past when she destroyed something while I was gone I'd take photos of it and then date them in my Apple Photo program, filing them in their own folder. So from those photos I know she went 17 months without tearing up anything in the bedroom while I was gone. Some of those times I was gone for 7 hours if I was visiting a friend out of town.

I first thought she might be trying to find Sadie, thus getting out of the bedroom and trying to open the kitchen door to get out of the house. Based on all of her nose and jowl prints on my clean window in the kitchen and the smaller window on the kitchen door I thought maybe someone had been at the door ringing the doorbell while I was gone. It was obvious she wanted outside.

Yet a few weeks ago when I had someone ring the door bell when I was home, both Heidi and Stella sat in the kitchen facing the door and not moving. They didn't bark and did not stand up to look out the window to see who was there. Sadie would have been standing at the large window in her attack mode.

I have not seen any stray dogs or cats come through the yard during the daytime in years, nor have I seen any deer in the field in the past year based on dated photos.

So who knows ... I hope to come home today with no surprises.

I have a couple of options to keeping the bedroom door closed no matter how hard she tries to open it. If I buy a new knob with a key lock, she will only bite into the new knob. With it being hard last Friday to turn my key when she bit into the kitchen door knob, it would be possible that it would not open if she bit into the locked knob hard enough.

From what I have found on my internet searches, the best solution seems to be some sort of lock from outside the door in the hallway that would keep the door closed and in no way could she get to those latches or locks.

She is a big funny dog that has kept me on my toes since the day I brought her home. Stephanie warned me she was an 'expert' in escaping, even from a large indoor kennel. Maybe she thought I needed some new things to add to my 'to do' list for the winter.

Heidi in the meantime is doing very good and is only active after her lunch where she goes outside then does a few laps of running around the living room upon her return.

Fun times in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

The Hounds Are Fine

The hounds are fine. I haven't been in the blogging mood. Stella's retractible leash gets more use than my camera lately. They sleep, I read. Stella's separation anxiety as returned after a 17 month vacation ... she can now open the doors that have a round door knob.

Days are cold, dark and dreary here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

The Hounds Never Change

It's been a week where most of the days were cold and overcast. Just the past couple days the sunshine has busted through the layers of clouds. Plus it's much warmer by late afternoon. That doesn't mean the pace has changed, as the hounds and I stick with our routines. Stella is showing signs of improvement with the new GlycoFlex Plus supplement and Heidi likes running laps around the living room after her lunch.

We are still getting up earlier than we did this summer, even weeks after the time change. Both hounds are back to sleep in the dark bedroom within minutes finishing their breakfast kibble. Heidi will stay in this position passing up the chance to join Stella and I on our morning walk. She does spend time outside though in the early afternoon.

This morning Stella was running so fast to catch up to me that I barely caught her in this photo.

This past week we have seen signs on the ground of a lot of deer traffic, as most mornings the field has had a frost covering the shaded areas and sometimes the whole field.

Looking back through past blogs on this date or a few days within this date, from 2018 to 2011, there are a lot of similarities in weather, our activity and blogging interest. Some things never change I guess.

A lot of verbal herding has been required this week, to get Stella back to the house. She is back to being a normal bloodhound and very stubborn. She likes sleeping a lot in the daytime, likes to have the second walk finished by 2pm and spends the nights on the couch while I watch ballgames or read a book. Nothing different.

For some reason this morning she followed the return path home and never veered off of it. I knew what she wanted and where she was headed ... over to the left in the 'land of burrs'. There have been a couple of times this week that I did not catch her soon enough. That means I am pulling burrs out of her coat, close to 20 of them. That also means I am getting them on my gloves, my jeans or wool socks, some of the burrs I don't find until later that night.

She was about to step forward when I yelled 'No' ... my camera caught her ears as she was reversing her decision.

Here are some photos below from the past week. Some days were so dreary looking I didn't even take the camera outside so I wasn't able to collect that 4-5 good photos per day like I had planned.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

A lot of food and ballgames will stretch through the weekend here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Cold Weather

When the "feels like" temp drops below freezing, Heidi and Stella react differently. Nothing changes year after year because they know what season it is, even if it's a little early for winter. 8