How Do Hounds Think?

I know the title is a little strange but you have to wonder what goes inside their heads when out of nowhere, they change their routines or do something surprising for the first time. There have been some of these changes recently and one of them in the past 10 hours.

I realize there is a difference between hounds and people. They are animals we are humans, no matter how pet owners treat theirs. Yes, they like me but what are their reasons. Is it just because I am their "doorman" and food source?

You have to wonder based on their responses, even Heidi's, since I now feed them twice per day. It's still the same with Winston being the one that decides when the herd wakes up first thing in the morning. The change is Heidi. Whereas before she never got up on the first trip outside that takes place in the dark now with the time change. In fact she rarely got up until her lunch time when I was feeding the hounds once per day.

After a week or so of feeding them twice per day and as soon as they come back inside after that first trip in the dark ... Heidi is now going out with the other three hounds first thing in the morning, even when it's cold outside. By the time I get their food bowls filled with their morning portion ... all four hounds are at the door EXCITED to come in.

The basset's are wagging their tails, Sadie is hopping up and down with mini barks and Stella is quietly moving herself in position to be the first one inside. Since they all sprint to their respective food bowls, I've had to place all the bowls up high and out of the way and then set them down in order. This prevents them from stealing food from the others ... yes, they have tried that.

The surprise was last night and again this morning ... with two new routine changes.

For 7 years and 3 months, Sadie has slept on the floor starting with her mexican wool blankets and then taking Heidi's new dog bed that I bought her the day I picked her up from the foster mom in 2011.

Until last night ... this is where today's blog title comes into play.

A little after midnight, as I am turning stuff off and locking the doors, the hounds will head to their sleeping spots in the bedroom. I keep them in there so I can shut the door and keep them out of trouble. I have tried to let them sleep wherever they choose and keep the bedroom door open, but they failed that test. They like to roam at night and get into stuff ... preferably their dog food.

Anyway, so they are walking into the bedroom while I finish shutting off lights, locking doors etc. For the first time in 7 years and 3 months or the amount of time I've had Sadie since she was a 12 week old puppy ... she is not on the dog bed in the corner of the room ... Winston is. Sadie has jumped up on the bed on the opposite of where I sleep, curled up sleeping ... or acting like she is sleeping. She stayed their all night. She has never done that. What made her do it?

The second surprise happened this morning. It was another routine changer at least for today.

Usually after they eat breakfast, I am on the computer with a cup of coffee, Stella since her arrival on August 30 lays right next to my desk chair and sleeps, Sadie sleeps on her living room blanket, Heidi takes the big chair in the living room with her mexican wool blanket and Winston normally lays in his spot in the bedroom.

Not today ... as I am reading through my normal list of blogs and websites I notice it is extremely quiet ... tooooo quiet. That usually means the bloodhounds are into something they shouldn't be, or they have found something new they might be chewing on or at least checking it out.

I sneak quietly away from my desk to find out what they are doing. Heidi and Winston are in their normal places ... then the shocker ... once again, Sadie is on the bed curled up sleeping using the spare pillow, in the same spot she slept in last night. Stella has joined her, laying right next to her.

What made them do that for the first time ever? It's not that cold yet. There was no food involved.

Just like I have mentioned before ... another strange thing ... when the bloodhounds play inside, Stella lays on the floor and is in the defensive mode, outside it's just the opposite where you see in the photos that Sadie lays on the ground and is usually in the defensive mode.

After a good two hour nap this morning, Stella comes to the desk to rescue me and let me know they all want to go outside. Even Heidi takes another trip with the herd outside.

The bloodhounds take off for their daily recon mission in the field, plus dump their tanks. They seemed pretty energetic this morning ... it must be Monday.

Since this post has been talking about new changes ... here is another. This morning Winston decides he wants to join the fun and attempts to wrestle with the bloodhounds. He can't jump up like he use to but he tried, not quite reaching far enough to nip their jaws.

Even here in the tropics of southern Indiana you can occasionally catch a nice sunset. I was almost too late for the one last night.

Winston is sure I said something about food or him getting food or eating.

More later ... enjoy your day!

Beautiful Weekend Here

After all of that sleep Thursday night (13 hrs), time has been flying by as well as my short term memory. First it was my glasses, looked everywhere. Then my FJ keys Saturday morning. The keys are put in the same spot every time I come back inside except for my last time. Both were found eventually.

This morning I see a "draft" is gone. I was sure I did a post yesterday and saved it with plans to post later with my Saturday morning photos of the hounds. To be honest, after 14 hours of college football on tv ... I'm not sure I wrote that post. I may have been interrupted at the time by Winston wanting to make another one of his hundred trips per day to go outside.

Anyway, yesterday and so far this morning ... it's been beautiful here in the tropics of southern Indiana. The temps are colder than I like as the inside house temps were 58° when we got up on Saturday morning. It's no wonder Winston had buried himself under his mexican wool blanket during the night.

Saturday morning Heidi and Winston didn't get out of bed for the 2nd trip outside. All of the hounds get up first thing in the morning now when Winston decides he has to go ... even Heidi ... why??? ... they have all figured out that while they are outside I am inside filling their food dishes with breakfast!! They know they can eat as soon as they come back inside.

Saturday morning had freezing temps outside and heavy frost ... we didn't stay out too long.

Saturday after their mid afternoon lunch, Sadie and Stella played just a little but wasn't really into it that much. Heidi came out to check the sun and Winston wandered off exploring.

Someone emailed me asking if I really fed my hounds those terrible "Milk Bones" ... the brand name kind. I did 18 years ago because at that time those were "the" kind of treat to buy. Also they had a huge nameplate in shape of a bone that you could get with a couple of labels and a couple of dollars.

So I only use the WORDS "milk bone" because that will have the hounds sprinting for the house no matter how far out in the field they are, no matter what they are eating and no matter if they are ignoring me ... here I have yelled "milk bone" to Winston to get him to come inside. He started running for the house after I yelled those famous words to him. When was the last time you saw Winston run??

What I do use as "milk bone treats" are no grain, usually a peanut butter flavor or a free small sample bag of treats that are no grain treats from the different dog food manufacturers.

As you can see it's a great day so far today. You can see the high winds the other night cleaned my yard of all the leaves that were blown into the yard after I had raked them.  I have small piles of leaves near the house that will not take much time to dispose of. All the tree limbs that are blown down have been moved to my burn pile for next April.

Stella likes to face south on her 2nd trip outside everyday ... not sure what she sees, hears or smells but that seems to be her favorite position when not laying down in the yard.

Of course Sadie and Winston always start their day with noses to the ground. Can there be that much animal traffic in the yard while they sleep at night?

For a hound that use to run from the iPhone camera or the small Nikon I used before I bought the Nikon D3200, she had turned into a real photo hound ... she likes posing now when the camera is pointed her way.

Stella continues her daily path from the tree line in the field, over to the north side of the property, sniffing all the way. Unlike most morning where her and Sadie will end up playing, this morning she trotted towards me to go inside after she was done sniffing the area.

Sadie always likes to watch Stella's path back to the yard. If she doesn't follow Stella into the field from the start, she will stand in this place and watch her every step until Stella returns to the yard.

As a shocker, I'm not really in the mood for NFL football today. ALL tv announcers, every sport,  never shut up...I've never heard so much non stop rambling during ballgames, in all sports ... but it seems worse this year. Sooooo I turn the sound down.

With the great weather and sunshine I think it's going to be a day of reading, a couple of different dog walks, hang outside with the hounds and let them decide when we come back inside.

Not much planned here in the tropics today ... maybe a late afternoon blog post ... that is if I can remember.

So It's Friday The 13th?

I didn't realize until I started editing my photos and adding the date to the first one of the day, that it was Friday the 13th. In fact I had forgot it was Friday. Forgetting days is easy when you are retired, I am finding out. It's great!

Of course when you decide to take an hour nap before the Thursday night NFL game and wake up 13 hours later ... you tend to forget the day of the week. The hounds didn't seem to mind their owner was missing in action.



Besides the weather clearing up yesterday, nothing went on in the world of hounds. They didn't do much more than what the photo shows.

This morning wasn't much different than yesterday afternoon. It's only colder but at least the sun is out. I also noticed more leaves were blown out of the driveway and yard, so I only have a couple of piles near the house to pick up and a little along the bank but nothing like before Monday night's winds.

Winston had found something in the field where he didn't move from that spot for about 5 minutes. He was there long enough for me to go out and see what he was eating. I didn't see anything but a place where he had dug his nose into the thick grass.

I decided to say those favorite words when I want to get them back inside "milk bones" ... they all took off running toward the house until Sadie and Stella decided they needed to play a little before getting their morning dog treat.

Sometimes I like to go back and read older blog posts and their comments. This morning I saw a post from April 2014 where the photos had disappeared. I may have missed this one but it was just a month or so ago where I went back and uploaded all the photos missing from older posts. I only had to add five photos this time but it makes me wonder why they disappear ... is it a Blogger problem?

By this afternoon not a lot had happened here in the tropics of southern Indiana. The sun stayed out, the temps stayed cool and the hounds stayed inside. They must be preparing for a day and night of college football tomorrow, plus college basketball starts tonight.

Hounds Cruise Through Another Week

Wednesday afternoon didn't bring much more activity than earlier. Heidi finally climbed out of bed, ate her meal and came outside for some afternoon sunshine. She just does not like the weather to be below 70°.

The bloodhounds didn't do much but walk around, sniff the area and then sat and stared at me wondering what was next on the agenda.

I am finding that Stella and Sadie constantly fight for my attention. The bloodhounds seem to crave more attention than the basset hounds. They don't follow me literally everywhere but when I am away from my desk doing something they seem to be in the way and right there.

For instance most hounds I believe are afraid of vacuums ... not these two, They followed me and stood next to me every square inch of the house while I vacuumed. While doing laundry, the bassets slept in the sunshine seeping through the windows but the bloodhounds were right in the middle of different stacks of sorted clothes waiting to be washed. Their noses never stop working.

When the refrigerator door opens, usually all four hounds will wake from their deep sleep to see if any food can be had. Heidi may not get up all day but when there is any kind of dog food or human food involved she is right there ... you can't tell that by her ribs showing.

This morning it was still dark outside but Winston was up and ready to start the day. He paces and whines until that wakes me up. I let all of them outside. There isn't a better alarm clock than Winston ... the problem is I don't have an alarm clock and no need for an alarm clock.

Heidi use to sleep until noon and would rarely go out with the other hounds in that early morning darkness to dump their tanks. That has all changed now that breakfast is served as soon as they returned inside. She is up with the other hounds now because she knows she will be fed when she gets back inside. Plus, all of them don't stay out and wander in the field on that first trip like they use to.

By the time I get the bowls filled with their quantity of food, all four hounds are standing at the door with tails wagging, waiting to get back inside to eat their breakfast.

After my first cup of coffee, Sadie stands by my desk chair telling me it was time to go outside again. Lately Stella and Sadie will go outside while Winston and Heidi continue to sleep. Stella does her normal route, Sadie stands and watches her ... then when Stella steps in that north yard she sprints at her and the playing begins.

There wasn't a lot of sprinting this morning but a lot of head and chest bumping ... they stopped just as fast as they started, returned to the house and were immediately asleep.

I posted earlier about my thoughts on dog food, along with an article ... but even eating good premium dog food Sadie still enjoys a good stick to chew on. She rarely eats them but breaks them off into 1"-2" pieces and spits them out.

The 20mph winds last night blew most of the leaves out of the yard and driveway ... that's always a good thing. Cooler temps are here in the tropics of southern Indiana ... I'm already looking forward to the spring and summer.