Stella's Monday Morning Walk

What a big difference it is to start the day off 25° warmer than yesterday morning. With the feel of freezing gone I didn't mind the overcast skies.

The hounds didn't stay out long on their first trip of the day, there was  a very light rain and they were more interested in having their breakfast kibble.

My daily coffee went fast, internet reading went fast, so the first walk of the day was about an hour earlier than normal. The hounds didn't mind. Both went on the walk this morning like always but after I had downloaded the pictures from the walk the majority of them were of Stella, so she got the headline today in the title.

I was somewhat undecided what the parameters would be for Stella this morning. I wanted her to have free range but I also didn't want her hanging way behind and then slowly venturing over to the woods behind the neighbors house.

She didn't take long to show me she was on her own schedule this morning and the words "come on Stella" were going to be the theme of this morning. Sadie and I continued to on with occasional glances back to check on Stella's location.

I wanted to test my auto focus setting on this next picture. I wanted  the bare tree limb to be in the background of the focused green bushes. I finally did something right.

At this point of the walk I knew I wasn't going to backtrack to hook her up on the leash. Sadie and I were too far away so I yelled 'come on Stella' and was shocked at her response ... she trotted our direction.

For readers that are unfamiliar with the bloodhound breed, the word 'obedience' is not part of their vocabulary. The words 'stubborn' and 'scents' are part of their DNA. Still it's nice to have them respond somewhat positive when I give a command ... otherwise I'd spend all of my time outside in all kinds of weather while they explored for hours and hours.

The word 'scent' became a factor on her trot toward Sadie and I. She needed to stop and check out something. I've been reading a couple of different books in hopes of gaining more knowledge on what is happening in that rock hard place between their ears ... known as their brain.

The word identifying or identification is the main reason for their intense sniffing and even eating strange material they find. In some cases they do it because they like it but most of the time it is just the process of identifying what animal has been in this field prior to their arrival.

No leash was involved this morning at any time. That word was never spoken to get her to respond because she continued to walk toward us whenever I called her.

Rarely is that a direct, route with her. Sadie is entirely different and basically needs no adult supervision. LOL

These next three pictures will give you a very good example of my command "come on Stella" and her responses. The pictures show exactly what takes place 99% of the time when given that command.

Yell #1

#2 - "come on Stella"

#3 - "come on Stella"

After that I gave up, turned around and headed along the back of the field while Sadie explored along the fence line. With my back turned, Stella had sprinted to the far right corner of the field.

For some strange reason she started heading our direction without being called. Her slow walk brought out her personality, which is funny and pure bloodhound.

There is no trotting in this sequence ... just one slow step at a time, you would think she was walking in slow motion. Out of all the hounds I have had since 1987, I've never had a basset hound nor a bloodhound walk as slow as she can.

I would pay any amount of money to know her thoughts when she has that frown on her face as she is walking.

After Sadie ran over to her, tapped noses together and then immediately turned to head back to the edge of the field, Stella followed her. She responds to Sadie better than she does to me.

Of course there is always one spot on almost every walk where both of them want the same thing. They share well and never fight over what they find.

Another walk is in the books, no winds blowing cold air today and I can see possibly three walks by the end of the day. With cold weather over the weekend it was the perfect time to do laundry and some house cleaning ... so the week is wide open for activity.

In the Apple Photo program you can edit your pictures after you download them from your camera, phone or ipad. Most of the time just one click on each picture named 'enhancement' will adjust the picture without anything else needed. Today though I clicked two other adjustments instead of the one labeled enhancement.

Can you tell the difference in any of them?

Slowly but surely they both head back to the house with a little coaxing by me. For new readers of the blog, yes I can leave them outside to let them roam the field on their own but this past summer, they kept moving the boundary out further ... too where they were too far away and in one case almost disaster.

Living 80' - 100' from a major highway, in a passing zone, I have to be careful on just how much freedom I give them when I leave them outside. They never go to the front yard unless I am there or if Heidi is in the front soaking up some sunshine.

When I looked at my blog traffic stats this morning it was funny to see that the word 'Idiot' in my blog title the other day tripled the number of visitors. I have a feeling that the stories I posted did not match up with their expectations ... as 62% of them were off my blog in 5 seconds or less.

It just wasn't that blog post for the rate of escape, that 62% is the overall average for all blog traffic. Then 29% of visits have this site turned on their computers or tables for over an hour.

I remember last year I tried writing one blog per hound, in their view, from a suggestion of a reader. That brought my total blog count up to 7 counting the two private blogs I write on regularly. It was fun writing in their point of view but way too time consuming so I deleted them and then let their domain names expire this year.

Again you will notice more blogs added to the left sidebar. Some of them might be interesting to you. A few blogs I use to list were deleted months ago when they became more political and controversial. I try to stay away from that here. This blog is more about the daily life of the hounds anyway and the pictures I take.

I mentioned last summer that I would like to take some pictures of my local small town showing the damaging effect of high unemployment, a new interstate nearby taking away traffic from downtown ... but at the same time keep my location private. It's hard to do and I am not sure how I am going to work that out, but I still like the idea of a little history.

After Heidi's walk in the field last week, she showed some irritation. Could it have been the field grass? The reason I am asking that question is, after months and months of not licking her paws down to bare skin ... the morning after her walk through the field, both of her front paws were bare skin ... she had licked them that much.

I almost forgot, on the right sidebar under 'Labels" I added 51 more topics. Those links are rarely clicked but useful. I basically added that many to even out the left and right sidebars since I went back to listing 4 posts on one page instead of just one post per page.

I think near the bottom of each post I am going to start listing an off topic thought, whatever is on my mind. I'm hesitant in doing that because it might show just how crazy I really am ... LOL

No ... I didn't watch the Oscars last night.

What will happen this week in the 'tropics' of southern Indiana?

Hounds Enjoy Sunny And Freezing

While standing outside last night staring at the Big Dipper while the bloodhounds did their last trip of the day ... it was freezing. It was much colder than earlier and I could tell this morning was going to be colder than they had predicted.

When the hounds and I stepped outside for the first pictures of the day it was 24°, making it hard to believe just two mornings ago it was already above 60° at the same time of day.

It did not matter to the hounds though. I can't remember where freezing weather or snow has ever bothered Sadie but I can tell that Stella is not a fan of the freezing temps. Heidi ... was deep inside the blankets and sleeping bag until tomorrow when it's warmer.

I took a couple of hours not only to drink my two cups of coffee but reading a lot on the internet. Plus I wanted it to get a little warmer before our first walk of the day.

It was nice, no wind today so that made a huge difference. Everyday is different with Stella though and this morning I had to pull out the 6' standard dog leash much earlier because her stubbornness had gone off the charts within minutes of starting the walk.

She was in the total ignoring mode, even after I walked over to her and tugged at her collar to get her to walk. She did not move and refused to come with Sadie and I. So I found it quite easy to reach into my pocket and pull out the leash.

I find it to have a motivating effect on her if she wears it while walking. I don't even have to hold it and she will stay with us and still have the ability to drift off when she has the urge to.

So what was the problem??  Temps below freezing seems to make things more tempting to eat. So her urge to eat 'stuff' takes over the desire to walk and run in the field. Luckily she has never gotten sick but there are some days I don't feel like putting up with it .... so depending on her level of stubbornness determines if the leash is used.

With the temperatures so low I found it surprising to hear so many birds chirping as we walked. I couldn't see them to take pictures of them but I could hear them. They were having quite a conversation.

Here Stella takes off to the middle of the field, dragging the leash along. What is interesting is when I called her to "come on", she didn't hesitate in joining me and Sadie on the path back home.

Hopefully she will be showing signs of weight gain in the next month. I am feeding her kibble with more protein and higher fat, plus an added cup of kibble. I found that SPORTMix dog food is manufactured and owned by the same family that owns Earthborn dog food.

Three years ago this grass area was full of wild bushes and small saplings. Some of the overgrowth was taller than 6' high. I cut it down, then raked it and pulled all the vines and roots out of the ground, as much as possible before planting grass seed. I hope to have the same result I did here over on the bank area left of the trees and old fence post.

I guess I will find out if the landscaping business owner is right about freezing temps for a couple of days and grass seed. He thought it would be okay to plant some on Friday.

Just as she started the walk, Stella did not want to follow me. Only this time I didn't say a word to either one of them. I kept walking to the house after snapping the pictures. I knew eventually they would be at the door wanting inside.

It didn't take long for Sadie to come sprinting to the house. I had not even taken my coat of yet when I heard her at the door wanting in. She doesn't bark but will use her paw on the aluminum screen door to let me know she is there.

Stella stayed out longer. As I looked at her from inside, she glanced up looking confused since Sadie and I were nowhere in sight. She glanced different directions but couldn't see or pick up our scents. With leash and all she came sprinting to the backyard, stopped and looked different directions and then came running for the door. Since she is use to escaping by moving a lever door handle with her nose to open the door ... she will try that on all of my round door handles without success.

I heard her at the door trying to open the door with her nose.

By the time we took our afternoon walk a little after 2pm, the temps were close to 50 and felt much better even with more wind. I decided this afternoon's walk would be one of freedom ... the hounds could do whatever they wanted.

At first I thought Stella would be hanging back, I kept walking but was somewhat surprised when she came trotting towards me. Did the time on the leash this morning have anything to do with it?

Of course that was all over after both her and Sadie was chowing done. I didn't want to look and kept walk, enjoying the afternoon weather.

Bye Stella, we will see you on the way back.

Sadie didn't let me get as far as the corner before she sprinted by me. She always does that. She is the perfect hound for this type of walk with a large field of grass and scents.

She wanted to make one final check to see if Stella was coming or not. We didn't see any sign of Stella so we took off.

Sadie had the whole field to herself.

I barely caught a glimpse of Stella as I checked the area along the 'side' of the wooded area ... she wasn't there but if you look closer she is over to the right and almost outside of the boundary I will allow in that part of the field.

Once Sadie picked up her scent she took off to tap noses and let her know it was time to go.

Stella took a few steps and then back to eating. By the time I was almost to her, she came walking my direction.

She wasn't thrilled but she headed back to the path with Sadie and I. It was great feeling the increase in heat. This week will be nice to be back in the upper 50s and low 60s.

If you take a look at the left side bar under the blogs I follow, I have added some new ones along with some I use to list a long time ago. After I do a little more reading on the list of new blogs I have, I might add a few more to the long list of blogs.

Usually with freezing weather my mind starts to wander. I start thinking of options, looking at trailers or RVs ... yet neither of them are the focus. The past few months when I think of traveling in a few years it's either in a Chevy Express van or a VW Westfalia Vanagon. I still favor tent camping.

I stopped reading books the past couple of weeks about as fast as I started last month. I went from reading books nonstop to none at all. It might not return to reading books until next winter during the times I don't spend a lot of time outside. Last week's warm weather showed me I'll be outside a lot this spring and summer.

Some random thoughts ... have I ever mentioned how much I hate flies? They're back.

Do the pictures look clearer the past 2-3 posts or is it just my own eyes and imagination?

A quiet Sunday here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana today.