The Thing They Didn't Tell Me About...Having a Hound Dog
I've got a 6 year old Coonhound that we have had since she was 6 months old. When people accuse her of being a "Dalmatian" because she is white with black spots, I think to myself, "They don't even know..." Turns out I didn't know, in the beginning, what I was in for either.
The thing they didn't tell me about having a hound dog is...
She will always look up at you and remind you of that photo of dogs playing poker that hangs in every man cave across the country. Her floppy hound dog ears will always hang in a certain way against her head making her look like a total goofball. They are one of the sweetest of her features.
Speaking of droopy ears, those ears will flap loudly out the window on every car ride for years too come. If the wind isn't flapping them, she will go ahead a flap them randomly to make sure you hear the great noise they make, do not worry. Those ears will make her look like she is about to take flight, flying nun style, every time she comes running toward you at full speed. You will wonder how she doesn't just lift off and float away. Those ears will be warm and soft as velvet in the summer time and will make you worry they are about to freeze off in the winter after she's been outside in the snow.
Oh and the WEATHER! She will LOVE the weather and all kinds. She will sun herself outside on the deck all afternoon in the summer. You will wonder if you need to put sunscreen on her soft pink belly. Likewise, she will find that small triangle of sun that shines through the front door during the winter, and plant herself in front of it like a kitty cat napping all day long.
The rain will be her most favorite though and as thunderstorms are rolling through and the kids are worried it's time to take cover in the basement, there she'll be right in the middle of the yard with rain pouring on her and lightning striking all around her. She will be out there like nothing unusual is happening at all because rain brings all those great ground smells up and this is the perfect weather for her hound dog nose.
She is a hunter by nature and although raccoons are her go to, she will tree and trap much more than raccoons. She will chase squirrels and rabbits, but rarely will she catch one. She will alert you constantly of the fox living under the shed next door. She will trap a snake in the bush at the corner of the deck and she will catch chipmunks and play with them until they die of fright. She will stick with a bunny that she has trapped under the deck for 14 hours straight without food or drink and her tongue will be dragging the ground with exhaustion, yet you will still have to grab her collar and drag her in the house for the night just to give her a break. You will watch her locate a mole by going from one end of it's tunnel to the other hundreds of times, back and forth, back and forth, until she isolates it in the middle and snatches it out of the ground. Then she will carry it around the yard and drop it only to chase it then pick it up and do it all over again. Don't even get me started on the day you will come home and see that look in her eye, follow her to the back corner of the yard where she has found her newest victim and you will watch her jump back in terror then slowly approach the TURTLE she has discovered. She doesn't hunt to kill, she hunts to please you and often looks at you seemingly to say,
"Ok I've got it cornered now what are YOU going to do about it???"
At the same time you will wonder how in the world she loves almost every dog she meets but especially thinks that all kitty cats want to be her friend, as she falls in love with the neighborhood stray who swings by to visit her everyday. They will play on the front porch and she will nose him around and he won't even bat a claw at her, because he knows she is playing and they are besties. For some reason, cats aren't something she wants to chase, just to sniff and play with no matter what their reaction is to her.
She will know and protect her territory, but not in an aggressive way. In fact, anyone and almost anything can come into the territory without any sort of attack. You will know it is her territory by the worn out path around the entire perimeter that she will follow day and night, protecting everything that lives within the perimeter. If you catch her snoozing on the lawn or the front porch, she will immediately jump up and start "doing the perimeter" to make you think she wasn't sleeping on the job.
After years of having her she will still roll over, belly up, exposing her pink tummy for her daily rub. That same vulnerable position that made you fall in love with her at the shelter all those years ago when you first met her. It will remind you of the first time you saw her and you both made eye contact and you just knew that she was meant to be part of your family. It will remind you of the first time you heard that sing-song bawling bark of hers and of how many times you have had to fight her natural urge to use it all the time.
When you start packing for a trip she will try to get into the car any chance she has, so that you don't leave her behind. She loves an adventure and a car ride, even if it means just riding next to you in the passenger seat to gas up the car for the week. She doesn't care where you are going, just that she is beside you and going too.
You will often look at her and just have a feeling of love for her because of all she and you have been through since that first night when she stood under the kitchen table and winced any time someone walked by because she had never been inside a house before that night. You will think back to how she didn't know how to walk up stairs and how she thought the pot roast on the counter was cooked for her as she drug it into the living room to sit and feast. You will be endeared to the fact that when she encounters a deer in the yard, she is skittish and scared of it and looks to you to take the lead. She is not tough by any means, but you'd like to think that the loyalty she has shown to your children should remain untested simply so you don't have to see the aggressive side of her you are sure would show up if any of her pack members were in danger.
There are many things I didn't know about a hound dog, but I am sure that she will go down in history as one of the best damn dogs I've ever shared my life with and I wouldn't have it any other way.
The thing they didn't tell me about having a hound dog is...
She will always look up at you and remind you of that photo of dogs playing poker that hangs in every man cave across the country. Her floppy hound dog ears will always hang in a certain way against her head making her look like a total goofball. They are one of the sweetest of her features.
Speaking of droopy ears, those ears will flap loudly out the window on every car ride for years too come. If the wind isn't flapping them, she will go ahead a flap them randomly to make sure you hear the great noise they make, do not worry. Those ears will make her look like she is about to take flight, flying nun style, every time she comes running toward you at full speed. You will wonder how she doesn't just lift off and float away. Those ears will be warm and soft as velvet in the summer time and will make you worry they are about to freeze off in the winter after she's been outside in the snow.
Oh and the WEATHER! She will LOVE the weather and all kinds. She will sun herself outside on the deck all afternoon in the summer. You will wonder if you need to put sunscreen on her soft pink belly. Likewise, she will find that small triangle of sun that shines through the front door during the winter, and plant herself in front of it like a kitty cat napping all day long.The rain will be her most favorite though and as thunderstorms are rolling through and the kids are worried it's time to take cover in the basement, there she'll be right in the middle of the yard with rain pouring on her and lightning striking all around her. She will be out there like nothing unusual is happening at all because rain brings all those great ground smells up and this is the perfect weather for her hound dog nose.
She is a hunter by nature and although raccoons are her go to, she will tree and trap much more than raccoons. She will chase squirrels and rabbits, but rarely will she catch one. She will alert you constantly of the fox living under the shed next door. She will trap a snake in the bush at the corner of the deck and she will catch chipmunks and play with them until they die of fright. She will stick with a bunny that she has trapped under the deck for 14 hours straight without food or drink and her tongue will be dragging the ground with exhaustion, yet you will still have to grab her collar and drag her in the house for the night just to give her a break. You will watch her locate a mole by going from one end of it's tunnel to the other hundreds of times, back and forth, back and forth, until she isolates it in the middle and snatches it out of the ground. Then she will carry it around the yard and drop it only to chase it then pick it up and do it all over again. Don't even get me started on the day you will come home and see that look in her eye, follow her to the back corner of the yard where she has found her newest victim and you will watch her jump back in terror then slowly approach the TURTLE she has discovered. She doesn't hunt to kill, she hunts to please you and often looks at you seemingly to say,
"Ok I've got it cornered now what are YOU going to do about it???"
At the same time you will wonder how in the world she loves almost every dog she meets but especially thinks that all kitty cats want to be her friend, as she falls in love with the neighborhood stray who swings by to visit her everyday. They will play on the front porch and she will nose him around and he won't even bat a claw at her, because he knows she is playing and they are besties. For some reason, cats aren't something she wants to chase, just to sniff and play with no matter what their reaction is to her.
She will know and protect her territory, but not in an aggressive way. In fact, anyone and almost anything can come into the territory without any sort of attack. You will know it is her territory by the worn out path around the entire perimeter that she will follow day and night, protecting everything that lives within the perimeter. If you catch her snoozing on the lawn or the front porch, she will immediately jump up and start "doing the perimeter" to make you think she wasn't sleeping on the job.After years of having her she will still roll over, belly up, exposing her pink tummy for her daily rub. That same vulnerable position that made you fall in love with her at the shelter all those years ago when you first met her. It will remind you of the first time you saw her and you both made eye contact and you just knew that she was meant to be part of your family. It will remind you of the first time you heard that sing-song bawling bark of hers and of how many times you have had to fight her natural urge to use it all the time.
When you start packing for a trip she will try to get into the car any chance she has, so that you don't leave her behind. She loves an adventure and a car ride, even if it means just riding next to you in the passenger seat to gas up the car for the week. She doesn't care where you are going, just that she is beside you and going too.
You will often look at her and just have a feeling of love for her because of all she and you have been through since that first night when she stood under the kitchen table and winced any time someone walked by because she had never been inside a house before that night. You will think back to how she didn't know how to walk up stairs and how she thought the pot roast on the counter was cooked for her as she drug it into the living room to sit and feast. You will be endeared to the fact that when she encounters a deer in the yard, she is skittish and scared of it and looks to you to take the lead. She is not tough by any means, but you'd like to think that the loyalty she has shown to your children should remain untested simply so you don't have to see the aggressive side of her you are sure would show up if any of her pack members were in danger.
There are many things I didn't know about a hound dog, but I am sure that she will go down in history as one of the best damn dogs I've ever shared my life with and I wouldn't have it any other way.
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