ONCE A HOUND....

Of the four dogs three are hounds and have noses. The fourth also has a nose but I don't think he pays as much attention to smells as the hounds do, which makes sense since noses are what these hounds are all about.

So yesterday I let the dog that had accompanied my son and his girl up from Knoxville, a delightful Aussie named Koda (I think that is how she spells it) use the backyard.

We orchestrated it so that my dogs would be eating and would not even know Koda was in the yard. My dogs are not a pack: they're a Gang Of Four. I don't know how other people handle guest dogs, but I have never even tried it. I have a feeling my dogs would not greet a stranger in their midst with open paws.

Anyway so Koda came and used the yard and left without my dogs ever getting sight of him, but of course, his scent was all over the place. It was really funny. I wish I had a film of the hounds hitting the back door, shooting out, screeching to a halt, noses up, whirling around and attacking the gate. From there they put their noses to the ground and began an in-depth study of the trail that meandered about the yard --THEIR YARD!!!--- and the pee spots and so on, and the longer they tracked the more excited they got. Sometimes they would stop and peer around as if expecting a dog to materialize behind them. (Talk about a "hot track").
As they nosed their way through the grass they first began to mumble, then broke into shouting, tails going like mad they bellowed and stomped and bayed as they raced around Koda's trail. And ended up back at the gate, yelling and hollering, daring Koda to come out of hiding and show himself. He was of course, long gone.

During this time the Belgian, with his excellent but hardly comparable nose, stood and watched in amazement. (He often does this when the Bassets are on one of their Missions.) Cooper probably could smell Koda also but it never occur-ed to him to charge blindly about the yard telling the world about it. He would be more likely to sit quietly by the gate and wait to see if Koda returns.

It took quite awhile for the boys to settle down. At one point they came back into the house, ran to the front door and looked up and down the street, then ran to the back door to go out, and began all over again. It is interesting that they were able to understand that Koda had come from the front and that if they came in and looked out the window, they might see the interloper. That requires some reasoning ability, something many experts don't think dogs have. Clearly, they do.