With our split walking schedule, I’ve really had the chance to observe both my dogs to see what makes them tick. When I walk Sampson he likes to sniff, BUT he’s also very much into looking around, watching for people and other dogs. Many is the time when he’s stopped to poop or pee and heard a voice or noise and stopped what he was doing to continue his walk. Sampson (the dog who gets no affection at home) regards people as the ultimate rubbie resource.
When I walk Delilah her walk is more scent oriented. Her nose is typically to the ground sniffing for something to eat, or a trail to follow to something to eat.
I on the other hand am constantly on alert, mostly for off-leash dogs. For some reason we seem to attract off leash dogs wherever we are.
Because I am constantly looking around and Delilah is not, I sometimes see things that she doesn’t see or I see something well before she does. And I’m not counting the cats I see in the windows. Nor will I point them out to her, I could see her dragging me up to every window on the street, looking inside to see if someone left food on the table.
No thank you!
So here are some of the things I’ve seen on our walks, that Delilah has not.
A cardinal that flies across our path and lights on the roof of a house.
A cat that saw us through a stand of trees and went to hide under a car. Can you see it?
A bolder cat, who openly stared at us.
She actually spotted this one after I stopped to take the photo.
And one more cat who watched quietly from the safety of the yard.
A lonely tennis ball waiting for someone to play with.
A brave and daring Chipmunk.
Okay, she did see this one too, because I stopped and had to keep moving closer just so you could see it. Then she was on high alert for the rest of the walk.
A discarded toy.
A dad playing ball with his boys.
I better put a disclaimer in here. Emma, hold on to your mom, you are not going to believe that Delilah has actually walked by this twice (TWICE) without even noticing it.
Yes Emma, it’s a WABBIT!!
How are your pups on a walk? Are they scent or sight hounds?
Follow-up Friday
There will be no Follow-Up Friday tomorrow. For the first time EVER we are participating in the Fit Dog Friday Blog hop. I am currently (if all went well) in Florida celebrating my nephew’s graduation from college, along with his daughter’s birthday.
This is Thursday’s Barks and Bytes Blog Hop hosted by 2 Brown Dawgs and Heart Like a Dog. This is a blog hop for all bloggers, you don’t have to have a pet blog to join, we simply as that you display one of our badges and link back to your hosts.
I try to be aware, but most of the time, my dogs spot things before I do. They are constantly on the look out for new places to pee and kick, so they don’t miss much.
My two are the complete opposite. Mity smells every blade of grass and pee’s up every lamp post, he wants to greet everyone and everything and looks visibly hurt if someone walks past him without loving on him a little. BD seems to be on a misson and when he go on a walk we go on a walk, we cover ground fast and he is most happy when he is carrying something as he marches be it a stick, a ball or an empty bottle. Bd is happiest when there is no one else around just us!
Wow you do spot a lot of things. As we walk off leash on our park peeps pays no attention to anything except when there is rubbish around which there is plenty off after the weekend. She ruins all my fun. Have a tremendous Thursday.
Best wishes Molly
Wow, a wabbit! Amazing you got that photo! Mom is so busy always scanning the upcoming area for anything that might be of interest to any of us. She knows if we see it first she will be dragged somewhere and she doesn’t like that to happen! Have fun in FL, too bad it isn’t winter so you could be there to escape the weather at home, but a vacation is nice any time.
Hope you are having fun! I would say that our dogs are a bit of both. They like to keep a look out, but they also like a good sniff. 🙂
Donna seems to have her moods. Sometimes she is a scent hound… so engross in sniffing that she’ll almost walk straight into a cat if I don’t stop her, and since she was so near, she decided to give the cat a curious sniff and got a slap for that… from the cat, not me. 😛
Sometimes, she can stand and stare at a person or her surroundings for ages. No idea why. Think it creeps the stranger out though.
You see lots of cool stuff! Cricket typically has her nose to the ground and doesn’t see much. We have seen deer on our last two runs (jogs). The first one she did see, and then she wanted to track it of course. The second one she didn’t. We don’t see too much other than the deer, but in the past we’ve also seen foxes and woodchucks. I’ve seen deer when walking Sheba too, and we got really close to one once, and she also mostly wanted to track it with her nose (and I get pulled along for the ride when this happens).
We actually saw a wabbit this morning sitting in that same pose in a driveway -I told my boys it was a statue – it never moved so they believed me & we were able to carry on!
So glad you’re going to join our Hop tomorrow! My two are much like yours Maggie is nose to the ground almost the entire time. Jack likes to just walk next to me…he will stop and sniff, especially early in the walk, but once he’s had his fill, he’s right next to me just in the zone. See you tomorrow!
In the yard or out walking they seem to have their own interests. While one will set the other off, they are usually clueless about what set off the first one.
Happy Birthday and happy Grad to them!!!
My dogs notice things most of the time, they do have their noses to the ground quite often though to.
They have this thing where we have to stop at EVERY single telephone pole there is so that they can check the pee mail!
*sigh* BOL!
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
Torrey has all the senses going when we walk. Roxy, she is pretty low to the ground, she is more scent.
All three of my girls are pretty much sight and scent. Though I swear Ducky can smell the squirrels right through the closed kitchen window! Half the time — no, more like most times — when she lets me know she has to go out, she spends 5 minutes looking up into the oak tree right outside the door before she’ll go out to the grass to pee! Silly dog! Callie and Shadow will chase a squirrel for the chase, but then sniff the ground looking for the perfect spot to pee on. At the park, though, they both pretty much just look around them casually as we walk.
Barley is definitely a watcher–lately, I’ve been slacking on my job of seeing things before she does and about lost an arm when she’s tried to take off after a squirrel (which she hasn’t tried to do in years). I’ve definitely become a lot more aware of my surroundings since I have to notice potential triggers before she sees them! She’s been starting to get a little more scent-focused after noseworks class, though, which might be why I’ve been letting my guard down and missed the squirrels!
Mom is always aware of our surroundings. Especially at 5am when she spots a coyote!!
Lily & Edward
I can’t ever remember seeing something before one or the other of my dogs did and putting the others on high alert. And I try,,,
I see a lot of stuff Blueberry doesn’t either – which is a good thing because she likes to chase everything down that moves. I once saw a rattler to the side of the trail that must have been like 5 feet long and B never even noticed it. For that, I was grateful.
I love that you take pictures of those things anyway – if I did that, the cat would be out of the bag (so to speak) and Blueberry would notice.
Blueberry has me so well-trained that even if I see a bunny when she isn’t around – I automatically get really still and then look down to see if Blueberry has noticed only to realize she isn’t even with me and I can feel free to move about normally.
Hi Y’all!
Oh stay cool in Florida! Hope y’all enjoy the nephews graduation and his daughter’s BD.
I track like to look and sniff. When I find something I SIT. Then the Human knows it’s camera time!
Y’all come by now,
Hawk aka BrownDog
Cupcake divides her time between sniffing every blade of grass and watching for people, dogs, birds in the grass, cats under cars (just like yours), opening and closing car doors, and then there’s a lot of staring at the air at absolutely nothing.
Ah, the joys of walking a scent hound! I always found/find it interesting to notice the things that our Bailey (a beagle) and Rita (beagle mix) miss on walks. Of course… they find some disgusting things that I don’t notice. At least Rita doesn’t eat random things, but Bailey did! I used to have to walk almost constantly scanning the ground a few feet ahead of her, to make sure my eyes beat her nose to whatever disgusting tidbits she might find! (It’s unbelievable the number of chicken bones people just toss! WtH?)
Very cool. That’s a lot of cats. Have a great time in Florida