Rocky the Otterhound: Curiosity, Posing and Fun!!!

Rocky is being photgraphed quite frequently so that there is pictorial evidence of his life with us. This has led to him becoming very curious about the camera.................

This photo was taken first thing in the morning when I was trying to creep up on him................ I was hoping to get a sweet sleepy picture.................. failed again!!!! Note the lack of Bloodhound eyes (he'a had a good nights sleep! This is his "What you doing, what's that, can I eat it, will it play with me?" face.

He has come to recognise the sound of the camera focusing, so getting photos is becoming tricky.

He can be fooled though! I tried walking up to him with my hands in the position they are when I have a camera in them; yep he was just as curious.

Curiosity has now turned into posing though; a good excuse for a game ! Don't get me wrong, he is still be curious about all sorts of things, but as far as photographs go..... he poses with one eye on the (real or pretend camera), like a pro! The rules of this game are to see how many posings you can get him to do before he realises there is no camera. So far it's 15-0 to me!!!!!

This photo was taken after he had his halti (still working by the way) put on, and before his lead was attached............he was sat up looking wise and noble when I went to fetch the camera (honest!)................. as soon as he saw it though, he lay down and did the "see how long she makes me wait" pose!

Note how the eyes are firmly fixed on the camera? As soon as the shutter sound had finished he sat bolt upright again.................Blatent posing!!!!

Rocky being an Otterhound and showing this expert manipulation, leads me to suspect that my winning streak will not continue! It won't be long (I am sure), until he decides that posing is what I want him to do and then he will ignore both the camera and the posing opportunity.

This weeks blog though, is mainly about fun! As Rocky has matured (well a sort of), he has become more fun to play with. Like all dogs he has turned from a pup you play with into a pup that plays with you........ Great fun!

He does still entertain and play by himself. There is the good old plastic plant pot (now several sizes bigger than in previous photos)!

He has also progressed to the obligatory "Mad Fit for no apparent reason" . So far this has always happened when I haven't had the presence of mind to put the camera onto film mode.

Yeterday he picked up his plant pot and decided to race around the coffe table with it, at tremendous speed!! This game evolved into a relay race (with one participant)! Impossible? No, Rocky is great at it. He will charge round the coffee table, there will be a huge kerfuffle on the other side and he will charge back out with a completely different toy in his mouth............ all literally within seconds. This game will continue for some time with toys being swapped at great speed and an accompanying soundtarack of play growls, woofs, yips and high pitched squeeks from toys!! It is so entertaining I think it ought to be suggested for the 2012 Olympics............. We're bound not to get a medal (how unusual) but we would all at least have a jolly good belly laugh!

Then there is playing with us...................... this is where you realise you no longer need a telly?!The game starts with the "challenge a person to chase me" position................ within seconds.......... the game is on.......................


Chases round the living room............... ears flying in the wind (and the dogs), back legs trying to overtake the front ones and the biggest grin possible on your face (and the humans)...................

When you have finally exhausted your human..................You tig him...................

then you can chase him!!!

However, us bipeds tend not to have quite so much energy available to our legs (well us oldies at least)........................ so games sometimes turn to the more sedate kind.............. Such as the hand monster of sofa land..................

This game can involve as many or as few humans as you wish.

This game is more of a sport really, and a deadly one at that! The rules seem to be centred around how many and how well you can disable humans, by reducing them to giggling wrecks. Tactics used are.............. making as many strange and ridiculous noises as possible, while squirming around and making unco-ordinated paw attacks on the monster.

If humans appear to be winning, tactics change........... paws go into retirement and the puppy toothed "snap and suck" comes into play. This step up on rules involves trying to capture an opponents fingers in your mouth and seeing if you can suck them away from the rest of the hand. As origianlly suggested, .....deadly! If Rocky gets more than three fingers he stops, which I suppose means he has won? You however, are left with soggy, dripping fingers that require the urgent aid of soap and water.

Lastly, as Rocky has reached the grand old age of four months a comparison of size between 11 weeks and 4 months is offered.

I finish with a question.............. If this is just 4 months what size will he be at 18 months? Do not put answers on a postcard................. just keep logging on to see the answer!