Rocky the Otterhound: Sleep, Comfort and Friends

There appears to be nothing as tiring as growing, and this activity seems to result in world class sleeping!



Rocky has engaged in this particular passtime to great excess this week; but he appears to be set on having the most comfort possible while doing so.

If alone (such as night time or when we are away from the house) he will sleep in his bed with aplomb; if however we are home, he will compromise and grudgingly (?!!) use our furniture. Bless!!

Next to sleep - comfort is now a high priority.




Rocky can and will amuse himself with his toys and will often indulge in the "mad fit" around the room, all by himself.


If however, he chooses to indulge in a quiet game, such as chewing a favourite article until it submits and either goes soggy or falls into pieces, he seems to want as much comfort as possible while doing this.

Rocky does seem intent on becoming a couch potatoe, and no amount of discussion will persuade him otherwise.

We have had a few wet days recently and I have been amazed how reticent he has been about going out for a walk! I have never known a dog not get excited about going out for a walk ...................... until now!!! But we all know that walkies is good for us (and our dogs) so walkies we must go. He'll thank me one day ............... maybe?!



The ongoing saga of Rocky and the cat seems to have reached a conclusion of sorts. The cat lives upstairs and Rocky downstairs. The cat may walk through Rocky's rooms but this is not recipricol. Rocky has settled to this, but does still tend to get a little confused when the cat saunters past him and walks up the stairs - leaving him to ponder what on earth is going on .......


When Rocky does manage to get close to her he gives her a jolly good wash, or invites her to play with a resounding bark .................. both of which get rewarded with a phenominal amount of hissing.

Snooty cats don't know what they are missing out on though as apart from the fun of playing with Rocky, it is also he that gets the company -because he is downstairs where we are! I am interested to see how long she is going to keep this up for?

But our lad does have other friends, one of which came over to play with him during the week.




Molly is a very sweet and pretty Spaniel who is 7 months old.



The two got on like a house on fire and played .................. and played ..................... and played. They then went for a walk together and as soon as they got home .................. they played.



It was left to the grown ups to decide when to call a halt to the proceedings, otherwise I think they would still be playing.......... Rocky did seem to be running out of steam, but I think Molly would have kept going till Christmas.




All in all Rocky has had a good week, he has had lots of sleeping (growing) time, he is now almost 16Kg. He has had a good deal of comfort, his ration of walks and a bundle of playtime; what more could a growing Otterhound want? Oh yes. food ................... he has had his ration of that as well!

On top of that, he has had loads of love and affection, all the cuddles he wants and even watched a few good telly programmes. Yes, Rocky does watch telly - but has not yet managed to pay attention enough to see a programme from start to finish.

So I must say that at this moment in time raising an Otterhound in your home is no different from raising any other dog. He has a sweet and gentle personality and like all dogs seems to adore his owners. He is already a joy to take for walks; the halti has made a tremendous difference and seems to have relieved Rocky from the hard choice of whether to eat or not eat whatever he comes across. This has led to a relaxed dog, and owner, when walking - which has improved all of our experiences of going for a walk. He has greeted, dogs with the same gentle "happy to see you" response as he has people (and children) whether in a crowd or all alone. He's a lovely chap!

So at this point in time I would heartily reccomend an Otterhound as a pet.