Rocky the Otterhound: Visitors are such fun!!

Rocky has shared his home with some visitors this week. Our family came down to stay for a while and a good time was had by all. There were two more adults to make a fuss of him and three extra boys (of various sizes) to play with.

Rocky was so pleased he even shared his (!?) sofa with the boys.

This photo shows a crashed out Rocky after hours of playing, he kept forgetting to take his usual naps!

This is Rocky having one of many games with our youngest visitor.

They got on really well and, although only a baby himself, Rocky amazed us by how gentle he was when playing with him! Rocky is usually a very gentle lad anyway but he appeared to make an extra special effort with Ollie!

What wonderful creatures Otterhounds are!!

My sister-in-law seemed completely smitten and was often heard to utter "Ooooh!" "Aaaahh" and "I want an Otterhound"!!

They have thier own Spaniel which, as many know, are known to be rather bouncy and enthusiastic dogs.

Well "Sis" couldn't get over how gentle and "laid back" Rocky was in comparison!

But that is what our Otterhound is like, a quiet gentle giant (well soon to be giant), who loves to be with people. He has his enthusiastic moments where he leaps about like a young horse (including the not quite controlled leg thing foals have) and smiles and jumps, but he is generally so placid and sweet natured ............................ wins 'em over every time!

Anyhow, Rocky made best of friends with all, and especially Ollie; they ended up doing lots together.

By the time our visitors left it was like they had known each other all thier lives - lovely!

Rocky was a little shattered though! When people are about he usually does that dog thing; you know, like I'm fast asleep but if I hear you do anything interesting or hear you rustle food packs I'll be up and by your side. Well for the first time since he was iddy biddy, he slept so solidly (when he finally gave in to it) that people could even go in and out of the house without a twitch from him! Unheard of!!!

When I say that Rocky smiles (loads while our visitors were here), I'm sure there would be those that would say I was nuts; that dogs not only don't experience the same emotions as us but that they do not have the facial expressions to show them if they did!

Well just to prove all those unbelievers wrong ................

Here is a piccy of Rocky smiling!

Happiness is Rocky shaped!!!!

As well as having a whale of a time with our visitors Rocky is also stating to vary his diet a little. Well, when I say vary I actually mean aside from slugs, snails and stones!!!

While cooking up a storm in the kitchen, hubby accidently dropped some spaghetti on the floor ...................... never too far away from the interesting goings on in the kitchen, Rocky decided to help out by cleaning the floor for us.

He so obviosly enjoyed it that hubby got the idea of combining a treat of spaghetti with checking if Rocky was big enough to stand up and touch his shoulders yet.

Not quite it seems but I think further activities like this, from time to time, will tempt him to keep growing!!

So at the end of his busy and very entertaining week, what does our hero do?

He does what all good young dogs do ..........................

He catches up with all the sleep/growing time he missed out on while his pals were here!!

Sleep well pet, Christmas is just around the corner and that is always fun for the young!!