[Dailydrool] Walking two bassets

[Elizabeth Lindsey]

When young Charlie joined our family I bought a coupler. Then I  
discovered that a coupler works best when the two hounds using it  
have a similar walking style and pace. Our Elsinore and young Charlie  
do not.

Elsinore likes to forge ahead quickly, stopping on a dime to sniff  
something, and then charging off again to find the next interesting  
scent. She's eager to see what's over the horizon and doesn't want to  
linger too long over one scent because it might somehow cause her to  
miss all the ones that are yet ahead.

Young Charlie prefers to walk at a snail's pace with his nose to the  
ground, carefully examining every single scent on every blade of  
grass in his path. Sometimes he feels a need to meditate over a  
particular scent, or backtrack to a previous scent to see how it  
compares with what he just smelled two inches ahead.

When I walk Elsinore and Charlie together, my arms are usually  
stretched out in two different directions for the entire walk--the  
arm stretched to its fullest extent out in front of me would be the  
one Elsinore's attached to ("Hurry up! hurry up!"). The one stretched  
out at full length behind me would be Charlie's ("I'll be done in a  
few minutes, just another second, wait wait").

I'm hanging onto the coupler, though, because someday Elsinore may  
become less interested in the big picture or Charlie may become less  
detailed oriented. And, of course, pigs may fly, too!

Elizabeth