A visual girl

Everyone knows that a dog's sense of smell is far superior to a human's, and they use their nose, a lot. Sometimes it seems that the nose is their primary sensory device, almost to the exclusion of all others. Walking Della can drive me crazy because she's always wanting to stop and sniff for what seems like an inordinate amount of time. I mean, how much more information can she gather in 30 seconds that she can't pick up in the first 10? It's an on-going bone of contention between us on walks and it's not great for photos because she's always got her nose close to the ground.

Bailey is a different breed. She seems to rely primarily on her eyes. Her head is always up and she never stops to sniff on her own accord, although she will join in when Della does so. I walked Bailey by herself on Tuesday and we got in three miles at a better-than-Della pace thanks to her youthful enthusiasm and the fact that she doesn't try to stop and sniff every tree trunk or bush that we pass. 

Bailey sees things that I don't, and seems to see things that aren't even there. I have to keep a pretty close eye on the trail to avoid tripping, but she's always got her head up looking off in the distance, scanning the woods for any kind of movement. When the sun is behind us, she may alert to the movement of our shadows that precede us. Birds, squirrels, and of course deer hold a lot of interest. More than once on yesterday's walk she would stop and look up at the tree tops swaying in the wind high above us. She looks and watches so intently that I think something must be there (I keep hoping to spot a bear), but when I stop and look, my mere human eyes see nothing. I don't know if it's wishful watching on her part, or if she sees something relatively small but distant, or something supernatural. 

Della's eyes glow like embers in the light, but Bailey's eyes are jet black and all business, taking in information and storing the knowledge in her brain for possible future use. 

My van is in the shop so we used Clay's car without a crate.

She was pretty good about staying in back.

We walked one trail segment that was probably new to her and 

several common ones but in a different direction than we usually go.

I used Maya's harness on her. I had down-sized it for Bailey when

we first got her, but it was very snug on her now so she's definitely grown.

This was one of those times that I could not figure out what caught her attention.

She's even got one leg lifted, pointer style, but only one ear is up,

so whatever it was must not have been close.

She scrambled up on one of the big boulders for me to give me a nice pose.

She probably likes the higher vantage point.