Dachshunds need more attention than other dogs

Dachshunds need quality attention from their owners.

If you are acquiring a Dachshund just to say that you own a Dachshund or if you are getting one just because everybody else owns one, then I recommend that you find another breed of dog.

You cannot train a Dachshund like you can another breed of dog. A Doxie will make the writers of books on dog behavior look like a childless single person who writes books on how to raise children.

In my experience you only raise your voice at a Doxie only when you absolutely have to. A  kind gentle voice works wonders with mine. Anytime I tell her no in a soft voice I get that guilty look from her as if she is unhappy that she displeased me. Yes I have gotten mad at her several times. Those sad looks of hers have a way of making me swallow my anger. Usually my temper shows when she is in a stubborn frame of mind. She has gotten so used to my habits that she knows what I am going to do next before I even know that I am going to do it.

Dachshunds respond best to loving attention and a lot of it. The more they get the happier they are and a happy Dachshund is a sight to see. They really do reward you for the attention you give them.If ours has not gotten enough exercise or attention for the day I have a little game I play with her at bedtime otherwise she will keep you awake at night.

I call my game 'The badger in the blanket' . I think most Doxies would like it as it involves hunting, burrowing,and fighting in what appears to them to be an underground enviornment.
The writers of dog behavior books will tell you to never let a dog bite your hand even in play. I say it is OK as long as your dog knows the limits and I think most Dachshunds are smart enough to learn them. In fact I have owned some exceptionally stupid dogs that quickly learned the limits but enough of my rant and on with the game. 

What I usually do is take my hand and move it quickly underneath the blanket. This gets puppy dogs attention really fast. I will then pop my hand out of the blanket and 'Attack' her then quickly draw it back underneath the blanket. She can't help herself but chase it back underneath the blanket where we play fight for a few seconds.  Her rear end is usually sticking out from underneath the covers and her tail is wagging in a happy manner. Sometimes I do a variation on this with her bunny chew toy and she really gets excited because she knows she can bite bunny as hard as she wants.

If she bites my hand too hard I immediately yell "Ouch" and abruptly end the game for the night. I have not had to say ouch for a long time now. There WAS one night I said ouch. Our Doxie was asleep in the bedroom. I had our cat with the birth defect in my lap. She has a deformed rear paw with one claw that sticks out all the time. I nicknamed her 'Spearfoot'. Well on that particular night Ms. Spearfoot decided to jump off my lap unexpectedly and speared my leg in doing so.  I yell "Ouch!" very loudly and within seconds I have an enraged Dachshund charging out of the bedroom ready to attack.  In her mind I suppose she was thinking that somebody or something had hurt her favorite human and she was going to make them pay for it.

The funny thing is that I have severe arthritis and I say "Ouch" all the time numerous times a day. She does not get mad when I do a arthritis ouch. She knows me well enough to know the difference.

She did do something funny today. The river is paying a visit to our town as it has numerous times in the past. We have a street that is underwater but only by a few inches. I drove down on my John Deere riding mower to look at it and Dolly the Dachshund followed me. This another one of her favorite activities is to either follow me on the mower or ride on my leg. When we got to the water she spotted a Squirrel playing off in the distance. She gave chase to the squirrel but when she did she attempted to leap  across a flooded ditch only to fall short. She was very wet and the squirrel got away easily. I am a bit of a River Rat and I know what is in that flood water. I brought her home and gave her a good bath. She liked me giving her a bath because she was getting extra attention from me and actually cooperated with the bath by putting her body in a position where I could clean her better.

I do so love that dog. 

Dachshunds are stubborn

I must warn anybody who is considering buying or adopting a Dachshund that this is a very stubborn breed of dog that can drive a new owner who is not familiar with them crazy. A person who has a good sense of humor and is very patient will have less trouble than a person who is a perfectionist and expects results immediately.

Their stubborn personality affects all aspects of their behavior. If you have small kids who are rough with animals a Dachshund will not react well to them and will never forget any abuse that is done to them. My own loves little kids but she will stay away from the ones who are rough with her and I truly believe that she will bite them if she thinks that they will be rough with her again.

I had better clear one thing up here. My Dachshund is not really mine and it relates to her stubborn personality.  She actually belongs to our next door neighbor. She hated me when she first met me and my initial attempts at befriending her which actually took over a month, was only to get her to stop barking at me. Last fall things changed at their home and all at once the dog I call my Dachshund got it in her head that I was going to be her new owner.  I tried to stop this but one cold evening she was scratching at our front door and whining. I had never heard her whine before that and it really got next to me.  So I let her in the house. She immediately came in jumped up on the bed and went to sleep.

We overslept that next morning. When my wife got up she found that the dog had to go potty during the night. Rather than disturb us she saw where we had the plastic trash bags stored, grabbed one with her teeth, pulled it out, and then did her business on the trash bag.

I am the type of person who can forgive a dog for being stubborn especially if they do it in an intelligent way.

Dachshunds are Cool

Because they just are. I have yet to do my introduction but if you read it you will see that I used to think the opposite.

I love the female Longhaired Dachshund that I became acquainted with.  One of her favorite resting places is the top of my Lanes Big Man Recliner. She can survey her domain better from that lofty spot. Sometimes if I have it reclined she will curl up into a little ball on my left shoulder and take a nap. In this spot she can see me and keep track of what my wife is doing. She loves both of us.


If not my recliner then it's our bed. She loves to burrow underneath the blanket and go to sleep. When out of the blanket she does what I call the "I'm a dead dog" position. She will be entirely on her back with all four feet sticking straight up in the air. He mouth will be open with the tongue sometimes hanging out. I have seen this many times but I still laugh when I see it.


Dachshunds are comical