I've Changed the Title of this Blog.

I'm also changing how I present the info. I have found that while describing Dachshund traits I was telling stories about Dolly the Dachshund. I was also in the aggravating habit of repeating myself...well at least it is aggravating to me.  With the new way I think I can do this in a humorous way and maybe let any of my accidental readers learn a little along the way. I also realized that with the old way I was making Dolly sound like a bad dog. No dog is perfect but Dolly comes close. I love her more than any other dog I've known, even my very first dog.

  Today I feel like talking about the relationship between a Dachshund owner and their dog. Dachshunds really do prefer to be around their owners all day. It's not just Dolly, it's something that I have repeatedly seen on the web in my research on Dachshunds. That fact is why Dolly chose to stay with me and my wife.  It's a long story as to why she is with us now and also tells about a Dachshunds stubbornness. I'm going to keep it short. My wife and I are retired. I'm disabled too but we both like to go out in the yard all day during the summer. Dolly hated us at first but after about a month of barking decided that she needed to be friendly to us. Her owners both worked and had two young girls.  I thought it was a perfect situation for a Doxie to have young owners with two kids to play with.

  They kept Dolly in their house while they were gone. When they returned they let her out. At first she'd come out and bark at us. Later she would come out and if she saw us in the garden she would do her ' Happy Run' over into our yard to see us. To me one of the most beautiful sights there is is to see a Miniature Long Hair Dachshund doing their 'Happy Run'. Eventually she was spending more time with us than she was them. Please keep in mind that my original intent was to just stop Dolly from barking at us.

  The last person in our house to be befriended was my son. That took a full three months. She hated him so bad that if she came across where he had walked barefoot in the yard she would bark at his footprints. I put an end to this one day. Dolly was out so I had my son set down by me and called her. She happy ran up to me and I had my son give her some dog treats. Then she was like " Oh crap... he belongs here!" and it was instant friendship. He likes his computers and was not outside as much as us.

  That was a great summer for us. The best since I stopped working. I lost 80 pounds. If we were not outside Dolly would bark until we came out. There was a rainy period of two days when we stayed inside. At the end of the second day my son stepped out and a very worried Dolly came exploding in to come check on us. Cats were running in every direction on the compass in terror. Of course Dolly was happy to see we were OK.

  That fall our neighbors situation changed. The husband moved out and divorce proceedings began. My wife and I were completely surprised. Our neighbors business is none of ours. As soon as that happened Dolly started acting as if she were sad and spent even more time with us. It was at that time that she got it in her head that my wife and I were going to be her new owners.  There was one day Dolly was inside their house and we were out. I saw her in the window looking at us. I always tried to be quiet when this happened and I would try to do my work in an area where she could not see me. If she knew I was out and she was locked inside she would do this long sad howl. I don't know who felt worse me or her. Anyhow... on that day I looked up to see Dolly doing her happy run to me. I noticed that there seemed to be a bit of strutting in her run too if that's even possible. I looked up at the window that I had seen her in and there was this Dachshund shaped hole in the screen. Almost like what you would see in a Road Runner/ Wiley E. Coyote cartoon.

  Dolly got to where she refused to stay at her house. Any opportunity to escape that presented itself was taken. One cold night she started scratching and whining at our front door. I had been sending her back home and she always listened but not that night. I broke down and let her in. The cats hated it, my wife and I loved it. Of course Dolly loved it too. She was on perfect behavior for us for a long time after that. In her way I believe she was selling the idea of her staying with us to us. She has been with us for over a year now. Both of our neighbors said it was OK.

  So my dear readers (if there are any LOL) if you are deciding whether or not you want to own a Dachshund please keep my little story in mind here. Doxies get sad and lonely when they are not with their humans. Dolly still loves my neighbor. I've known her long enough now that I can tell by how she still looks at them. Also readers keep my story in mind as to how stubborn a Dachshund can be. I tried daily to prevent her from staying with us and in the end I lost that battle. OH..... yes I could have ran her off permanetly but to do that I would have had to abuse her. If I had to have done that I would have been very depressed afterward. I mean how can you run a dog off that you have never had to say GIT to ? Dolly is so intelligent that she knows when to not be in my way and to know when she is bugging me. She knows my habits and what I am going to do before I even know I am going to do it.

  Yes readers dachshunds are stubborn, and they require attention but in our case Dolly does it in such a way that I usually forgive her instantly. I don't know what we would do without her.  She makes us laugh at least once per day.