Things Have Changed

 



I see that it has been Feburary since I last posted here. Dolly shows no ill effects from her accident. She does seem to have a bit of an odd gait. It may have been there before and I just never noticed.

We slowly kept giving her more and more freedom. It was just a few weeks ago that one day we let her loose entirely from her leash. She responded by going on a run which was a joy to see. She then tried going too far away so we put her back on. A day or so later I let her off and she chased a car 10 minutes later. She went right back on the leash.

She seemed to enjoy full freedom inside the house. I finally gave in and let her have it outside too. She was not getting enough exercise and she seemed to be depressed. Seeing her depressed was hard on us. I think we will regret this in the future. She had freedom for her entire life up until the accident. Had she been on a leash since a pup she would not have missed her freedom so much.

I caught her chasing a car a few days ago. I called her up to me and she knew she was in trouble. This time instead of tying her up I stood there and in a calm gentle tone of voice, gave her an ass chewing. I had forgotten that the calm and gentle sometimes works far better than yelling. She acted as if she would have like to find the nearest crack in the earth and melt in to it.

She went after one more car after that. I almost yelled at her but then I noticed something different. She was following the car. Head up, tail erect, and strutting at a fast pace. A few minutes later I saw that her former owner was in the car. It was not his car, it was a friends car, and it's never been in this town before. How Dolly knew he was in that car is beyond me. The only thing I can think of is that her eyesight is better than most dogs.

Dolly spent 5 months sleeping in the crate at night. I assumed that she would totally forget her bedtime ritual. I assumed wrong. The very first night she was free I went to bed like usual and I read my Kindle until I get good and sleepy. Dolly seems to think that's a waste of play time. So she hopped up in bed and started licking my feet like always. Not just one but both. A human has TWO feet and a Dachshund has failed in it's job if both are not licked.

Once done with the feet she comes up to lick my face. I protect my face with one hand. She tries to do the routine where she expertly flips my glasses off my nose with one quick motion. At this point I put the Kindle down. Now she is happy. She will jump away from me and wait patiently for the next part of the ritual. That part is what I call the defeat the evil blanket badger routine. My hand slides under the cover and she attacks it. She almost never bites hard. I do this until she wears down or gets bored.If I want the game to end early all I have to do is say "OUCH!"  She will get this hurt and embarrassed look. She will go lay down. I only use the ouch option if I am very tired or if she really is biting to hard. It hurts her feelings and if I use it too often it will lose it's effect.

In the 5 months she was confined I got to learn even more about her. I've made this post too long so I will save that for another day.