I wonder if Dachshunds have a bit of German Shepherd in them??

That thought sounds rather silly when you think about it. A tiny little dog like that having the GSD as a close relative. It sounds impossible. It sounds like something you'd hear on a late night comedy show.

Over the past few years I have joked that Dolly has the spirit of a GSD. I'm not joking about it now. The past year has provided me with some incidents that have led me to think that maybe this is possible. To understand this I'll have to give you some background.

When I was a kid I always wanted a GSD as a pet. My wish came true when my Aunt Rosina Osbourne gave my sister her GSD, a female named Duchess. Duchess did not like me at first sight, in fact she tried to attack me. Dolly hated me too. Unlike Dolly the next morning I matter of factly walked out to where Duchess was tethered. I made sure she saw the leash in my hand.
She was a city dog who had never been out in the country. I took her for a walk and in 15 minutes I became that wonderful human who introduced her to it. On that walk she decided that I was to be her new owner. She also appointed herself as my protector. I was 12 at the time and I had never met a dog as intelligent as she was. I could write a book about her. If she'd had her way she'd be at my side 24/7.

Jump to the future. A few months ago just for the heck of it my son came up behind Gretchen and put his arm around her neck. Dolly was in the bedroom. She only saw his arm. Within seconds we had an enraged Miniature Dachshund on our hands who only calmed down when she saw it was my son. She still did not like it even though she loves Rich very much.

A few days ago I was sitting in the parking lot of the new Wal-Mart in Jefferson City while my son was loading groceries in the back.  A young woman walked by and one of her friends snuck up on her, grabbed her, and hugged her aggressively nearly taking her off her feet. When Dolly saw this she became enraged. She wanted to hop out of the truck and go bite the hugger. it took some doing to get her calmed down. When the scene ended the young woman who had been hugged,walked on into Wal Mart. Dolly alertly watched her the whole time until she disappeared.

A few seconds later a car comes flying up and slides to a stop. Inside is someone who looked similar to the hugger. The car took off and left quickly. This put Dolly into another barking frenzy.

Not long after that we were ready to leave. As I am pulling out of the parking space lo and behold here comes another person who looked like the hugger and she was walking directly towards the truck. Dolly's temper hit the ceiling this time. This was a time that I was glad dogs cannot talk like humans because I believe that this person was being cussed out and threatened too by Dolly. She did not calm down until we left the lot.

Did I scold Dolly?? No I did not. I saw the situation from her point of view. She believed she had seen someone being assaulted and at the very least needed to alert humans to it or best of all do something about it herself.

We don't horseplay much here at home. I don't think she knows the difference between play and aggression. All she knows is that she don't like it.

My German Shepherd Duchess was the same way. A friend of mine when I was a kid, stopped by one day on his tractor to talk. Like all young men of that era some friendly horseplay started when he puched me on the top of my arm. Duchess put him right back up on his tractor. She'd have soon figured out how to get up there herself had I not stopped her.

The only difference between Dolly and Duchess is size. I also hate to say this nut intelligence too. Duchess was highly intelligent. Dolly is smarter than Duchess was  BUT not by too much.
Like Duchess Dolly knows the names of everyone in the house. Unlike Duchess she knows the names of all the cats and knows the names of some of our neighbors. Duchess too may have learned like this but it was different circumstances.

What I have pointed out in this post leads me to believe that somewhere in the history of the dachshund there has to be a bit of German Shepherd there. No one really knows for sure because when the Germans developed the Dachshund it was done by many different breeders over many,many years of time. The people who started the breed were not around to see the end result. 

Any and all comments will be appreciated. If someone has proof of my theory and can give me a link to a website I'd be very happy. To be honest it still sounds a bit ludicrous that a Doxie would have GSD blood in them.

Possible Lost Dog

This dog showed up in our neighborhood a few weeks ago.

He is either a Lab/beagle mix or a Golden Retriver/Beagle mix. I am not sure on either one so please leave a comment as to what breeds you think he is. His personality is like that of a beagle.

One of my neighbors feeds him. He comes to me and my wife for attention. It took him awhile to make up with us. he is a bit shy.

He has NO COLLAR. The unwritten rule in my little town is that if you own a dog you put a collar on them or they will be considered strays.

He is NEUTERED. I know this because some of his guy parts are missing. It's one of the oddest neutering jobs I have seen. Usually a vet will leave something behind.

He has average intelligence. I think if I tried I could tech him a few tricks.

My wife and I have named him BUDDY and he answers to that name and he did it immediately. It's possible his owners may have named him that. The name fits his personality.

Speaking of personality. I could go into a very long post on that. I'll try to keep it short. The best i can say about him is that my Miniature Dachshund liked him at first sight. She does not like other dogs and has been known to be rude to the few dogs that have befriended her. When she first sees him in the morning she wags her tail, I've never seen her do her intimidation routine with him. She also likes him because he plays gently with her.

I have only had to tell him NO one time. He obeyed me instantly and then had a sorrowful expression on his face. His moods are easy to read. He loves gentle attention from humans and loves it when you do what I call the "Silly Talk" routine. That's merely talking to your dog in a loving way and saying whatever silly phrase comes in your mind. With Dolly I used to say thigs like "There's my little PeePeePooPooPuppy Youse a goood Dawg!" I did that because when I first got to know her I'd pick her up and she be so excited she'd pee on me." I no longer get pee'd on but on rare occasion I still say that phrase.

Buddy is a bit afraid of cats. My cats feel safe around him and right now are trying their intimidation routine on him. They do this to all new animals that come here. If he passes that test they will love him.

Buddy is VERY laid back. few things excite him. He has excellent manners. I don't know if he is house broke but I'd bet that he is. This is a dog that I just like to set and look at. He only requires a little attention from humans and if you pet him too long he will gently let you know it's time to stop.

I cannot imagine why somebody would dump this dog after having gone to the expense and trouble of neutering. Usually people will dump a dog here because it has a personality problem or a physical problem. Problems like the stray I met several years ago that when I was using my weedeater, tried to bite me. That dog learned quickly no to bite a person with a weedeater and the lesson was by accident. Buddy has none of those issues.

One last thing. I deliberately left some things out of this description. Things that only his true owner would know. I plan to ask a lot of questions if somebody contacts me.I did that to prevent people who are less than honest from claiming him. I want him to go back to his true owners. If he has no owners I want him to go to a good loving home. He deserves that. I have too many pets now but I will take him in if he don't have a home.

I need to come back here more often to write

I have been doing all of my posts about Dolly on Facebook. I have ignored this Blog because I thought almost nobody was reading it. I have over 800 friends on Facebook and quite a number have told me they enjoyed my stories about her.

I came here tonight and saw that my Blog has over 15,000 page views. Nobody to my knowledge has left a comment so i assumed that most of my readers came here by accident and never came back.

So I will be back soon with more stories. I never have to wait long for one, Even if  it's a quiet day she is always doing something cute.

Like today for example. She's been bored because of the rainy weather and I don't like it either.  So we went on a van ride to Jefferson City.  I got several long 'I love you' looks. I'd wanted to take her in to Loews with me but left her in the van with my son.

I was tooling along in one of their handicapped carts when all at once my son popped up with her in his arms. He dropped her off on me, told me there was no leash, and he needed to use the bathroom. Off he went and there I was with her in my lap.

She did not like it at first.  Her preffered method is to be on the leash, down on the floor, strutting along proudly by my cart. She gets to explore a bit that way too. She also gets to be friendly to more humans. People tend to not see her sitting in my lap.

Even though she did not like it she never gave me a minutes trouble. She rode quietly in my lap very much like she rides with me on the John Deere.  When she's in my lap she cannot roll over on her back and expose her belly to humans she likes. 

It's late,I am tired, I will see you good folks later.