What's Tougher than Shaving the Underside of a Dachshund?

My sweet Sandra, she would be such a mop if I let her be. Eventually the fur needs to come off. It's cool because she really only looks like a dachshund when she is trimmed up. It's like "Oh yeah, she actually is a dachshund. Plus she does a happy dance after. Sometimes a haircut can be so liberating.

I have been shaving our wire hair dachshunds ever since we first got Watson back in 1997. He was our first. He was a standard sized wire hair. He was a big boy, a solid 30 pounds. His coat seemed to get more fuzzy every year. I would shave him 2 or 3 times a year.

Then came Miss Peachy who was so timid when we got her, but she turned into a feisty little top dog. She could also be spooked by a random leaf blowing by.

Sandie came along while we still had Peaches, so she learned eveything from her. They are kinda similar looking, so when Sandie is all shaved up she can give you that milisecond when your brain thinks its Peaches. It's nice to get that Peachy moment. She's been gone a few years now.

So the job of shaving Sandie is a big project to gather all the tools and space to do the work. She's pretty coopertive but it does take awhile . It's also difficult to get to the underside of a dachshund. I end up sitting on the floor with her laying on her back on top of my legs. She's pretty chill with this whole deal, especially if she can lick my arms while I doing it. It's good so I can get to her undersides and her legs. Those fuzzy legs.

And look I have enough fur leftover for a whole nother dog! There is half again as much stuck to my clothing. Somehow I will also end up doing this on the hottest day of the year.

 

Never A Day without Dachshunds

 

I never want to have a day where I don't have at least 1 dachshund in my life. Last spring, when we lost my soul mate dog Spaatz, it felt really odd to just have 2 dachshunds. We had 4 for such a long time. The big 4 as I refer to the pack we had for nearly 10 years.

We had Miss Peaches, Spaatz, Sandie and Foozeball. They were a great crew. It's hard to believe that Sandiepoo is the only one left from those days. We're not a 100% sure how old she is as we're her 3rd owners. She should be around 15. She was supposedly the same age as Spaatz when we got her.

Now she pretty much sleeps all day. She has also gotten a bit thinner after being "chonky" her whole life. She is nearly blind as a result of having cataracts in both eyes. She's the #1 lump in the bed.

Then there is Rupert, who is the other lump in the bed. Rupert recently turned 16, so we're having a couple of senior citizens in the dachshund camp. I end up carrying them about the house quite a bit just to speed things up. Otherwise it can take all day to get everyone in and out of the house when you need to.

Then of course there is Flynn, who is my long haired red rescue. He is 6 years old, in his prime, and love, love, loves to hunt. For a guy who didn't know what a woodland creature was when he got here he has dedicated himself to hunting vermin. He's a sweet boy and apparently I am his person. 

So Ive gone from having nothing but smoothies and wire hairs, to now having 2 long hairs and 1 wire. Good thing I love scruffy dogs. Anyway we're up for more dachshund adventures, and who knows there my be more dachsunds yet in my life. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Goodbye My Sweet Spaatz

 Of course I knew this day would come eventually. I knew it would be extremely painful because I loved him so much. Spaatz truly was a best friend. He was always there for me, and with dogs love is not so complicated. My husband Jerry agrees that when you looked into those two different colored eyes you felt a connection. He was a great nuzzler. He would brush his cheek against mine and give a little doggie kiss.

Spaatz came to us in 2010 by way of Florida. I had wanted a dapple dachshund with different colored eyes. Our daughter Marlena had the opportunity to get me just what I was looking for, and while she was at it she got Spaatz's sisiter Loreli. We still had Miss Peaches and Foozeball but our first dachshund Watson had passed the previous year.

When I first got Spaatz, Jerry wasn't exactly pleased. I think he wanted another wire hair. He felt they were more of the hunting dog type. I think any dachshund can be a hunting dog, if given the training and opportunity to do so. We are fortunate to have a little fenced in area in our back yard so the dogs can run around and sniff all they want. Occasionally they might get the chance to tangle with woodland creatures. Spaatz had the chance to kill a long tailed weasel. It's a dachshund playland.

So I started this post quite a long time ago. Losing Spaatz was really hard, but I had to pay a price for all that love. I made it through and now our cast of characters has changed once again, so we're back to 3 dachshunds. With the addition Rupert, my granddog, we keep the Doxson Ranch going.

Happy 13th Birthday Spaatz!

 Happy 13th birthday to my sweet beloved Spaatz. My black and tan dappled dachshund with one blue eye. He's finally starting to slow down, but he's been the ultimate alpha dog forever. He still is and let's the newish guy, Flynn, know that he's still the man. This dynamic will change one day, I know, just not yet.

The pack is getting along fine. Flynn is a very energetic knucklehead that keeps the old dogs going.

 Miss Sandie is also about 13 as far as we'll ever know. She has slowed down much more than Spaatz. Unfortunately she is nearly blind from cataracts. At first when we got Flynn she wouldn't play with him

but now they play often. It's great to see the old dogs get up and play again when you add a youngster to the group. That's how we keep the pack going. As the dogs get older, we add new blood to the group

I hope to never be dachshundless. They make everything better, They always make me feel better , even in the toughest circumstances. Their devotion is endless, I'm so lucky to have them here to get through this thing called life together.

Happy Birthday Spaatz!

My Three Doxsons Rides Again!

So we've been away for awhile. It felt very odd to only have 2 dogs. After having 4 for 7 years and 3 for, I was going to say 8, but we had Watson years ago so there was more than that. Anyway, we are back to 3 with the arrival of the new guy. Let me introduce you to Flynn. He is our first long haired dachshund. He's sweet and loving, but needs some work to be his best boy he can be.

We were kinda thinking that we would get another wire haired dachshund, but the simple truth is they're hard to find. I thought that we could maybe get a long hair. It would be cool to have one of each coat type. We have known several nice long hairs, My daughter has had three of them.

Here we have Lorelei, who is Spaatz's sister and Hugo and Rupert. My daughter's dogs, two are long hairs.

The funny thing is that the way we got Flynn is almost identical to the way we got Foozeball, who passed away this past December at the age of 14. My husband is the dog control officer for our town, as he has been for 22 years. In both cases he was taking a stray to the shelter, and when he gets there it's "we have a dachshund for you". Both dogs came from non-ideal circumstances, so they come to live with us, a veritable dachshund paradise. 

Think about it. Friends to play with, dog beds to sleep on in every room, unless there's a couch available. A fenced in backyard, complete with red and grey squirrels, chipmunks and the occasional mouse or vole. Spaatz even caught and dispatched a weasel in the woodpile. There's a bluegrass fiddle and banjo song there somewhere.

So now we embark on a new chapter in the lives of My Three Doxsons. Flynn is about 1 1/2 and he has spent most of his time cooped up in an apartment barking, so he will have to learn some manners. He is very smart with a great play drive, so I think he has a lot of potential. We have work to do, I'll keep you posted.

The original My Three Doxsons: Spaatz, Miss Peaches and Foozeball.

Rest In Peace Foozeball

I am sad to say that yesterday we had to say goodbye to Foozeball. It's always hard to say goodbye to someone who has been such a big part of your life for the past 14 plus years, but that  time had come.

I'd like to say that we're very proud that we were able to give him a really full life. Just a pup, the SPCA was going to put him down because he was turned in, and was biting everyone who worked there.

We took him in and it took time, but we were able to help him get over his bad habits. Plus he had friends to hang out with always and a yard with a fence, and plenty of squirrels to bark at.

He got to travel from Maine to Florida, with many stops along the way. We took the dogs on camping trips and road trips to see grandma in Cape Cod. We went for walkies on the Hudson Valley Rail Trail.

He even was able to get together with my daughters dachshunds for the holidays a few times as well.

He's the one with the Star Wars shirt on. I know, it's a bit of a melee. Reduces the clean up time though!

I know it's My Three Doxson's, but for awhile it will be just two. If you want to get technical it was four for a long time. Life is always in changing and we'll miss the "Old Man", because he was if nothing else a bit of a character, which is why he was Foozeball. All he really wanted was a warm place to be, a heater vent, a sunbeam, but mostly my lap. I'll miss you Mr. Foo.

 

Sandie, black walnuts and unlimited tennis balls

 It's been a wet end of summer and early fall in New York, so that has made many things grow really well. One on particular, is the mighty black walnut tree. A tree that has been a feature in most of my adult life. It was never an issue with the dogs until Sandie came along.

Sandie seems to think the nuts are tennis balls and she wants to rertieve them. I find them in the house, under tables. This year was an absolute bumper crop of nuts, and they're big. I've gotten good at golfing them over the dog fence to get rid of them. I get the confusion, kinda, but we're talking about Sandie. 

Sandie is a very sweet dog that everyone loves. She was voted Dachshund most likely to go home in someones suitcase, every year, since they started taking polls. Part of that charm is due to her honest to goodness dopeyness. Not the sharpest tool in the shed. No matter, she makes up for it in sweetness.

It makes her the perfect foil to Spaatz, who is a little too smart for his own good. When he wants to be. She aspires to be able to be like him, and is often his partner in crime, if given the chance.

Fooze is no longer participating in the shenanigans, and spends his time looking for the next sunbeam to lay in. Or he may sit on my foot until I sit down somewhere so he can snuggle up against me.

I'm glad to say that the nuts have all been removed from inside the dog fence and we're back to toys that sport some fur and might even still squeak if your lucky. The dogs are stacked like the hot dogs that they are in a bed that's probably a little more comfortable for two. No matter, weenies roasting in the sun.