"Being the owner of dachshunds, to me a book on dog discipline becomes a volume of inspired humor. Every sentence is a riot. Some day, if I ever get a chance, I shall write a book, or warning, on the character and temperament of the dachshund and why he can't be trained and shouldn't be. I would rather train a striped zebra to balance an Indian club than induce a dachshund to heed my slightest command. When I address Fred I never have to raise either my voice or my hopes. He even disobeys me when I instruct him in something he wants to do."
e.b. white
when you already have pets, bringing a baby into the mix can be tough. we own 2 dachshunds, mr. famous (who has been with me almost 4 years) and eleanor rigby (who has been with us for almost 2 years). dachshunds are nortorious for being difficult to train, and bad with children. in fact, when i was first trying to adopt mr. f, i was turned down from a couple places because i said i planned on getting married and having children w\in the next 10-15 years...
our little pups have had a rough year- first, dave moved to chicago, and they were stuck w\ me for 6 weeks, then we moved to dave's mom & dad's. a week after arriving, mr. f started acting funny and couldn't walk- we were basically told we were going to have to pay $5,000 for surgery, or put him down. we chose neither, and instead picked a treatment method we found online- 8 weeks of nearly 24-hour crate rest. he wasn't thrilled, but here we are nearly 11 months later, and he is nearly good as new! then, we moved again into our present home, and finally that small crying thing came along...
let me say that my dogs hate me. they were both gifts from my husband because i have always adored dachshunds. they once loved me, but when i got married my husband took over nearly all dog duties, then i was pregnant, so i am pretty much dead to them. i was growled at when returning from the hospital, they won't eat if i try to feed them (they are always hungry), and sometimes, they run from me... ::sigh::
enter baby. both dogs have their own reaction to him- and not what we thought it would be.
mr. famous- mr. f is infamous for his non-stop crying. it's enough to drive you insane. if you aren't petting him or looking at him, he will cry. enter crying baby. when baby cries- mr. f cries. when baby is upstairs asleep- mr. famous is upstairs in his bed. i'm pretty sure he thinks i need his help raising ian. mr. f also has a drinking problem. his cycle is this- drink an entire bowl of water, go to the door to be let out 10 times, repeat. it's annoying, but his going to the door means that there are rarely indoor accidents (those are usually our fault). he loves to play with toys, but if you pet him once, he'll never let you forget it, and he'll get all up in your mix...
eleanor rigby- el is famous for ignoring people and acting like they don't exist (namely, me). that's mostly how she treats baby, except for tonight when she decided to jump onto my lap and then onto ian's face while i was feeding him (he was oblivious). nice one, el. eleanor also hates cold, rain and snow. she's mastered the art of refusing to use the bathroom outside when the temperature is below 50. you can walk her for 30 minutes, and she stubbornly refuses to go. when it snows, she has learned to fake limp, so you bring her back inside... so the second you bring her back into the house, she decides it's warm enough to evacuate her bowels. basically, she thinks our house is her toilet. it's enough to drive you mad. even the "punishment crate" hasn't taught her a lesson... she also thinks she's houdini. shes learned to unzip her crate with her nose and make many escapes. if she escapes and we aren't around- she's going to do something wrong. at christmas she got out, climbed on the coffee table, ate an entire bowl of hershey's kisses, and then left some of her own on our carpet. it took a lot of scrubbing and a steam cleaner to take care of that one... this week, she got into candy that we didn't even know existed, knocked over 2 bathroom trashcans and chewed on the contents, and the real kicker- peed all over ian's playmat.
mommy was not happy. thank the Lord for oxy clean. i don't know what this means as el has never "marked" in ian's room or shown any aggression/jealousy towards him.
a lot of people find it's just easier to get rid of their pets once baby comes. and believe me, we think about this every day. i just don't know if i could ever do it. both dogs were adopted- so i feel like we made a promise to them that we'd care for them until they die, although they have my husband saying we'll never own pets again... with their antics as of late, we find ourselves constantly (half) joking asking our friends if they'd like a dog....
anyone want a dog? no, but seriously...
for now they are here to stay, but they are on warning with their crazy behavior. hopefully mr. f will calm the whining, and eleanor will find spring/summer makes her only want to potty outdoors, and that q-tips aren't snacks. i want to be a good doggie mommy, but i'm first and foremost a baby mommy. i'm just hoping we can all exist peacefully, and hopefully as ian becomes mobile in the coming months we can prove the "dachshunds aren't good for babies/children/anyone" thing wrong. because despite all of our threats, they are good, sweet dogs, and i really do love them.
anyone else have dog (pet)/baby issues?
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