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STEPS
These are the little doggy steps that the puppies and even Greta use to get up onto the sofa or my chair. Now that I have trained them to use these steps I can worry a little less about their delicate dachshund backs.
Today was a lovely warm day and we took the Dackel Princess 4 out in the back yard to play. I hope you enjoy this short video and that it makes you smile, just a little. Have a great weekend everyone!
The worst is over and Hubby and I are on the mend. We both actually ate “real” food today, and started to regain our health. I went out and got my hair done, picked up the mail and Hubby actually got out of bed and put on clothes. He even took care of the puppies while I was gone. Of course he had the help of Fritz and Greta with the puppies so he wasn’t completely alone.
I arrived back from my “dip in the fountain of youth” to find a hungry Hubby and four hungry dogs. I put on my apron and “whipped” up an easy meal for Hubby and then fed all four dogs. Then the fun began as I tried to get the two puppies to do all their business outside.
Anneliese is pretty easy, in that when you bring her out she knows why she is there and will usually perform. Although she will often not perform all her business during one outing. Two, I can handle. Arnie on the other hand is still a bit of a dumb bunny. He will head for the newspapers in the puppy room and I will call to him. I’ll race outside with him and he will then stand there looking at me like I am the one who should be doing something. So we come back in and two seconds later he runs out toward the puppy room. I race after him, and run outside (grabbing my coat, hat and gloves) only to have him stare at me blankly again. I bring him back in and just as my fanny is hitting the seat he runs back to the puppy room.
I jump up as if shot out of a cannon, and race outside with him again. This time I forget my hat and gloves but I have the flashlight and can walk further out into the doggie poop mine field with my puppy. I finally help him find just the right spot and he goes! Woo-hoo!!! Then there are Milk Bones given all around in celebration.
I worry that I am truly insane trying to raise two pups at the same time. Then I look down in my lap at the two faces of the pups sleeping there and I realize that I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Rain.
Do you know how tough it is to house train puppies when it is raining? Especially when those very same puppies do not like being wet!
Monday it rained almost all day. I kept taking Anneliese and Arnie out with hopes of great things, and with Anneliese I got pretty good results, but with Arnie, well, not so much. He looks at me with those big raisin eyes, that question me, as if he is saying, “Now what do you want from me?” I try to be patient, I walk around and around, but no luck. I bring him in, put him on the newspaper and immediately he goes. I’m starting to think he enjoys reading while he poops!
I believe Anneliese will be trained long before my boy Arnie. Oh well, he is a sweet boy even if he is a little bit of a dumb bunny! Will someone pass the comic section of the newspaper….
We bought the dachshunds a new bed. The circular one we had before is on it’s last legs. I recently washed the cover and noticed that it was just about thread bare. The puppies aren’t quite sure what to do with the new bed. They dive into it with wild abandon and roll around against the plush cover. Even Greta likes the new bed and currently we are leaving the bed out in the family room for her. After all, being a mother earns her a certain place on the doggy totem pole.
Speaking of Mommy Greta, someone asked me if I intended to show Greta now that she has been a Mommy. I had to laugh and remind them, that although there are many beautiful Mommies out there, after they have had 5 big babies you usually don’t want to enter them in a beauty contest with a swimsuit competition! LOL
Hubby pointed out the other day that now that we are a four dog family, things have become much like life in a kennel. Our days are falling into a pattern of up with the birds (or should I say puppies), and to sleep at dusk.
The puppies are learning how to act and they are getting more and more potty trained each day. They play almost all day and naps are going by the wayside. Shucks. I need my sleep!
Mr. Fritzi is getting used to the babies and I think he actually likes them. He will sit in front of my chair and looks quite at peace. And when they lean down and kiss his nose I think he actually likes it.
I think Hubby is enjoying them too. He will sit over on the sofa with all the dogs and talk to them, teach the smaller ones to look out the window and laugh at their antics.
Me? Well, I feel like a new mother. I’m a bit sleep deprived, I am on my feet most of the day and I am trying desperately to keep up with two toddler puppies. Wish I could diaper them, it would save me the carpet cleaning and the rushed trips out to the back yard.
But I am happy. Happy with my little dog family and Hubby. I know once the puppies are house trained, life will become so much easier. In the meantime, I will enjoy the beautiful faces and loving looks.
Thursday was one of those incredibly busy days. Both Hubby and I had appointments with his knee surgeon. I wanted to have him look over my knee as well as the MRI and get his opinion.
His opinion was that he sees a tear in the meniscus. The MRI was not clear enough to tell how big of a tear, and right now he wants to give it a few more weeks so that the Medial Collateral Ligament has a chance to completely heal. Then we will assess how the meniscus is.
Hubby is the real star patient of our family. Two knee replacements and he is back to skiing and walking everywhere and basically, he is the Poster Child for knee replacement surgery.
We returned to the house to find all the doggies happy to see us, and got them all outside for a nice play session, before bringing them in. And because so many of you asked, here are a few pictures of my beautiful babies.
And his little sister Anneliese
And now as the day ends and I sit down to watch a little TV I thought you would enjoy seeing what my chair looks like a great deal of the time.
Today was “Bath Day For Dachshunds” here at the Dackel Princess house. Although Greta is a seasoned bath champ, this was the very first bath for Arnie and Anneliese. To say it was comical would be an understatement!
We have a walk in shower with a seat in our bath. I got all three dachshunds into the shower, closed the door and began my work. I turned on the shower gently and got the water nice and warm, all while Arnie cried. Here we had two girls and one boy and the boy was the one sobbing!
I started with Anneliese and got her wet, soaped her up with the nice oatmeal soap. Then held her close to my chest while I rinsed her off. Yes, I am a real hands on Mom who believes that if the baby gets a bath, so do you. Anneliese was a good girl and she never made a peep.
Next was Arnie. He cried the entire time, even though I tried to sooth him. I can see that I will have to work on this with him over some time. He is a real chicken and doesn’t like the water at all. He lathered up well, and rinsed and then I was onto Greta.
She is an old pro and stood majestically in front of the seat so I could sit down while I lathered her up. Then she walked under the shower stream and rinsed herself off, with very little effort from me.
After I finished my bit in the shower, I got out first and dried off, then got Greta, and lastly the puppies. I dried Arnie first (he was still crying) and then when I moved onto Anneliese he scurried off into the lavatory part of our bathroom, still crying.
I called to him several times after I opened the door to return to the family room, but all he did was cry. I finally went to investigate and found him trapped between the magazine rack and the toilet! I pried him out and then put the pups in their room while I dressed.
Naturally I was overcome with the “mother of all hot-flashes”, and it took me a few minutes to get back to check on them. What should I find when I did get back? One of them had dragged the newspapers to the gated entry and then pooped on it and both of them had been jumping in the poop!
So I picked up Arnie and went to the sink and washed his feet and tail (again) and then did the same with Anneliese.
We are currently sitting in my chair, both the puppies are asleep next to me after their horrible baths! LOL They do, however, smell wonderfully fresh and clean!
I want to know how Carol Brady did it? How did she have 6 children and have them all grow up happy and healthy and seemingly well adjusted? Here I am with 4 dogs and I’m working pretty hard to give each of them “quality time” each day.
I noticed that Greta was a little grumpy the other day and was doing all sorts of things to get my attention. So I spent time focusing just on her. So what happens? The two puppies revert back to wee-weeing in unwanted places! All I can say is Thank God for the “Big Green Clean Machine” carpet cleaner!
Fritz is the only one not demanding a lot of attention these days and so I feel guilt ridden about that and work hard to pat and speak lovingly to him.
Today I felt so outmatched that I thought perhaps my only recourse was to hire a puppy nanny. Someone to come in and take the dogs for walks, clean up there messes, while I sit here and eat bon-bons and pat my little friends.
But no. Where’s the fun in that? Why once I get the puppies house broken, I will have that accomplishment to revel in! I’ll be in the grocery store talking to the Deli man saying stuff like, “And I house trained two puppies, at the same time and it was still winter!” He, of course, will look at me and exclaim, “Wow! I’ve only read about people like you!”
So after I’d cleaned the carpet for the second time and walked the puppies for the 10th time today, in the rain, (don’t you feel bad for me?) I sat down with both little pups and Greta in my lap and Fritz by my feet, and I was actually grateful for these four furry wonders. I felt so loved.
I know. Just call me crazy!
I’d planned on a nice quiet Sunday, but that didn’t happen. I awoke to find that I didn’t have enough eggs for breakfast for two, and there for would need to take a trip to the grocery store. So Hubby and I walked the pooches, and then headed off to get food.
The best I can say about our shopping trip was that it was interesting to people watch while we pushed the cart through the store. There were families shopping. This proved to be amusing because some of the husband/wife combo’s made sense, while others simply were amusing. Like, “how the heck did they ever get together?”.
Our trip was a short one and we returned home to play with the pups. Since our back yard is a vast sea of wet and mud I didn’t want to keep the puppies out there too much. So in we came, toweled them dry and set about playing.
Anneliese
Playing with one of Greta’s big bones.
We watched them in awe and laughed a lot. Fritz is becoming more and more comfortable and does well with them.
But one thing I hadn’t considered is Greta. My poor little girl is a little jealous of all the attention the puppies are getting. In the last few days I have tried to spend some quality time with her. Funny. Dogs are like kids in so many ways.