Category: Greta

Bernie, Me and Greta
Yesterday we brought Greta to meet her intended husband. Bernie is a two year old boy, born in the USA to German imported parents. His lineage is marked with nearly as many champions as our little Greta. He lives about 45 miles from us with his charming human parents, B & E.
I was so anxious and excited to see this little man and to see how the two of them got along. I gave Greta a bath, lest her beau think she wasn’t a well groomed girl, I brushed her and even offered her a little lip gloss, which she declined.
We arrived just before 1 PM at B & E’s home. I had Greta on a little lead, but as soon as we got inside, I took it off.
For Bernie, it was love at first sight. The little man, an absolutely gorgeous Rauhhaardackel (wire-haired dachshund), just couldn’t take his eyes off of Greta. He followed her around and around and around. At first Greta was nice and sort of smiled at him, but once she saw him sitting there, staring at her, with his tongue hanging out and lust in his eyes, and she knew she had him hooked, she turned into a real *itch! Yes, the female species of dogs is aptly named. She was stand offish, she growled, she bared her teeth. The more she rejected him, the more he found her truly captivating! She sniffed him, stole all his toys and bones and didn’t want any sex at all! Hubby says she is a typical woman!
We were there for about 2 hours, and during that time, Bernie was relentless. I tried to soothe him by telling him that in a couple of months, she will be putty in his paws, but I’m not sure it helped.
We plan to keep getting them together so that they become good friends before the actually have “their night of passion”.

Some dogs, like Greta do not shed. Their dead fur must be gently pulled out, in other words, “stripped” from their body. It doesn’t hurt, rather, it feels like a good vigorous brushing to them. Ears need to be stripped to the point where they have just little wisps left and then gently trimmed at the edges. Below you can see the before and after pictures of Greta’s ears.

Next I will be stripping her body to get her winter coat off and give her a cleaner, sleeker look. It’s a fun, learning experience. Once Hubby is up, I’ll get some pictures of how I actually do this.

My friend in Berlin wrote me today and sent these pictures she took of baby Greta. She was just 8 weeks old and a mere four pounds. The tiniest little puppy! I knew the moment I saw her that she was going to be a special girl. She had fire and spirit and yet she was also a little love. The picture below is Greta with Uschi’s dog, Gill. You can see how tiny she was.

As she has grown she has become even more intelligent, more interested in the world around and not afraid of anything, Well, almost.
When she first arrived in New Hampshire I had her in the back yard playing when she ran up the hill toward the home of the neighborhood giant Newfoundland, Gus. He took about three big steps toward her and she ran back toward me screeching a loud puppy yipe! I was so scared for her, but looking back now, it cracks me up.

Greta will literally chase down our White Shepherd, Fritz. She has no fear now. I am not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. I worry about her getting in over her head with a big strange dog.
In any case, looking at these pictures of Greta, and seeing how much she has changed and grown makes me smile. What a wonderful little friend she has become!

Greta is two years old now. She is full grown and weighs about 18 pounds. She is not only beautiful, but as sweet as pie! I took a couple of pictures of her tonight that show her personality some. The first shows her mischievous side. Can you see those little eyes checking me out? I can almost hear her saying, “Oh Mom, will you put down the camera?”

The next shows her long lean body, as she poses for me.

The last shows just what a beautiful girl she is. Such a pretty face. It just goes to show that girls with mustaches really can be attractive!

For those of you with a beautiful, well built teenage daughter, I can sympathize. I know you have “boys” coming by, or calling and generally making fools of themselves. Lovesick young boys, who are totally captivated by your daughter’s beauty.
I have Greta. Yes, little Miss Pants is still in heat and the boys are coming from far and wide to sit on my door step in hopes that they will get a “look“, or a “piece” of my little girl.
At first I thought it was funny. You know, “Isn’t that cute?”, but today I finally found my good humor fading, as we had Fritz and Greta barking away like wild things, while the boys in question sat there, hopefully.
I was afraid to open the door to shoo the boys away. Afraid that my little hussy would slip out and run off with those that would like to worship her. Fear not, her pureness is intact. I am one tough keeper of the chastity belt!
How much longer will this last?
Meanwhile, I am getting ready to leave for Hubby’s operation on Wednesday. I’m bringing the pooches with me, as I can’t very well expect a house sitter to be changing Greta’s pants, now can I? But imagine this…Greta sitting in her little pants in the front seat of my station wagon, and there, surrounding the car will be every un-neutered male dog in a 5 mile radius! Oh help!

Sunday was the worst day yet for Greta’s suitor’s. The big black Lab arrived in the early afternoon and just stayed and stayed. Fritz tried to run him off, but old black Lab was having none of that. Instead he ran Fritz’s butt all over the back yard. After about 45 minutes of this dog play, Fritz came in exhausted.
And where was Miss Greta? Right at the door, barking and fussing and generally acting like a real tramp! I tried to tell her that it is far better to play hard to get, but she twitched her little tail and ignored me!
Night fell, and I guess that black Lab was hungry, because he left the yard and went home. He has not returned. I was finally able to get Greta out for a much needed walk in the yard, but she was so enthralled with sniffing where black Lab had been that she couldn’t concentrate on her business. Too bad, this meant I had to go out one more time.
I keep telling myself that I need to hang on just a few more days and Greta will return to the sweet, easy dog that she usually is. For now, it’s like living with a Playboy Playmate on hormones!

(Hubby says, he should be so lucky!)

Yesterday Greta began looking at me with a little glint in her eye. That’s cute, I thought, until she jumped over on me and let me know that she wanted me to be the father of her puppies! I patted my little friend, and tried to explain hormones. Now how do you explain hormones to a 23 month old female dog in heat? It’s not an easy thing. I finally had to put her on the floor to escape her “passion“. Thinking that I was showing an interest in further “love play” she started to nuzzle my slippers. (Wait, I have furry slippers! Do you think she has fallen for them?) I finally gave up and took her to bed, in hopes that she would settle down and go to sleep in there. After a bit she did, but at 5:30 this morning she woke me up with passionate kisses. After taking her out to commune with nature, I am now keeping my distance!
We will breed her next time, but this time her amorous ways will have to be for naught. Meanwhile, I have another 10 days of these loving feelings and changing little puppy pants.
The things we do for love!

Well, it started. I knew it would. The “boys” have discovered that Greta is in heat and have begun to “come a calling!” Currently we have one black lab and one yellow lab, in our back yard, searching for Ma Belle Petite Fille! Of course, I knew this would happen, and I am ready. I started to walk Greta on a leash last night, and I keep a close eye out for any young studs who want to take advantage of my baby.
Fritz is going crazy, as he hates to have any strange dogs in our yard. He races from one window to the next, barking and growling and generally making my head hurt much worse than it did a while ago. Greta just follows along. Personally, I think she would be thrilled to go out and cavort with these young boys and just give it all away. She’s like that when she is in heat. A real tramp! It’s good that she has a mother like me that is keeping her pure for that special boy!
Speaking of which, I think we have found Greta a good suitor. He is almost the same age as Greta, the same size and looks very much like her twin. He comes from a similar background and I think theirs may be, a match made in Heaven!
Meanwhile, I shall fight off the advances of these young studs and keep Greta on the straight and narrow.

I bet you are all wondering what I did with my day today. No? Well, I am going to tell you anyway.
I started looking for a boyfriend for Greta!
We decided not to breed her during this heat, but in 7 months she will be ready and I want to have her suitor all lined up.

My beautiful Greta
I called several breeders and spoke with them. I began to feel like I was getting nowhere, because I do not want to breed with a dog who has been inbred! It just isn’t a good thing for the pups health wise, and unfortunately many of the American breeders feel that inbreeding is just fine, and they do it a lot.
I found, through the Internet, people who also import their dogs from Germany and believe in keeping the dogs lines straight. They referred me to a very nice woman here in New Hampshire who has a male near to Greta’s age. We spoke for quite a long time, and I think we may just have found Greta’s boyfriend!
I have sent pictures of my lovely girl to them and they will send pictures of their boy back to us and after Greta is done with this heat we will get together.
Now you know how pathetic I am, when my dog’s sex life makes my day!

I let the dogs outside yesterday for the usual run in the back yard. Shubi and Fritz made short work of it and hurried back inside for their cookie treats, but Greta seemed to just disappear! I called and called, slipped on my jacket and started walking around the house. Where was that little devil?

I called and called. Ice Fishermen on the lake heard me and waved! Still no Greta.

I came back to the doorway and called again. Nothing. Darn that little dog! I walked down the stairs, convinced that she had somehow run away and that I would never see her again. I started to feel tears sting my eyes.
I turned to walk back up the stairs and tell Hubby that our little girl had run away. Just then I saw a flash of fur rush past me and up the stairs! As I reached the top of the steps there stood Greta with her tail wagging wildly! She was, of course, looking for her cookie!

She got her cookie and I took a deep breath filled with relief.