Spotlight Breed:
A Tale of Two Dachshunds--The Joy of Adopting Mature Dogs
by Jennifer Windham
 





Our first dog was a Yorkshire Terrier.  Well, actually, we called him ours, but he was always Mom’s dog.  We couldn’t blame him for clinging to her, I was three and my sister was not yet one year old when Aunt Mary Alice’s dog, Brandy, had puppies and we brought one home.  I named him Murphy after a service dog I had seen on Sesame Street.  He was a good boy, and lived to age 14 even with everything we kids put him through. 

When I was seventeen I worked my first animal related job as a kennel assistant at a veterinary hospital.  This hospital also boarded animals.  One morning I commented to a co-worker about a brother and sister pair of Dachshunds who had been boarding there for quite a while.  “They’re homeless,” she replied, “their owner had to give them up.” 

  I inquired further, and found out that their owner, an elderly woman, was terminally ill and unable to care for them any longer.  The dogs were 6 1/2 years old and she had always brought them to this hospital for regular care.  A flyer was posted in the animal hospital waiting room, but no one had stepped forward to take them home, yet.  So I had the ol’ “Can we keep them, Mom, huh, can we?” conversation with Mom.  “I’ll keep them in my room, I’ll take care of them, you won’t even know they’re here,” blah, blah, blah.  And she said “Absolutely not.“ Murphy was thirteen or fourteen at the time, and she didn’t want to upset him. But then she said I could bring them home for just a weekend, so they could at least get out of their cage for a while.  That first afternoon that I brought them home, I played with them in my room until Mom got home.  When I heard her pull into the driveway, I sat nervously on the edge of my bed with the dogs in my lap.  She came up and knocked on the door, and the dogs both barked at the intruder, then exploded in a frenzy of wagging tails and excited kisses.  Klaus and Ilsa already knew they were home.

Dachshunds are German in origin, the word “dachs” means badger.  They are bred to be tenacious hunters and over time became well adept, with their short little legs, to follow badgers through tunnels.  Dachshunds can be solid, two-colored, dappled, or brindle in color, and have 3 varieties of coats:  longhaired, wirehaired or smooth.  They also come in three sizes: standard, miniature and toy.  With these three sizes, they can weigh between 8 and 32 pounds.  They can tend to be a bit headstrong, mischievous, and clever, and therefore, may be a bit of a challenge to train.  In fact, they often try to train the trainer!  They are a good breed for the city or country dweller.  Care must be taken not to allow them to strain their long backs, or to become overweight.  The breed has a tendency toward obesity, heart disease, diabetes, urinary tract problems, and herniated disc disease. 

Klaus and Ilsa were long haired and quite a pair.  Before long their distinct personalities began to emerge.  They sometimes curled up together in such a way that they resembled the Yin and Yang symbol, in more ways than one.  Klaus was the mischievous one, the first to investigate accessible trashcans.  When he was caught with something he wasn’t supposed to have, he could lock his jaws so tightly that it was nearly impossible to confiscate whatever it was.  When walk time rolled around, he got very excited and would grab his leash and run back and forth in a comical trudging motion that would throw his red and black ears all about his head, and growl dramatically for emphasis.  He had a laid back, devoted personality and was all about us, his humans.  He also had an amazing sense of smell.  His signature move was to suddenly appear in the kitchen as soon as any type of cheese emerged from the fridge, before it was even unwrapped. 

Ilsa was blonde, flirty and very feminine.  She was all of eleven pounds, and if she could have said one word, it would have been “ME.”  She thought she was part tiger and would tell any dog that would listen how she was going to chew them up and spit them back out.  She once came running down the front stairs at a dog who was taking his owner for a leisurely stroll.  She was growling and all full of bluster, then stopped on a dime just short of him and ran back yelping fearfully as the dog, a yellow Lab, cocked his head in bewilderment at her.  When she was excited she had an adorable little bounce that made it look like her front feet must have had springs under them and she loved to lick sweet things like whipped cream off a finger.  She would get excited about walk time too, but mostly we did the walking while she nestled close in the crook of our arms.  She was particularly dainty when the ground was cold or wet, and would tiptoe or hop like a bunny across the yard, and she would put on a defiant “mule face” when she didn’t want to do something.  

When we settled onto the couch for evening TV time, both dogs would come to snuggle in; Klaus was usually at our feet, while Ilsa stayed up close to our hands to be petted.  As long as one was sedentary, they were expected to pet her, for hours on end.  She would collapse, roll onto her back and lock eyes with the selected human, then wave her short little legs around in the air as if to say “Yoo-hoo, over here!”  If we would stop petting her she would begin to protest, a soft whine at first, that gradually became a dramatic and loud grunting groan, and we would mock concern, “Ilsa, are you in pain?!”

Klaus and Ilsa both lived to the age of fourteen.  Though we brought them into our home at an age that many would consider “old” already, we still shared their company for eight wonderful years, and we would gladly have done it again, even if we could only have half as much time.  They came to us housetrained and were never destructive.  We didn’t have to wait until they outgrew any phase or stopped being hyper; we just plugged them into our family and enjoyed having them with us.  Dogs are considered “senior” by age eight, but this German pair didn’t start to really age and slow down until about age twelve. 

Ilsa developed a tooth root infection when she was fourteen and, though it was risky, she had to have surgery.  Unfortunately, the procedure did take its toll on her, and she passed away within a week afterward.  She had never had any major health problems up to that point. 

Klaus’s sight and hearing began to decline the last two years of his life, but continued to get around fantastically.  To watch him navigate through the house, you would have thought that either he really could see, or he was counting his steps.  As Klaus aged and lost his vision, I must say that I was much too impressed by the way that he handled it to be sad.  He just slowed down a bit, and kept going.  When he sensed I was near, he would raise his head, searching, until I would hold my hand near his nose and stroke him.  His face would then light up in recognition and trust, a look that was more priceless than words could ever describe.  Klaus went to sleep one cold December night between two of his favorite people in the world and never woke up.  It was one month before his fifteenth birthday.

 

When a mature dog ends up in a shelter or rescue, he usually has come from a home.  He has given his love to people and felt that he had a place in the world.  Then suddenly that home and those people are gone and he has no place and nobody to belong to.  When you take an adult or senior aged dog into your home he is well aware that you have given him another chance and he will express his gratitude every day.

Consider adopting or fostering an older dog.  Most rescues and shelters have senior dogs.  Some rescues have special programs for their mature animals, such as Beagle Rescue of Southern Maryland's "Friends of Winston" Program  ( http://www.beaglemaryland.org/web_pages/main.htm ), or 
A Forever Home Rescue Foundation's "Seniors for Seniors" Program ( http://www.aforeverhome.org /).

To find out more about adopting a Dachshund, visit Dachshund Rescue of North America at http://www.drna.org , or a Dachshund rescue in your area. 
 

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