While finding myself surrounded with loved ones and colleagues having babies this spring and summer, I have decided to take on raising a little one myself. Since I can't have the human variety, I have settled on the furry type. On Thursday, the first day of summer break, I adopted a dachshund. It seemed the right time, since it gives me all of summer break to train him.
His name is officially Nixon Daniel, but his nickname is Nugget. He's wonderfully precious and snuggly, with soft floppy ears and these chubby short legs!
His momma is a miniature wirehaired dapple dachshund and his daddy is a standard longhaired red dachshund. Momma weighs 9 pounds, daddy 18, so Nugget should end up in the low-mid teens when fully grown. Nugget has tan and black ears that look like a longhaired doxie, but the rest of his hair is short. He has mostly smooth reddish tan fur, but he has some black on his back that feels more like wirehair texture.
I got him at 11:30 am on Thursday and he ran errands with me for 4 hours! He did great in the car and on the leash. We went to All Pet Supply to get a harness, leash, toys and food. Then we went to Parkview High School and got my new school ID picture taken. He's not in the picture but he was in my lap during it! We headed to the vet to get worm and flea meds (just in case!) for him and the cats and to make an appointment for puppy vaccines. He gets his shots at 2:30 on Tuesday. Then we drove over to the Foundation office (which relocated way south on Golden past Republic Road) and turned in my grant applications. After that, we headed to the Collado's to pick up Jen, drove through Sonic and headed home to meet the cats.
The cats are not fans. Not at all. They hiss and puff up when they are near him and he's awake. Jax has even swiped at him a couple times but not made contact. Dash just avoids him. But when he's sleeping they both seem to want to get close and sniff him and see what this new creature might be. I'm hoping that in time, they will come to an amicable indifference, at least! He is smaller than both of them right now, so he's pretty timid once they start hissing. He tries to crawl up my leg for safety!
I'm trying to balance the line of being his nurturer and his Alpha. Small dogs tend to get yappy, snippy and overly territorial if they think they are the pack leader. He's doing well with sit and come commands. No bark, no whine and no bite are still confusing ones! He's a puppy, so he does want to chew. But I am trying to tell him every time he chews me (or an undesirable object) "No bite!" Then I give him an appropriate object and say, "Bite toy. Good Nugget!" So far it's working. He also walks beside or behind me instead of leading on the leash, which is a good indication that he sees me as Alpha right now.
We are working on crate training, and he does cry, but when I have come home, he's quiet and calm in the crate. He has not had a single accident in the house or the crate! I've been vigilant about keeping him near me, because of the cats and the chewing and the house training, so that helps. I also take him out once an hour when he isn't crated. He was paper/puppy pad trained when I got him, but I don't want to use them. It seems like teaching them that sometimes it is ok to potty in the house.
Yesterday, I had my CASA swearing in ceremony in the afternoon and Aaron's birthday in the evening, so he had two stints in the crate of 3-4 hours and seemed to do fine. When I get him out, he needs a lot of hugs and reassurance, but then he's fine.
He hunts worms when I have him in the yard. Doxies were bred to hunt moles and rabbits, which is why they are tunnel shaped. When he sniffs a worm in the grass, he pulls it right up out of the dirt and is so proud. He carries it in his mouth for a couple minutes then drops it.
Right now, my biggest dilemma is night time. I haven't figured that one out yet! He does sleep 5-6 hours straight at night, which is really good...but only if he's beside me. If it were just me, with it being summer and having a flexible sleep schedule, I would work on crating at night, even though I know he would whine and cry a lot. But Donald has to work and therefore sleep! I wish we had a place in the house where I could crate him and let him whine some until he figures out that at night, he has to sleep there. But no matter where I put the crate in the house, we can hear him and he can hear us. Nugget won't sleep on the floor if I am in the bed, he just keeps trying to jump up with me and whines and barks. I can't let him sleep in the bed because the cats sleep in the bed and it doesn't seem fair to take their bed away when they are already so upset that the puppy is even in the house! Night one, Nugget and I slept on the couch. Last night, we crashed on the air mattress. I don't want to sleep out of my own bed, without Donald, forever. So I do have to figure this out. If anyone has any suggestions, let me hear them!
And here are some cutie pie pictures of my Nugget!
