HFH - aka - GPP

Given that the kids are now 10 months old and there has been a firm change of character from the light hearted chewing of anything that moved of puppydom to the serious chewing of anything that moves of adulthood I thought a change of name was only right. The postings formerly known as Gratuitous Puppy Pictures (GPP) will now be called Hounds From Hell (HFH).

I don't think either one of us realized what a challenge it is to have two pups of roughly the same age in the house. Our previous experience had involved introducing Reesie as a pup into an already existing pack - Laurent, Bundnie and myself. The establishment of pack order has been an interesting - in the Chinese proverb sense of the word - experience.
The two of them love the couch in the Den and it has become the favoured sleep spot. Its also good for imperial poses (That would be they before their were groomed, then Nora in the middle and Nicky below) and for climbing over the arm and into the lap of poor unsuspecting Papa as he tries to type. I am learning to post with a lap full of daschies, who once they are comfortably ensconced are a bit difficult to dislodge.


It is normal to "strip" the coats of wire-haired daschies; hand stripping is probably the best however it takes forever and a day and patience on both the part of the stripper and the dog. Since patience is at a premium in our household the groomer used the shears on them over a month ago. When Nicky came home I didn't recognize him - because the undercoat is a different colour they both like completely different dogs.

Since that first day when I sat in the back seat of the car holding them Nicky has been a whiner and Nora the gregarious one. Those traits have only increased as they have gotten older. Nick still whines a great deal and Nora thinks that her mission in life is to lick and kiss people. Nick has also given us a series of other problems: He is also afraid of other dogs but unfortunately that takes the form of aggression - sort of I'll snap at them before they snap at me. It has happened on a few occasions during our walks at Villa Torlonia and has been a real source of concern. We are working with a very good Danish trainer to nip this in the bud. And Christmas Eve, the first time he had been around a group of people, he seemed to be afraid of them - including one friend he had been playing with only the day before - and was extremely skittish.
The trainer says that Nicky is also being protective of Nora when other dogs approach her - to be blunt he thinks of her as his bitch! Though heaven knows a great deal of their waking time is spent fighting, scraping and posturing for top place when they fall asleep in the den it is always cuddled together.

There are a few other traits that I won't go into here as this tends to be a family oriented blog but let's just say that Nick has not realized that Nora has been spade and also that if he continues to hump her head he may not need that aggression training!

26 decembre - San Stefano