Saturday, December 26, 2009

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

7 comments:

yellowdoggranny said...

oh wow..talk about the awwwww factor..they are sooo cute..i think i should come visit and show them what a real trouble maker is by bringing dexter...hope you had a very very merry christmas

Doralong said...

Now that was a nice Christmas present!! Hounds from hell-hah! I'll give you my two heathen dogs for a few weeks.

M. Knoester said...

How about this for embarrassing: one of my parents' dogs was teased by the neighbours' kid. As far as I know it was nothing really serious, but it did make an impression on the dog. Unfortunately the boy was Moroccan and the dog started showing agression to all non-white people...

What they did was to get one of my childhood toys down from the attic: a doll the size of a toddler, called Petra. I've never thought of my parents as particularly pc, but Petra was - is, I suspect they still have her stored somewhere even though we moved - black.

Slowly the dog was exposed to her for longer periods and eventually she was just sitting in the corner of the living room waiting for the ever less frequent command to "go say hello to Petra".

Great, that word confirmation thingy says "preek", Dutch for sermon. Now it's commenting on my reply!

Elizabeth said...

The pups are still adorable (all children are from a distance!) even now that they've gotten their big-kid haircuts.

And let me add that a patient stripper is hard to find! They're always in a hurry to "take it off, take it all off!"

Bev aka Aisha said...

I do recall in earlier years that Sobi used to hump Silver's head regularly but that day in front of the plumber was a bit embarrassing... And she used to love carrying bits of underclothes around to the delight of all the workmen in the house... The HFH are wonderful and I look forward to the day I can meet them... they are toooo cute

Blake said...

The "Hounds from Hell" are still cute. I too am looking forward to meeting them. Haircuts always make you wonder if it is your dog(s) when you go to pick them up from the groomer. Maybe Nicky is taking the lead from this owners? Uncle Pervy.

sageweb said...

I love it when dogs sleep together..it is adorable...Love the pics