Kate MacDougall gets the lowdown on dachshunds and discovers why their tiny stature doesn’t impinge on a ‘sausage’ dog’s zest for life.
It wasn’t long after getting our now three-year-old miniature dachshund, Henry, that he tracked a muntjac in nearby woodland. We were on a family walk, children and an elderly Jack Russell in tow, when he suddenly darted forward, nose to the ground, tail thrashing wildly.
He wasn’t fast enough to get very close and the enthusiastic barking would have easily alerted most of the deer in the county, but his exuberance and sheer pluck were a real eye-opener. Not least to my husband, Finlay, who, up until that moment, had been distinctly lukewarm about Henry’s arrival, preferring dogs with a little bit more leg.
However, watching him weave his tiny body through the undergrowth in pursuit of an animal at least 20 times his size was a revelation. ‘Henry’s not what I thought he was,’ Finlay confessed, which, in many ways, sums up the breed perfectly.
Dachshunds are something of a paradox and often misunderstood. their diminutive stature, which lends them to the arms and bags of celebrities, leads some to dismiss them as lap dogs. Offered a lap to curl up on, the dachshund will, of course, happily cooperate, but it won’t stay there for long.
No matter how many Arran sweaters or Instagram followers a sausage dog has, the indomitable hound gene prevails. Dachshunds —‘badger hounds’ in German—are a classic example of this group: spirited, loyal and courageous, with an acute sense of smell and a passion for hunting. Smooth, long or wirehaired, miniature or standard, the dachshund is a big, bold dog in a very small dog’s body.
この記事は Country Life UK の May 08, 2019 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は Country Life UK の May 08, 2019 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
Give it some stick
Galloping through the imagination, competitive hobby-horsing is a gymnastic sport on the rise in Britain, discovers Sybilla Hart
Paper escapes
Steven King selects his best travel books of 2024
For love, not money
This year may have marked the end of brag-art’, bought merely to show off one’s wealth. It’s time for a return to looking for connoisseurship, beauty and taste
Mary I: more bruised than bloody
Cast as a sanguinary tyrant, our first Queen Regnant may not deserve her brutal reputation, believes Geoffrey Munn
A love supreme
Art brought together 19th-century Norwich couple Joseph and Emily Stannard, who shared a passion for painting, but their destiny would be dramatically different
Private views
One of the best ways-often the only way-to visit the finest privately owned gardens in the country is by joining an exclusive tour. Non Morris does exactly that
Shhhhhh...
THERE is great delight to be had poring over the front pages of COUNTRY LIFE each week, dreaming of what life would be like in a Scottish castle (so reasonably priced, but do bear in mind the midges) or a townhouse in London’s Eaton Square (worth a king’s ransom, but, oh dear, the traffic) or perhaps that cottage in the Cotswolds (if you don’t mind standing next to Hollywood A-listers in the queue at Daylesford). The estate agent’s particulars will give you details of acreage, proximity to schools and railway stations, but never—no, never—an indication of noise levels.
Mission impossible
Rubble and ruin were all that remained of the early-19th-century Villa Frere and its gardens, planted by the English diplomat John Hookham Frere, until a group of dedicated volunteers came to its rescue. Josephine Tyndale-Biscoe tells the story
When a perfect storm hits
Weather, wars, elections and financial uncertainty all conspired against high-end house sales this year, but there were still some spectacular deals
Give the dog a bone
Man's best friend still needs to eat like its Lupus forebears, believes Jonathan Self, when it's not guarding food, greeting us or destroying our upholstery, of course
