Sunday, March 19, 2006
Kasper
It's a German word. It means "clown". The "a" is pronounced like "aw", as in saw, the "s" is pronounced like "sh", as in show, and the "per" sounds an awful lot like the english word "pair".
Talk about some clowns!
The subject of this post is the dog on the far right.
A good friend of ours, a German, doesn't use our pup's name when she talks to him. She calls him "Kasper". Isa, our friend, is the pup's third favorite person in the world, next to me and my wife.
The name fits.
Here is a picture of the pup taken within the last couple of days.
The 8 and 1/2 month old pup is the dog on the left. The red dog on the right is over 10 years old. Tas, the old fart, is a miniature dachshund, or dackel, as they say in Bavaria. Gimli, our pup, is a standard sized dog of the same breed. (Different coat type) Gimli, or Kasper, as his "Tanta (Aunt) Isa" calls him, has about 10 more months of growing before he is completely an adult.
Here is another picture, it features me, Gimli/Kasper, and our other old fart, Radar (Radar and Tas are 1/2 of one litter, the only two males from that litter):
Gimli, my "Kasper", has been in training.
Let me recap for a second.
I'm 40. I received my first dackel as a 5th birthday present. I've had dackels almost continuously since then. I know the breed. I have researched the breed. I love the breed.
Gimli is the youngest dog in his class, at obedience training. He does the worst of the bunch. Without a doubt.
That's okay.
He is not supposed to do well at conventional obedience training.
His breed, consistently, does poorly at it.
The breed was not made to wait on humans.
A normal hunting dog(Pointer, Setter, Labrador, Basset Hound, etc.) goes and does what his hunter tells him to do, after his hunter has told him to do it, come back, and wait for the next command.
Retrieve that duck.
Flush out the birds.
Whatever.
On the other hand ...
A dachshund, or dackel, was bred to follow, without the hunter's direction, a badger/wolverine(pound for pound, one of the most ferocious creatures known on the planet) into it's den/hole; figure out how to kill it, on it's own; kill it, without being killed; and drag it back out to the hunter.
They are independent thinking, problem solving animals.
With that said, of all the breeds that I have had close contact with over the course of my life (Chihuahua, Poodle, English Setter, Irish Setter, English Sheepdog, Beagle, Basset Hound, Labrador Retriever, Doberman Pinscher, Rottweiler, Pit Bull, Schnauzer, Alaskan Malamute, Dalmatian, and American Free-Range Mutt, ... to name the key breeds), no breed creates a bond with a person quite the way a dachshund does.
They don't "obey".
They learn, think, and anticipate.
This is Gimli helping "Mom" (Amy, my wife) fold clothes.
She was using the ironing board as a work surface.
He was trying to help, and get in the warm laundry from the dryer.
I was going to go on about my pup. However, it is getting late here, and I am fading. Most of my family looks like the last photo from a a few days ago.
Good night.
Talk about some clowns!
The subject of this post is the dog on the far right.
A good friend of ours, a German, doesn't use our pup's name when she talks to him. She calls him "Kasper". Isa, our friend, is the pup's third favorite person in the world, next to me and my wife.
The name fits.
Here is a picture of the pup taken within the last couple of days.
The 8 and 1/2 month old pup is the dog on the left. The red dog on the right is over 10 years old. Tas, the old fart, is a miniature dachshund, or dackel, as they say in Bavaria. Gimli, our pup, is a standard sized dog of the same breed. (Different coat type) Gimli, or Kasper, as his "Tanta (Aunt) Isa" calls him, has about 10 more months of growing before he is completely an adult.
Here is another picture, it features me, Gimli/Kasper, and our other old fart, Radar (Radar and Tas are 1/2 of one litter, the only two males from that litter):
Gimli, my "Kasper", has been in training.
Let me recap for a second.
I'm 40. I received my first dackel as a 5th birthday present. I've had dackels almost continuously since then. I know the breed. I have researched the breed. I love the breed.
Gimli is the youngest dog in his class, at obedience training. He does the worst of the bunch. Without a doubt.
That's okay.
He is not supposed to do well at conventional obedience training.
His breed, consistently, does poorly at it.
The breed was not made to wait on humans.
A normal hunting dog(Pointer, Setter, Labrador, Basset Hound, etc.) goes and does what his hunter tells him to do, after his hunter has told him to do it, come back, and wait for the next command.
Retrieve that duck.
Flush out the birds.
Whatever.
On the other hand ...
A dachshund, or dackel, was bred to follow, without the hunter's direction, a badger/wolverine(pound for pound, one of the most ferocious creatures known on the planet) into it's den/hole; figure out how to kill it, on it's own; kill it, without being killed; and drag it back out to the hunter.
They are independent thinking, problem solving animals.
With that said, of all the breeds that I have had close contact with over the course of my life (Chihuahua, Poodle, English Setter, Irish Setter, English Sheepdog, Beagle, Basset Hound, Labrador Retriever, Doberman Pinscher, Rottweiler, Pit Bull, Schnauzer, Alaskan Malamute, Dalmatian, and American Free-Range Mutt, ... to name the key breeds), no breed creates a bond with a person quite the way a dachshund does.
They don't "obey".
They learn, think, and anticipate.
This is Gimli helping "Mom" (Amy, my wife) fold clothes.
She was using the ironing board as a work surface.
He was trying to help, and get in the warm laundry from the dryer.
I was going to go on about my pup. However, it is getting late here, and I am fading. Most of my family looks like the last photo from a a few days ago.
Good night.
