Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

When my eldest son, Dominic, was killed by a drunk driver on October 4, 2013, our family unit imploded, and we lost perspective in everything; time, value, and in each other. We gladly inherited Lucy, Dom’s young Border Collie, and she became my wife’s focus, walking her 10k every day. It meant Susan could be on her own, thinking about her dead son, and away from me.

However, by November, Chloe, the middle daughter, had decided that Susan needed her own dog, a breed that she had dreamed of since she was seventeen, and it was always going to be called Kadie I suspect, even if it was a dog, dog.

We decided to keep the purchase a surprise, and something special for Susan on our first Christmas without Dom. Chloe trawled the internet looking for breeders, it’s not easy trying to score a pure breed leading up to the big day. On December 22, a deal was done, Chloe and I drove to Scotch Corner services in the dark, and I had a brown paper envelope full of money in my jacket pocket, waiting for the dealer, sorry breeder, to arrive. As soon as she put the puppy in my arms that was it, not as cataclysmic as the first time I held Dom, but I almost half smiled for the first time since October 4th.

Kadie, (I call her Shorty) despite being a puppy, was the length of my arm, and heavy. At this point I knew little about Dachshunds, and what I did know was wrong, I’d never even seen one and assumed they were a ‘hairdresser's dog’ as Dom would have said. Driving home with Shorty on Chloe’s lap, with machismo I said to her, "And I won’t be seen dead walking that dog.” Which regularly comes back to bite me on the backside.

On our spring walks, yes, I was now walking the dog in broad daylight, we’d be stopped by adults and children to look at her, the most common comment was “Ohhh look darling, a sausage dog, do you remember Great-Grandma used to have one?”

She was adorable. I became fascinated by this dinosaur of a dog and did some research. Dachshund means Badger dog, they were bred to hunt badgers and foxes above and below ground, they also hunted wild boar and deer. Shorthaired and Longhaired Dachshunds first appeared in Europe in the 15th century, and Wirehaired Dachshunds were first cross bred in 1790 with wire-haired pinschers, such as the Schnauzer, or German Pointer.

When Kadie picks up a scent, she’s a machine, her tail is up, which also acts as a tow rope if she gets stuck in a hole, her nose is millimetres from the ground and has an incredible turn of speed. Butter wouldn’t melt, but her body is designed to kill; short powerful front legs, paws with webbed toes to dig into burrows, a broad chest with a very large lung capacity, which expands front to back inside the rib cage so there’s limited risk of being trapped or hindered by chest expansion in a tight tunnel, this capacity also means stamina for a long fight. She has big floppy ears to stop soil etc. getting into her ear canal, her teeth are sharp and are located at the very front of a long muzzle, her jaws are powerful, and will deliver an immobilizing bite, her neck is corded with muscle for staying power.

Like all hounds, she possess two tracking senses: spoor, they can pick up a scent that’s a week old, and reverberatory (hearing and feeling the ground and air vibration of moving prey), sometimes she’ll just stop and scan the wind.

In 2015 I started to get that feeling similar to when you buy a new car, you start to see it everywhere. ‘Stanley’ the short haired mini was, and still is, constantly on TV promoting wellbeing with Vitality, back then it was with Jonny Wilkinson, Jessica Ennis-Hill and more latterly Jos Buttler. Official Kennel Club Dachshund registrations have risen 40 percent since Stanley’s adds, 9,000 were registered last year alone.

Five years later, images of Dachshunds are everywhere, and they are 18th on the most popular dog breed list. Lucy is seventh but it doesn’t affect their relationship they are constant companions. Between them, they have slowly brought our family back into focus, not 20/20 vision, but the fog of grief is clearing, and it’s canine therapy and their unconditional love for us.

Lucy is a lasting link to Dom, but Shorty is the catalyst to our healing not just because of her loving nature, she has renewed our interest in walking them together, and living our lives together. A Dachshund is not just for Christmas; it can save your life, but please, do check out the breeder carefully.

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