I'm not a dog person, never have been but...
Through the weird progression of life our youngest daughter is living at home again for a while. A couple of weeks after she arrived Duke landed on our doorstep (it was either that or a shelter so we agreed to take him in). The cats aren't very happy about it but they are getting used to him. Early on Bun Bun (11 year old Japanese Bobtail) disciplined the puppy, "don't mess with me Bub." Duke just wants to play, he doesn't understand cats. Duke (about 6 months) tangled with Doozey the small female yesterday. I didn't see it but heard a storm of yelping. Her claws were recently trimmed and we don't see any damage on him so hopefully he learned his lesson cheaply.
He has a lot of personality and is just generally good natured. He took a few days to get used to us but now I get the joyous yipping and full body wag when I get home. He's not fully house broken but he's doing very well. Walking him to the park after breakfast works. He's getting better about signaling when he needs to go out. He had a few accidents but it could've been Bun Bun too. Bun Bun sometimes gets unhappy with the state of his box if it isn't immaculate.
He sleeps with my daughter, we have a disposable puppy pad in there (the door is closed) which he is good about using when she doesn't get up fast enough.
We took him to our vet to get him up to date on shots, dang dogs are expensive. The vet persuaded my Daughter to neuter him (next week) because it will prevent prostate cancer and he won't try to roam as much plus she said sometimes unaltered male dogs will target other unaltered male dogs especially when he becomes fully sexually mature. We don't have any plans to use him as a breeder and we don't have papers so can't really prove he is pure although the vet says he appears to be 100% Dachshund.
He is just a little guy who thinks he can take on any dog out there especially if they are at least 4 times his size LOL. He needs some dog socialization. He has lived with dogs in the past but now it's just him.
I suspect the cats will get used to him and learn to coexist. We had a same type of situation, sort of... My wife had me pick up a kitten at one of her FB friends house that somebody left. Henry, our 10 yr old yellow lab did not like cats. As a matter of fact he would chase strays out of the yard etc. My wife brought the kitten out of the cat cage and Henry went nuts. I think it was his worst day of his life. He couldn't believe that there was a cat in the house. The kitten took one look a Henry and took him as his big brother. He adores Henry but Henry could care less about the cat.
When Henry would lay down to nap, the kitten would snuggle up with him. So Henry would get up and go lie down somewhere else. Soon the cat learned to wait until Henry would fall asleep, and then go snuggle up with him. He was pretty persistent. After a while, Henry just gave up. lol!
They get along pretty good now, but every so often Henry will school the cat and bark at him to remind him who the boss is. It's a pecking order sort of thing. They'll sort it out.
Henry still barks at stray cats in the yard, but is too old to run after them anymore.
Here's a pic of the two lovers...
Here are my office mates... the bed used to be the exclusive territory of our dog, then the cat moved in.
D@m vets. Never saw a pair of danglers they didn't want to charge you to remove.
Vet tried that on me when we first brought in our pups. I declined.
B-)
After growing up with Dachshund, your small rodent problem (if you have any) will soon disappear.
Ours had a hatred towards rats, mice, squirrels, etc. Most of the young squirrels that would visit our backyard ended up with shorter tails.
They are pretty protective of their families. And like you stated they think they are 4-5 times bigger than they really are.
Now you got me thinking again about getting one for the kids...
Oh and they are some serious diggers.
> He is just a little guy who thinks he can take on any dog out there especially if they are at least 4 times his size LOL.
For whatever it's worth, dachshunds are hunting dogs and were bred to hunt badgers. In my opinion, they generally have a great personality as a breed, and they don't back down to many larger animals.
