Dallas Dachshund Meetup PICS!

[Courtknee]

We had fun today at the Dallas meetup. Napoleon had a grand old time getting everyone to chase him!! We got to meet Bobbie who was Rosie from CTDR before her mom adopted her, and also Tammy and her daughter and her babies Blue and Ladybug. All of those girls are just DARLING!!!

The Meetup experience for me, unfortunately, was really soured when the people hosting it asked me if Napoleon was fixed. Apparently they want to breed their female and thought he'd be perfect. :angry013: I just said "There are already too many puppies in this world" but I wish I hadn't been so tired or shocked or in fear of being rude to the hosts or I would have said more. It really turns me off to this event though, I don't want to be around those people. Nice, but obviously just clueless. I suppose I should try to educate them before I judge them though huh? :blush:

ANYWAY! Here are the pics. Adam took some video too and he's going to try to put it online at some point. Seeing as he just returned Christmas gifts he didn't want yesterday, I'm not holding my breath. :D

Here is the beautiful Ladybug!! She is a dapple but only has the dappling on her nose and chest. She is adorable.

http://photos8.flickr.com/6960445_95bd81fadc.jpg

Here's Blue and Napoleon. Pics don't due Blue justice - she is GORGEOUS!!! She really does look blue. She is so sweet too, she climbed in my lap and gave me kisses!!

http://photos6.flickr.com/6960243_e8851aa573.jpg

And here is Bobbie, who is just too cute. She has the softest coat! She is tiny too!

http://photos8.flickr.com/6960395_d5c6e0dc37.jpg

Napoleon leading the chase!

http://photos6.flickr.com/6961038_67b44ab997.jpg

Bobbie leading Napoleon on a chase (you can see Po running behind her!)

http://photos6.flickr.com/6960666_1f93d76bf9.jpg

Too bad I only got Napoleon in the corner of this pic....the grin on his face when he has the zoomies always makes me laugh.

http://photos7.flickr.com/6960570_80e9419c8b.jpg

All that chasing wore Bobbie out!!

http://photos4.flickr.com/6960697_c54ed1a2ce.jpg

[Sausage Mom]

Those pictures are fantastic! I think your answer was great too, but I'd be really irrated if someone said something like that at a meetup...makes me wonder what there "real" agenda is!! Looks like everyone had a great time, and Ladybug and Blue are really gorgeous too...and the little pie Bobbie well :muchlove:

[roxysmom]

Aww great pics. Doies are always fun to watch when they play.

[kiesel549]

great pix! i love watching the doxies chase eachother, its amusing

[Roobyrocks]

You handled it well Courtney. I don't know that I could have been as gracious. I just don't understand why so many people want to breed their pets. I guess not everyone is as sensitive as us to the subject of overcrowded shelters and the bazillion unwanted "pets" filling them... especially in this big ol' state of Texas.

The best we can do is tactfully try and educate them... ofcourse we tried this approach with a neighbor who wanted her kids to see the miracle of birth and just had to breed her tiny female doxie... I begged Lynn to let me tell the woman to show her kids the reality of irresponsible breeding... take them to a Dallas area animal shelter!!!

[pipsqueak21]

The Meetup experience for me, unfortunately, was really soured when the people hosting it asked me if Napoleon was fixed. Apparently they want to breed their female and thought he'd be perfect. :angry013: I just said "There are already too many puppies in this world" but I wish I hadn't been so tired or shocked or in fear of being rude to the hosts or I would have said more. It really turns me off to this event though, I don't want to be around those people. Nice, but obviously just clueless. I suppose I should try to educate them before I judge them though huh? :blush:
Courtney- I went to my first Chicagoland meet-up in February. The leader of the group had a female who wasn't spayed. He was going to breed her, but other members had talked him out of it before I had ever joined the group. Also, since we only had one doxie, apparently he didn't realize how much John and I loved dachshunds. He told us about the 2 dachshunds he previously had. One he had put to sleep because it had back problems and he laughed when he told us about how his wife backed over the doxie. He said "I bet a lot of people here would be mad if they heard that story." No kidding!? I didn't know what to say...I just walked away. The guy was a real a**! I really didn't know why he was even part of the group, especially the leader!!

So, like you, I was really turned off about the whole meet-up thing after that, but I stayed with it. Fortunately, he is moving for his job and quit the group. Guess who the new group leader is???? :D

I love the pictures!!!! Blue is so beautiful! So unusual! Leon is a riot as always!!! :heart:

[soph & li mom]

is Gwinn still the organizer?

[Courtknee]

Zandra, yes she is.

[Joyce]

Thanks so much for sharing those great pictures. I have to admit that until I joined the Board here I was not aware of the need for rescue, because people are so careless with their pets. We hadn't had a dog in 30 years as because when I kids were small we had to give a Scottie away, because he didn't like kids. That broke my hubbys heart and no matter how hard we begged during the years he said he was never going to get another dog because he wouldn't go through that again. Finally after the kids moved out I bought Dudley (from a BYB) didn't even know what that was at the time. Thankfully I had joined this board and got educated about BYB when Dudley passed and we got Dexter we did research and visit where we got him. Just in the last 10 mo since we have had him I have really got educated about the wonderful work you guys do in rescue. (if I ever get another Dog it will be through a rescue) so I have to thank all of you on the board who have educated me, and in return I hope I can educate others.

[Roobyrocks]

Thank you Joyce! Very well said, and much appreciated. :)

[LUVMYGUNNER]

I to get turned of from people that want to breed their pets. One of my neighbors has a b/t female she wants to breed and I told her I wouldn't if I were here. Told her about Dodgerslist and DBB where she can get educated about why not to breed.

[TessieMom]

The leader of our local meetup is a breeder who had the meetings at his kennels! Needless to say, I have not developed the courage to go... besides it is a long way from Waco! I could almost go to the Dallas meetup or Austin one as quickly!

Great photos.

[Patt]

Thank you for sharing your pics of the puppers. I always laugh at the chase scenes those little guys are so cute and sure having a great time. ;)

[Courtknee]

Even if no one cares or they think I am the biggest B**** ever, I couldn't let this go unsaid:


I'm not trying to be rude, but today at the meetup I was approached about whether or not my dog was neutered because someone wanted to breed their female. It really upset me...I was actually heartbroken by it and it turned me off to ever coming to a meetup again. I know that some people may not realize that there are millions of unwanted pets in this country that die every day. While your intentions may just to breed to have puppies because you love your dog, that is NOT a valid reason!! Your dog may have genetic defects you don't know about. And just because your dog is sweet, or funny, or beautiful does NOT mean the puppies will be. Breeding can also be costly especially if something goes wrong. There are no guarantees. What will you do with the puppies? Sell for profit? What if no one wants to buy? What if someone who buys can't keep that puppy after a few months - will you take it back?

Professional breeders raise puppies because they love their breed and want to better it. They research genetics and lines and breed only the best examples of the breed. They screen applicants very carefully and sell puppies only to approved homes. They show their dogs in competition so that they know their dogs are the best examples of breeding stock. They sell their puppies with a spay/neuter contract so that unwanted pets cannot be bred.

Did you know that dapple dachshunds carry a lethal gene? When two dapples are bred together, it can produce a double dapple, which have MANY health problems. Puppies can die in utero, be born dead, be born sightless or deaf, be born with no eyes, etc. And dachshunds who aren't dappled can carry the dapple gene. So you could breed two black and tans who carry for dapple and have double dapples - what if your perfect dog had puppies who were born blind or worse without eyes at all? What would you do?

I posted a few days ago about dachshund rescue. People who are casual breeders or breed for profit - we call them "backyard breeders" - are the ones CAUSING our rescue group to be overwhelmed with dachshunds in need. So please, if you truly love your dog, and truly love your breed, HAVE YOUR PETS SPAYED AND NEUTERED AND DO NOT BREED THEM. We don't need any more unwanted pets in this world, ESPECIALLY in Texas.

In case you still aren't convinced, here is a site that allows "virtual breeding" - so you can see what could happen when you decide to have puppies.

http://www.bluegrace.com/vb_2.html

Still think breeding your cute pet dog is OK? Would you want one of her puppies to die in a shelter like the dogs in this story below? It could happen. Don't think it couldn't.

[Courtknee]

Below newspaper excerpt is certainly the reason why we all must keep in mind to spread the word and encourage people to adopt pets from shelters and rescue groups, not to breed or buy from backyard breeders or petshops, please! :-(
>
>"See Spot Die"!
>
>/by John Dorschner, Miami Herald staff writer.
>
>There are a hundred million dogs and cats in America. We cuddle them, talk to them, make them part of the family. Every year we buy them $5 billion worth of food, not to mention collars, bowls, flea spray, vaccinations and little pink sweaters...
>
>We love our pets. Except, of course, when we have to move, or get tired of walking them, or sick of paying the vet bills. Then we abandon them. By the millions. We tell ourselves they'll find a new home, but the truth is, when we drop them off at the animal shelter, we drop them off to die.
>
>So many unwanted pets, so few homes for them. They get handed over to the dog pound, abandoned in parking lots, let loose in parks, or simply allowed to drift away from home and never searched for: mangy mutts, elegant purebreds, pit bull pups, fluffy kittens, dogs that look like Rin-Tin-Tin, and Lassie, and Toto.
>
>People take their cats to the shelter and say they want to get rid of them because the pets don't match the colors of their new decorating scheme. They want a new cat, one thats color-coordinated. Some people go on vacation and drop off a pet; they don't want to spend the money on boarding; they say they'll pick up a new pet when they get back.
>The result: four out of five pets are left unclaimed. Those unclaimed are given a lethal injection of sodium pentobarbital. Then they are thrown into a large plastic hamper, wheeled outside and tossed like bags of garbage into an incinerator.
>
Nationwide, between 12 million and 20 million unwanted pets are killed each year. The numbers are inexact, because this is one subject few want to research. Man's best friend has become man's biggest victim.
>
>When people get tired of their pets, most don't want to deposit them at the animal shelter; they know what's likely to happen to them. And so they engage in a quiet little fantasy, imagining they're a Robert Redford, climbing to a mountaintop to release an eagle. They're not abandoning Fido -- they're setting him free. Often they choose parks or affluent neighborhoods.
>Perhaps some wealthy family will pick him up. Or maybe old Fido will revert to the wild, learn to fend for himself, catching squirrels and whatnot.
>
>But pets are not wild eagles. Animal control officers know that a roaming dog is much more likely to be squashed by a speeding car than to learn to live in the wild. The Service has trucks that do nothing except travel the country, picking up tens of thousands of dead dogs and cats each year. The animals that survive forage through garbage cans and alleys, desperately trying to avoid starvation.
>
>In the Dade, Florida, animal shelter, for example, where 25,000 dogs are killed each year, the situation is typical: the shelter is dreadfully overcrowded, four or five dogs locked in a run intended for one. It is primitive -- concrete and wire mesh, with screening on the outside walls to allow in whatever breeze exists. Each day, the barking of 300-plus dogs reverberates like the
pounding din of jackhammers. The stench of urine permeates everything, despite the dedicated efforts of the shelter workers.
>
>It is here that most of the dogs and cats of Dade County spend their last five days. And so the dogs wait. And wait. The hound from the day-care center spent most of the time lying on the floor, its snout in a puddle of urine and water from her three cellmates. A few feet away, Chica, the beautiful vizsla with fleas, was squeezed into a run with three mutts. She sat by the door, looking expectantly at each visitor who wandered by. The grumpy chow from Kendall was in a run with a massive red Doberman that had killed a poodle. The smaller chow stayed silent at the back of the run, huddled against the wire
mesh. The little bearded Tramp sat at the back of a run, with three larger mutts, his shoulders bent forward, intimidated by this turn of events. Max, theboxer, was given his own cage. Boxers are prized dogs, and it was assumed someone would adopt him. Not so the pit bull pup from the park: As with all pit bulls that enter the shelter, his card was stamped NOT ADOPTABLE. It was a death sentence.
>The Shelter is always overcrowded, and each morning a sheet is prepared, a simple white piece of paper. On it is a list of tag numbers -- the tags the officers put on the animals -- and the notation, ER. ER stands for Euthanasia Run, the run where the dogs are placed a few hours before they are executed.
>
>The execution chamber is at the end of the corridor, close to the incinerator. It's the size of a small bedroom. A wall-unit air conditioner rumbles and rattles, its noise blending in with the constant yapping of dogs. The bare fluorescent bulbs in the ceiling cast a raw, stark light. The floor is concrete, sloping toward a central drain, to collect the urine and water.
>
>Jessica slipped a white lab coat over her red T-shirt and joined Lily, a feisty woman with glasses and short curly hair. Lily's the vet-tech; she's been there 14 years. Her job is to handle the needles, Jessica's to hold the dogs.
>Jessica began bringing in the dogs, attaching their leashes to the screens of the cages. The dogs yapped loudly, expectantly. For the first time in days, something was happening and they were excited.
>
>As the dogs arrived, Lily prepared the tray. It consisted of a half-dozen plastic bottles, each six inches high, filled with a turquoise liquid. On the side was the word POISON, printed in red, flanked by two red skulls and crossbones. Inside was sodium pentobarbital. For euthanasia of animals. For veterinary use only. The brand name: Fatal-Plus.
Lily filled a series of needles with six cc. of Fatal-Plus and placed them on the tray. Then she slipped on a pair of thin plastic gloves, the kind surgeons and dentists use.
>
>When they were ready, Jessica shut the metal doors, so outsiders couldn't see in. She spread a section of a newspaper on the two-by-four-foot, stainless steel table. A red pad had been placed under the table so that the table was precisely the same height as the gray plastic hamper next to it.
>Jessica grabbed the first mutt -- a knee-high gray-black guy -- and lifted him to the table. She leaned forward, her chest on the back of the mutt, forcing him down on the table, front paws straight out, her arm
wrapped gently around the dog's head. Lily took a ragged yellow sponge out of a plastic bucket and sponged off the right paw, flattening the hair so she could find a vein. "Okay," said Lily, stepping forward with the needle. She searched for a vein, then plunged in the needle. The mutt tensed at the prick of the needle, scanned the room frantically for a few seconds. Then his head slumped onto the table. Within 10 seconds, he was dead.
>
>Jessica slid the dog back into the plastic hamper. It landed with a heavy thwupppp. And so it went. Get up on the table, hold tight, inject, and thwupppp.
>Lift up, hold tight, thwupppp.
>Lift up, hold tight, thwupppp.
>
>Sometimes, especially with the big muscular dogs, Lily had trouble finding the vein. Some dogs panicked at the prick of the needle, struggling desperately in Jessica's grasp.
>One large black dog struggled, breaking loose from Jessica's strong grasp, jumping on the floor. The dog dashed frantically around for a few moments, then its rear legs collapsed. It rose, took a few steps, collapsed again as the Fatal-Plus seeped into its brain.
>
>With some of the larger dogs, especially the obedient German shepherds, Jessica lifted the front paws up, so that they rested on the table, the rear haunches on the floor. Lily injected the animal, then Jessica tugged at its leash, pulling it off the table, trotting ahead of it five or six steps to the outside door. "Come on, boy, come on, boy," she said, gently, swinging open the door and getting another six steps out of the dog, until -- a few feet from the incinerator -- the dog suddenly stopped, falling over on its side, dead. Obedient to the end.
>
>Meanwhile, next door, in the vet's lab, the vet had the hound from the day-care center on his scale. He was examining her, but when he saw her teeth, he shook his head. "Eight years," he scribbled on the card. "No person is going to adopt a dog so old." An assistant trotted the dutiful, anonymous hound back to Run 9.
>
>And the vet was right: The hound was too old. Several days later, she was injected with Fatal-Plus. No new owner stepped up to adopt the chow. He, too, met with Fatal-Plus. So did the pit bull pup found in the state park. So did the two black Lab-mixes picked up at the South Dade nursery. As for Chica, the beautiful viszla with fleas: She was adopted, but escaped from her new home.
She just fled, said her new owner. "Volo como una paloma." She flew like a pigeon.
>Could she still be running the streets, foraging for food, desperately seeking her original owner? Was she hit by a car? Or was she picked up a second time by Animal Services and put back in the shelter? All we know is that for Chica, as with most dogs and cats, the odds are horrendously against her.

[Kim H.]

ITA.

Edit: You got the story in while I was typing my reply. It is painful just to read it. :crying: If you can read that and still want to be a "casual" breeder... something is wrong.

[soph & li mom]

Even if no one cares or they think I am the biggest B**** ever, I couldn't let this go unsaid:

I am on another board that gwinn is on. This is why I know about her. I will hear if she is upset by your post but I would be surprised if she is. It surprised me that she wanted to breed her dog. Sad...

[Courtknee]

She was not the one who wanted to breed her dog. The couple whose house the meetup was at does! I mentioned CTDR to the group and Gwen seemed interested in helping!

[TDR11114]

I was very glad to see you , and Napoleon, and Basil there, as well as Gina and Bobby. I really loved Napoleon, he was so loving , and sweet, and such a cutie pie! I actually got to pet him, so I consider myself very fortunate! Bobby was precious too, and they all had so much fun playing together.
I agree with you Courtknee, I did not know that they had asked you that, or I probably would hae piped up and said the same thing, and or agreed with you. There are way too many pups that need homes now, instead of having to worry with all of the breeding nonsense. I lost my little Grunt puppy that way, (having pups) and I am so against it now. Thank you for posting the pictures of my babies! When I get my photos developed, Iwill put the ones that I took on the board as soon as possible! I am glad that we got to meet, and hope that we can get the little ones together soon!

[alfina]

Great pics. Sorry the event was spoiled for you by this lady. I hope your message will get across and they reconsider

[Cindi]

I am appalled that you were questioned like that. HOpefully, those people will learn better.
Dapple cannot be carried - you either are a dapple and have the gene or you ain't <G> THAT is such a good thing because normally a dapple can be spotted at birth even if they lose their spots as they mature. *Responsible* people will note that puppy and make sure to record the color right. People who breed for the money will be sure to make note, also, as they frequently charge more for the *colored* dogs. The downside is it takes only one spot to be a dapple and that can be in the armpit and be missed but that is not common.

It is a daily event that I receive emails from people wanting to breed their pets. Usually the scare of losing the mother dog does it and if that doesn't, the cost of a C-section will also take its toll.

[Courtknee]

Thanks Cindi, I went back and looked it up and figured out I was wrong, but it still doesn't mean they were right, as you know....

What hurts me most of all about the people who wanted to breed was that they treated Napoleon like a piece of MEAT! Comparing him to their dog....just sick! Sick that they are just so clueless. That is my BABY! I wonder if they actually read my post on the meetup board....

[doxunzX3]

Sorry that you had a bad experience with someone wanting to breed their doxie. That is such a hard thing to get people to realize how many dogs are just tossed around like a piece of raw meat for sale. Like the one article mentioned about puppy millers it stems from GREED. But I think most people going to meet ups are truly concerned for their doxies. OK some times someone will say something we don't agree on. But at least others are hearing good sound reasons why not to breed.