The dachshund

As a girl crazy about horses  in the 70ies I learned what I had believed  since the beginning  of my interest for this breed: dachshunds were not  “just a small dog to live in the house “ as often it was told in those times , but an excellent “country friend”. Nothing more wrong of the common idea that he was just a small pet to keep in a house and for him “just enough a short walk around the block to pee”!  Sad life for a dachshund, a small strong brave hunter, as well as for any dog.

Riding in Florence countryside I knew a smart short haired  dachshund  as red as an Irish, who used to follow his owner ‘s  horse showing a great pleasure and a lot of  energy, even jumping smaller banks , and used to run outside the ring following the jumps of the skilful  rider…
I liked very much the breed for all its interesting  feature and also realized that tank to its small size my parents would have accepted a dachshund to manage in Florence city. So in the beginning of the 70ies I found my first personal dog, a very strong personality in the body of a black and tan short haired female bred on American bloodlines: she was Adele di Montetuscio, La Piccola for us, who lived almost 18 years  and that I got from friend and mentor Giuseppe Benelli. Later on a female Irish Setter, a gift from Stefano Vitale Brovarone to Claudio, joined  us and also  my first  female Flat Coated retriever, the beautiful  unlucky Panna, Puh’s Ptarmigan.

My true love amongst the different type of the dachshund was the standard wire and after watching shows in Europe and reading a lot, I had  found my ideal type in the Lago Prile standards, bred by Margareta Nilsson basically starting from excellent Swedish Sport’s lines: wonderful heads, expression, temperament, good size and coat.
So I kept  awaiting for my good moment when Margareta decided she had the puppy female for me: in 1982 Matelda del Lago Prile, the much beloved  sweet Mammola arrived.
All my dachshunds until today descend from her  by her selected progeny. She had one litter with Emichele del Lago Prile and I kept a male, Muschio, and a female Baruffa: both were beautiful and very good type and Muschio grew into an outstanding dog, not only for beauty but also for his great charisma and his really laid back temperament.To tell one funny story once he carried back  to me in his mouth without hurting some newborn robins, I had to rear them!

My females have in general no more than one or two litters in their life and for them I try to choose the best bred sires wherever, of the same type as much as possible.