Such Different Dogs

I’ve never had two of the same kind of dogs at the same time. We had Chip (Chocolate Lab) and Speck (Dachshund) and later, we still had Speck and Rita (Chihuahua) but having two Dachshunds and seeing how different they are is often surprising to me. I only had Chad so I’m guessing that having several children you notice the same thing. No, I’m not comparing children to dogs . . just saying!

Cooper is such a happy, adventurous dog. No matter what we’re doing, Cooper thinks we’re having a party and he’s excited. Oscar seems to be a worrier. No matter what we’re doing, Oscar is concerned about something.

When I’m sitting on the sofa, Oscar has his favorite spot next to me where he sits. If Cooper gets there first, you can see the disappointment on Oscar’s face and he’ll often go sit on the dog bed by himself. If Oscar is next to me in his favorite spot, Cooper has no problem plopping down right on top of Oscar and squeezing in to where he wants to be. I’ll usually stop Cooper from doing that. Cooper is so sweet and so loving but so bullheaded and he doesn’t try to hide it. If Cooper wants something or wants to do something, it’s happening. You can see him watching us to see how we’re going to react. So sneaky. The breeder says he got that from his mom. She said his mom has the funniest facial expressions.

Yesterday I needed to clean Oscar’s ears. Doing anything like that (brushing teeth, cutting nails) is almost impossible with Oscar. I was sitting on the floor and had him on my lap kinda in a bear hug so he couldn’t move and had the cleaning solution (which I never got to use). He was so nervous, he dribbled a bit on my leg. It’s ok . . better my pants than on the carpet. When I realized we were not going to get the ears cleaned, I let go of him and he got between the dog bed and the sofa and was laying down so he couldn’t even be seen. He was so embarrassed that he had peed a few drops. I’m sure he had no idea where the pee went but I kept trying to console him and he just wanted to be left alone.

Cooper walked in, sniffed my leg, ran over to Oscar and it was like Cooper was trying to cheer him up. I told Vince . . if they can understand each other, I’m sure Cooper is saying “Dude, don’t worry about a few drops. I pee on the floor every day and no one cares!” Not exactly right on the “no one cares” part but Cooper is not doing so well on his house training. He knows to go outside but he stands over by the sofa and stares at me when he has to go out – stares at me maybe 5 seconds and if I’m not getting up, he just does it on the floor! I don’t spend my entire time looking at him to see if he’s looking at me to take him out so really, every half hour or so, he goes outside. He will pee when I take him out but he will not bark or ring the bell to go out. It’s weird because Oscar will ring the bell first and if I’m not fast enough for him, he will bark.

We’re lucky because the downstairs carpet is just in the living room and we can have it changed without having to change other carpet. I’ve spot shampooed it, and it doesn’t smell (I hope) and I can’t see any spots but I know it’s there and as soon as he’s trustworthy, I would like to change this carpet. Vince says we’re waiting til just before we move but he knows we aren’t moving!

Have any of y’all ever had dogs that were as sensitive as Oscar is? Any tips? Maybe he isn’t as sad as he looks but it makes me sad sometimes seeing his expression. By the way, he was like this before Cooper came but we had no comparison to see how a really happy dog acts.