DOXIES AND DOG TOYS

"Wanna play?"

We got Duke another squeaky dog toy yesterday: rubber doxie about six inches long, with a SQUEAKER. He usually gets the squeaker out in five minutes flat, but it's still intact!  Can you believe it??

Doxies are noted for "killing" their squeaky toys, and boy, do they do it well. Duke's toy basket looks like a trash basket: several rubber toys with squeakers missing, two or three old sock with holes chewed into them, and part of his blankie (I say "part" because he loves to chew on his blankie, so we get a cheap flannel one, cut it into several large pieces, and give him one until it is nothing but small parts with large holes).

Duke loves for me or my hubby to put a sock on our hand so he can "get" it--I think it's his favorite game. We usually pad our hands with TWO socks, however, because he gets carried away and bites

down too hard--not that it is intentional on his part. Oh, he pounces on the sock monster, growls menacingly at it, and generally has a blast. After he's done, we give him the sock, which he licks lovingly for several minutes. Odd, I know. 

Duke never chews on anything important as many dogs are prone to do, however. He gets so much pleasure from an old sock and a portion of a flannel blanket, so it's well worth it to indulge him with those.

Dachshunds love their toys, though. He'll run through the house squeaking away on that new toy, daring one of us to to try get it. He'll get within an inch of my hand with his head down, looking up at me, but with a death grip on that toy! He wants to give it to me, but yet he doesn't. Much of the fun for him is the control of having that toy!  What a dawg.

We wouldn't have him any other way. How about your doxie?

Dachshunds . . . you gotta love 'em.