Hello Ralph

Today’s post is all about my dog-child, aka Ralph Sebastian Johnstone.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Ralph is 3 years old, we think he is half standard half mini dachshund but we can’t be sure because we pretty much bought him on a whim from a non-legit breeder in Stoke. He looks all sausagey and floppy eared and behaves like a true daxy so who cares. We won’t be appearing at Crufts anytime soon.

From the minute we saw him and cuddled him I fell in love, I imagine that’s how it feels when you see your new born baby for the first time but without all the gunge and placenta. We took him home via pets at home to buy food, a bed, toys and puppy training equipment (I told you we bought him on a whim) and then the reality set in.

Now I don’t know about anyone else but training a puppy for us was a complete nightmare. And although I always um and ah about getting another one, I think back to the early days or first two years of Ralph’s life where he was a complete and utter terror- plus there’s no more room in our bed. YES he sleeps in our bed, we really tried everything – crate training, ear plugs, putting him up for adoption(joke) but nothing worked, and now people wonder why we go on so many holidays!

A word of advice for anyone thinking of buying a dog, do your research on breeds!

Classic traits of a sausage dog are stubborn, hard to train, lively, playful, barky and Ralph is all of these things and then some! We stupidly thought that because he’s our dog, he wouldn’t be all of these things, we thought that he’d be part of the small minority of sausage dogs that are chilled, friendly and never wee on the carpet. He barks at strangers in the street and kids and scooters and walking sticks. He much prefers to be off the lead, bounding around fields hunting for badgers. He takes a while warm to strangers who come round our house but once you’ve ignored him for half an hour or so he’s ok. He loves to play, when I say play I mean destroy every toy he possibly can, he can tear up a tennis ball in seconds, the only toys he still got are solid plastic ones. Great fun.

So if I haven’t put you off getting a dachshund yet, Ralph is the most loyal, loving and beautiful dog an owner could wish for and he’s a great burglar alarm. He has bags and bags of character, I cannot imagine being without him. Although I’ve just ranted all about his bad habits I would not change him(well apart from the barking at strangers thing- embarrassing!), that’s what makes him who he is.

Lots of love Emma.hellocake xx