Pups and seniors

My Uncle Larry texted asking where he could get a dachshund puppy, and I thought that within a few days I would have one for him. A month has passed since and still no luck. I make the rounds in weekend markets with my kids pestering me to get this puppy and that puppy, or asking: Can’t we get Tissot (our Aspin or asong Pinoy) a blue sweatshirt (no, because UP is maroon) and why can’t we get him a wife (no, no, he’s a monk dog.)

It used to be everyone knew everyone who raised particular breeds of dogs. My mother’s side of the family was partial to dachshunds (popularly known as “hot dogs” because of the length of their bodies). And I can practically draw a family tree starting with Tootsie, the very first dachshund that my mother and her siblings (including Uncle Larry) got in the early 1950s, with an agreement that every time she had puppies they would be distributed among them.

Soon enough, we had dachshunds in all the branches of our clan; and from there to friends and friends of friends. But the last of our dachshunds died years ago, and it seems dachshunds have fallen from favor, maybe because it’s too basic a dog. Dog ownership is now a matter of status: big ferocious-looking ones, or small lap dogs you can dress up, and dachshunds don’t fall in any of those categories.

Dogs for human health

My Uncle Larry’s request got me reading up as well about dogs. I reviewed the advantages of dog ownership for the elderly and there are many. They’re used now in many hospitals and homes for the elderly in western countries, to calm patients down, to bring down their blood pressure. They’re also used in dental clinics; dental-phobic patients can ask to have a dog sitting on their lap while going through an extraction or filling.

More than being a passive source of comfort, a growing number of scientific studies show that dogs do empathize with humans. We all know about seeing eye dogs guiding the blind. Now there are dogs being trained to detect changes in a person’s heart rate and breathing; so if a person is in cardiac distress—palpitations for example—the dog will respond by nudging the patient, and even fetching a bag with the person’s heart medicines.

Reading all the reports reminded me of how much more we need to do to get local veterinary schools working with psychology departments to look at both human and animal (or, to be more scientific, human and nonhuman animal) behavior. Anthropologists should be brought in, too—not all Filipinos respond positively to dogs simply because they were not raised in dog-friendly environments.

The medical, nursing and other health professional schools will do well to be updated on using companion animals for human health care, especially as the Philippines tries to establish a niche for retirement and geriatric care.

Which breed?

No questions then about a dog being good, psychologically, for Uncle Larry, especially because he specified that he was getting tired of “two-legged” treachery. Dogs are more reliable, more loyal and, simply put, more loving—no strings attached.

But I just had to do a bit more research: Was a dachshund appropriate? The dog breeds we see today are products of recent history, humans selecting certain traits that they wanted in a dog. Lap dog breeds were created with the cuteness factor in mind, intended to be your eternal babies with large heads, large eyes. Large dog breeds were selected for work traits: endurance, speed, ability to focus.

To create the hundreds of breeds we see today, humans had to keep inbreeding the animals for certain traits and that has spawned many congenital defects. There is in fact a whole movement now to discourage the propagation of flat-faced breeds like pugs and boxers because, while they are cute, they tend to suffer more from respiratory difficulty and overheating. (Dogs don’t sweat and depend pretty much on the nasal passages to get rid of excessive heat.)

Inbreeding also brought out problems of temperament. The smaller breeds tend to be neurotic and possessive about their humans. Which is why retrievers (golden and Labrador) are favored for children. Originally bred to retrieve birds for hunters, they’re patient and calm, just waiting for instructions. . . and food. Do be careful, the studies show retrievers are genetically predisposed to overeat.

I like the large breeds, but they’re not practical for city living, especially Metro Manila, even more if you live in a condo as my uncle does. The small ones are affectionate but, like I said earlier, somewhat neurotic and noisy. Be careful too with breeds that have too much hair and can be problematic for people with asthma.

I compared the different small breeds’ ratings on the Internet and, again, dachshunds didn’t figure in “top 10” choices, losing to the “pretty” breeds. I like small “basic” dogs—Jack Russells are good, too, born to act like Uggie, who won a Cannes Palm Dog award in 2011 as Jack in the movie “The Artist.”

All said, family sentimentality still comes in and I’m inclined toward a dachshund for my uncle. They’re affectionate but don’t demand to sit on your lap all the time. They’re easy to train, being work dogs originally bred to hunt down badgers and other creatures that bore underground; so be careful with your gardens. They’ll guard you and the house, but won’t see your child’s boyfriend as a threat (unless you train it to…).

Having raised several generations of dachshunds, I do know they are vulnerable to spine problems, but I’ve found that if you keep them pretty much on the ground (rather than jumping up and down furniture), you could reduce the risks.

Now back to the problem of finding dachshunds. I did try the online ads, but they’re not easy to navigate, and the ads left me depressed seeing that many of the animals were being raised in puppy mills, meaning backyard operations that just keep breeding dogs in crowded and unsanitary conditions and, possibly, with more inbreeding which worsens risks of congenital problems. Some of the puppies were being sold even if they hadn’t reached the ideal 14 weeks of age, which is needed so they learn to be a “proper” dog, bonding with its mother and siblings.

Just for my Uncle Larry, I’m doing a bit of crowdsourcing here: If anyone is selling dachshunds, especially in the Quezon City area, e-mail me at [email protected], telling me what you have, selling price, and your contact information.

[email protected]