Nellie is a chocolate and tan, smooth haired miniature dachshund.  Nellie was born on 26th February 2019.

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Nellie is hilarious and a real character. She is the most cuddly dog I’ve ever known. As long as you’re stroking her back, tickling her tummy or scratching behind her ears then she’s yours, she literally will fall asleep as soon as you start stroking her tummy. Nellie's big sister is our chocolate brown Labrador Mabel, clearly, she's a whole lot smaller than Mabel,  but she is definitely a feisty one and makes up for her size with her bark. Nellie is very loud  when it comes to barking, but that’s just the nature of the breed. She limits the noise to when we are outside, just telling bikes, bins, people and dogs that they should keep their distance!

 

They’re both SO playful with one another which truly melts my heart and they each can give the other a run for their money. Nellie doesn’t have anything that she’s particularly interested in, except laptop cables, phone charging cables and gutting toys.

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Nellie's must haves

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A toy box full of squeaky toys.  Nellie loves nothing more than to gut her toys and pull out the squeakers.  It can get expensive but of late I have taken to buying replacement squeakers from ebay and sewing them back in her toys.  I haven't yet found a hard wearing toy that Nellie hasn't been able to destroy.  She will destroy toys in literally minutes so she needs to be monitored when she has a toy.  I never leave her at home alone with toys.  But that's ok as she loves cushions and their zips - the zip is gone within minutes too!!

 

Nellie loves LOTS of blankets as she love burrowing and snuggling.

 

Toilet training and recall
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Toilet training is slow, I must admit, but you only need to research and you will find that it's a normal trait for this type of breed.   Nellie will go out and has been taught to 'do your business' but will happily then come back indoors and quite blatantly go and have a poo.  So lazy and naughty.  Perseverance is needed. 
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Nellie is fantastic off the lead and has been since 10 weeks old.  She nailed recall to a whistle ever since her first walk and will come running back to either the whistle or 'Nellie come'

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Nellie's feeding regime

Nellie eats twice a day.  She has been known to be a little fussy with her food.  When we brought her home the breeder gave us AVA wet food and Royal Canin puppy food.  Within a few months she was bored of this, so at 6 months and when our stock had almost run out we switched her over to Lily's kitchen and then dropped her lunch time meal.  I still soak her food even now as she doesn't like it too hard.  Her morning food is plain but her evening meal has some cooked chicken on and once in a while I treat her to Sardines in sunflower oil.

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Treat wise she has a couple of gravy bones a day and raw carrot a couple of times a week.  Her coat is lovely, her poos solid and her teeth are fantastic so this diet works for her.

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Update - March 2020.  Nellie only eats once a day now.  She fusses over breakfast as the Labrador doesn't eat breakfast.  She is still on Lily's kitchen but I no longer soak her food.  She eats about 100g a day plus treats and she weights 5.2kg.

 

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Health tests

 

DNA test - PRA (cord1) 

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PRA is a disease of the retina. This tissue, located inside the back of the eye, contains specialised cells called photoreceptors that absorb the light focused on them by the eye’s lens. They convert this light into electrical nerve signals which are then interpreted by the brain as vision. These photoreceptors are divided into two groups; the cones which aid bright light and colour vision, and the rods which facilitate low light or night vision. The cord-1 mutation causes both cone and rod deterioration, which results in initial night blindness, but usually progressing to total blindness in affected dogs.

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Nellie - Hereditary Clear - 26/02/2019

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Testing for PRA Cord 1 is a mandatory requirement for KC Assured Breeders of miniature smooth haired dachshunds and the Kennel Club will not register any litters of pups where the health status of the parents cannot be verified.

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Inbreeding COI

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Inbreeding is the mating of related individuals, whether they are closely or more distantly related. The inbreeding coefficient is the probability that two copies of the same gene have been inherited by an individual from a common founder - an ancestor shared by both parents.

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Nellie - 5.2%        Breed average - 7.4%

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Merle Gene (M Locus) 

 

I submitted a buccal swab for analysis on15th April 2020 , the results came back within two weeks confirming that Nellie did not have the merle gene.

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Willow

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Willow is a Black and tan, smooth haired miniature dachshund.  Willow was born on 20th August 2020.

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Willow is very vocal and has absolutely no idea about personal space!

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