Dachshunds are very fashionable right now - there are a few things to consider when getting one.
The historian Prof. Dr.
Marita Krauss from personal experience.
She is also familiar with the history of animals and knows why the short-legged dogs are often stubborn.
Pöcking - The attraction in the Krauss and Kasberger house has brown fur, a faithful look and a mind of its own.
Dachshund lady Maxi enriches family life in the house of the historians in Pöcking and has now become the leading actress in a BR "Leisure" episode with Schmidt Max: "The Schmidt Max and the Bavarian Dachshund" was partly filmed in Possenhofen, Maxi is always there, and above all, mistress Marita Krauss brings her knowledge as a dachshund historian to the table.
The broadcast date is on Sunday, March 7th, at 6.45 p.m. on Bavarian television.
Marita Krauss became a dachshund historian because of her love for history, but also because of her dogs.
"Dachshunds are popular," says the woman from Pöcking.
“A dachshund is a clown, and it has a mind of its own - it is just not a German shepherd who does everything on command.” The fact that her dachshund did very little on command prompted the historian to deal with dachshund education and on the train its inevitably also with the history of the Dachshund.
“They were bred to drive badgers and foxes out of their burrows,” says Krauss.
"Underground he cannot receive orders, a dachshund has to act independently." The high nobility used dachshunds for hunting, and the depictions of Prince Regent Luitpold with his dachshund are well known, as are those of Kaiser Wilhelm.
Now the four-legged friend with the short legs is a very Bavarian dog.
At the end of the 19th century, the large publishing and arts and crafts location Munich discovered the dachshund.
In the magazine “Jugend”, in “Simplicissimus” and the “Fliegende Blätter” the dachshund was a popular motif, says Krauss.
"Painters like Leibl painted dachshunds, August Roeseler was a well-known dachshund painter." At that time, the dachshund was associated with the petty bourgeois - which found its climax in Franziska Bilek's fictional character Mr. Hirnbeiß.
Mr. Hirnbeiß, who is out and about with his dachshund in Munich, was the caricature in the Munich "Abendzeitung" for decades.
In 1972, with the Olympic Games in Munich, the Bavarian dachshund became the six-colored Waldi, the mascot of the Games, penned by Otl Aicher, and triggered a dachshund boom in Munich.
A dachshund as a mascot is a good choice for Marita Krauss: "A dachshund is not dangerous like a German shepherd, it is personable." This is how the dachshund became the typical Munich dog.
Krauss and husband Erich Kasberger feel the sympathy every day when they go for a walk with Maxi.
"People smile at you - a dachshund is the best exchange," says Krauss.
"You get to know people all the time."
Schmidt Max also made this experience during his day with Maxi.
The background to the broadcast is the current corona dog boom.
“Everyone wants dogs, but how do you deal with them properly?” Explains Krauss.
For the broadcast, Schmidt Max drove with Maxi to the Dachshund Museum in Passau and to a breeder in St. Wolfgang.
Because buying a dog from a good breeder is important for dachshunds, says Krauss.
If a dachshund throw every year, the likelihood of diseases increases.
"Then you have taken the dog to your heart and he gets sick - that is sad, exhausting and expensive." The German Dachshund Club, which has existed since 1888, offers help in finding a breeder.
“In 1879, breed characteristics for dachshunds were defined for the first time, for ears, body size and legs,” says Krauss.
However, knowing the story alone did not help Krauss raise her own dachshunds.
She went to dog school with all the dogs and read a lot of advice.
"One of our dogs was run over - it was clear that this shouldn't happen anymore, the next one had to obey." The best advice was the one with the sausage, as Krauss says.
“Take a Vienna sausage and reward, reward, reward.
You should be consistent, but always rewarded. ”It worked wonderfully for Leni, who came to the Krauss-Kasberger house after Franzi's tragic death.
Maxi, it turned out, doesn't follow that well.
“Maybe it was the dog after all,” thinks Marita Krauss.
Dachshunds have their own mind.
She can only advise all dog owners, especially those who have now got a dog in lockdown, to attend a dog school.
Most of them can be helped, is their impression.
"People are loving their dogs and want to do them something good."