We have a Chiweenie (half Dachshund, half Chihuahua. Yes. They intentionally breed them.) His name is Dax, and He has quite stolen our hearts.

He’s a smart dog. You can’t say “car ride” or “go for a walk” without him running back and forth between you and the door. If you don’t move quickly enough for his liking (after several runs to the door and back,) he stops and looks up at you as if to say, “but, you said…” (His eye markings make his face very expressive.)

However….. He can be a stinker. He sometimes willfully disobeys. We have trained him so that we can let him out the back door and he stays in the back yard. We use a stake and tether to reinforce that lesson. If he ever ventures into the neighbor’s yard (usually because the geese have waddled up from the pond,) we put him on the leash when he goes out, for a couple of days.

One day he had been out back, and no one paid any attention to the fact that he hadn’t come back in. All of a sudden he came rushing in the door and began to bark frantically. He does that whenever someone comes to the door. I went to the door and sure enough a lady from down the street was there. She informed us that Dax had gone 2 doors down in the middle of the street. I politely thanked the neighbor and assured her that this behavior was not the norm.

After she left, I took Dax and decided, “Okay Buster, you’re getting a time-out.” I took him out back and reached for the cable. As I brought the latch to his collar ring he gave me another one of his faces.
“But, Daddy? Why? Don’t you love me anymore?”

My heart melted, but I hooked the latch anyway. I do love him, and I can’t bear the thought of him getting hurt. I walked away wondering how often I look into my heavenly Father’s eyes and cry, “Father, Why?,” only to have Him answer, “Because I love you.”