Life is a struggle, and that’s especially true when you have a dachshund. Although this wording is possibly wrong, because the ownership situation is not always exactly clarified. Or to put it better: the balance of power, i.e. the question of who actually keeps who here, the human being the dog or the dachshund the Munich resident. And so the battle rages on in Munich’s green spaces, day in and day out. Here the human, armed with a leash, dog whistle and treats. His strategy: first call, then trill, and finally wave a sausage. There the dog, equipped with four short legs and a defiant head. His tactic: put deaf. At least until the sausage finally waves.
What the lion is in Africa, the tiger in Asia, the bear in Northern Europe and the shark in the ocean, the dachshund is undoubtedly in Munich. And remember, the ancient Romans already knew that. Which is remarkable because Munich didn’t even exist at the time of the Roman Empire – and neither did the dachshund as a dog breed. Despite this, scientists have unearthed bones underground in Rome’s Colosseum which they have identified as the remains of a species of proto-dachshund, let’s call it a waldi.
And now they are puzzled: What was this defenseless little dog doing between lions, bears and gladiators, i.e. professional thugs armed to the teeth? Were they accessories for “venationes”, i.e. animal hunts? Were they used to reenact hunting scenes? Or should the puppies perform acrobatic tricks?
Acrobatics? Dachshund connoisseurs can only smile at this idea. But anyone who has ever seen how effortlessly a pack of Zamperl puts a shepherd dog to flight knows that a dachshund is small. But defenseless? no And his true strength does not lie in his body at all, but in his psychology. So what really happened in the Colosseum?
You have to imagine yourself in that time and in this amphitheater. 50,000 Romans are sitting, no, standing there in the ranks, they came to see the fight between two giants, and now they shout and cheer on either Waldi or his challenger, let’s call him Monacus. Will he conquer the dog, even without a sausage? The spectators are noisy and screaming, and that’s why they hardly notice how the fight escalates, how the man trills and scolds, grumbles and entices with his dog whistle more and more desperately: Come here! Hence! Come here now! Or not?! But the dog only thinks: Are you crazy now!