My dachshund Charlie

I have 2 dachshunds. I love them to death. Chico is 3 and Charlie is 2. Ive had them since they were babies. They are both from the same parents, but i got them from different litters(I think that's what its called). Anyways Charlie has always been the more tentative, nervous one. When we go for rides, Chico always likes to lay on my arm and hang his head out the window, while Charlie gets scared and nervous every time. Even when they come to greet me or whoever comes into the house, Chico will come charging, tail wagging, ready to be picked up and loved, while Charlie does the same thing, he'll come forward, tail wagging, but always has his head down, looking up with his eyes, ready to be picked up to. Charlie is the most lovable one, he wants all the attention and loves being picked up and kissed. One thing that caught my attention recently is I recently got a laser pointer and Ive been using it on Chico as exercise, Ill run him around the house and outside with it for a while. But Charlie doesnt care for it, he wont chase it or even care to look at it. He just stands around as Chico chases it. Even my other dog Rocky, who is a black lab, will chase it for a bit before he loses interest. I was just wondering if theres something mentally wrong with Charlie? Could it be that maybe he was the runt of his litter? Ive had him for almost 3 years and this laser light thing just got me curious. Ive used it with other friends dogs and they go crazy for it

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Originally Posted by TomCat

I have 2 dachshunds. I love them to death. Chico is 3 and Charlie is 2. Ive had them since they were babies. They are both from the same parents, but i got them from different litters(I think that's what its called). Anyways Charlie has always been the more tentative, nervous one. When we go for rides, Chico always likes to lay on my arm and hang his head out the window, while Charlie gets scared and nervous every time. Even when they come to greet me or whoever comes into the house, Chico will come charging, tail wagging, ready to be picked up and loved, while Charlie does the same thing, he'll come forward, tail wagging, but always has his head down, looking up with his eyes, ready to be picked up to. Charlie is the most lovable one, he wants all the attention and loves being picked up and kissed. One thing that caught my attention recently is I recently got a laser pointer and Ive been using it on Chico as exercise, Ill run him around the house and outside with it for a while. But Charlie doesnt care for it, he wont chase it or even care to look at it. He just stands around as Chico chases it. Even my other dog Rocky, who is a black lab, will chase it for a bit before he loses interest. I was just wondering if theres something mentally wrong with Charlie? Could it be that maybe he was the runt of his litter? Ive had him for almost 3 years and this laser light thing just got me curious. Ive used it with other friends dogs and they go crazy for it

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Hi, Tom! None of the imagines work, they say "this has moved or deleted the image" instead.

Charlie does sound like he is naturally a more timid dog, whether or not he was the runt. What does motivate his interest? Some dogs are all about toys or laser lights, but otter dogs just have no interest! It does sound as if he would benefit from some one-on-one training time ever day, to help build his confidence. How much training have you done with him? Some dachshunds particularly excel at scent work. maybe that is a game you could play with him that he would enjoy?

Every dog is different, even within a breed. Our Great Dane, Gracie, was actually 3/4 Great Dane, and 1/4 Lab, and did NOT understand fetch. Or catch. or any of the things even dogs without any retriever genes normally love. She has malnourished as a puppy, and we blamed that for some brain damage. She could run like the wind, but had no idea she was supposed to actually catch the prey. She'd run with wild rabbits who would be so terrified they didn't even have time to zigzag like they normally would, and she would run next to them without ever trying to pounce or catch them, poor things!

Like Karen said,, every dog is diff. my Toy Poodle i had didnt care for a game of fetch. he also did not like water. he acted like he was made of sugar whenever he happened upon a stream/lake or pond or if it was raining out he didnt wanna go out. yet his breed was bred to retrieve their masters downed birds from water. thats even why if you look at Poodles in the show ring they look weird with these big poofs of hair here an there an yet shaved everywhere else. the poofy areas cover vital organs like lungs/heart etc thatd be vulnerable to the cold an shaved in other parts to not weigh the dog down. yet other Poodles would literally live in water if they could an or play fetch till your arm fell off. or both