The Citizen

PORT BYRON - It was a social gathering where adults were free to wiggle around on their bellies. But it was just to put them at the same level as the multitude of low-to-the-ground dachshunds with their famous hot dog torsos.

Jackie Atanasio laid on her stomach as she coaxed Ellie, a reddish dachshund, to pose for a picture. It wasn't until Ellie got some tummy scratching from a helpful gentleman that she looked at the camera in a blissful state.

Cayuga County had its first-ever dachshund gathering Saturday at the Max 200 Dog Performance Equipment Inc. store on Route 31 in Port Byron. About 40 people from around the region - and as far away as Buffalo - came to enthuse about all things dachshund.

Tracy Rose, of Buffalo, also attended a dachshund-oriented picnic in Ohio last weekend that attracted 600 dachshunds and their owners.

Rose, her mother and their dachshunds, Mr. Butters and Rigby, met Rose's friend and a dachshund from Ithaca at Saturday's event.

“They're extremely loving and adorable,” Rose said. “They're like a cult once you get involved.”

Rose and her mother both sported T-shirts reading “Doxie Lovers Club.”

Event organizer Cindy Adler has six dachshunds herself, including photo star Ellie. She coordinated the event because of an online dachshund forum where regional residents expressed interest in a gathering.

The breed is divided into three elongated body types: mini, tweenies and standards. The breed has a spectrum of coat colors, including piebald and even a silvery blue.

The German-origin breed are considered “earth dogs,” Adler said. They were bred to hunt burrowing animals like badgers or gophers. Contemporary pet dachshunds aren't hunting badgers anymore, but they still like to tunnel into blankets and are fearless against much-larger animals, Adler said.

Greta, a 11-week-old that belongs to the mother of Kristin Paczkowski, of Throop, is exactly that way.

Greta is a calm dog, Paczkowski said, “but she is very bold.” The black and tan medium-haired dog has no fear of a 17-pound family cat that hisses and paws at her, and she is not intimidated by the family's much larger lab mix.

The little munchkin of a dog won the costume contest in an adorable ladybug costume.

While the dachshunds, most of them on leashes, socialized and sniffed at each other, there also was a serious theme to the event.

Ellie is Adler's most recently rescued dog, found on the side of the road in the Martville area.

Rescuers thought she had mange because of the terrible shape of her coat, but she was diagnosed with a thyroid problem, Adler told the group. When Adler set Ellie down to the ground, she happily visited different people in the room, her tail wagging.

Adler, of Montezuma, is informally involved in the rescue of dogs, and she invited several rescue groups to attend the event.

All of the rescue groups said prospective dog owners should seek breeders who treat their animals well. They said pets should not be bought at pet stores that get their puppies from so-called puppy mills, which keep breeding parents in small cages for the sole purpose of producing offspring.

Cheryl Rogers, of Oswego, hopes that people will get their pets at shelters or from rescue groups because there are many pure-bred dogs that are given up. If going to a breeder, she advises asking how many litters a dog has had.

Reputable breeders will want to do veterinarian or other reference checks of potential buyers, a sign that they care where their puppies end up, she said. They also should be willing to provide references of past clients who can talk about the dogs they bought from the breeder, Rogers added.

Rogers is involved in a national group, Puppy Mill Rescue, that tries to rescue dogs from puppy mills and get them into homes. There are five foster homes in central New York, she said.

She pointed to several displayed pictures of dogs available for adoption around the country from Puppy Mill Rescue foster homes.

“These are all the moms and dads of dogs in pet stores. They just live in cages,” Rogers said.

Atanasio has formed a private group called New Beginnings Rescue with friend, Rosemarie Roberts. She warned that people advertising a pet as free to a good home should be aware of people posing as a family seeking a pet who actually will take the dogs for use in dog fights, laboratory testing or in puppy mill breeding.

Atanasio is a former animal cruelty investigator. Roberts and she have a screening process for their dog adoptions, including vet references and home visits.

All the rescue action seems to start with the love of canines. Atanasio and Roberts both currently have several dogs in their homes.

David Stott, of Liverpool, said dachshunds don't have to be given up or avoided as pets out of concern for their personalties or their propensity for back injuries.

The back injuries can be avoided if people pick them up carefully and don't let them jump up and down on furniture, Stott said.

“People think they're yippy and nippy. Any dog is unless you socialize them,” he said.

He left to visit a nearby park with his six-month old puppy, Cashew, so named because he looked like the nut when he sleeps. Cashew and he trek to a park or a pet store several times a week so the dog learns that strangers - both human and canine - are acceptable members of his pack.

Staff writer Amaris Elliott-Engel can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or at amaris.elliot-engel@lee.net