What’s Better? A Dachshund’s Help or No Help at All?

Franzi “helping” me make a tablecloth

If you have a dachshund or two, you know they’re good at a few things. Burrowing, barking, getting underfoot, and helping you with whatever you’re doing.

And by “helping”, I mean inserting themselves right into the middle of whatever it is you’re trying to accomplish.

For example, my sewing table sits behind a small couch in the sunroom, making the back of the couch one of the dachshund’s favorites spots as it offers a nice place to nap in the sun as well as keep close eye on what it is I’m doing.

Now, Rommel is pretty good about keeping to the back of the couch and not getting in the way of anything (you can see his back there in the left side of the photo).

Franzi, on the other hand, is never satisfied with being merely an observer, and insists on placing herself between me and whatever it is I’m working on.

Recently, I decided to get a jump on the coming holidays by making some tablecloths with fabric I found stashed away. Cutting the fabric was easy enough because my cutting table is too far and high for little doxie legs to reach.

However, stitching up the edges with my serger was a different story. Rommel and Franzi took up position on the back of the couch (Montgomery couldn’t be bothered with getting off his dog bed), and I was able to get the first three tablecloths finished all the way.

But the fourth one was too much for Franzi to simply sit by and watch.

At first she edged out onto the sewing table to give the sewing machine a good sniff. When I pushed her back from that, she simply moved over and sat on the finished tablecloths.

Not wanting her to mess those up, I pulled them out from under her and put her back on the back of the couch.

But she immediately returned to the sewing table. So I gave up and started stacking the folded tablecloths on top of her.

Unsurprisingly, she was just fine with that.

Dachshunds…