Dachshund Lovers in History: Grayce Greenburg

Grayce Greenburg

by EDW. F. HIRSCHMAN for The American Dachshund, October, 1959

On Friday, September 4th, our Gracie as she was known to her thousands of friends, passed away after a stroke at the age of 78 years.
She leaves behind her husband Michael, grand children Mrs. Jayne Malherbe, Ali Stark, Jr, and three great grand children.
It was in 1931 after reading an ad in a magazine about the Greenburg Dachshunds, we drove out to Thousand Oaks with our first Dachshund Bergman. We showed him to Grayce and she liked him very much and asked us if we had ever shown him. Needless to say we did not know what she was talking about. She explained to us that she would try to get permission from the Alhambra Kennel Club to pull one of her dogs and substitute Bergman instead, and she did. This was our start in showing dogs and the first meeting with the lady who was to become our closest friend in the dog game for over twenty-eight years. My wife and I were always proud of the fact that she always introduced us to new friends as her children.
She founded the Dachshund Club of California along with her husband Mike and daughter Alverna in 1931 and held every office in the club in the years that followed.
She also founded The American Dachshund magazine in September of 1939 which is today the finest breed magazine in the United States. As its chief editor she did not miss a single monthly issue in 20 years, at times reaching in her pockets to pay the bills and keep it going.
She wrote three books on our breed, printed by the Judy Publishing Co. of Chicago, all of which had many reprints because of their popularity.
She held a license for years to judge our breed - as well as hounds and has judged most of the best shows in the country. In recent years she also judged all toys and many varieties of the non-sporting group. She was made Dogdom's Woman of the Year in 1953 by the Gaines Research Center.
Her Champion Kensal Call Boy whom she imported from England, was the first dachshund in America to win the coveted "Best Dog in Show" award. Judge Frank Simmons made the award at the San Bernardino Show in 1931.
Along about 1936 she was presented with the registered kennel name of Teckelheim by a friend of hers in the east, Mrs. Emil Fuchs, if my memory serves me correctly. I believe it is the oldest registered dachshund kennel name in America.
Grayce, as Show Secretary, and her husband Mike ran the Ventura Kennel Club for about 25 years.
I firmly believe that Grayce Greenburg, through her unselfish work for the breed, should be given the credit more than any single person in America for our breed becoming one of the most popular breeds in America. The A.K.C. registered 373 dachshunds in 1931 and the staggering total of 40,100 in 1959.
Grayce's every thought throughout the years was for the good of dachsies, their owners, the Dachshund Club of California and its magazine, the American Dachshund.
She was the most unselfish person as to the above ideals I have ever known in the twenty-eight years of our acquaintanceship. She was looked up to as the "First Lady" in Dachshunds by all who knew her or of her.
As I sit here and think about all the people that i have seen and met during the last quarter of a century in the dog game, I find myself with many pleasant memories of the real fine people we came in contact with.
Then on the other hand I can't help think of so many people in our breed who cared nothing for the breed, were only interested in satisfying their own ego, winning at shows, making money, took everything out of the breed and gave nothing. Thank goodness, these kind never last too long.
When I think of Grayce Greenburg and what she stood for in our breed I can easily forget most of the rest.
If there is a special Valhalla in heaven for dog people who have given all of themselves in time and love toward our dachshunds, Grayce will be sitting in the Queen's chair.
I know Mike Greenburg must get some consolation from the fact that his wife of 58 years was regarded as the "First Lady" in Dachshunds by all who knew her.
A person like Grayce Greenburg comes along once in a lifetime and I am so glad I was fortunate enough to have known her during mine.

Humans Whose Leg We'd Pee On: Dr. James Dobson

We try to keep things pretty low-key around these parts, but Dr. James Dobson, author of The Strong-Willed Child is in the news recently with attacks on Barack Obama and his "fruitcake ideas." We definitely won't get political here, but Dr. Dobson wrote about his dachshund 'Sigmund' as an example in his "spare the rod, spoil the child" book, which was revised in 2005. Here's a wild excerpt for those who have never read it on how to NOT train your dachshund.
One word of caution: it won't make your day. Dr. Dobson needs to explore positive reinforcement techniques if he wants dogs or even children to respect him as the pack leader.

Please don't misunderstand me. Siggie is a member of our family and we love him dearly. And despite his anarchistic nature, I have finally taught him to obey a few simple commands. However, we had some classic battles before he reluctantly yielded to my authority.
The greatest confrontation occurred a few years ago when I had been in Miami for a three-day conference. I returned to observe that Siggie had become boss of the house while I was gone. But I didn't realize until later that evening just how strongly he felt about his new position as Captain.
At eleven o'clock that night, I told Siggie to go get into his bed, which is a permanent enclosure in the family room. For six years I had given him that order at the end of each day, and for six years Siggie had obeyed.
On this occasion, however, he refused to budge. You see, he was in the bathroom, seated comfortably on the furry lid of the toilet seat. That is his favorite spot in the house, because it allows him to bask in the warmth of a nearby electric heater...

When I told Sigmund to leave his warm seat and go to bed, he flattened his ears and slowly turned his head toward me. He deliberately braced himself by placing one paw on the edge of the furry lid, then hunched his shoulders, raised his lips to reveal the molars on both sides, and uttered his most threatening growl. That was Siggie's way of saying. "Get lost!"
I had seen this defiant mood before, and knew there was only one way to deal with it. The ONLY way to make Siggie obey is to threaten him with destruction. Nothing else works. I turned and went to my closet and got a small belt to help me "reason" with Mr. Freud.

What developed next is impossible to describe. That tiny dog and I had the most vicious fight ever staged between man and beast. I fought him up one wall and down the other, with both of us scratching and clawing and growling and swinging the belt. I am embarrassed by the memory of the entire scene. Inch by inch I moved him toward the family room and his bed. As a final desperate maneuver, Siggie backed into the corner for one last snarling stand. I eventually got him to bed, only because I outweighed him 200 to 12!

But this is not a book about the discipline of dogs; there is an important moral to my story that is highly relevant to the world of children. Just as surely as a dog will occasionally challenge the authority of his leaders, so will a little child -- only more so. (emphasis Dobson's) Source.

Dachshunds in Pop Culture: Ian McShane

Ian McShane and 'Morrie,' 1973

Who? Ian McShane is a Golden Globe-winning English actor. In the United Kingdom, his best known role may be that of roguish but dashing antiques dealer Lovejoy in the BBC drama series of the same name. He also enjoyed fame in the United States as bounding English cad Don Lockwood in the soap opera Dallas. Even before Lovejoy, McShane was a pin-up as a result of appearances in television series such as Wuthering Heights (1967, as Heathcliff), Jesus of Nazareth (1977, as Judas Iscariot), and Disraeli (1978) -- as well as films like Sky West and Crooked (1966) and Battle of Britain (1969).
This photo is taken from the newly released The Best of Cosmopolitan: the 70s and 80s.
Accoding to The Guardian, who recently had a look at our obsession with 70s retro magazines, his dachshund was named 'Morrie.' "Do you take him home and give him a nice warm bath? Or cross the street to avoid him? Either way the dog looks a little distressed."

Dachshunds in Pop Culture: Kamil Salah

Kamil Salah (1967 - 2005)

This is the late photographer Kamil Salah and his dachshund “Molly”. Kamil Salah was a photographer, fashionista, and dog-lover. His recently published book, "Celebrity Dogs" includes a forward by Bruce Weber, and photos of the glamorous pooches of Hollywood's A-List.

Salah's photo of artist Ross Bleckner's miniature dachshund 'Minnie.'

Salah's own little girl 'Molly,' his favorite dog to love and photograph. Check out his website for more dachshund photos.

Dachshunds and Junior Showmanship in the News

What a great family activity, and what beautiful doxies! Excerpt from the Lake County News-Sun: Leah Tedesco, 16 (right), holds Prince Leopold and Honey. Her sister Olivia, 13, is shown with Fenway and Guiness.

In her new book, "Junior Showmanship: How to Get Started in One of the Best Family Sports," dog-showing enthusiast Leah Tedesco, 16, outlines her practical approach to entering the world of dog showing and competing for kids ages 9 to 18.
"As far as I know there are no other books like this, which explains just how a child can get into the sport of handling. Most books are about how to win, but the sport is much more than that. It's a great way to bond with your dog and spend time with your family. I am trying to give a broader view of the sport," Tedesco explained. Read the rest.

The book is available for $6.95 from http://www.dogwise.com/ and http://www.amazon.com/.