Darby Dachshund Utterson, ON

I`m a beautiful double dapple, smooth hair miniature - white with patches of light brown - and a freckly nose. My foster mom and dad call me Sugar Plum because it looks like someone dipped me in icing sugar. I have an adventurous and sweet disposition, even though I’m supposed to have some limitations, I don’t think I do. I have beautiful blue eyes, but because of overbreeding, they don`t work very well …
 
What is a dapple? Dapple is a coat pattern, you might have a red dapple with some white dappling or darker red dappling. A double dapple is the result of breeding two dapples together. The resulting genetic outcome see's both the mom and dad's dapple gene passed onto the puppy. Essentially the dapple from the mom overwrites the dapple gene from the dad and you get the non symmetrical pattering (one coloured leg and one white) and a large amount of white in the coat. You will also see a blue eye or a partial blue eye.

While the coat outcome may appear beautiful the other possible defects include dogs being born without eyes or ears, or being born deaf, or being born with an underdeveloped eye(s), or being born blind or any combination thereof.

Responsible breeders will carefully identify their dogs and pups as dapples and would never breed two of the same together!

A double dapple is not to be confused with a piebald, which is a normal dachshund colour with varying amounts of white. One of the main differences will be the symmetry of the markings, such as if one ear is brown the other ear will be brown and so on.
 
I have about 25% vision and my hearing`s not so great either. But because I was born this way, I`m still a happy go lucky pup and I get around pretty well, even rough-housing with my foster brother and sister (they`re a lot bigger than me, but they play nice and let me jump all over them and chew on their ears and tails with my puppy teeth). The only real problem – aside from bumping into furniture while chasing a chewy toy – is that I have some trouble going down stairs and steps.
 
I’ve taken to my crate with no problem at all, but that’s probably because I share it with other dogs and don’t get lonely at night. Because I’m just three months old, I still have little accidents on the floor, but I’m learning to do my puppy  business on the pad or on my foster parents’ big patio. I use the pad now most of the time.
 
I’m getting used to being walked on the leash… I wasn’t sure at first who was walking who and the wide world is full of interesting and even scary things for a little puppy who can’t see very far in front of her. But every time we go for a walk, my foster mom has to stop every few minutes to let the friendly people passing by pet me or hold me and tell me how beautiful I am… which is fine by me!
 
I`m a sweet natured little girl, who loves life: if by life you mean trouble. I`m bouncy and full of energy, puppy hopping around after anything that I can chew on (like all puppies I love to try out my teeth). When I run out of steam, my favourite place is curled up like a little dachshund doughnut next to my mommy or daddy or in a big dog-pile with my brothers and sisters.