We have three Intrepid Dachshunds, Benson Charles, Lucy Lou and Heidi Anne.

Benson is a shaded red, long haired, tweeny (or tweenie) dachshund. (A tweeny is bigger than a miniature, but not as big as a standard dachshund). Benson came to live with us in November 1998 at the age of nine weeks.

Benson is top dog (or at least thinks he is), always looking out for Lucy and being guard dog around the house.

Lucy is a black and tan, long haired miniature dachshund. She is beautiful, only a tiny little girl, but so special. She loves to look out for bunny rabbits and can catch mice when they come in the house. Lucy arrived in April 1999 also at nine weeks old.

For seven years we were a family of two people, two dachies and lots of alpacas. We decided to adopt two more dachies into our family, and Heidi and Hamish arrived at the end of April 2006 at nine and a half years old.

Heidi is a shaded red tweeny, a little bigger than Benson, but still not as big as a standard dachsie. I call Heidi my funny chook as she does hilarious things and makes me laugh. She hasn't had any puppies, but is very much the mothering type. She tries to lick you clean.

Hamish is no longer with us. He was Heidi's brother and so much fun. He had major problems with his back (common in dachshunds) but was so full of life. He couldn't walk very well towards the end, but would still hop about when he got excited and was a fun loving dog. He loved his treats, toys and laying out in the sunshine. He was awesome.

The dachies have four secure areas to hang out in. They have a doggie door which takes them out onto the deck where they often lay in the sun. They can also get to a small garden from there which has a vegie patch and apple trees.

Out the front they have another garden with daisies and roses (which I don't maintain very well, but the dachies don't mind). It's a fun place to go exploring.

Out the back, is a big lawn with a willow tree which is nice to sit under on hot days. There's also a special spot for Hamish here.

Beyond the lawn, is a paddock where we've planted a few trees. We're going to plant more trees to make it like a park. I've planted some raspberries and blueberries here too. We've fenced the paddock securely so the dachies can explore and sniff about, roll in paca poo and bark at the alpacas through the fence.

Our dachies also have full run of the house. Luckily, they are nice clean dogs and don't have that "doggie smell" that many breeds have.

Alpacas and dogs don't get along well natually. Dogs are predators and alpacas are prey. A herd of alpacas will band together to protect themselves and their crias against any dog that come into their paddock. Of course, alpacas would not stand much of a chance against a large determined dog or a pack of dogs, but they could certainly make a mess of a little dog like a dachsie, so we keep them separate. Our alpacas are well used to the dachsies, as well as the other local dogs, but they sure let us know when there's a new dog about.

Benson just likes to sit and watch the alpaca crias (probably because he thinks he might just be able to catch the smaller ones!) Heidi and Lucy sometimes run up the fence and bark at the alpacas making them run away. Hamish was never really interested in the alpacas. He prefered exploring and sitting in the sun.

Our dachsies always come on holidays with us and we have found some very nice, dog friendly holiday spots in Tasmania.