My pal Baxter the Dachshund says that it’s Unicorn Appreciation Day on Wednesday. Baxter has already started trying to catch his Unicorn in his backyard to bring to the Appreciation Day. He’s super smart, so I’m sure he’ll have no problem catching one, he even thought up some really cool bait to catch his Unicorn with – like Watermelon, Glitter, and even Beans.
Since Baxter looked like he was having so much fun trying to catch his Unicorn, I told my mom I wanted to catch my own for Unicorn Appreciation Day too.
Luckily the Painting Ponies had a stash of glitter on hand at the farm. Gotta love a pony that keeps glitter in their locker.
I spread out some of my glitter by some pretty flowers on the farm. I figured if Unicorns like glitter, then they probably like flowers too.
Now comes the hard part, waiting for my Unicorn to show up….
Just in case I also started digging a Unicorn hole – you know – should Unicorns live underground. Hey, you never know!
In honor of me being a painter now, I thought I’d share another artist with you today. Check out these super cool custom pet portraits. I think Lemon Drop Land would totally be worthy of making a special portrait of yours truly – complete with super hero cape (P.S. my Birthday is in October!)
To create the papercut, I’ll begin with a sketch of the (fairly high resolution) photo that you email me. Once I’m happy with the likeness and “feel,” I’ll slice the image out of subtly textured, sturdy, acid-free, highly light-resistant, 60% cotton papers, ensuring a long life without deterioration. Each piece is signed and dated.
You can fetch your favorite pet’s portrait for $200 at Lemon Drop Land on Etsy.
And if you just so happen to own a Boxer then you are in luck! Pre-cut Boxer portrait – $80 at Lemon Drop Land. I’m a little jealous that it’s not a Dachshund!
P.S. You can also LIKE LemondropLand over on Facebook.
Secretly I have been working on a little project for the past few weeks. Yes, it’s true, Super Dogs sometimes have to go into their super bat caves and work on new projects. But now I’m ready to reveal it!
You might remember that I spend a lot of my time with a couple of famous Painting Ponies. The ponies have sold artwork all over the World, and I have to admit I’m a little bit jealous of their painting skills, especially my pal Minnow.
In my family, everyone is an artist. The ponies paint using acrylics, my dad is a graphic designer, and my mom is an artist and picture framer. Me? Well I started making scratch art last May. Using my paws I scratch Dachshund shapes and other fun things onto specially created boards. And while I love making scratch art – which has sold all around the World – it’s not really painting. How am I supposed to be an honorary member of Painting Pony when I don’t paint?
So I decided it was high time I started working on my own painted masterpieces. Now you all know I like to be a little different. How many Super Hero Dachshunds do you know? So I couldn’t just pick up a paint brush and start making paintings – I gotta stand out from my Painting Pony friends.
So with the help of my mom I made my very first watercolor painting on June 10th 2011!
My first painting, titled, “My Sunshine”
My mom helps me by putting watercolor onto the paper and then the rest is up to me. Digging, Scratching, even dancing – I mix those paints into a one-of-a-kind masterpiece!
I think it’s probably safe to say that I’m the World’s First Dachshund Watercolor Artist – beat that ponies!
Now with this great talent comes great responsibility (hehe had to throw in the Super Hero Reference there) – so with the sale of every one of my paintings I am donating 5% to some of my favorite charities. (Main Line Animal Rescue, Coast-to-Coast Dachshund Rescue, SPCA). My Painting Pony Friends also donate money to their favorite charities with the sale of their work – and over the years we have donated hundreds of dollars to animal rescue groups. Yeah for helping animals in need, because that’s what Super Heroes do!
Right now I only have one available work for sale. After all, you can’t rush perfection – and I like to take my time in creating my one-of-a-kind paintings. But don’t worry, there will be more in the future – and I’m also totally game for custom commissions!
“Backyard Bliss” by Ammo the Dachshund, June 18, 2011. Available for purchase here. One of a kind!
To see more of my art work as it becomes available check out my online shop that I share with the Painting Ponies. I’ll also be sure to let all my fans know whenever I have a new painting available for sale on the blog!
And in case you don’t believe me that I’m a REAL painter, here’s a video that my mom helped me make.
Now if you’ll excuse me, this super hero has some painting to do!
The Painting Ponies that I live with are a special breed (according to my mom). They are all Chincoteague Ponies, which means they were either born wild on Assateague Island in Virginia or they are related to the wild ponies from the island. My best pony friend Minnow was born wild on Assateague 18 years ago – how cool is that – technically I’m friends with a wild animal! Mom says Boomerang and Blitz are not directly from the island, but their parents are.
Since I learned that to get off the island, Minnow had to join in on the annual Pony Swim, I decided that Blitz and Boomerang should probably learn to swim too. It was time for initiation!
I of course watched safely from the sidelines.
Blitz and Boomerang are on the left, and my other pony friend Jet is on the right. Jet is not a Chincoteague Pony so she was exempt from initiation, but chose to participate – well, because she’s an overachiever.
The ponies we’re just taking too long to get to the swimming part, so I had to send in my assistant to get them moving.
It’s Super Trooper, assistant swim coach!
I like to make Trooper think he’s important.
And we have a swimmer! Boomerang has passed initiation! Now he can call himself a real Chincoteague Pony. I’m like the best swim coach ever!
Being a horse show dog is a VERY tough job. We don’t get the glory of winning the fancy ribbons and trophies like the ponies do, instead we are behind the scenes taking over the jobs that no one else wants to do.
Take my job for example. I’m usually on patrol duty, in charge of guarding all of the tack and the trailer.
The hours are long, and usually it’s hot. But someone has to keep away the chickens….
…and the cows!
Stop giving me the stink eye cow! I’m watching you!
It could be worse though, I could be stuck on ribbon rack duty like my pal Trooper.
Last year I was invited to perform at the Keystone Dachshund Races during their lunch break, it was my very first performance ever as a young and inexperienced 1 year old! I thought I did ok, considering I was new to the game and had only learned most of my tricks in a matter of a few weeks. You can watch my performance from last year here. (I’m WAY better at my tricks now!)
Well this year when they invited me back to perform, I knew I had to up the anti a little. So since my bestest performing pony pal, Minnow, couldn’t come with me – I asked my pal Trooper to fill in for him. Now Trooper is new to the whole performing thing, and I told him he had to learn a whole bunch of new tricks if he wanted to perform with me.
In the end we put on a Super entertaining duel between two friends. Here’s a taste of how it all went down:
(P.S. if you want the full effect – with my super awesome hero music – you’ll have to catch one of my live performances! Apparently youtube isn’t super music friendly!)
Performing at the Dachshund Races is very hard. Because not only does the stage smell like a bazillion other doxies (butt sniffing heaven!), but it is also littered with dropped treats. Talk about hitting the jackpot, bacon bits, hot dogs, cookies and more! It’s super hard to concentrate on your super tricks when working for treats seems pointless since free ones are on the floor!
But, me and Trooper pulled it off, and I’m sure we made a few people giggle!
Better luck winning the trophy next year Trooper! This super doxie is unstoppable!
Yes, you read that right. I was in the Heavy Weight division at the Keystone Dachshund Races this year. You might not be able to tell by looking at me, but I’m a hefty 20lb “tweenie”. (and no, that does not mean I’m fat). It just means that I’m too big to be a mini dachshund and too small to be a standard dachshund, and it puts me in the weight class with the big dogs!
In my 5 Qualifying heats I earned three first places and two third places, which earned me three racing spots in the semi-finals.
In my semi-final runs I was up against some stiff competition, but in my final race I narrowly beat my fellow heavy weight competitor, earning me the coveted spot to run in the FINAL RACE!
Basically I beat out all of the heavy weights in my division, now it was time to run against the lean, mean, mini-dachshund, Dudley!
I raced my little heart out, but in the end, Dudley had a narrow edge on me – beating me to the line by a nose!
Mom and Dad were proud of me no matter what my finish. And I’m just glad I redeemed myself from my horrible racing skills from the past 2 years (in my defense I was just trying to play with all the other puppies – I’m a friendly guy!).
You can watch my previous racing escapades here and here.
And now, here’s my montage of all of my racing fun this year:
Stay tuned for more details about my big performance with my pal Trooper!
P.S. I guess this means I AM faster than a speeding bullet! huh?
Because yesterday I was at the Keystone Dachshund Races, and I did a lot of this:
and this:
and I even won a few of these:
So, even though I love each and every one of you. You’ll just have to wait until tomorrow to hear all about my fantastic adventures. Because I’m still doing a lot of this:
So peace out pooches! Until tomorrow!
P.S. if you really can’t wait to see how I did at the races, head on over to my facebook page!
The other day mom visited Petco without me. I know the horror! But at least she didn’t come back empty handed. And even though she didn’t buy me EVERYTHING I wanted, she did come back with the scoop on some new dog-gone great dog toys.
One of those items is The Doggie Bag. A new product from Hyper Pet. It’s a wiggling, barking, bag of fun! Their website boasts that it’s the perfect toy for hyper dogs.
Hyper or not, their fun promo video (see below) made me want to give it a try myself! The fact that it had a couple of cute little long haired Dachshunds in it may have helped a little too. So maybe if I promise to be really good next time mom’s at petco she’ll pick me up a doggie bag.
You can fetch The Doggie Bag at Petco (selection may vary at different stores) and on Amazon for $17.
In honor of me being a 
