Frannie's Postcard Home

Frannie sent a postcard to a friend in Clintonville. Hope you can read it. It is sort of hard writing with paws.

Hint: click on the picture to see a larger image

Walking Frannie - Other Dog Breeds

As noted previously, Frannie at 50 pounds is one of the larger dogs in Wallerheim. The predominate dogs here are terriers or terrier mixes. As you get out into the country, you see more larger dogs. Many are mixed breed, and many did come from animal shelters. Finding a companion from the shelter seems a preferred path for most Germans and it is for more and more Americans.

The image that most Germans would associate with the word dog is the German Shepherd. An they are certainly popular here. Although a lot of these seem smaller the the German Shepherds I know in Columbus.

German Shorthair and Wirehair Pointers are seen here just about as often as I see them in the US.

There are other German dog breeds that seem more popular in the US than they are here. I have never seen a Weimaraner here. Although an internet search does show clubs dedicated to the breed. Same with Doberman and Rottweilers. Although, I have seem one Rottweiler here.

There are a couple of German breeds that we have seen here, but have never seen in the US. One is a Wachtelhund. Litteraly, this would translate to "Quail hound", but I think they are also know as German Spaniels in English. They appear to be a bit larger than a Brittney or Springer. Coloring can vary from dark brown patches on white to all dark brown. As the name suggests, these a bred as birding dogs.

The Münsterlander that we meet was a beautiful dog. She was 13 years old, white with large and small patches of mahogany brown. She about the same weight as Frannie, but with longer legs. Her coat was medium length and she had brown, intelligent-looking eyes. She also seemed to have a good temperament. Both she and Frannie set under adjacent tables in a restaurant on one of our hikes. A really, really pretty dog.

Hiking in Markgräflerland, October

Are hikes when we are in Badenweiler tend to follow a progression. Starting with a hike in the hills around the town, becoming gradually more difficult, then on the last day taking a hike that involves a relatively steep climb to one of the peaks that are near by.

The first day hike also follows a pattern. It's about 9 km and begins by accessing a trail across the street from the apartment. We climb about 100 meters in the first 1.5 km to a rocky area with views of Badenweiler and the surrounding vineyards. Then ridges around through the woods to the small framing community of Sehringen. From there it drops down through a valley of cow pastures and orchards to the picturesque village of Lipburg. There are nice views down the valley towards the Rhine river on this part of the trail. After passing through Lipburg, there is a short walk through more pastures and then back into the woods to Niederweiler. We then ascend under Badenweiler's castle into the town and back to the apartment.

The added attraction of this hike is October is the opportunity to collect nuts along the way. Earlier in the month, apples and pears would also be available to collecting from abandoned trees along the path. But we were a little late for that this year. However, the trails does pass by chestnut trees as we leave and re-enter Badenweiler. Also through walnut trees entering and leaving Lipburg. We concentrated on the walnuts on this walk. The walnuts here are English walnuts, so they don't have the thick skin of the black walnuts in Columbus. Rather, the walnuts pop from the skin as they ripen, making the easy to collect.

The walnut trees tend to be on private property on either side of the trail. You'll never sure if the owners collect the nuts or not. But the rule is that the nuts that fall on the trail are fair game. We managed to collect 3 kg before deciding that was enough. The limiting factor being how much we were willing to carry up the hill to Badenweiler rather than the availability of nuts on the trail.

Frannie is certainly learning to love these hikes. On the trail, she is investigating every smell and every hole on either side of the trail. 9km hike for us is likely a 12 km hike for Frannie as she goes from side to side with her investigations. She also loves romping in the fields, racing around in circles, comming back to Magda or I to be petted, then doing it again.

In Niederweiler, Frannie discovered another reason to enjoy being in Germany. There is a small resturant in Niederweiler that caters to locals and hikers. called Klemmbackmühle. The restaurant is filled with antiques, including a suit of armor. But for Frannie, the important thing she discovered is that dogs are allowed in restaurants here. She really is a good restaurant dog, setting quietly under the table, observing everything happening, and occasionally being petted by a customer as they enter to leave. She thought that was pretty cool.

Walking Frannie - Doggie Relations

Frannie is not the only dog in Wallersheim. That is not too surprising, Germans do love their dogs. It is also not too surprising that Frannie is one of the larger dogs in the neighborhood. The realities of living in 1000 to 1200 square foot apartments lead to a preference for smaller breeds. What has been surprising is the aggressive reactions of other dogs to Frannie. Or the number of times on a walk that you see someone with their dog change direction to avoid their dog reacting to Frannie.

Magda actually was not at all surprised when I mentioned this. It turns out that it is highly unlikely that these dogs have been neutered. The general feeling in the culture is that neutering changes the dogs personality and that would not be right. Of course, Germans do not appear to deal with puppy mills or wide spread problems of dogs in the street. In point of fact, I'm told that animal shelters actually have to import dogs from areas that do have such problems for placement in German homes.