Meet Bella. She's one of our "new" dogs. We've had her two years now. We adopted her from a hound rescue as an 11 week pup. She was fiesty. She still can be, but she has mellowed a lot. The rescue told us she is an Italian Hound or Segugio Italiano a pelo raso. This means "short haired pursuit hound". It's an ancient breed and rare outside Italy. How she and her ancestors made it to Chicago, I have no idea. The description says they are quiet. Not Bella. Although lately she has grown more quiet,
but she will bark incessantly if she sees another dog. She's also a bit small for the breed which could come from poor neo-natal nutrition (the rescue said many pups at this location died from lack of food) or there could be another breed involved (I'm thinking maybe a terrier of some sort). But she is not a dachsund although her head certainly resembles that breed. She is very leggy!
She is also all girl. Our beautiful lady is quite emotional. She loves exuberantly. She gets jealous easily. And she snuggles frequently. She is the one of the two (the other being Chief) that tends to become hyper and excited.
All of the trainers I've met said she will be the dominant dog, but I think she's a wanne-be-alpha dog. She acts dominant, but Chief will put her in her place easily WHEN he chooses to. Personally, I think he toys with and humors her most of the time. She is also the least stubborn and the most easily trained of our two. Food is her favorite reward, but praise is a fairly close second.
Her fur is short, flat, and satiny. Her ears are truly smooth like glass. When she gets excited her whole back end wags. Her tail is like a whip and when she wags it, she will bang anything in its path - cabinets, walls, herself, your legs. It's funny when she hits herself and seems not to understand what it is.
She started off in sad circumstances in an overbred situation, but we're lucky to have and love her.
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