| Description
The Dachshund is a sporty, devoted breed and makes an excellent family dog. Even though he is small in size, he makes a good watch dog with a surprisingly loud bark. He may be slightly aggressive to strangers. Given the nickname the "sausage dog" he is low to the ground, long in body and short of leg with robust muscular development. The Dachshund has an intelligent, alert facial expression.
There are six varieties of Dachshunds: smooth-haired, wire-haired and long-haired in two sizes, Standard and Miniature. The smooth-haired Dachshund is the original strain, the wire-haired and the long-haired were attained by crossing the smooth-haired with terrier breeds.
History
Country of Origin: Germany
Geneology- Known to have existed as far back as the 16th century. He is derived from the oldest breeds of German hunting dogs. Dachs is the German word for badger. The dachshund was bred to hunt and burrow for badgers and the miniature was created to hunt hares. Today dachshunds are bred as pets, though some in Europe are still used as hunters.
First Registered by the AKC in 1885
Other Names - Teckel (Miniature: Zwergteckel)
Sizes
Height: Standard - 8 inches, Miniature - 6 inches
Weight: Standard - 16-32 lbs., Miniature - under 11 lbs.
Health & Environmental
Living Environment: Excellent pet for an apartment or house, city or country. Be aware he can bark loudly. An owner of a Dachshund should be consistent and patient and one who desires a small, active, personable breed.
Health Issues: Prone to disc problems - do not let him become overweight or jump from great heights. They are also subject to genetic eye diseases and skin problems.
Life Span: 12 - 14 Years
Litter Size: 3 - 4
Are dachshunds easy to housebreak?
Housebreaking can be difficult with dachshunds. While most dachshunds do eventually get the hang of it, it is not totally uncommon to hear things like "she's 95% reliable." Most likely it is their independent nature that makes them a little difficult to housebreak. It's not that they don't know any better, or that they maliciously want to be disobedient; it's just that they don't always see the necessity of relieving themselves outside (especially in bad weather), and they are willing to accept the consequences. Unless you're a real ogre, the minute you see one look up at you with his inquisitive, adoring expression, capped off with his brown, almond shaped, soulful eyes, you'll understand why they often get away with things. Patience goes a long way with housebreaking a dachshund.
What is the best age to adopt a dachshund puppy?
If you are going to adopt a puppy, he should be at least 8 weeks old. This ensures that he is properly weaned from his mother, and has had at least one vaccination.
It sounds like a Dachshund is the dog for me. Where can I get one?
If you decide that a Dachshund is the breed for you, you have several options. If you want to buy a puppy, then you should only buy from a reputable breeder. You should be able to talk to a breeder to learn more about the breed, and meet at least one of the parents of the puppy, which is a good indicator (health-wise, temperament, and appearance) of how the puppy might turn out when it is full grown.
Don't rush; take your time to find a good breeder with a puppy available. This may require being placed on a waiting list; good breeders often have waiting lists. But the benefit to buying from a good breeder is to maximize your chance of adopting a healthy, well-socialized puppy with a predictable temperament and physical appearance.
What should I look out for, to avoid dealing with a breeder who is not reputable?
To someone who has never purchased a puppy from a reputable breeder before, it can be difficult to know if you are dealing with a breeder who is 'less than reputable.' But some indications that breeders you are considering dealing with fall into this category are: They don't give you an opportunity to meet at least one of the puppy''s parents
They haven't socialized the puppies with people
They offer to sell a puppy to you without even meeting you, and will ship puppies' anywhere' to people they've never met
They will release puppies before they turn 8 weeks old
They always seems to have puppies available, year-round (reputable breeders typically only have a few litters a year, and will only breed their females a few times in their lifetime)
They seem more concerned with getting your money than making sure the puppy will have a good home
With proper care, socialization, and training, dachshunds can be wonderful, faithful companions for many, many years
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Colors & Patterns
Red, Black & Tan, Dapple, Cream, Black & Cream, Pie Bald, Blue, Isabella & Tan, Chocolate...Smooth haired - dense, short and smooth,
Long haired - soft and straight, and only slightly wavy, Wire haired - short, straight and harsh with a long undercoat.
Temperament
Lively, intelligent, courageous
Good with Children: Yes, long-haired are very good, wire-haired are good, smooth are fairly good and miniature are best with older children. Make sure their first experience with children is positive.
With Pets: Some co-exist peacefully, many are bossy and like to dominate other dogs. Must be socialized when young to accept cats.
Care
Care and Exercise: Regular brushing with a bristle brush. Dry shampoo or bathe when necessary. The smooth-haired dachshund has little body odor and can be occasionally rubbed down with a damp cloth. Regular exercise is important as he has a tendency to put on weight and become lazy.
Training/Activities
Training: Long-haired are easier to train than smooth-haired but they have a mind of their own and require patience and consistency.
Learning Rate: High
Obedience - Medium
Problem-Solving - High
Activity: Indoors - High, Outdoors - High
Are they trainable?
Dachshunds are very intelligent dogs. They learn fast, but mostly when it suits their purposes. This is where their stubbornness shows itself most clearly, making some a bit of a challenge to train. Although they absolutely can learn, they definitely have their own agenda, which may or may not coincide with yours. With proper motivation (treats!) they can be trained. They are also very clever in ways you'd never expect. It is not impossible to show a Dachshund in the obedience ring, but it's definitely not the most common dog for this purpose. Like housebreaking, consistence and patience goes a long way.
How are they with children?
Dachshunds can be very good with children, provided they are socialized properly when they are puppies. It is a good idea to let your dachshund meet as many people as possible at an early age, including adults, teenagers, and children. Good experiences with people at an early age will make your dachshund a very good canine citizen, who gets along with almost everybody. Still, no matter how good any animal is with children, you should never leave them unsupervised.
Do they bark a lot? What do they sound like?
Once they find their voice, they have barks that sound like they come from much bigger dogs, making them good watch dogs - not guard dogs (which will actually attack) but watch dogs, which only make a lot of noise
A good breeder:
is interested in improving the breed;
selects healthy, well tempered parents who are exemplary samples of the breed;
is extremely knowledgeable about the breed, as well as the heritage (parents, grandparents, etc.) of the puppies;
will ask as many questions of you, as you should of her;
is very selective about who she places a dog with, and wants to make sure the dog will have a great home;
has puppies who can be registered with the AKC, even if it is only a limited registration;
follows the Dachshund Club of America''s code of ethics.
Being such a popular breed, there are breeders who are more interested in making money than breeding well-tempered, healthy dogs. By asking a lot of questions of a potential breeder, you can weed out the bad ones from the good ones.
You may also want to consider adopting a dog from a local dachshund rescue league, or rescuing a dachshund from a local animal shelter. There are many wonderful dogs available through such organizations, and many terrific rescue organizations. Many reputable breeders will insist on a spay/neuter agreement when they sell a puppy or dog, and will only allow a limited AKC registration (a puppy with a parent who has a limited AKC registration cannot be registered with the AKC). Don''t be surprised if you are asked to sign such an agreement when you buy a dachshund from a reputable breeder.
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Dachshund Colors and Coat Patterns
Did you know that there are more color/coat combinations available in dachshunds than in any other breed? Sometimes having so many options makes choosing the perfect companion even more difficult. Aesthetics, or eye appeal, is an important consideration, but should be secondary to temperament and personality.
The colors available in dachshunds are:
Red
Black & Tan
Solid Black
Black & Cream
Blue & Tan
Chocolate
Chocolate & Tan
Cream
Fawn (Isabella) & Tan
Wheaten
Wild Boar
The coat patterns available in dachshunds are:
Brindle
Brindle Piebald
Dapple
Double Dapple
Piebald
Add to the mix the three coat types (smooth, Longhair and Wirehair) and the two sizes, standard and miniature, and the list of possibilities is exhausting!
COAT TYPES
Dachshunds come in three breed standard coat types:
SMOOTH COAT - Should be short, sleek and shiny. Smooth is dominant to the Long-hair variety.
LONG HAIR - Should be long and silky giving the dog a look of dignity. The Long-hair variety has been said to of been created by breeding the small Spaniels into the dachshund breed but there is no known documentation to prove the theory. Longhair is recessive and both parents must be longhair or carry for longhair to produce longhair puppies. However 2 longhair bred together can produce only longhaired offspring.
WIRE-HAIR - Wiry, coarse, brittle coat with pronounced whiskers called beard. The Wire-hair variety has been said to of been created by breeding the small Terriers and Pinschers into the breed but there again there is no known documentation to prove the theory. Many doubt this theory since the Wire hair seem to process the shortest of legs of the 3 varieties which doesn't seem possible if they were bred to the leggy Terrier or Pinscher. Wirehair is dominant to the Smooth and Long-hair Varieties but is not carried recessively. A wire hair can however possess what is being called a "Soft Wire" which is the genetic combination of Long and Wire hair varieties.
SMOOTH is same length (smooth) on all parts of body.
LONG HAIR coat is silky, ears, body and tail are covered with long hair.
WIRE HAIR has wiry hair on body, ears and tail. Has pronounced whiskers on muzzle area.
WHAT COLOR IS MY DACHSHUND?
Don't feel bad if your not sure because there are many mislabeled registered dachshunds out there. The main problem being that even the registries have been known to steer breeders wrong as to what color to label their little darlings. I admit that the Dachshund breed has to be one of the more confusing breeds to understand with it's vast variety of colors and patterns but with a little research and enthusiasm on your part and a lot of common sense thrown in for good measure even the most challenged can learn what is what.
There are more colors and patterns in the Dachshund breed than most any other breed of canine. This alone makes it very difficult for a novice with little or no experience of the breed to label the colors/patterns correctly which leads to a large number of puppies/dogs being incorrectly labeled.
The incorrect labeling also makes it extremely difficult for future breeders to accurately diagram the genetics in their dogs to produce the colors that they hope to produce.
To further add to the problem if you were to contact AKC for help on identifying your puppy: you would think they were be giving accurate information but unfortunately this has proven over and over not to be the case.
AKC has repeatedly told people to mark puppies PIEBALD that were in actuality DOUBLE DAPPLES. This is a very grave mistake for the future offspring of these incorrectly marked dogs.
PLEASE … PLEASE …. Research the colors, patterns and genetics of the Dachshund breed BEFORE you select a color & pattern for your puppies.
To label a Dachshund correctly you MUST know something about genetics behind them and how they work.
Lesson 101 - Colors:
There are 7 (seven) basic breed standard recognized colors associated with the dachshund breed.
It is important to note here that any color can be produced without tan/creme markings: however in most other registries other than ACR they must be registered with tan/creme in the description.
*Red, *Black, *Chocolate, *Blue, *Fawn (Isabella), *Creme and *Wildboar. 4 of the colors, *Black, *Chocolate, *Blue and *Fawn may or may not have tan or Creme markings on legs, chest, eyebrows and under the base of the tail. Red will NEVER have tan or Creme markings.
Wildboar appears to have Tan or Creme markings but is in reality a matter of the hairs not being banded in those areas.
Now keep in mind that while there are only 8 recognized breed standard colors that there are many shades of these colors that are simply registered as the basic color. Red being the number one color that throws many breeders due to it's wide variety of coat shades and nose pad colors. HOPEFULLY THE FOLLOW INFORMATION CAN CLEAR UP SOME MISCONCEPTIONS
Dachshund Colors:
There are many colors & patterns of Dachshunds but most registries with the exception of ACR accept only a few of the patterns for Registration or Show.
The first thing that needs to be kept in mind at all times is that different breeders label dogs differently and different registries accept different colors as acceptable. While all breeders should have a set way to do things many simply do not understand genetics and it's role in identifying colors and patterns. There are also different breed clubs that have their own definition of what is breed standard.
The information below is what I have conceived as correct through the years. These are the DCI's Breed Standard as set forth for ACR - American Canine Registry.
One Colored Dachshunds
Two Colored Dachshunds
One color Doxies have NO Tan/Creme Markings
2 color Doxies MUST have Tan/Creme Markings
When we refer to two colored dachshunds it means they are the base color (black, chocolate, blue, Isabella) with tan/Creme markings around their eyes, feet, muzzle and base of tail.
The proper way to address and label these puppies are as Black/Tan, Black/Creme, Chocolate/Tan, Chocolate/Creme Blue/Tan, Blue/Creme, Isabella/Tan and Isabella/Creme.
The sole exception here is the Wildboar, which is listed strictly as Wildboar. Wildboar is both a color and pattern and is used in Wirehair and Smooth coated Dachshunds. It should never be used in reference to the Longhaired variety.
The proper way to label a Gray Dachshund with markings is with the Blue/Tan or Blue/Creme distinction.
The proper way to label a Fawn Dachshund with markings is as an Isabella/Tan or Isabella/Creme distinction.
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