Height:
Miniature: 5-9 inches
Standard: 9-10 inches
Weight:
Miniature: 9-11 lbs.
Standard: 16-32 lbs.
Life Span: 10-12 yrs.
Breed Group: Scent Hounds
Overview
Dachshunds are clever, lively, playful, and love to be involved in all family
activities. The breed's stubbornness can usually be counteracted through
training.
Dachshunds get bored with repetitious lessons but learn quickly if properly
motivated. Ideal for city and apartment living, they can be cautious with
strangers but get along with other animals.
Poorly bred dachshunds can have serious medical and behavioral problems,
such as biting, destructiveness, and digging. House training can sometimes
be a problem.
Appearance
The dachshund's body is straight, long, and muscular, with short, muscular
legs. Its narrow head tapers smoothly toward the small nose.
The dachshund comes in two sizes, standard and miniature, and there are
three types of coats: smooth, wirehaired, and longhaired.
The smooth coat is short, thick, and shiny. The wirehaired coat is tight,
short, and coarse; its undercoat should have softer, shorter hairs between
the coarse hairs. (The wirehaired also has bushy eyebrows and a beard.)
The longhaired coat is soft, sleek, and slightly wavy, longer under the
neck and on the forechest.
Coat color for all three types is black, red, brindle, gray, chocolate,
or fawn, sometimes with tan markings. The dachshund can also be dappled
(a dark base color with lighter highlights).
Grooming & Exercise Needs
Smooth dachshunds need to be brushed weekly, while longhaireds need to be
brushed every other day (every day when shedding). Wirehaireds need to be
brushed and combed one to two times a week.
Dachshunds enjoy long walks, but if time is short, indoor ball chasing will
suffice.
Origins
The modern dachshund is related to a thirty-five-pound dynamo that was used
to hunt badgers in medieval Europe. It was bred to be smaller about one
hundred years ago in Germany to hunt rabbits and foxes. (Dach is
the German word for badger; hund means dog.)
The scrappy, short-legged dachshund worked aggressively without being intimidated
by the fox or badger.
Special Alerts
It is especially important to obtain a dachshund from a reputable breeder.
Breed-related health concerns: intervertebral disc protrusion, hypothyroidism,
Cushing's syndrome, undescended testicles, kidney disease, polyuria (excessive
urination caused by kidney disease).
Reference: AKC - American Kennel Club |
