|
| Height |
Miniature: 5-9 inches
Standard: 9-10 inches
|
| Weight |
Miniature: 9-11 lbs.
Standard: 16-32 lbs.
|
| Life Span |
10-12 yrs. |
| 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 |
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.
|
| Other |
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).
|
|
|
