The Dachshund is a short-legged, long-bodied dog breed of German origin. The Standard Dachshund was developed to scent, chase, and flush out badgers and other burrow-dwelling animals, while the Miniature Dachshund was bred to hunt smaller prey such as rabbits.
Today, Dachshunds are popular family pets, and are known for their bold and tenacious personalities. They come in a variety of colours and coat types, and are generally healthy and long-lived dogs.
Dachshund owners naturally know a lot about their dogs, but possibly not the breed as a whole. To help you get to know the breed a little bit better, here are 10 fascinating Dachshund facts that you probably didn’t know:
10 Dachshund Facts
- Dachshund means “badger dog” in German.
- The Dachshund is also known as the “ Weiner Dog” or the “Sausage Dog”.
- Dachshunds come in two sizes – Standard and Miniature. Standard Dachshunds weigh between 16-32 pounds (7-15 kg), while Miniature Dachshunds weigh 11 pounds (5 kg) or less.
- There are three coat types of Dachshunds – Smooth, Wirehaired, and Longhaired.
- Smooth coated Dachshunds have short, shiny hair; Wirehaired Dachshunds have wiry, thick hair; and Longhaired Dachshunds have long, silky hair.
- All three coat types can come in a variety of colours including black & tan, red, cream, chocolate & tan, brindle, blue & tan, Isabella & tan (a dilute form of fawn), and piebald (patches of white on a coloured background).
- The average lifespan of a Dachshund is 12-16 years.
- Some common health problems associated with the breed include intervertebral disc disease (IVDD), obesity, diabetes mellitus, epilepsy, von Willebrand disease (vWD), and hypothyroidism.
- Famous people who have owned Dachshunds include Marie Antoinette, Pablo Picasso, Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, Andy Warhol, Paul McCartney, Jennifer Aniston, Brooke Shields, Paris Hilton, and Britney Spears.
- The earliest depiction of the Dachshund in cartoons dates back to the 1913 silent film The Artist’s Dream, starring John Randolph Bray. J. R. Bray is widely regarded as the father of modern cartoons, and in this film he plays an artist drawing a dachshund and a sausage. While he’s away, the Dachshund comes to life in his art and eats sausage after sausage, eventually exploding in dramatic fashion. Of course, it is eventually revealed that this was all a dream.
There are tons more Dachshund facts out there that we’re sure even experts don’t know. If you have any that you want to share, leave a comment below! All Dachshund owners love the breed, and would be excited to learn more.