With its long body and short legs, the Dachshund is one of the easiest dogs to recognise. However, not many people know much about this breed except for its comical and unique appearance. Here are some cool Dachshund facts that will have you amazed.
Its bark is as loud as an average food blender
Everybody knows the Dachshund temperament to be playful and loyal. However, there is more to this lively breed than meets the eye. Despite being small in size, this dog has a very loud and sharp bark – around 80 to 90 decibels!
That’s right! A Dachshund that barks for prolonged periods can damage a person’s hearing. Luckily, this breed is very smart, so early socialisation can prevent it from becoming a problem not only for you but also for your neighbours.
The ballgame snack, “hotdog,” got its name from this breed
The Dachshund goes by many funny names, like “wiener dog” and “sausage dog,” because of its resemblance to the popular ballgame snack. But did you know that when the hotdog was invented, it was originally called the “Dachshund sausage?”
Yes. In the late 1600s, a German butcher named Johann Georghehner travelled to Frankfurt to promote his product, which he called the Dachshund sausage. Two centuries later, frankfurters, or hotdogs, were born.
It was intentionally bred to have big, floppy ears
Being a scent hound, the Dachshund was developed with long ears instead of straight, upright ears so that it can be able to trace its prey better. But what does having big ears have anything to do with tracking scent?
Well, long ears scoop up scent particles and sweep them towards a Dachshund’s nose. Furthermore, long ears reduce this dog’s ability to hear sounds from far away, forcing it to rely on its sense of smell.
The Nazis claim that they taught one Dachshund to communicate telepathically
Believe it or not, there was a Dachshund named Kurwenal that could communicate words using different numbers of barks for specific letters of the alphabet – or at least, this is what Nazi scientists claimed.
According to the book, Amazing Dogs: A Cabinet Of Canine Curiosities, which was written by Dr Jan Bondeson, the Nazis set up Hundesprechschule Asra, a school that teaches canines to talk. Before Kurwenal died, it is said that it barked, “I am not afraid of dying; dogs have souls and they are like the souls of men.”