Fun Facts ! About Dachshunds

BADGERS HUNTERS

The name “Dachshund” is actually German for badger dog. Dachshunds' short legs keep them low to the ground to track scents, and their narrow bodies allow them to crawl into burrows, looking for badgers. Despite their small size, Dachshunds are brave and fierce. Over time, they were bred in different varieties to hunt different kinds of prey.

TWO SIZES

Breeders created two different sizes of Dachshunds—standard and miniature. The standard Dachshunds weigh up to 35 pounds and were used to hunt badgers and wild boars. The miniatures weigh up 11 pounds and under.

THREE DIFFERENT TYPES OF COATS

Dachshunds can have smooth, wirehaired, or longhaired coats. All Dachshunds used to have smooth coats, and the smooth variety is still the most popular. Breeders probably crossed smooth Dachshunds with other dog breeds to produce the two other coat varieties.

THE DOG, NOT THE HOTDOG, CAME FIRST

Dachshunds are sometimes called wiener dogs because their long bodies resemble hotdogs.

But would you believe that the name for the hotdog was the Dachshund sausage?

The deli product was so-named because it resembled the dog breed. The name was later shortened to hotdog.

THEY WERE TEMPORARILY REBRANDED DURING WWI

Dachshunds were associated with Germany during World War I because they were used in a lot of propaganda, and Kaiser Wilhelm II had a well-known love for Dachshunds. This association led to a decline in the breed's popularity in America. To counteract this effect, the AKC tried rebranding Dachshunds as “badger dogs,” the translation of their German name, or as “liberty pups.”

A DACHSHUND WAS THE FIRST OLYMPIC MASCOT

The official mascot of the 1972 Munich Olympic Games was a colorful Dachshund named Waldi. This was the first time the Olympics had a mascot. Olympic officials actually plotted that year's marathon route in the shape of a Dachshund.