"Dachshund Breed History"
The Dachshund was bred as a hunting dog and is known to have existed before
the 16th century. In Europe during both World Wars, it was recognized as the
national dog of the Teutonic Empire and, because of its German ancestry, was
mistreated and even stoned in the streets. Today, the Dachshund enjoys great
popularity and is known for its loyalty as a family pet.   

The name Dachshund (dachs, badger; hund, dog) at once reveals and conceals the
origin of the breed. In medieval European books on hunting, dogs similar only in
possessing the tracking ability of hounds and the proportions and temperament of
terriers, because they were used to follow badger to earth, were called
badger-dogs or dachs-hund. A parallel is suggested by the current use of the
name rabbit dog in various parts of this country for dogs of various breeding, used
to hunt rabbits.

Illustrations dating from the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries show
badgers hunted by dogs with elongated bodies, short legs, and hound-type ears  
some with the bent front leg of a basset, some with the head of terriers, and some
with indications of smooth and long coats. It is well to consider that these
illustrations were made before the days of photography that artist capable of
depicting dogs with anatomical fidelity have always been rare, and that woodcuts
do not lend themselves to fine reproductions of coat distintions. At best, the
pictures and descriptive words can be interpreted with certainty only as defining
the functions of the dogs used on badger.    

The preponderance of available evidence indicates that smooth and longhaired
coats were separated by selective breeding, long prior to recorded registrations;
whereas within such recorded history, the wirehaired coats was produced for
protection against briar and thorn by crossing in harsh, wiry terriers coats and
then breeding out incompatible characteristics of conformation. Early in the
seventeenth century the name Dachshund became the designation of a breed
type with smooth and longhaired-coated varities, and since 1890 wirehairs have
been registered as the third variety.   

The badger was a formidable twenty-five to forty-five-pounds adversary. Strength
and stamina as well as keenness and courage above and below ground were
required of badger dogs. Weight of thirty to thirty-five pounds was not uncommon.
Such Dachshunds in packs also were serviceable against wild boar. With this start
the breed was adapted to hunt other game. A smaller sixteen to twenty-two pound
Dachshund proved effective against foxes and trail-wounded deer. Still smaller
twelve pound Dachshunds were used for stoat and hare. In the first quarter of
the twentieth century, for bolting cottontail rabbits, miniatures with
adult weights under five pounds and chest girths under twelve
inches, but with plenty of hunting spirit, were produced (rabbit
teckels).

Before the German Dachshund or Deutscher Teckelklub was founded in 1888,
racial characteristics, or a standard for the breed had been set in 1879; and
German registration of Dachshunds was included (not always with complete
generation data or systematic coat notations) in a general all-breed stud book, the
Deutscher Hunde-Stammbuch, whose first volume, in 1840, recorded fifty-four
Dachshunds and the names of several subsequently prominent breeders, and
whose publication continued until officially terminated in 1935.

Importation of Dachshunds into this country antedates the earliest American dog
shows or studbooks, and eleven were included in AKC Stud Book, Volume 11 in
1885. American dogs have found little employment in organized hunting, as we
lack in the badger and wild boar and do not hunt deer with dogs, nor foxes with
pick and shovel. The true character and conformation of the breed have been
encouraged by frequent importation of German hunting strains; and to encourage
hunting capacity and exemplary conformation and temperament, field trials under
AKC rules were instituted in 1935.
Micro Miniatures (Rabbit)         Miniatures           Standards
We breed Micro's and Miniature Dachshunds
Read Where the Micro
(Rabbit Teckels) Mini's
originated from!     
5th Paragraph
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