The Dachshund
The Little Dog With a Big Personality and an Even Bigger Grudge List
What's Breed Got to Do With It: Vol. 20
Growing up, my mom had two Dachshunds: Herky and Squeaky. Herky was, to put it gently, a menace. If my mom left him behind to go out with friends, he would express his displeasure by peeing on her bed — a protest so precise and so personal that it could only have been intentional. And when I came along, Herky decided, unilaterally and without appeal, that he did not care for me. He would steal my toys, drag them behind the couch, and chew them into confetti while I sobbed somewhere nearby, powerless against a dog roughly the size of a loaf of bread.
Squeaky, on the other hand, I adored without reservation. He was everything Herky wasn't: sweet, easygoing, happy to just be near you. And here's the strange part — even though Herky gave me every reason to hold a grudge against the entire breed, Squeaky is the dog I picture whenever someone says the word "Dachshund." One good dog rewrote the whole story. If you've ever loved a breed despite a rough start with one of its members, you already understand the Dachshund paradox: these dogs contain multitudes, and they will make you work for your affection before they hand it over completely.
Where they came from
Dachshunds were built, quite literally, for a job: badger hunting. The name translates from German as "badger dog," and every physical quirk that makes them internet-famous today — the long body, the short legs, the barrel chest, the enormous paws relative to their size — was engineered by breeders centuries ago for tunneling into badger setts and going toe to toe with an animal that outweighed them and had zero interest in negotiating. That is an important detail to keep in mind the next time a ten-pound Dachshund squares off against a Rottweiler at the dog park like it's a fair fight. As far as this breed is concerned, it always has been.
They were refined in Germany over hundreds of years, with different sizes and coat types developed to hunt different game: standards for badgers and boar, miniatures for rabbits and other small burrowing prey. By the time they crossed into general popularity in the 19th and 20th centuries, the job had changed from "underground combat with wildlife" to "underground combat with houseguests," but the attitude never got the memo.
Temperament: small dog, enormous opinions
Dachshunds are clever, stubborn, deeply loyal to their people, and constitutionally incapable of believing they are small. They were bred to work independently, underground, without a human telling them what to do next, and that independent streak is alive and well in every Dachshund napping on a couch cushion today. This is a dog that will make you laugh, make you question your training abilities, and make you a full-time audience member for behavior it has no plans to stop.
They tend to bond hard to one or two people — ask Milo, further down this page, who has firmly decided he prefers men — and can be wary of strangers, which sometimes surfaces as the kind of big, confident barking you'd expect from a dog twenty pounds heavier. They also dig. Constantly, enthusiastically, and without any apparent awareness that the backyard is not, in fact, full of badgers. If you've ever wondered why your Dachshund is rearranging the flower bed with the focus of a contractor on deadline, that instinct is a few hundred years older than your landscaping.
Coats and sizes: choose your fighter
One of the more fun things about Dachshunds is that "Dachshund" isn't really one dog — it's three coats and two sizes, mixed and matched into six distinct-looking versions of the same stubborn little soul.
COATS:
Smooth — the classic image most people picture, short and shiny, low maintenance.
Wirehaired — dense, wiry, with a beard and eyebrows that give them a permanently unimpressed expression.
Longhaired — silky, flowing, and often mistaken for a completely different breed by people who've only ever met the smooth kind.
SIZES:
Standard — originally built for badgers and boar, typically 16 to 32 pounds.
Miniature — bred down for smaller prey like rabbits, typically 11 pounds and under at maturity.
Personality-wise, the differences between coats and sizes are mostly folklore rather than fact — a wirehaired Dachshund isn't inherently scrappier than a smooth one, no matter what their owners will tell you. What doesn't change across any version is the attitude. That part comes standard.
Living with a Dachshund
Dachshunds do best with owners who find their stubbornness charming rather than infuriating, because you will be negotiating with this dog for its entire life, and it will not always let you win. Positive reinforcement training works best; Dachshunds are smart enough to learn quickly and opinionated enough to decide some commands simply aren't worth their time. Housetraining in particular has a reputation for taking longer than average, so patience and consistency matter more than volume.
They don't need a huge amount of exercise, but they do need some, and a bored Dachshund is a dog who will find its own entertainment, usually at the expense of a shoe, a couch cushion, or in Herky's case, an unsuspecting toddler's toy collection. Daily walks and some mental stimulation go a long way toward keeping that badger-hunting brain satisfied.
They also tend to do well with families, provided everyone in the house understands one crucial rule that leads directly into the next section: no jumping, no rough handling, and absolutely no picking this dog up incorrectly.
Health: know the back, save the dog
No conversation about Dachshund health can start anywhere except the spine, so that's where we're starting.
Intervertebral Disc Disease (IVDD) is the defining health concern of this breed, and it isn't a minor footnote — it's a structural reality of how Dachshunds are built. Their unusually long backs and short rib cages put sustained pressure on the discs cushioning the vertebrae, and in Dachshunds specifically, those discs tend to degenerate and harden prematurely, a condition called chondrodystrophy. When a disc bulges, ruptures, or herniates, it can press on the spinal cord, and the result ranges from pain and reluctance to move, to partial hind-limb weakness, to sudden full paralysis. Studies estimate that roughly 1 in 4 Dachshunds will experience some form of IVDD in their lifetime, making it one of the most breed-defining health risks in all of dogdom.
The frustrating part is that a disc event can happen from something as mundane as jumping off a couch, taking stairs too fast, or being picked up under the front legs with the back left dangling and unsupported. That's why Dachshund owners are told, often repeatedly and with increasing volume, to use ramps or steps instead of letting the dog jump, to support the full length of the body when lifting, and to keep the dog at a lean, healthy weight, since extra pounds put more strain on an already vulnerable spine. Mild cases are often managed with strict crate rest, anti-inflammatories, and physical therapy; moderate to severe cases, especially any sudden loss of hind-leg function, are a veterinary emergency, and outcomes are significantly better the faster surgery happens when it's needed.
Beyond the spine, Dachshunds are also prone to:
Patellar luxation — a kneecap that slips out of its normal groove, causing an intermittent skip or hop in the hind leg.
Obesity — a serious concern specifically because of how directly it compounds IVDD risk; every extra pound on a Dachshund's frame is extra pressure on that long, vulnerable back.
Progressive retinal atrophy (PRA) — a gradual, inherited deterioration of the retina that can lead to blindness, more common in certain lines and coat types.
Dental disease — their small jaws tend to crowd teeth, which can accelerate plaque buildup and periodontal issues without regular dental care.
None of this is meant to scare anyone away from the breed. It's meant to explain why "no jumping off the bed" isn't a Dachshund owner being precious about furniture — it's a Dachshund owner who has read the statistics and would like to keep their dog walking.
The real cost: getting one and keeping one
Dachshunds are small, and small dogs have a way of looking like a small commitment. They are not. Between the price tag to bring one home and the price tag to keep one healthy, this is a breed where the math deserves its own section.
Getting one. A Dachshund puppy from a reputable breeder typically runs anywhere from $500 to $3,000, depending on coat, color, and pedigree — rarer colors and patterns can push that even higher. Adoption is considerably kinder to your wallet: Dachshund Rescue of Ohio's fees run roughly $200 for seniors up to $450 for puppies, and that fee usually already includes essentials like vaccinations, spay or neuter, and a starter supply of preventatives.
Owning one, day to day. Baseline costs — food, routine vet visits, flea and heartworm prevention, grooming, the occasional destroyed toy — typically land somewhere between $700 and $1,500 a year for a healthy Dachshund. Not nothing, but manageable for most households.
Owning one, worst case. This is where Dachshunds can turn into a genuine money pit, and it comes back to the same structural issue as the health section above: IVDD. Surgery alone typically runs $2,000 to $4,000, but once you add diagnostics like X-rays or an MRI, anesthesia, hospitalization, and post-op rehab, the full bill commonly lands between $5,000 and $12,000 per incident — and severe or emergency cases can climb past $10,000 on their own. The word "incident" matters here, too: Dachshunds who've had one disc event are at real risk for another, so this isn't always a one-time expense.
I have a friend whose French Bulldog — another chondrodystrophic breed built along similar structural lines — needed three separate spine surgeries over the course of his life. The total cost estimate came in well over $30,000. She had pet insurance, and by her own account, that coverage was the only thing standing between her and financial disaster. Dachshunds are adorable, tiny, and extremely good at making people underestimate what they're actually signing up for. Before you bring one home, it's worth pricing out pet insurance, and worth doing it while your dog is young and healthy, since most insurers won't cover a condition that's already shown symptoms.
Is a Dachshund right for you?
If you want a dog with the confidence of a Great Dane in the body of a loaf of bread, the stubbornness to match, and enough personality to fill a house twice its size, a Dachshund might be exactly the chaos you're looking for. If you're not sure, the AKC has a breed match quiz that can help you figure out whether a Dachshund — or something else entirely — fits your life, your home, and your patience for a dog who thinks it knows better
TAKE THE QUIZ
Curious about whether a Dachshund actually fits your lifestyle? Wondering if another breed might be a better match for your household? The AKC's Dog Breed Selector quiz is a genuinely useful starting point before you fall in love with a face at the shelter or add your name to a breeder list. akc.org/breed-selector-tool
Still interested?
If a Dachshund does sound like your next best friend, here are three currently up for adoption through Dachshund Rescue of Ohio, spanning young to senior:
Tifa (left), a confident, playful, crate-trained young girl who wants to run and play, bonded with her best friend Tommy.
Marvin (middle), a shy-at-first sweetheart with a baby face, who warms up fast and loves to run outside and sleep beside you.
Oscar (right), an eleven-year-old survivor of a cruelty situation who's blossomed into a loving, affectionate senior, bonded with his son Jasper.
Listings change quickly — visit Dachshund Rescue of Ohio directly to confirm availability before reaching out.
Herky never did apologize for the toys. Squeaky never had to. Somewhere in between those two dogs is the entire Dachshund breed, in miniature.
Don't miss a single bark.
What's Breed Got to Do With It is part of our ongoing series on breed realities, adoption advocacy, and finding the right fit. It drops right here on the Bark Blog every Thursday.
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My Barking Life is an animal-themed art and advocacy brand based in Ohio. Follow along at mybarkinglife.com and on Facebook, Pinterest and YouTube.
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