The Dachshund is among the most popular dog breeds in the U.S. and has been since the 1950s.  The dachshund as we know it today originated in Germany.  It is believed that the dachshund was developed over several hundred years and was bred specifically to hunt badgers.  In German, “Dachs” means badger and “Hund” means dog: thus dachshund is a badger dog, and even the smallest dachshund is a fearless hunter.  The original German dachshunds were larger than the dachshunds we know today – averaging between 30 and 40 pounds.  Although much smaller, today’s dachshunds retain that fearless quality for which the breed was originally developed.  As the breed standard states, the dachshund should be “courageous to the point of rashness.”  Unlike the dogs included in the AKC Sporting Group, dachshunds were trained not just to retrieve their prey, but to kill it.  You can see this trait today if you give your dachshund a squeaky toy; dachshunds are notorious for attacking the toy and “killing” it by destroying the squeaker as quickly as possible. 

The dachshund is the only AKC – recognized breed that hunts above and below ground, and its body is a study in superb “engineering.”  Every aspect of what some people think is a funny-looking body has been designed to help the dog achieve its original purpose.  The short legs allow the dachshund to burrow deep into the earth after those badgers (or any other earth-dwelling mammals) in their dens.  The tail is long and sturdy and extends straight out from the spine, providing a “handle” with which the hunter can retrieve the burrowing dog.  The paws are unusually large and paddle-shaped, for efficient digging.  The skin is loose so that it will not tear as the dog tunnels down into tight burrows.  The dachshund has a deep chest to allow enough lung capacity to keep going when hunting.  Their noses are long to increase the area that absorbs odors.  And the dachshund bark – which, in the standard dachshund, is relatively deep for such a small dog – lets the human locate the dachshund that has gone down a hole after prey.  As anyone who has ever owned a dachshund and walked it on a leash can attest, the dachshund is extremely strong in both bone and muscle, and it can achieve speeds you would not imagine in a dog with such short legs.