Dachshund

Andy Warhol did not much like answering questions, so he outsourced the job. Through the 1970s the artist turned up at openings, restaurants, and interviews with Archie, a short-haired dachshund, tucked under his arm — and when a question bored him, he would turn to the dog and let Archie take it. He called Archie his alter ego, and later added a second dachshund, Amos, largely for Archie’s benefit. It was a very dachshund arrangement. No breed has ever doubted its place at the center of the frame with quite this much conviction — and none has better credentials for the confidence.

Bold, at ground level

The confidence has range. In 1972, when Munich needed a face for its Summer Games, the first official Olympic mascot turned out to be a dachshund: Waldi, striped in Olympic colors, drawn by designer Otl Aicher from a real long-haired dachshund named Cherie von Birkenhof. The organizers went further and routed the marathon in the shape of him — thousands of the world’s fittest humans running forty-two kilometers around the outline of a very short dog. Germany knew what it was doing; the country had loved this dog for centuries, and Munich most of all.

Living with a dachshund is a negotiation you will mostly lose, cheerfully. They are brave past the point of good sense — bred to go down a tunnel after something with claws — and the household versions keep the full toolkit: a shockingly large bark, a taste for excavation, and opinions about strangers, delivery schedules, and bedtime. Training works when it seems to be their idea. The one hard rule is the back: keep them lean and off the high furniture, because that long spine is the breed’s known weak point. Everything else is comedy with a loaded spring inside.

Keeping one happy

Grooming

Depends on the coat, and there are three: smooths need little beyond a weekly rubdown; longhairs want brushing a couple of times a week to stop tangles behind the ears; wirehairs add occasional hand-stripping. All three shed moderately. Nails matter more than usual — long nails change how that long body moves.

Training

Stubborn is the breed’s official setting, but it is really independence — a hunter designed to make decisions underground, alone. Short, funny, food-driven sessions win; drills and raised voices lose. Housetraining takes longer than you expect, so start early and stay patient. A well-trained dachshund is a dachshund who agrees with you.

Exercise

Two modest walks a day plus indoor play keeps the engine happy — this is a hound, and hounds like a project for the nose. Sniff walks and scent games beat mileage. Skip the leaping: ramps to the sofa, gates on the stairs, and swimming or strolling over anything jarring.

Diet

Portion control is spinal care: every extra ounce loads the long back, so feed two measured meals and audit the treats, which this breed solicits professionally. Pick a food matched to age and size — minis and standards run different bills. Slow-feeder bowls help the ones who inhale dinner.

Germany’s badger dog goes global

The name is the résumé: Dachshund is German for badger dog, and the breed was engineered — long, low, loud, and fearless — to dig into a sett and argue with what lived there. How long ago is disputed; German foresters were relying on them by the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries at the latest. The AKC recognized the breed in 1885, and the hunter has been a housemate ever since.