Dachshund Bored dachshunds are not badly behaved dachshunds. They are underemployed ones.
That distinction matters more than almost anything else you will read about this breed. A dachshund was built, quite deliberately, to go underground alone, make decisions without human input, and outthink an animal that very much did not want to be found.
Then we brought that brain indoors and handed it a squeaky carrot.
Brain games are not a cute bonus for a doxie. They are the closest thing you can offer to the job description printed into their DNA, and a dachshund who runs that program daily is calmer, sharper, and significantly less interested in redecorating your couch cushions.
Here are ten games that actually move the needle.
1. The Muffin Tin Mystery
Cheap, chaotic, and shockingly effective
Grab a muffin tin, drop treats into a few of the cups, then cover every single cup with a tennis ball.
Your dachshund now has a problem to solve. Which balls are worth the effort?
Most dogs paw randomly at first. Within a few rounds, a dachshund starts using their nose to check before committing, which is exactly the mental shortcut you want them building.
Start with six treats in twelve cups. Reduce the number over time until only one cup pays off.
2. Snuffle Mat Breakfast
Bowls are a waste of a perfectly good meal.
Scatter your dachshund’s kibble into a snuffle mat and let them work for it. A meal that took nine seconds now takes ten minutes of concentrated sniffing.
A dog who has to think about food eats slower, digests better, and finishes the meal genuinely tired. The bowl gives you none of that.
If you do not own a mat, a folded fleece blanket with kibble tucked into the creases does roughly the same job for free.
3. Name That Toy
Yes, your dachshund can learn vocabulary
Pick one toy. Say its name every single time it appears, every time you throw it, every time your dog picks it up.
After a week, put it three feet away from a second toy and ask for it by name.
Doxies are opinionated learners, so expect some confident wrong answers delivered with total certainty. Reward only the correct grab, ignore the rest, and keep sessions to about three minutes.
Dogs have been documented learning dozens of toy names. Your dachshund will probably stop at four because they have decided that is enough, and honestly, four is impressive.
4. The Towel Burrito
Lay a bath towel flat and sprinkle treats across it.
Roll it up loosely, then hand it over.
Unrolling requires a sequence: nose in, grip, pull, reposition, repeat. That sequencing is the mental work, not the treats themselves.
Roll it tighter each week. Once your dog demolishes a tight roll in under a minute, tie a loose knot in the middle and watch them recalibrate.
5. Which Hand?
The simplest game here, and one of the best for a scent hound.
Hide a treat in one closed fist, present both hands, and let your dachshund choose. Open the correct hand only when they nose or paw it.
Do not make it easy by leaning, glancing, or shifting your weight. Dachshunds read body language fluently and will happily skip the thinking part if you hand them a shortcut.
Ten reps. That is a full session.
6. The Indoor Scent Trail
Where the breeding really shows
Take a smelly treat, a bit of hot dog or cheese works well, and drag it along the floor in a winding path while your dog waits in another room.
End the trail at a small pile of the same treat.
Release your dachshund at the starting point and say nothing. Let them fail, backtrack, and recover on their own, because the recovery is where the learning happens.
Scent work is the only game on this list where your dachshund is objectively better at the task than you are. Let them prove it.
Extend the trail across rooms, around furniture legs, and eventually up onto a chair once they are consistently solving the easy version.
7. The Dig Box
Your dachshund is going to dig. The only real question is whether it happens in a box you chose or in the flowerbed you did not.
Fill a shallow plastic tub or a sturdy cardboard box with clean towels, shredded paper, or a ball pit’s worth of plastic balls. Bury a few toys and treats inside.
Then step back, because this gets loud and enthusiastic fast.
The digging is instinct, but the searching underneath it is cognition, and pairing the two gives you a genuinely satisfied dog.
8. Hide and Seek, Human Edition
Have someone hold your dachshund while you go hide behind a door, a shower curtain, or a couch.
Call once. Just once.
Everything after that first call has to come from their nose and their memory of where your voice went. Resist the urge to keep chirping their name.
This one builds recall as a happy side effect, because finding you becomes the best possible outcome rather than the end of the fun.
9. The Low Obstacle Course
Ground level only, always
Set up a course using cushions, a play tunnel, a broomstick lying flat on the floor, and a couple of chairs to weave through.
Guide your dachshund through with a treat at first, then start naming each obstacle, then eventually just point.
Keep every element on the ground. Jumping and repeated impact are genuinely risky for a long spine, so the challenge should come from problem solving and sequencing, never from height.
A dachshund who can run a five obstacle course from hand signals alone is a dog with a seriously well organized brain.
10. Puzzle Toy Progression
Buying one puzzle feeder and calling it a day is the most common mistake owners make.
Puzzles have difficulty levels for a reason. A doxie who has mastered a sliding lid toy is no longer being challenged by it, they are just eating from an inconvenient bowl.
Mental enrichment stops working the moment it becomes routine. Novelty is the active ingredient.
Rotate through three or four puzzles rather than leaving one out permanently. Move up a difficulty tier once your dog solves the current one in under two minutes.
And when you run out of levels, go back to the muffin tin, because the classics hold up.
How Often Should You Actually Play?
Fifteen minutes a day, split into short bursts, beats one long weekend session by a wide margin.
Dachshunds have terrific focus and terrible patience for repetition. Three five minute rounds spread through the day keeps them engaged and keeps you from watching your dog wander off mid game.
Stop while they still want more. Always.
What Progress Looks Like
Smarter does not mean your dachshund suddenly starts obeying you. Let us be realistic about the breed.
What you should notice instead is faster problem solving, more persistence when something does not work immediately, and a dog who checks in with you when they get stuck rather than giving up or getting destructive.
You may also notice the barking drops off. That is not a coincidence, since a lot of dachshund noise is simply a brain with nothing better to do.
The couch cushions will thank you too.