Dachshund I spent the first year of owning a dachshund convinced that love was something I could buy. Fancy beds. Squeaky plush hedgehogs. A jacket with a plaid lining that cost more than my own winter coat.
None of it moved the needle. My dog still gave me the same flat, appraising stare she gave the mail carrier.
What actually changed things was smaller and far less expensive, and it took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out.
Dachshunds are not like other dogs in this department. A golden retriever will love you because you exist in the same house. A dachshund makes you audition for the part.
They were bred to go down a hole alone and face something with teeth. That job required stubbornness, independence, and a healthy suspicion of anyone giving orders. Those traits did not vanish when the breed moved from badger dens to living room sofas.
So the affection you get from a doxie is earned, which honestly makes it better.
Here are ten things that actually work.
1. Let Them Burrow Without Interference
Your dachshund will disappear into a blanket pile and stay there for four hours. This is not depression. This is bliss.
Burrowing is hardwired. The instinct to tunnel into dark, warm, enclosed spaces sits in the same part of their brain that once told them to chase a badger underground.
Give them a designated burrow spot. A fleece sack, a folded throw at the end of the couch, one of those cave beds with a hood. Anything they can shove their entire body under.
Then, and this is the part most people get wrong, leave them alone in it.
A dachshund who trusts that their burrow is truly theirs will come out on their own terms, every single time. A dachshund who gets pulled out of it learns that no space in your house is safe.
Resist the urge to lift the blanket and check on them. They are fine. They are having the best moment of their day.
2. Learn Their Actual Food Opinions
Dachshunds have preferences. Strong, specific, non-negotiable preferences.
Most owners buy one bag of treats and use it for two years. Meanwhile the dog has quietly ranked every food item they have ever encountered and is waiting for you to notice.
Run a Small Taste Test
Set out three or four different treats. Watch which one they go for first, second, and last. Do it again a week later to confirm.
You now have a hierarchy. Use the top item for hard things (nail trims, vet visits, recall practice) and the lower items for everyday rewards.
This sounds like a small thing. To a food-obsessed hound with a working nose, it is enormous.
3. Protect Their Back Like It’s Your Job
Because it is. A dachshund’s spine is the single most fragile thing you are responsible for.
Around one in four dachshunds will deal with intervertebral disc disease at some point. That statistic should live rent free in your head.
Practical version: no jumping off furniture, no stairs if you can help it, ramps everywhere, and always lift them with one hand under the chest and one under the hindquarters.
Your dog will not consciously thank you for this. But a dog who never experiences that specific kind of pain is a dog who stays trusting, playful, and willing to be handled.
4. Talk To Them Constantly
Not baby talk. Just talk.
Narrate what you are doing. Ask them questions they cannot answer. Explain your grocery list.
Dachshunds are intensely people-focused despite the tough act, and the sound of your voice doing ordinary things is the single most reassuring noise in their world.
Use Their Name Sparingly
Here is the flip side: if their name gets said a hundred times a day, it stops meaning anything.
Save the name for when you actually want their attention. Use "buddy" or nothing at all for casual chatter.
The contrast makes the name land.
5. Give Them a Job
A bored dachshund becomes a destructive dachshund. Then a barking dachshund. Then a dachshund who has redesigned your baseboards.
Scent work is the obvious answer because it plays directly to what they are.
Hide treats around a room and let them find them. Buy a snuffle mat. Toss kibble into the grass and let them work the yard for ten minutes.
Ten minutes of nose work tires them out more thoroughly than a thirty minute walk. That is not an exaggeration.
6. Respect the Stubbornness Instead of Fighting It
Every dachshund owner eventually hits the wall where the dog simply refuses. Plants the feet. Goes deaf. Becomes a small furry brick.
Fighting this never works. You will lose, and you will lose while looking ridiculous.
The trick is to make your idea their idea. Instead of dragging them toward the door, walk away with something interesting in your hand. Instead of demanding they get off the chair, sit somewhere better and let them come investigate.
Stubbornness in a dachshund is not defiance. It is a dog running its own risk assessment and reaching a different conclusion than you did.
Once you stop taking it personally, training gets dramatically easier.
7. Warm Them Up Before You Ask for Anything
Dachshunds run cold. Short coat, low body mass, belly six inches off the ground.
A chilly dachshund is a grumpy dachshund who does not want to walk, train, play, or be touched. This gets misread as attitude constantly.
Sweaters are not a costume choice for this breed. Below about fifty degrees, they are equipment.
Do the same thing indoors. Blankets near your feet, a spot by the heater, somewhere sunny in the afternoon. Comfort buys you cooperation.
8. Handle Their Feet Every Single Day
Nail trims are the number one thing dachshund owners avoid, and avoidance makes it worse forever.
Fix it with a boring daily habit. Touch each paw for two seconds while they are relaxed. Give a treat. Stop.
No clippers involved for the first few weeks. You are only teaching one lesson: hands on feet means good things happen.
Extend It To Everything Else
Same drill for ears, mouth, tail, and the long stretch of back that vets need to palpate.
A dog who accepts handling everywhere is a dog who gets better medical care, less stressful grooming, and fewer bad memories attached to being touched.
That trust compounds over years.
9. Stop Rewarding the Bark
Dachshunds bark. It came free with the dog and there is no refund.
But most owners accidentally train it louder. The dog barks at the window, you look up, you say something, you walk over. Congratulations, the barking worked.
Try this instead: total silence and zero movement during the barking, then attention and a treat the second there is a gap.
The gap will be half a second at first. Reward it anyway.
Within a couple of weeks the dog starts offering quiet on purpose, because quiet is the thing that gets your face turned toward them.
10. Match Their Weird Energy
Dachshunds have a specific brand of ridiculousness. The sideways gallop. The full body wiggle. The dramatic sigh when you do not immediately provide a lap.
Most people watch this and smile politely.
Better plan: join in. Get on the floor. Do the play bow. Make the stupid noise back at them.
The fastest route to a dachshund’s heart is not treats or toys or expensive beds. It is proving you are willing to be as undignified as they are.
Something shifts when you stop being the calm human managing a small dog and start being another weirdo in the pack.
They notice. They always notice.
And the affection you get afterward, the kind where a deeply independent little hound chooses to press against your leg for no particular reason, is worth every bit of the audition.