Dachshund Scientists who rank dog breeds by obedience put the dachshund somewhere around 92nd out of 138. Which sounds brutal until you learn what that ranking actually measures: how many repetitions a breed needs before it performs a command it has no personal interest in.
Dachshunds were bred to squeeze into a badger den alone, in the dark, and make life or death decisions with no human anywhere nearby.
That is not stupidity. That is a dog with opinions.
Here is the part most owners never find out: those same opinions make doxies outstanding trick dogs. Give one a clear payoff and a reason to care, and your eight inch tall sausage will steal the show from every retriever in the room.
Below are 13 tricks worth having in your back pocket, roughly easiest to flashiest.
1. Sit Pretty (The Meerkat)
Nature already built your dog for this one. Long spine, short legs, natural tripod balance against the back end.
Hold a treat just above the nose and lift it slowly until the front paws come off the floor. Mark the second they lift, then reward.
Keep it short
Ten seconds max at first. A dachshund’s core does the work here, not the spine, and a tired core means a sloppy sit that puts pressure where you don’t want it.
2. Spin in a Circle
Lure the nose in a wide loop with a treat between your fingers. Your dog follows the hand, the body follows the nose, and suddenly you have a spin.
Add the word "spin" only after the movement is smooth, never before.
Party version: teach "spin" one direction and "twirl" the other, then call them out like a square dance caller while guests lose their minds.
3. Tunnel Through Your Legs
Stand with your feet apart. Toss a treat behind you, through the gap.
Most doxies figure this out in about four reps because low tunnels are literally their ancestral job description.
A dachshund never refuses to learn. A dachshund simply waits for a better offer.
Once it’s reliable, walk forward slowly while your dog weaves figure eights around your ankles. That’s a full routine right there.
4. Take a Bow
From a standing position, lower a treat straight down between the front paws. Front end drops, back end stays up.
Timing is everything: mark it before the rear collapses into a down.
This one photographs beautifully, and it doubles as a stretch your dog will start offering on its own after naps.
5. Play Dead
Start from a down. Lure the head sideways toward the shoulder until the body rolls onto a hip, then all the way flat.
Say "bang" and make a finger gun. Yes, it’s corny. Yes, it works every single time at a party.
Add the drama
Reward the still moments, not the flop. The longer your dog holds the pose, the funnier it gets, and dachshunds are natural hams once they realize stillness earns snacks.
6. Roll Over, Carefully
Full rolls are fine for a healthy young dachshund on carpet or grass. They are not fine on hardwood, tile, or for any dog with a history of back trouble.
Break it into halves. Lure to the hip, reward, then continue the arc on a separate rep.
Skip this one entirely if your vet has ever said the letters IVDD to you. Plenty of other tricks on this list, no reason to gamble.
7. Speak, Then Hush
The speaking part is not the challenge. Your dog has been offering that feature free of charge since puppyhood.
Catch a bark, name it, reward it. Then, and this is the valuable half, teach "hush" by rewarding the pause between barks.
Teaching a dachshund to bark is a party trick. Teaching one to stop barking is a miracle your neighbors will personally thank you for.
Run them as a pair: one bark, one hush, treat. Guests think you’re a wizard.
8. High Five and the Royal Wave
Ask for a paw, then hold your hand slightly higher each time until the paw meets an open palm.
Raise it a bit more and the paw starts waving at the air instead of touching down. Congratulations, that’s a wave.
Little dogs have an advantage here. Nobody expects a wave from ankle height, so it lands as surprise plus cute, which is the whole formula.
9. Fetch a Toy by Name
Pick one toy. Say its name constantly during play until the word means something.
Then put it on the floor next to a boring object and ask for it. Reward only correct choices; ignore the wrong ones instead of correcting them.
Add a second named toy once the first is bulletproof. Some doxies build a vocabulary of a dozen items, which is a genuinely wild thing to demonstrate over dessert.
10. Find It
Here is where your dachshund embarrasses every other dog present.
Hide a treat under one of three cups while your dog watches. Let it choose. Then hide without the dog watching and let the nose do the work.
Why they dominate
Scent hound wiring, all the way down. That nose was engineered to track a badger through packed soil, so a treat under a plastic cup is close to insulting.
Graduate to hiding a favorite toy in another room and sending your dog to find it while everyone follows behind like a documentary crew.
11. Jump Through Your Arms
Make a circle with both arms and rest the bottom edge on the ground. No height, none, not even a couple of inches.
Lure through, reward on the far side, repeat until the dog offers it.
Long spines and hard landings do not mix. Keep the hoop flat on the floor permanently, and let the visual of a hot dog shaped animal sailing through a human hula hoop do the entertaining.
12. Catch It
Sit on the floor. Toss a soft treat in a gentle arc toward the nose, not the mouth.
Most dachshunds are hilariously bad at this for the first twenty attempts. Let them be bad at it; the flailing is half the charm and they improve fast once the timing clicks.
Use something light like a bit of freeze dried liver. Heavy treats bounce off the face, which is funny once and demoralizing after that.
13. Ring the Bell for Applause
Get a desk bell or a hanging door bell. Reward any interaction: a sniff, a nudge, an accidental bump.
Shape it up to a deliberate paw or nose press, then attach a cue.
The single greatest trick you can teach any dog is the belief that the audience works for them.
Chain it onto the end of a routine. Sit pretty, spin, bow, then a solid ding to signal the show is over and the tips should start flowing.
Your dog will learn within about two performances that the bell produces applause, and from that moment on you no longer own a dachshund. You are simply the manager.