Dachshund Sit is overrated.
Not useless, exactly. Just wildly overrated for a breed that was designed to crawl into a dark tunnel, meet a badger, and make executive decisions without checking in with anyone first.
That brain is still in there. It is under a blanket on your couch right now, plotting.
Which is why the standard obedience checklist tends to disappoint dachshund owners. You teach sit, you buy the treat pouch, you watch the YouTube videos, and six months later your dog still regards you as a mildly interesting roommate who controls the cheese.
The issue is not stubbornness, whatever your neighbor with the golden retriever says. The issue is that most command lists were written for dogs who want to be told what to do, and yours was purpose-built to solve problems alone.
Communication with a dachshund works on different terms. You are not commanding a soldier; you are negotiating with a short, extremely opinionated coworker who has already skimmed the contract and found a loophole.
The five commands below are picked for that reality. Each one hands your dachshund information instead of orders, and information is what this breed actually pays attention to.
1. "Watch Me" Is the Foundation Everything Else Sits On
Here is the uncomfortable truth: a dachshund who will not voluntarily look at your face cannot be trained. Not really. You can bribe that dog into behaviors, but you cannot communicate with it.
Eye contact is the on switch.
Why this breed needs it more than most
Dachshunds live at ankle height in a world of interesting smells. Their default attention setting is down and forward, permanently.
Every other command you teach will be competing with a scent trail. "Watch Me" is how you win that competition without shouting.
Teaching it without becoming annoying
Hold a treat at your nose. Say the cue once, exactly once, and wait.
The instant those eyes flick up, mark it with a word like "yes" and pay immediately. Timing matters more than treat quality here, which is fortunate, because your dachshund is going to demand excellent treats regardless.
Build up to two full seconds of eye contact before you release. Two seconds feels like nothing to you and like an eternity to a dog whose ancestors worked underground.
A dachshund that looks at your face on cue is not being obedient. That dog is choosing you over a squirrel, and that choice is the entire relationship in miniature.
Practice it in boring places first. Your hallway, your kitchen, the least interesting corner of your yard.
2. "Wait" Prevents More Disasters Than "Stay" Ever Will
Most owners teach "stay" and skip "wait" entirely, which is backwards.
"Stay" means hold this position until I return to you. "Wait" means pause, something is about to happen, do not commit yet. The second one is what you actually need forty times a day.
The door situation
Every dachshund owner knows the door situation. The doorbell rings, the dog liquefies into a torpedo, and suddenly there is a small hound in the street.
"Wait" at thresholds fixes this faster than anything else in the toolbox.
Start with an interior door. Reach for the handle, and the moment your dachshund surges forward, the handle goes back to neutral.
No scolding. No repeating yourself. The door simply stops being interesting when your dog moves.
Why dachshunds get this one quickly
This breed is genuinely good at cause and effect. Give them a puzzle with a consistent rule, and they will crack it, because that is what they were bred to do.
Within a week, most dachshunds figure out that stillness opens doors and enthusiasm closes them. They are not slow. They are just unwilling to work for rules that keep changing.
Where else to use it
Before the car door opens. Before the food bowl hits the floor. Before you unclip the leash at the park.
Anywhere your dog is about to fling itself into a new environment, "wait" buys you the half second you need.
3. "Here" Beats "Come" for Recall (and It Is Not Close)
Controversial opinion, part two: the word "come" has been ruined in most households.
You have said it in a cheerful voice, an irritated voice, a pleading voice, and one memorable time at 11pm in a voice that scared the neighbors. Your dachshund has catalogued all of these.
Pick a fresh word. "Here" is short, sharp, and carries well outdoors.
The rule nobody follows
Never call your dachshund for something they dislike. Not for bath time, not for nail trims, not for going back inside when they are having the best afternoon of their life.
Go get them instead. Walking twenty feet is cheaper than rebuilding a recall from scratch.
Making it a party, every single time
The recall cue should predict something spectacular. Cheese, roast chicken, a squeaky toy that lives in a drawer and appears only for this.
Praise alone does not cut it for a scent hound in mid-pursuit; you are competing with instinct, and instinct pays extremely well.
Use a long line in open spaces until the response is automatic. A twenty foot line gives your dog freedom while quietly preserving your right to be right.
Recall is not a command. Recall is a promise that coming back to you is always the better deal, and dachshunds keep receipts on whether you honor it.
Ten reps a day, badly timed on purpose
Call your dog randomly around the house. From the kitchen, from the top of the stairs, from behind a chair for no reason.
Pay every time. Release them back to whatever they were doing.
The goal is a dachshund who assumes "here" means something good just became available, not the fun is over.
4. "Leave It" Is the Command That Saves Vet Bills
Dachshunds are vacuum cleaners with legal representation. They will eat things that should not be edible and then look genuinely offended when you object.
"Leave It" is not about obedience. It is about your dog surrendering an object because they trust that surrendering objects works out well historically.
Trade, never take
Grabbing things out of a dachshund’s mouth teaches one lesson: swallow faster next time.
Offer something better instead. A treat, a different toy, a piece of whatever you are eating.
The exchange has to feel like an upgrade, because your dog is running the math either way.
Building it from zero
Put a low value treat on the floor under your hand. Say "leave it" once.
When your dachshund stops nosing your fingers and backs off even slightly, reward with a different, better treat from your other hand.
The lesson lands fast: ignoring the thing on the floor produces something superior. That is a deal any self-respecting hound will take.
5. "Settle" Gives Your Dachshund an Off Switch
The final command is the one owners request most often and teach least often, usually because it feels less like training and more like wishing.
"Settle" means lie down, relax your body, nothing is required of you right now.
Not the same as "down"
"Down" is a position. "Settle" is a state of mind, and dachshunds absolutely have opinions about their state of mind.
Watch for the hip roll, the sigh, the chin dropping to the floor. Those are the behaviors you are actually rewarding, not the shape of the dog.
Capturing calm instead of demanding it
Keep treats somewhere accessible during ordinary evenings. When your dachshund flops down on their own, quietly drop a treat between their paws and say nothing at all.
No fanfare, no praise voice, nothing that reactivates the dog. Calm gets calm rewards.
After a few dozen repetitions, add the word as they are already settling. You are labeling a behavior that exists, which is enormously easier than manufacturing one.
The mat trick
Give the state a physical address. A specific bed, blanket, or mat that travels with you.
Reward heavily on the mat, ignore everything off it, and within a couple of weeks you will have a dachshund who takes themselves to bed when guests arrive.
Five clear signals your dog understands will outperform twenty commands they merely tolerate. Depth beats breadth with this breed, always.
Start with one. Give it two weeks of genuinely consistent practice before adding the next.
Your dachshund is not waiting for you to be firmer. That dog is waiting for you to be predictable, which is a very different thing, and considerably easier to deliver.