Dachshund Three hundred years. That is roughly how long people spent breeding dachshunds to squeeze into a badger den alone, in the dark, and keep working until something gave up.
Nobody in that process was selecting for "listens well."
So when your dog blows off a recall cue for the ninth time on a single walk, that is not a training failure. That is a job description showing up right on schedule, several centuries late but perfectly intact.
The good news: all of it is workable. The catch is that the fix usually starts with accepting the dog you actually have instead of the one described in the generic puppy manual.
Here are the seven problems that land in almost every dachshund household eventually.
1. Housetraining That Refuses to End
Most breeds are reliably housetrained somewhere around six months. Plenty of dachshunds are still having opinions about it at ten.
This is the single most common complaint in the breed, and it is not because your dog is spiteful or stupid.
The bladder is small and the ego is large
Two things stack here. A dachshund’s bladder is genuinely tiny relative to how much water a curious dog drinks, and dachshunds are unusually opinionated about weather.
Cold grass? No. Wet grass? Absolutely not. A breeze with attitude? He will hold it and then find your bath mat, which is warm, absorbent, and indoors.
What actually moves the needle
Tighten the schedule before you tighten anything else. Out every two hours for a young dog, always to the same spot, always with a reward delivered outside rather than after he comes back in.
Cover the ground. A patch of pea gravel, an artificial turf pad, or a covered corner of the patio removes the weather excuse entirely, and for a lot of owners that one change does more than six months of patient correction.
And clean accidents with an enzymatic cleaner, not a household spray. If he can still smell it, he has already filed that spot as approved.
2. Barking at Absolutely Everything
A dachshund’s bark is loud for the same reason his legs are short: it had to travel up through packed dirt to tell a hunter where he was.
That bark is now aimed at a delivery driver two houses down.
A dog who barks without interruption is not misbehaving. He is rehearsing, and dachshunds are very quick studies.
Teach a finish line, not silence
Trying to eliminate the barking is a losing project. Teaching a clean off switch is not.
Let two or three barks happen. Then say your cue once, walk to him, and drop a treat on the floor near his nose. Sniffing and barking cannot happen simultaneously, which is the whole trick.
Repeat that a few dozen times over a week and the cue starts predicting food, which means he begins looking at you after the second bark instead of settling in for a twenty minute set.
Manage the trigger while you train
Frosted window film on the bottom half of the front window costs almost nothing. Take away the view and you take away half the material.
3. Recall That Evaporates the Moment It Matters
Your dachshund knows "come." He performs it beautifully in the kitchen.
Outdoors, near a hedge, with something small and interesting moving inside it, that same word becomes ambient noise.
A dachshund does not disobey you. He weighs your request against the smell of a rabbit and makes an executive decision.
Scent beats sound, every time
This breed tracks with its nose down and its ears functionally offline. Once he locks onto a trail, calling louder just adds pressure without adding information.
Fix it with a long line. Fifteen to thirty feet, attached to a harness rather than a collar, so he gets freedom while you keep a physical vote in the outcome.
Pay outrageously for the ones he gets right. Boiled chicken, not kibble. You are competing with a rabbit, so price accordingly.
Accept the ceiling
Some dachshunds develop a rock solid off leash recall. Many never do, and that is a genuine safety limit rather than a personal shortcoming.
Fenced yards and long lines are not admissions of defeat. They are just realistic infrastructure.
4. The Garden Becomes an Archaeological Site
You planted bulbs. He found them, and he found them fast, because locating things underground is the entire reason he exists.
The hole in your flowerbed is not vandalism. It is a job application.
Punishing digging tends to produce a dog who digs when you are not looking, which is worse for your lawn and worse for your relationship.
Give the behavior somewhere legal to live
A dig box changes everything. A cheap plastic sandbox or a corner of loose soil, seeded with buried treats and a favorite toy, becomes the sanctioned excavation site.
Bury something new in it two or three times a week. Walk him over, let him find it, and act like he has just solved a crime.
Meanwhile, make the flowerbed boring. Chicken wire laid flat under a thin layer of mulch is nearly invisible and enormously discouraging.
5. The Velcro Dog Who Cannot Be Left Alone
Dachshunds bond hard. That intensity is lovely on the sofa and genuinely difficult at 8am on a Tuesday when you need to leave the house.
Separation distress in this breed often looks like frantic barking, scratching at doors, or destruction focused on exit points.
Boredom and panic look similar but need different fixes
A bored dog settles once you leave a stuffed frozen Kong. A panicking dog will not touch food at all.
If he refuses high value treats the second the door closes, you are dealing with distress, and the work is slower and more gradual.
Build tolerance in small doses
Start with departures so short they are almost silly. Pick up your keys, step outside, come back in ten seconds. Repeat until your keys stop meaning anything.
Then thirty seconds. Then two minutes. The rule is that you never push to the point where he unravels, because a panicked rep undoes several calm ones.
Skip the emotional goodbye. Dramatic farewells raise the stakes on an event you want him to find boring.
6. Snapping When Startled Under a Blanket
This one surprises people, and it causes more household conflict than almost anything else on the list.
Dachshunds burrow. They wedge themselves under throws, duvets, and cushions, and they sleep deeply in there.
Reach into that space suddenly and you may get a snap from a dog who has never shown a moment of aggression in his life.
It is a startle response, not a temperament problem
He was asleep in a dark tunnel and something grabbed him. The reaction is instant and it is not personal.
The fix is a rule rather than a training protocol. Nobody touches a blanket lump without speaking first, and children learn this before they learn anything else about the dog.
Say his name. Wait for movement. Then touch.
Watch for guarding creep
If the burrow becomes a place he growls from when you walk past, that is a separate issue and it is worth calling in a qualified trainer early. Small problems here stay small only if you address them while they are still small.
7. Leash Pulling That Never Quite Resolves
Ten pounds of dog should not be able to tow you anywhere. Ten pounds of dog bred to pull backward against a badger absolutely can.
Add a collar to that equation and you have a dachshund putting sustained pressure on the exact part of the spine you most want to protect.
Harness first, technique second
A well fitted Y front harness spreads the load across the chest and takes the neck out of it entirely. This is not optional for a long backed breed.
Then change what pulling accomplishes. The moment the leash goes tight, stop walking. Not a correction, not a word, just a full stop until the line softens.
It is tedious for about two weeks. Walks get very short and slightly embarrassing.
Then something clicks, and he starts checking in with you every twenty feet or so, because loose leashes make the world move forward and tight ones freeze it in place.
Reward those check ins generously. A dachshund who chooses to look at you, outdoors, with a scent trail available, has just done something genuinely difficult.