Dachshund Stubbornness is the most overused word in the dachshund world, and it has probably ruined more good dogs than any chewed shoe ever has.
Ask around and you’ll hear it constantly. Doxies are stubborn. Doxies can’t be trained. Doxies do what they want and you just live with it.
Nonsense.
What people call stubbornness is almost always a dog who has never been given a reason to care about the thing being asked. That distinction matters more than any training gadget you could buy, because it changes what you do next.
And here is the part that surprises people: a happy dachshund and a well behaved dachshund are the same project. You do not choose between them. The dog who feels secure, exercised, and understood is the dog who stops rehearsing the behaviors that drive you up the wall.
Stubborn Is Just a Word for Unmotivated
Dachshunds were bred to go underground, alone, and make decisions without a human shouting instructions at them. That independence is a feature, not a defect.
So a doxie asks a very reasonable question every time you request something: what’s in it for me?
Answer that question well and you have a dog who works with you. Answer it badly and you have a dog staring at you with mild contempt.
Find the Currency That Actually Works
Kibble is not a reward. Kibble is Tuesday.
If you want real attention, you need real payment: a sliver of chicken, a crumb of cheese, a bit of freeze dried liver that makes the whole room smell interesting.
Some dachshunds do not care much about food at all (rare, but they exist). Those dogs usually work for a squeaky toy, a tug session, or thirty seconds of enthusiastic chest scratching.
A dog is never refusing to work. The dog is refusing your offer. Improve the offer and watch the refusal disappear.
Test it honestly. Hold two rewards, one in each hand, and see which one the nose goes to first. Your dachshund will tell you exactly what the going rate is.
Ask for Less Before You Ask for More
Most training frustration comes from asking for too much too soon.
You want a solid stay, so you ask for a full minute while the front door is open. The dog fails. You get annoyed. The dog learns that the word "stay" comes with tension.
Start ridiculously easy instead. Three seconds. In a boring hallway. With nothing happening.
Then build slowly, and expect to go backwards sometimes, because progress in dog training looks like a staircase drawn by someone with the hiccups.
Routine Beats Rules
Here’s something nobody tells new dachshund owners: your dog cares far less about the rules than about the pattern.
A predictable day lowers stress. A stressed dachshund barks more, guards more, whines more, and forgets things it clearly knew last week.
The Predictable Day
Meals at roughly the same times. Walks at roughly the same times. Sleep in roughly the same place.
You do not need military precision. You need a rhythm the dog can feel coming.
Once that rhythm exists, an enormous amount of "misbehavior" quietly evaporates, because much of it was anxiety wearing a costume.
Potty training benefits most of all. Dachshunds have a reputation for being difficult to house train, and part of that reputation is deserved, but a large chunk of it comes from inconsistent schedules and owners who stop supervising too early.
Take the dog out after waking, after eating, after play, and before bed. Every single time. Boring works.
A Tired Doxie Is a Polite Doxie
Nobody argues with this one, and yet the exercise most owners provide is the wrong kind.
Twenty minutes of brisk marching down the sidewalk drains the legs and leaves the brain buzzing. A buzzing brain finds work to do, usually involving your baseboards.
Sniffing Counts as Exercise
Give your dachshund a walk where the nose leads. Let the dog stop, investigate, read the neighborhood gossip on a fence post, and take an absurd amount of time doing it.
Scent work is genuinely tiring. Ten minutes of hard sniffing does more than half an hour of heel work.
Scatter a handful of treats in the grass and let your dog hunt. Hide a favorite toy under a towel. Roll a snuffle mat out before you make dinner.
Physical tiredness makes a dog nap. Mental tiredness makes a dog settle. The second one is what you actually want.
Games That Fit a Long Body
Now the important caveat, because that famous silhouette comes with a real cost.
Dachshunds are prone to intervertebral disc disease, and repeated jumping, twisting, and stair climbing raises the risk. Protecting the spine is part of protecting the temperament, since a dog in pain is a dog with a short fuse.
Use ramps on the couch and the bed. Support the chest and rear when you lift. Skip the games that involve leaping for a frisbee.
Flat ground games are your friends: tug, chase down a hallway, find it, food puzzles, gentle fetch on carpet.
Talk to your vet about what’s appropriate for your particular dog, especially if you’re seeing any reluctance to move, hesitation on stairs, or a change in posture.
Barking, Digging, and Other Very Normal Crimes
Half of the behaviors owners want to eliminate are behaviors the breed was specifically built to perform.
Your dachshund is not malfunctioning. Your dachshund is doing its job in a house that has no badgers in it.
The Doorbell Problem
Barking at the door is a big feeling, not a personality flaw. Shouting at a barking dog just adds a second barker to the situation.
Change the meaning of the sound instead. Ring the bell yourself, then immediately toss a treat onto a mat six feet away.
Repeat this until the doorbell becomes a cue to run to the mat rather than a cue to lose your mind. It takes weeks, not days, and the payoff is enormous.
Keep expectations sane, though. You will reduce the barking. You will not delete it, and honestly, a small dog with strong opinions about visitors has some value.
Give the Digging a Home
Digging is not negotiable in most doxies. The urge sits deep, and suppressing it usually just relocates the problem to your sofa cushions.
Build a sandbox. Fill it with loose soil or play sand, bury a few toys and treats, and make a fuss when your dog uses it.
You are not permitting the behavior. You are directing it, which is a very different thing and works far better.
Everyone in the House Has to Say the Same Thing
Here is where most training plans quietly collapse.
One person says "off." Another says "down." A third lets the dog on the couch when nobody’s looking, and a fourth feeds bacon from the table because look at that face.
Dachshunds are exceptional at spotting inconsistency. They will find the softest human in the household within about four days and route all requests through that person.
Confusion looks exactly like disobedience from the outside. Before you blame the dog, check whether four people have been teaching four different rules.
Sit down with everyone and agree on the words. One cue per behavior. Same rules about furniture, same rules about counters, same rules about who gets fed from the table (nobody).
What Real Progress Actually Looks Like
Progress is rarely a clean line, and expecting one sets you up to quit in week three.
You’ll get a brilliant week where the recall is flawless and you feel like a genius. Then adolescence hits, or a rabbit appears, or the weather changes, and it all falls apart for a few days.
That’s normal. Keep the sessions short, five minutes at a time, a few times a day.
Reward the behavior you want to see repeated, including the quiet stuff you tend to ignore: lying calmly on the rug, choosing a chew toy over a shoe, walking past another dog without commentary.
Those unglamorous moments are the ones worth paying for, and paying attention to them is the closest thing to a shortcut that exists.