Dachshund Somewhere in a Milwaukee living room right now, a woman named Denise is arguing with her brother-in-law about whether dachshunds were bred to hunt badgers or rabbits. She is holding a wine glass. He is holding his phone, ready to fact-check. Their dachshund, Pretzel, is asleep under a blanket and could not possibly care less who wins.
That argument happens constantly among dachshund people.
Everyone thinks they know this breed. Everyone has a cousin who "read something once." And almost nobody actually knows how weird and specific the history of these dogs really is.
So here’s a quiz. Ten questions, multiple choice, no partial credit, no crying.
Keep score honestly. Pretzel is watching.
The Quiz
Question 1: What does the word "dachshund" literally translate to in German?
A) Long dog
B) Badger dog
C) Brave hound
D) Little digger
Answer: B, Badger dog.
"Dachs" means badger and "Hund" means dog. Germans, as a rule, do not waste time on poetry when naming things.
The name is a job description. That’s the whole point of the breed: a dog built specifically to go down a badger hole and pick a fight with something that weighs almost as much as it does.
Which, honestly, explains a lot about your dog’s attitude toward the mailman.
Question 2: How many official size varieties does the dachshund have in most countries?
A) Two
B) Three
C) Four
D) One, with a lot of opinions
Answer: It depends on where you live, but B is the safest answer.
In Germany and much of Europe, there are three: standard, miniature, and kaninchen (rabbit-sized). The American Kennel Club officially recognizes only two, standard and miniature, and simply does not acknowledge the rabbit size at all.
If you got this wrong, you’re in good company. It’s the single most disputed dachshund fact on the internet.
Question 3: Which of these is NOT a recognized dachshund coat type?
A) Smooth
B) Longhaired
C) Wirehaired
D) Curly-coated
Answer: D.
There are exactly three coats: smooth, longhaired, and wirehaired. No curls, no matter what that "doxiepoo" breeder’s website claims.
Here’s the fun part. The wirehaired variety came later than the other two, developed by crossing in terrier blood, which is why wirehaired dachshunds tend to be the class clowns of the breed.
A wirehaired dachshund is a dachshund wearing a terrier’s personality like a borrowed jacket, and it has absolutely no intention of giving it back.
Question 4: Roughly how long have dachshund-type dogs existed in recognizable form?
A) About 100 years
B) About 250 years
C) About 400 years
D) About 600 years
Answer: C, roughly 400 years, with earlier ancestors going back further.
Written records of short-legged badger-hunting dogs in German forestry documents date back to the 1600s. Some historians push the lineage back further based on ancient Egyptian artwork showing short-legged hunting dogs, though that connection is debated and probably a bit romantic.
Either way: your couch gremlin has a resume.
Question 5: The dachshund’s short legs are the result of what genetic condition?
A) Selective breeding for smaller bones over centuries
B) A form of dwarfism called chondrodysplasia
C) A recessive trait shared with corgis only
D) Nutritional adaptation
Answer: B.
Chondrodysplasia affects cartilage development, which shortens the long bones of the legs while the body stays proportionally normal. Breeders selected for it on purpose because a low, long dog fits down a tunnel.
The trade-off is real, though, and it’s why spinal health matters so much in this breed. That same genetic quirk affects the discs in their backs.
Question 6: What is the correct term for a group of dachshunds?
A) A pack
B) A litter
C) There isn’t an official one
D) A tunnel
Answer: C.
No kennel club has ever issued an official collective noun for dachshunds. Owners have invented plenty (a "wiener roast" is popular, and a "hot dog stand" gets thrown around at meetups) but none of it is official.
Anyone who tells you otherwise is repeating a Facebook graphic.
Question 7: Which country’s national symbol featured a dachshund at the 1972 Summer Olympics?
A) Austria
B) Germany
C) Switzerland
D) Belgium
Answer: B, Germany.
The 1972 Munich Games introduced Waldi, a striped longhaired dachshund, as the first official Olympic mascot in history. The marathon route was even laid out in the rough shape of a dachshund.
Yes, really. Somebody drew a wiener dog on a city map and then made athletes run it.
Question 8: What does the term "double dapple" refer to, and why does it matter?
A) A rare coat color that’s highly prized
B) A coat pattern that carries serious health risks when two dapples are bred together
C) A grooming technique
D) A show classification
Answer: B.
Breeding two dapple dachshunds together can produce puppies with severe eye and ear defects, including blindness and deafness. Responsible breeders never do it, and most kennel clubs discourage or outright prohibit registering the results.
If a breeder advertises double dapple puppies as a premium product, that’s your exit cue.
Rarity is not the same thing as quality. Sometimes a color is rare because ethical people refuse to produce it.
Question 9: What is the primary reason dachshunds are notoriously difficult to housetrain?
A) Low intelligence
B) Independent, scent-driven temperament bred for solo work
C) Small bladders
D) They aren’t, that’s a myth
Answer: B.
Dachshunds were bred to work alone underground, out of sight of their handler, making decisions without input. That’s not stubbornness in the way people mean it. It’s independence, deliberately selected for over centuries.
They understand you perfectly. They’re just weighing your request against their own agenda and frequently ruling against you.
Small bladders don’t help either, to be fair.
Question 10: In competitive earthdog trials, what is the dachshund actually doing?
A) Racing through above-ground tunnels for time
B) Locating and "working" caged quarry at the end of an underground tunnel
C) Digging holes on command
D) Tracking scent trails across open field
Answer: B.
Earthdog trials send the dog through a constructed tunnel to find caged rats, which are safely separated behind bars at all times. The dog is judged on how quickly it reaches the quarry and how enthusiastically it barks, scratches, and generally makes its opinion known.
Nothing gets hurt. Everybody’s proud. The rats, reportedly, get very used to it.
How Did You Score?
9 to 10 correct: You are the person other dachshund owners text at 11pm with a question. Wear it with pride.
6 to 8 correct: Solid. You know your dog, you’ve done your reading, and you’d hold your own at a breed meetup.
3 to 5 correct: You love your dachshund very much and that counts for something. The history part just hasn’t grabbed you yet.
0 to 2 correct: Be honest, did you skip to the answers?
The Ones Everybody Misses
In my experience, questions 2 and 6 wreck people.
The size variety question trips up Americans specifically, because the AKC’s two-size system is all most of us ever see. Meanwhile European breeders have been measuring chest circumference and sorting dachshunds into three categories for generations.
And question 6 catches almost everyone, because the internet is absolutely swimming with cute-but-fake collective nouns.
The most confidently repeated dachshund facts are often the ones nobody ever bothered to check.
Why Any of This Matters
You might reasonably ask why breed trivia is worth knowing when your dachshund is currently upside down on the sofa, unbothered by history.
Fair. But a lot of these answers connect directly to how you care for the dog.
Understanding chondrodysplasia changes how you think about stairs and jumping. Knowing the double dapple issue changes how you evaluate a breeder. Recognizing that independence was engineered into this dog changes how you approach training, and mostly it changes how frustrated you get.
The badger-hunting thing isn’t a fun fact. It’s the operating manual.
Your dachshund is a purpose-built underground hunting specialist who has been reassigned to the role of household companion, and is doing that job with the exact same intensity it would have brought to a badger den.
Which is why it screams at squirrels like they owe it money.
Now Go Settle an Argument
Send this to the person in your family who insists dachshunds were bred for rabbits. (They were, sort of, but only the smallest size, and only later. You can tell them that part after they’ve committed to an answer.)
Then go check on your dog. It’s probably under a blanket, dreaming about tunnels, entirely unaware that you just spent ten minutes proving how much you know about it.
Pretzel, for the record, scored zero. She’s fine with that.