Dachshund That sound of nails skittering across hardwood, gaining speed, followed by the thud of a small torpedo body launching itself at the front door: that is the soundtrack of dachshund ownership. The barking starts before the doorbell finishes ringing.
Here is the thing most people miss. Dachshunds are not being difficult on purpose.
They were bred to go underground, alone, and make life or death decisions without a human telling them what to do. That instinct did not disappear when the breed moved from badger dens to living room couches. It just found new outlets, like your mail carrier.
So the trick is not to out-stubborn them. The trick is to work with a brain that was engineered for independence.
Step One: Figure Out What Actually Motivates Your Dog
Most training advice assumes your dog wants to please you. Dachshunds did not get that memo.
They want something in it for them, and it needs to be worth the effort. A pat on the head and a cheerful "good boy" rarely cuts it.
Test your dog’s currency. Line up three or four options and see which one produces the biggest reaction: freeze dried liver, a scrap of chicken, a squeaky toy, a few seconds of tug.
The winner becomes your high value reward. You save it exclusively for training, never for casual snacking.
A reward your dog would work for is training. A reward your dog would ignore is just a snack you happen to be holding.
Some dachshunds are food obsessed. Others would sell their soul for thirty seconds of a stuffed hedgehog. Figure out which one you have before you waste three weeks wondering why nothing is sticking.
A Quick Note on Treat Size
Tiny. Pea sized at most.
You will be handing out a lot of these, and a dachshund’s spine does not need the extra weight. Break training treats into pieces smaller than you think is reasonable, then break them again.
Step Two: Keep Sessions Absurdly Short
Ten minutes is too long. Five is pushing it.
Aim for three minute sessions, two or three times a day. That is it.
Dachshunds have terrific focus for short bursts and then their attention evaporates completely. If you push past that window, you are not training anymore, you are just annoying each other.
End every session while your dog is still interested. Always leave them wanting more.
The session that ends too early is the one they remember fondly.
Step Three: Build the Name Response First
Before "sit," before "stay," before anything else, your dachshund needs to whip their head around when you say their name. Everything else is built on top of this.
Start in a quiet room with zero distractions. Say the name once, in a bright tone, and the instant they look at you, reward.
Once. Not "Oscar, Oscar, OSCAR."
Repeating the name teaches your dog that their name means nothing until the third or fourth repetition. Say it a single time and wait.
If they do not respond after a few seconds, make a small noise instead: a kissy sound, a tongue click. When their head turns, reward and try the name again in a minute.
Practice this for a week before layering anything else on top. Then start adding difficulty: another room, a room with the TV on, the backyard, eventually the sidewalk.
Step Four: Teach a Sit That Sticks
Hold a treat just above your dog’s nose and move it slowly back toward their tail. Their head follows the treat, their rear drops, and the moment it touches the floor, they get paid.
No pushing on the back end. Dachshund spines are famously delicate and physical manipulation is a bad habit to start.
Repeat this six or seven times, then drop the treat from your hand and use the same empty handed motion. The gesture becomes the signal.
Add the word "sit" only after the behavior is reliable, and say it right before the motion, not during.
Why the Order Matters
Saying the cue while your dog is still figuring out the behavior teaches them the word is background noise.
Behavior first. Word second. That sequence is the difference between a dog who sits and a dog who eventually sits, maybe, if you ask nicely enough.
Step Five: Tackle the Recall Problem Head On
Here is where dachshund owners hit a wall. Recall goes against everything the breed was built for.
A scent hound following a trail is doing exactly what centuries of breeding designed them to do. Your voice, from thirty feet away, is competing with instinct that runs bone deep.
Never call your dog to you for something they dislike. Not for nail trims, not for baths, not for the end of a walk at the park.
Every single recall must end in something excellent, or the word stops working.
Start indoors on a leash. Say "come," take two steps backward, and reward enthusiastically when they close the distance.
Move to a long line (fifteen to thirty feet) in the yard. Keep the line attached for months longer than you think necessary.
A recall that works in the kitchen but fails at the dog park is not a recall. It is a party trick with a very short shelf life.
Be honest with yourself about off leash reliability. Plenty of experienced dachshund owners never fully trust it, and there is no shame in a long line for life.
Step Six: Redirect the Barking Instead of Suppressing It
Dachshunds bark. That is not a training failure, that is the breed working as designed.
Barking at a badger underground was the entire job description. The goal is not silence, it is volume control.
Teach "quiet" by first teaching "speak." Trigger a bark you can predict, mark it with the word, and reward.
Once your dog barks on cue, you have something to interrupt. Say "quiet," wait for a natural pause (even half a second), and reward that gap.
Extend the pause gradually. One second, then three, then ten.
Yelling at a barking dachshund sounds like you are barking along with them. From their perspective, you have joined in enthusiastically.
The Doorbell Situation
Give the dog a job instead. Teach them to run to a specific mat when the bell rings, and reward heavily on the mat.
Practice with a recording of a doorbell at low volume before working up to the real thing.
Step Seven: House Training Without Losing Your Mind
Dachshunds have a reputation for being difficult to house train, and it is mostly deserved.
Small bladders, low bodies close to cold wet grass, and a strong opinion about weather. Rain is a personal insult.
Take them out on a strict schedule: first thing in the morning, after every meal, after every nap, after play, last thing at night. Do not wait for signals.
Go outside with them every time. Reward within three seconds of the behavior finishing, not when you get back inside.
Consider a covered potty area if you live somewhere rainy. A cheap patio umbrella has salvaged more than a few house training plans.
Accidents get cleaned with an enzymatic cleaner, never ammonia based products. Ammonia smells like urine to a dog and marks the spot as an approved bathroom.
Step Eight: Proof Everything in New Places
A dog who sits perfectly in your kitchen has learned "sit in the kitchen." Dogs do not generalize the way people assume they do.
Take every skill on the road. The hallway, the yard, the front porch, a quiet parking lot, then somewhere with real distractions.
Expect performance to fall apart in each new location. That is normal, not backsliding.
Drop your criteria when the environment gets harder. Reward more often, ask for less, and rebuild.
Step Nine: Build in the Body Awareness Work
This one gets skipped constantly and it matters enormously for a long backed breed.
Teach your dachshund to use ramps instead of jumping off furniture. Start with the ramp flat on the floor, reward for stepping on it, and raise the angle over several sessions.
Practice being handled: paws touched, ears examined, mouth opened, all paired with treats. Vet visits become dramatically easier.
Ten seconds a day of handling practice prevents years of struggle.
Step Ten: Track What You Are Working On
Pick two skills at a time. Not eight.
Write them on a sticky note on the fridge. When both are solid in three different locations, retire one and add a new one.
Progress in dog training is rarely a straight line, and having something written down keeps you from feeling like nothing is improving when it quietly is.
Trust the short sessions. Trust the high value rewards. Trust that the stubbornness everyone warned you about is really just a very old job description waiting for a new assignment.