Dachshund Does the phrase "what is in your mouth" leave your lips more times a day than hello?
Welcome to life with a dachshund, where the baseboards have teeth marks at exactly eleven inches off the floor and every shoe in the house has been reviewed, rated, and partially edited.
Here is the thing most owners never get told at the breeder or the shelter. Dachshunds do not chew because they are naughty, spoiled, or plotting revenge for that bath last Tuesday. They chew because roughly four hundred years of German breeders selected for a dog that could go underground, grab a badger, and not let go.
That grip is still in there. Now it lives in a sausage shaped body on your living room rug with absolutely nothing to grab.
"A dachshund with no job will hire himself, and he always pays himself in shoe leather."
The good news: this is one of the most fixable behavior problems in the breed, because the drive behind it is predictable. Follow the steps below in order and you will have a clear plan by the time you reach the bottom.
First, Understand What You Are Actually Dealing With
Skipping this part is why so many owners buy a bin of toys and see zero change. The fix depends entirely on which type of chewing you have.
The Badger Instinct
Terrier style hounds were built to bite, hold, tug, and shake. Chewing satisfies that hardwired sequence better than almost anything else in your house.
Notice what your dog goes for. Anything with give, anything that can be shaken, anything with a satisfying resistance: sofa cushions, rug fringe, the corner of a paperback.
Teething Puppies
Dachshund puppies lose baby teeth between roughly three and seven months, and the discomfort is real. During that window chewing is genuinely medicinal, and no amount of scolding overrides sore gums.
Boredom, The Real Culprit
Adult dachshunds are scent hounds with working brains and short legs. Two walks around the block does not touch their mental capacity, and a bored dachshund is an inventive dachshund.
Separation Distress
Chewing that happens only when you leave, especially near doors, window ledges, and crate edges, is a different animal entirely. That is anxiety, not mischief, and step seven addresses it.
Step 1: Rule Out Pain Before Anything Else
Sudden chewing in a dog who never chewed before deserves a vet visit rather than a training plan.
Dental disease is extremely common in this breed thanks to those crowded little jaws. Dachshunds are also prone to back problems, and a dog in discomfort will often redirect that stress into destructive mouthing.
Get the physical stuff cleared, then move on. Training a painful dog just teaches him you do not listen.
Step 2: Spend Three Days Playing Detective
Grab your phone notes and log every chewing incident for seventy two hours. Write down what was chewed, what time it happened, and whether you were home.
Patterns show up fast and they are almost embarrassingly obvious once written down.
Evening chewing usually means the day was too quiet. Chewing within twenty minutes of you walking out the door points at anxiety. Chewing that only happens when guests arrive is stress. Random daytime chewing across many objects is textbook understimulation.
Do not skip this step. Everything after this works better when you know which problem you are solving.
Step 3: Shrink The World For Two Weeks
Management is not cheating. Every successful chew on a table leg rehearses the habit and makes tomorrow harder.
Use baby gates, a playpen, or a closed door to limit your dachshund to one or two rooms you have properly cleared.
Get down at their eye level and look. Charging cables, remote controls, kids’ toys, shoes, throw pillows, the trailing edge of a duvet: all of it is fair game at that height.
Two weeks of zero rehearsal is worth more than two months of corrections.
Step 4: Give The Jaws Something Legal And Worthy
Here is where most people go wrong. They offer a squeaky plush toy that dies in ninety seconds, then conclude their dog "destroys everything."
Your dachshund needs chews that fight back a little.
What Actually Works
Rubber toys you can stuff and freeze are the gold standard, because they combine chewing with problem solving and last far longer than anything hollow and empty.
Rope toys satisfy the grip and shake instinct beautifully, though they need supervision.
Natural chews such as bully sticks, beef trachea, or yak cheese give a long lasting workout for that stubborn jaw.
Skip anything harder than your thumbnail can dent. Antlers and hooves crack dachshund teeth with depressing regularity.
Rotate, Do Not Pile
Leaving fifteen toys out permanently makes all fifteen invisible.
Keep four or five available, swap them weekly, and let the others vanish into a cupboard. Novelty is free enrichment.
Step 5: Work The Nose, Not Just The Legs
Physical exercise matters, but a dachshund is a scent hound first. Fifteen minutes of nose work tires them more thoroughly than a forty minute walk, which also matters for a breed that should not be jumping and pounding around endlessly.
"Tired legs make a dog rest for an hour. A tired nose makes a dog rest for the afternoon."
Scatter their kibble across the lawn instead of using a bowl.
Hide treats around one room and give a release word to go find them.
Use a snuffle mat for at least one meal a day.
Roll a treat inside an old towel and let them unravel it, which channels the shake and dig instinct exactly where you want it.
Step 6: Teach The Swap, Not The Chase
Chasing your dachshund around the coffee table to retrieve a sock is the best game he has ever played. He will now steal socks daily to book a rematch.
Instead, build a trade.
Hold a genuinely good treat, say "swap" in a calm voice, and hand it over the second he drops the item. Pick up the forbidden object without drama.
Practice this ten times a day with boring objects so the cue is solid before you need it in an emergency.
The Redirect Rule
Catching him mid chew calls for interruption, not punishment. Make a neutral sound, walk him to an approved chew, and praise warmly the moment his teeth land on it.
Anger teaches a dachshund to chew in the next room instead, and this breed is more than smart enough to make that adjustment.
Step 7: Handle Alone Time Separately
Anxiety chewing needs its own approach and will not respond to toys alone.
Start with departures so short they are boring. Step out, count to ten, come back in without fuss.
Build up in small increments over several weeks, always returning before your dog gets worried.
Leave a frozen stuffed toy at the moment you go, so your exit predicts something excellent rather than something frightening.
Severe cases deserve professional support. A dog who panics, drools, or damages door frames is genuinely distressed, and a certified behaviorist will save you months.
Step 8: Make The Old Targets Boring
Bitter apple spray works on some dachshunds and amuses others enormously, so test it on one chair leg first.
Furniture covers, cable sleeves, and simply closing bedroom doors do more heavy lifting than any deterrent product.
"Prevention is not admitting defeat. Prevention is what buys the training time to work."
Step 9: Track The Change Honestly
Keep logging for four weeks using the same notes system from step two.
Look for fewer incidents, shorter episodes, and faster redirects. Progress in chewing is rarely a clean stop, it is a gradual fade.
Expect real improvement in three to four weeks, with puppies taking longer for obvious dental reasons.
If nothing has shifted by week five, revisit step two. In almost every stalled case, the original diagnosis was wrong, and boredom got treated when anxiety was driving the whole thing.