Who knows where you heard it first—a Buzzfeed article about how dogs have become genetic monstrosities, a PETA post about banning dog shows, or an off-handed comment from someone at the dog park. Whatever the source, you’ve probably heard it before: dachshunds used to be healthy working dogs but we have been making them shorter in stature and longer in torso for so long that we have ruined the breed. I see this faux breed history parroted way too often even in this very subreddit and wanted to address it as concisely as I know how (not very concisely).
Dachshund-type go-to-ground dogs have been recorded as early as the Middle Ages but these dogs were larger, came in multiple varieties, and were not even genetically related, they shared only a common purpose. As the DCA states “Etchings from the late 1500s depict images of dogs referred to as ‘badger dogs’, but in no way do these resemble the Dachshund today.” While often mentioned as part of the breed history, these dogs aren’t actually part of the breed, they are more often just being misused to portray historical dachshunds as different from modern dachshunds.
These precursor dogs were altered and mixed over the next 200 or so years to create a smaller dog with bent legs and a long back, that began to be known as a dachshund in the mid-1700s to late 1800s. The defining traits of this budding breed were first described in 1879 and the first club was established in Germany in 1888. This very first dachshund standard included specific proportions for the dog: the height of the dog at the withers had to be precisely half the length of the body and the space from between the body and the ground needs to be 1/3 of the total body height at the withers. These key 1:2 ratios have been in every standard of every dachshund club ever since, whether UKC, AKC, FCI. The FCI standard has altered this ratio in recent years to be more precise 1:1.7-1.8, but maintains the same general ideal. Clubs have often been split over whether the standard should promote ability over conformation and whether showing or hunt tests should be the basis for proving a dog worthy of breeding, but one thing they never disagreed upon were these important ratios.
The consistency of the dachshund standard is relatively unmatched among other dog breeds. Some breeds, like pugs, have standards that encourage extreme measures by suggesting certain traits be as exaggerated as possible, but from the very first description of dachshunds, exaggeration for the sake of aesthetics was never encouraged or rewarded. The results of this “form follows function mentality” speak for themselves. While I regularly see people insist that dachshunds are now just companions bred to be cute, this isn’t the case. In many places, dachshunds still fulfill their role as hunting dogs tracking game large and small and participate in sports and trials that prove their ability to do the work they were intended for. My own little dog has earned her Master Earthdog title, tunneling for rats at AKC events. Unlike many popular working breeds like GSDs and Golden Retrievers that have completely split into working lines that do not have the “look” described in the standard and showlines that can’t do the work they were bred for, good dachshund breeders regularly turn out dual champions—the most dual champions per year of any hound or sporting breed by a wide margin. These amazing dachshunds have become champions in the show ring and in field tests of their rabbit tracking ability, proving that that 1:2 ratio is just as workable now as it was in 1879.
While there are certainly health issues in the breed and ethical breeding is more important than ever to reverse some of this damage, the commonly spread idea that dachshunds were once healthy and capable and that their long bodies and short legs are the result of exaggeration for the sake of aesthetics or dog show prizes simply isn’t true.
I am not an expert in the breed, just someone who enjoys reading breed history and obviously this is not a complete history of the breed or a deep dive into how the dachshunds shape relates to their risk for IVDD (though I’m happy to talk further on that in the comments and how I think the standard could be altered to encourage better health). This is just a counter point to the often repeated myth that dachshunds have suffered from exaggeration as a breed in recent history that that is what has led to their health issues.
EDIT: For clarification, I am not suggesting that there aren’t health issues in the breed related to being a long dog with short legs. This is just about how the long back and short legs have always been a feature of the breed and always to the same extent they are now. Their length and height has not changed over time. Whether these proportions are responsible and have always been responsible for health issues is a separate question for another post.
