In times of crisis, the dachshund is the dog of the moment: it requires little space and food, is fun but not stupid and more than just an accessory.
The dachshund. Do I need to say more? Photo: Matt Alexander Media Assignments/Picture Alliance
In December 2020 the call FACE a trend towards dachshunds after lamenting their extinction ten years earlier. However, he announced Mirror already in 2011 “entering the third phase of the dachshund”, while The world and South German newspaper In 2016 they discovered that the dachshund, also known as Dachshund or Dachshund, never and always has his time.
Yes, what now? First of all: it is difficult to provide empirical evidence for dog fads. The statistics of the German Dog Association (VDH), which are always used, do not say much, because they only register puppies bred according to their standards. In 1992 there were more dachshunds than today: 14,208. Inevitably, demand had to fall because new varieties kept appearing on the market. Since 2008, the number of dachshund puppies has stabilized between 5,600 and 6,600.
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However, now, on World Dachshund Day, June 21, one thing can be said: the feeling that we are seeing more and more dachshunds is not misleading. This is demonstrated by another statistic published by Tasso e. V. Owners may register their marked animals with the association to facilitate their location in case of loss. Nobody here asks for a studbook, just what someone thinks is their dog.
Among the ten most registered breeds are the usual ones: Labrador, French Bulldog, Chihuahua, Australian Shepherd. The order has changed little lately. Only one dog does not even appear in the top 20 in 2019, slips into 2020, ranks 16th in 2022 and 14th in 2023: the dachshund!
The dachshund is the dog of the crisis
But why do more and more people want to have a dog so disproportionate, with a long back and short legs, that its owners have to go up and down stairs if they want to reduce the risk of herniated disc? The paralysis of dachshunds is the reason why, according to the Ministry of Agriculture's plans, the breeding of dachshunds for torture along with other breeds of animals could be banned.
Additionally, dachshunds respond poorly to training attempts. “I have to assign this one its place every day,” says a woman in her 60s, owner of two wire-haired dachshunds, the color of sour, dry leaves, in a parking lot in Bremen. Her gaze goes down, far down, where the bristle color makes its way through the hedge, dragging the leash handler behind it. Another walker, in her 30s, says she is trying, unsuccessfully, to stop her short-haired black and red dachshund from jumping on the couch. Annoying, but it's exactly the right size for her city apartment.
In times of crisis, the dachshund can seem like the dog of the moment. He needs little space and food, he is fun but not stupid like Paris Hilton's Pomeranian, a dog that must be taken seriously despite his small size and that is not an accessory. But if you ask an experienced breeder what he thinks of dachshunds as city dogs, he'll snort down the phone. “Nothing,” he says; For personal reasons he would like to remain anonymous. Dachshunds need a lot of exercise, petting them is not enough activity.
The Dachshund is old-fashioned, calming and post-cool.
Dachshunds are originally hunting dogs and therefore have hearing problems like many small children: they are supposed to hunt badgers and foxes independently in their dens. That is why it is said that they tend to overestimate themselves; some consider them especially resistant. “Its economic situation is less an expression of a retro trend or imminent retraditionalization, but rather a sign of people's willingness to face the unknown,” he considered. FACE at the end of the first year of Corona.
But let's be honest: is there a dog breed as retro as the dachshund, which connects today with yesterday (in the form of Gustl Bayrhammer and the dachshund Oswald) and the day before yesterday (Kaiser Wilhelm II and the favorite dachshund Erdmann) and Doesn't that have any Nazi influence and evoke associations? Unlike the German Shepherd, it still leads the VDH statistics, but has suffered a much steeper and more continuous decline, from 30,802 puppies in 1996 to 8,395 in 2022. The gap to the dachshund in second place has narrowed significantly.
Young people often have the other end of the leash: for them, dachshunds seem to have a post-coolness like mustaches and other bourgeois insignia, and this on an international level. A 25-year-old colleague emails an article about a French designer featuring his dachshund on Instagram. Kylie Jenner of the US Kardashian clan also posts photos of her dachshund. Dachshunds fit the clean-girl, old-money aesthetic that their generation loves so much, the colleague writes. “The old has a calming effect.”
The future belongs to the dachshund
It is also striking that the two famous dogs and many others you have come across lately do not look anything like dachshunds. They're too… colorful for that: gray, white, Isabel, brindle, spotted, spotted. It has always been the case that dachshunds look like walking mixes. But only the American Breed Association allows selective breeding of colors that are associated with a higher risk of genetic diseases.
The American Dachshund can have 15 basic colors and five markings. Now the dachshund shares color variation with other fashionable dogs. But ha! Dachshunds also come in three coat types (rough, long, short) and sizes (small, smaller, and even smaller). You can prepare your dachshund as if it were a takeaway coffee. A medium-sized speck of chocolate cream, please (that's a dog and not coffee).
This added distinction makes it the perfect companion for anyone who wants to be special but fears the unknown. Because the dachshund has entered the collective unconscious of the West.
Pablo Picasso, one of many famous dachshund lovers, drew one with a line on paper in 1907. Like “Le Chien,” the dog, the reprint sold hundreds of thousands of times. The silhouette is unmistakably that of a “Wiener” or “Sausage Dog”, as it is called in English.
The future is uncertain: it belongs to the dachshund.