Dachshund owners please come and speak to me!

[Inbedbynine]

So I bitten the bullet and will be bringing pup home next month! Super excited but also a little anxious. I grew up around dogs but it will be my first one. I have a list of things the breeder said I will need but can anyone recommend what I should get and things not to? Any tips???

I know having a puppy is a responsibility not to be taken lightly, but blimey this thread has given all the hard work stories!

I'm a life long dachshund owner. They're wonderful dogs and it seems like you're thinking all the right things.

My best advice is to join your local dachshund group on Facebook. People are really happy to share their breed specific advice and experience. There's often regular walks you can go to - even if you're just thinking about getting a dog, it's a great way to meet experienced owners.

Re Insurance you'll get lots of great advice via a group too. (I have pet plan, v helpful when my dog needed £4K surgery).

They are super dogs and it's lovely to hear someone preparing well. Enjoy having a pup whenever one comes along.

Thanks ginger. Yes trying to make sure I cover all basis. I am a life long lover of the breed and now I can finally have one I’m super excited as are my kids.

What level of cover did you have on petplan? Not sure to get the £7k or the £12k.....

Mine is £4K. In retrospect, I'd go for £7k as his total bill was just over £4K. It could have been doubled if surgery was and emergency weekend op.

Premium has increased v little this year. My mum's daxie's insurance has increased as he's aged and had a few claims.

There are loads of Facebook questions on this with pros and cons of different policies. I'd really recommend asking your local group there.

I’m a lifelong dachshund owner too. I currently have number 5 and 6.

I would be very concerned at the fact the “breeder” has two bitches and her friend has the dog. The stud should be chosen for reasons beyond it just living up the road. It smacks of backyard breeding to me.

Endorsements aren’t worth the paper they are written on. You can still breed your future bitch till her uterus falls out if you want to; you just can’t register the offspring with the Kennel Club. Kennel Club registration means nothing to the sales potential of popular breeds like dachshunds.

Putting a dog in a cage is cruel. You say you work 9-2.15, and you will be able to pop back hourly for a “week or two”. What about after that, how much of that 5 1/4 hours will the puppy be spending in a cage? Would it be 5 days a week?

If you could, by some miracle, get a puppy at the beginning of the summer holidays, then yes, 6 weeks is a good amount of time to get it into a routine, but forget having a dachshund housetrained after that amount of time. My current two (one from a puppy and one rescued at age 4) are not reliably trained. The one I’ve had from a puppy is about 95% and my rescue is around 65% (from zero when we got him). Prepare to buy shares in Simple Solution 🤣!

You didn’t say what type of dachshund you were looking at; standard/mini, long/smooth/wire (there are different health issues affecting each subtype), but make sure you actually SEE the health testing paperwork and also double check that it’s actually genuine. The papers are very easy to forge. What do you know about double dapples and dilute colours?

With insurance, make sure that you get lifetime insurance. The most expensive isn’t necessarily the best, but you have to make sure that it covers any conditions forever, not just a year. I lost a dog to IVDD, and just the MRI and the care around that was nearly £2000 (10 years ago) and that was without any actual treatment as sadly he died before it got that far. I lost another last year to a non-dachshund related condition, and his initial treatment was nearly £4000.

Dachshunds are fabulous dogs with very strong personalities. Every day they make me laugh (and cry at the pee on the carpet 😉). I would never have any other breed, but they are not an easy option.

I hope I don’t come across as too snotty, I’m honestly not but you asked for input from dachshund owners, and most of the replies seem to have been from people who don’t actually have experience of them. If you want to PM me, I can give you some more resources for rescue dachshunds. So many of them are dumped when the initial “cute puppy” stage wears off, and people realise that they aren’t handbag dogs 😢.

Another dachshund owner here (we have two of the little buggers delightful sausages).
I wouldn't swap them for the world, and whilst I do regularly enthuse about all the great bits to anyone who will listen, I do second some of the points made above.
Most notably: dachshunds are a law unto themselves when it comes to toilet training, and do not respond like all other breeds to consistent and constant training
One of my boys came to the office with me every day for the first year of his life, and he cracked toileting within a few weeks - but from everything I've read he is something of a rarity! Our second boy stayed at home/spent time out fishing with my OH for his puppyhood and remained a law unto himself. Took I would say somewhere in the region of a year to be fully house trained to the point i was confident to take him anyway (such as a friends house, or a cafe etc). And this was with his brother to watch for tips on how to do it!

As I have since read on many a dachshund website and Facebook group... These dogs are amazing, with bags of personality, and have so many things going for them. But they are stubborn as hell - and really not a great first-time pet. I've had a lifetime of spaniels, and nothing prepared me for the total obstinence of a feisty dachshund that doesn't want to do as its told.

Worth also noting in your timing plan of when to get a puppy, that daxies notoriously hate the rain, so "persuading" a reluctant dog out into the garden if there's even a hint of moisture in the air is no mean feat! We got both of ours in the winter, and therefore all the worst of the toilet training had to be conducted in the rain and snow... If you are thinking of "nipping back" from work to toilet a dachshund puppy, do bear in mind that if it's raining this simple task could take a whole lot longer than you would anticipate (my two would rather spend 20 minutes cowering from rain/trying to worm their way onto the back step to get back into the house than just getting on and peeing so they could come in. It took at least a year before their pea brains worked out that peeing quickly meant you got to go inside quicker!)

They are, generally as a breed, quite prone to making an incredible bond with one member of their household. This is part of the appeal for me - my boys are glued to my side and always cuddling on my lap/sleeping in my bed - but it does mean that they can potentially suffer worse consequences of separation anxiety if that person then disappears on them (by going to work, for example), and dachshunds are LOUD when they use their voice. Deceptively loud. If your house is not detached, bear this in mind if you are leaving yours alone for long periods of time (but I go to work part time, and watch mine on a camera so I know there's no noise or anxiety when I'm gone, so it's easily monitored, just worth considering).

Without wishing it to be all negative - I'll end by just saying dachshunds are an AMAZING breed. They are full of character, fun, and huge bundles of love. They are great with kids, and you can't ever walk one without at least every other person wanting to stop you to stroke it and say hello. I wouldn't want to put anyone off owning one of these breeds, so if you think you can make it work then go for it and enjoy it. But I do think 1 week is more than a little naive for the breed specifically. Summer and 3 weeks off would be far better from my experience (but every dog is different)

Oh yes @BassAce, the bonding! The girl, who we’ve had since a puppy is pretty bonded to her dad but I’m a good substitute. The rescue boy is totally daddy’s boy, and spends most of the day sitting on the stairs waiting for him to come home. We also had a short term emergency foster who bonded strongly and instantly to my husband, and cried, howled and barked all —bloody— day when he was at work.

I'm laughing about the bonding Ace and Ginger! I can't remember the last time I went to the loo in peace. Annoyingly my boy coped well with toilet training in December/ January but has a huff when I spend too long in the shower and will lift his leg in protest. Doesn't mind a bit being left home fortunately. Idiot. I wouldn't swap him though!

Wise words from you both.