Alice White
The Miniature Dachshund is a groovy “sausage”, always ready to save this world and its own owner to boot. Do not flatter yourself with the toy dimensions of the corpulent short-legged and do not try to see a sofa sloth in it. A real mini-dachshund is an incredibly curious pet and a gambling burrowing inspector who is in a permanent search for suitable prey. At home, the dog is forced to reduce the degree of activity, so it takes out its hunting predilections on other small pets or toys.
#1 The history of dwarf dachshunds can be traced back to the 16th century, when the breeding of burrowing dogs for catching badgers was carried away in the southern regions of Germany.
True, some researchers consider the age of the breed to be more impressive, referring to the images of short-legged dogs found in the tombs of the pharaohs. Today, the relationship between the ancient Egyptian and German dachshunds remains unconfirmed, which does not prevent scientists from building the most incredible theories about the origin of burrowing breeds.
#2 The original name of the dachshund is “daxhund”: from him. Dachs – “badger” and Hund – “dog”.
However, over time, a complex word supplanted a more convenient and shorter one - "take" (as an option - "tekel"), which is still called dachshund in Germany. The ancestors of the breed are considered to be marriages - hounds with shortened, disproportionate legs. Through a strict selection of producers, German breeders managed to get pets with extremely low "fit", which were almost as reckless in hunting as marriages, but at the same time did not get stuck in badger holes. By the 17th century, the marriage clan had split into two branches - low hounds, who hunted in the usual way and takes, who specialized in working in burrows.
#3 As for the dwarf variety of the dachshund, it was born later than the standard one, and the breed was bred exclusively for practical purposes.
The fact is that the offspring of marriages worked great underground with foxes and badgers, but they were large for rabbit holes. This prompted breeders to cross the standard dachshund with other miniature breeds. One of these pioneering breeders was F. Engelmann, who mated his charges with dwarf pinschers. The experiment proved to be a failure, as the resulting offspring had a thin skeleton and could not be used in hunting. After that, the specialists concentrated on interbreed mating, selecting only the smallest individuals for them. It was in this way that the dwarf dachshund was first bred, and then even more miniature - the rabbit.
