The War That Almost Erased the Dachshund From America

Dachshund history in one question: why does today's Dachshund stand lower than the dogs in an 1881 engraving? It wasn't the badger that pulled it down. It was the dog show. The badger set the shape long before the first rules were written in Germany in 1879. England founded its Dachshund Club in 1881, the breed entered the American Kennel Club stud book in 1885, and around 1895 German shows began rewarding longer bodies and shorter legs. In World War One, Americans began calling Kaiser Wilhelm II's favorite breed "Liberty Hounds" or "badger dogs"; in 1923, only 23 were registered. Then it came back — Waldi the Dachshund became the first official mascot of the Summer Olympics, in Munich in 1972, and today it is America's fifth most popular breed. ⏱ Chapters 00:00 Same breed, lower dog 00:42 1879: The first rules 02:02 Built for the badger's den 03:09 The show ring takes over 04:41 A war and a lost name 05:55 The Dachshund today 07:14 So why is it lower? 07:52 Then and now 📚 Sources • Vero Shaw, The Illustrated Book of the Dog, chapter "The Dachshund" (1881) — archive.org/details/illustratedbooko00shawrich • National Geographic Society, The Book of Dogs (1919), "The Dachshund" — archive.org/details/cu31924001178130 • Dachshund Club of America, Dachshund Breed History; Official Standard of the Dachshund (AKC, 2007) — dachshundclubofamerica.org • American Kennel Club, Dachshund breed page; Dachshund History: The Badger Dog's Fascinating Past (2024); Facts About the Dachshund (2024); Most Popular Dog Breeds of 2025 — akc.org • The Royal Kennel Club, Breed Standard — Dachshund (2025) — royalkennelclub.com • Parker HG, et al. An expressed fgf4 retrogene is associated with breed-defining chondrodysplasia in domestic dogs. Science 325:995–998 (2009). doi.org/10.1126/science.1173275 • Brown EA, et al. FGF4 retrogene on CFA12 is responsible for chondrodystrophy and intervertebral disc disease in dogs. PNAS 114:11476–11481 (2017). doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1709082114 • Packer RMA, Hendricks A, Volk HA, Shihab NK, Burn CC. How long and low can you go? Effect of conformation on the risk of thoracolumbar intervertebral disc extrusion in domestic dogs. PLoS ONE 8:e69650 (2013). doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0069650 • Sullivan S, Szeremeta KJ, Kutzler M. Case report: FGF4L1 retrogene insertion is lacking in the tall dachshund phenotype. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 11:1522745 (2024). doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2024.1522745 • Morrill K, et al. Ancestry-inclusive dog genomics challenges popular breed stereotypes. Science 376 (2022). doi.org/10.1126/science.abk0639 • International Olympic Committee, Munich 1972 — Mascot — olympics.com • U.S. National Archives, photograph 111-SC-2158, U.S. Army Signal Corps (1918) 🖼 Image credits • "Terrier Type of Dachshunds," engraving after Specht, plate 41; "Dachshunds, from La Vénerie," p. 316 — from Vero Shaw, The Illustrated Book of the Dog (1881), archive.org — Public domain • Simon Simonsen, "To gravhunde ved en rævegrav" (Two dachshunds at a fox den), 1880 — Wikimedia Commons — Public domain • Louis Agassiz Fuertes, Dachshund plate, The Book of Dogs, National Geographic Society (1919), archive.org — Public domain • "Dachshund," Dogs of the World series for Old Judge Cigarettes, Goodwin & Company, 1890 — The Metropolitan Museum of Art — CC0 (also used in the thumbnail) • Two dachshunds, photograph, c. 1900–1910 — Rijksmuseum — CC0 • Jean Bungartz, "Glatter und langhaariger Dachshund," Illustrirtes Muster-Hunde-Buch (1890) — Wikimedia Commons — Public domain • Marines' company mascot, U.S. Army Signal Corps photograph 111-SC-2158 (1918) — U.S. National Archives — Public domain Illustrations were created for this channel with digital and AI-assisted tools. Historical photos, prints and paintings are public domain or CC0 as listed above. 🐕 Does your Dachshund bark like a dog three times its size, or dive head-first under the blankets? Tell us which old hunting habit yours still shows. 🔔 New breed history every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday:    / @doglineage   #Dachshund #DogHistory #DogBreeds #DogLineage