DACHSHUND, MINIATURE & STANDARD

GROUP: Hound 

HEIGHT: 6-9 inches for miniature; 8-12 inches for standard.

WEIGHT: 6-14 pounds for miniature; 15-25 pounds for standard.

COAT: Three varieties: Short-haired, Wire-haired, and Long-haired, with no preference given to either coat.

Short-haired variety has short, dense, smooth, and shining coat. Faults: too fine or thin hair; leathery ears; bald patches; too coarse or too thin hair in general.

Wire-haired variety has whole body covered with uniform tight, short, thick, rough, hard coat, with the exception of the jaw, eyebrows and ear; finer, shorter haired undercoat distributed within the coarser hairs; should be a beard on the chin; bushy eyebrows; shorter, almost smooth hair on ears than on body. Faults: Any sort of soft hair; whether long or short, or wherever found on the body; long, curly, or wavy hair; hair sticking out irregularly in all directions.

Long-haired variety has rather long, silky hair which differentiates it from the other two; soft, sleek, glistening, often slightly wavy hair should be long under the neck, on the underside of the body, and specially on the ears and behind the legs, producing a pronounced feather.

COLOR: Red, red-yellow, yellow (cream) with some shading of black hairs interspersed; black and tan; gray and tan; chocolate and tan; dappled (also known as merle); harlequin; piebald ;brindle. White is not desirable, except on the piebald and harlequin, but small amount of white on chest of other colors is permissible.

STANDARD:

Head: Long and tapering symmetrically, with slightly arched skull sloping gradually without stop; should appear to taper uniformly to tip of nose when view from above or the side.

Muzzle: Medium and tapering to a point; slightly arched (ram’s nose).

Eyes: Medium sized, oval, and very dark in color; dark reddish-brown to brownish-black for all coats and colors except in the dappled pattern; placed at the sides. Partial or wholly blue (wall) eyes are as acceptable as dark eyes.

Ears: Set near top of head and long, but not too long; beautifully rounded; not narrow, pointed, or folded; forward edge should just touch the cheek.

Nose: Black preferred, but allowed brown or black for chocolate dogs, and gray or flesh for gray dogs (but flesh color is not desirable); well open nostrils.

Bite: Scissors bite; even bite is a minor fault. Serious faults: Overshot or undershot bite.

Neck: Long, muscular and slightly arched; no dewlap.

Topline: Level; should lie in the straightest possible line between the withers and the very slightly arched loin.

Chest: Deep, long, and broad; strong breastbone and so prominent in front that on either side a depression appears; full and oval ribs when viewed from above or from the side; abdomen slightly drawn up.

Body: Long bodied, compact, fully-muscled.

Legs: Forelegs and hind legs are short, straight and muscular.

Feet: Full, broad, and compact; well arched; tough pads; front feet inclined slightly outwards; black nails preferred, but allowed brown or black for chocolate dogs, and gray or flesh for gray dogs (but flesh color is not desirable); short nails.

Tail: Long, carried low or level with back. Short-haired tail should not be too richly haired. Wire-haired tail should be robust and thickly haired as possible, gradually coming to a point and without a tuft. Long-haired tail should attain its greatest length and form a veritable flag. Faults: Short-haired with brush tail or partly or wholly hairless tail. Wire-haired with flag tail. Long-haired tail lacking in sufficient length or flag. Short and/or crooked tail in any variety.

Movement: Smooth flowing gait, with graceful movements; confident carriage of head; should not appear crippled, awkward, or cramped in spite of his shortness of leg in comparison with the trunk length.

Temperament: Alert, clever, lively, tireless and courageous.

Major Faults:

Ears wrongly set, sticking out, narrow or folded.

Too marked a stop.

Too pointed or too weak a jaw.

Pincer teeth, distemper teeth.

Too wide or short a head.

Goggle eyes.

Insufficiently dark eyes in all coat colors except dappled.

Short neck.

Swan neck.

Too fine or too thin hair.

Disqualifications:

Extreme viciousness or shyness.

Overshot or undershot jaw.

Knuckling over of front legs.

Very loose shoulders.

Short and/or crooked tail.

Albinism.