The preponderance of available evidence indicates that smooth and longhaired coats were separated by selective breeding, long prior to recorded registrations; whereas within such recorded history, the wirehaired coat was produced for protection against briar and thorn by crossing in harsh, wirey terrier coats and then breeding out incompatible characteristics of conformation.

Early in the seventeenth century the name Dachshund became the designation of a breed type with smooth and longhaired coat varieties, and since 1890 wirehairs have been registered as the third variety.

Importation of Dachshunds into north America antedates the earliest American dog shows or stud books, eleven were included in AKC Stud Book, Volume II in 1885.. North American dogs have found little employment in organized hunting, as we lack the badger and wild boar and do not hunt deer with dogs, nor foxes with pick and shovel.

The true character and conformation of the breed have been encouraged by frequent importation of German hunting strains; and to encourage hunting capacity and exemplary conformation and temperament, field trials under the AKC rules were instituted in 1935.

It is unlikely that one North American Dachshund in a thousand is used to hunt, but to understand the functional origin and development of the breed helps us to appreciate its elegant, streamlined proportions, and gives signifiance to the application of the breed standard.

Specialized characteristics of the breeds for its purposes include a long head and well-developed nose; properly angulated shoulder, pelvis and leg bones; close elbows and free, straight gait of forelegs and hind legs; long fore chest and well sprung ribs for ample lung and heart room without excessive width; a remarkably long, powerful jaw with well fitted teeth; a long, strong neck, powerful legs and sound feet for digging, a well muscled back for sustained effort; and above all, that fine, high courage which enables it to measure up to every demand of attack or defense without being quarrelsome and undesirably aggressive.