The following applies to both Standard and Miniature Dachshund.

General Appearance: Low to ground, short legged, long bodied but with compact figure and robust muscular development: Bold and confident carriage of the head and intelligent facial expression. In spite of his shortness of leg, in comparison with his length of trunk, he should appear neither crippled, awkward, cramped in his capacity for movement, nor slim and weasel-like.

Head: Viewed from above or from the side, it should taper uniformly to the tip of the nose, and should be clean cut. Skull is only slightly arched and should slope gradually without stop (the less stop the more typical) into the finely formed slightly arched muzzle.

Teeth: Powerful canine teeth should fit closely together and the outer side of the lower incisors should tightly touch the inner side of the upper.(Scissor bite.)

Eyes: Medium size, oval, situated at the sides, with a clean energetic pleasant expression. Colour: lustrous dark reddish brown to brownish black for all coats and colours.

Ears: Should be set near the top of the head, and not too far forward, long but not too long, beautifully rounded, not narrow, pointed, or folded. The forward edge should just touch the cheek.

Front: Muscular, compact, deep, long and broad. Shoulder blade: Long, broad, obliquely and firmly placed upon the fully developed thorax.

Trunk: The whole trunk should in general be long and fully muscled.

Chest: The breastbone should be strong and so prominent in front that on either side a depression appears.

Hindquarters: The hindquarters viewed from behind should be of completely equal width.

Croup: Long, round, full, robustly muscled, only slightly sinking toward the tail.

Hind Legs: Robust and well muscled with well rounded buttocks.

Tail: Set in continuation of the spine, extending without very pronounced curvature and should not be carried too gaily.

Special Characteristics of the Three coat-varieties.

The Dachshunt is bred with three varieties of coat: (1) Shorthaired for Smooth; (2) Wirehaired: (3)Longhaired. All three varieties should conform to the characteristics already specified. The longhaired and shorthaired are old, well fixed varieties, but into the wirehaired Dachshund, the blood of other breeds has been purposely introduced; neverthless, in breeding him, the greatest stress must be placed upon conformity to the general Dachshund type.

(1) Shorthaired (or Smooth) Dachshund.

Hair: Short, thick, smooth and shining.

Tail: Gradually tapered to a point, well but not too richly haired, long, sleek bristles on the underside are considered a patch of strong grownhair, not a fault.

Colour of Hair, Nose and Nails: One coloured Dachshund - This includes red (often called tan), red-yellow, yellow, and brindle with or without a shading of interspersed black hairs. Nevertheless a clean colour is preferable and red is to be considered more desirable than red-yellow etc. Nose and Nail: Black, brown is permitted but not desirable.

Two Coloured Dachshund: These comprise deep black, chocolate, gray (blue) and white; each with tan markings over the eyes, on the sides of the jaw and underlip, on inner edge of ear, front, breast, inside and behind the front legs, on the paws and around the anus and about one third to one half of the tail on the underside. Nose and Nail: In the case of black dogs, black; for chocolate, brown (the darker the better); for gray (blue) or white dogs, gray or even flesh colour the the last named colour is not desirable; in the case of white dogs, black nose and nails is to be preferred.

Dappled Dachshund: The colour of the dappled Dachshund is a clear brownish or grayish colour, or even a white ground, with irregular patches of dark gray, brown, red-yellow or black.

(2) Wirehaired Dachshund

General appearance to be the same as that of the shorthaired but it is permissible for the body to be somewhat higher off the ground.

Hair: With the exception of the jaw, eyebrows and ears, the whole body is covered with a perfectly uniform, tight, short, thick, rough hard coat, but with finer, shorter hairs, (undercoat) everywhere distributed between the coarser hairs. There should be a beard on the chin. Eyebrows are bushy. Hair on the ears is shorter than on the body, almost smooth.Tail: Robust, as thickly haired as possible, radually coming to a point and without a tuft.

Colour of hair, Nose and Nails: All colours are admissible.

(3) Longhaired Dachshund.

Hair: The soft, sleek glistening, often slightly wavy hair should be longer under the neck, on the underside of the body and especially on the ears and behind the legs. The hair should attain its greatest length on the undrside of the tail. Colour of Hair, Nose and Nails: Exactly as for the smooth haired Dachshund, except that the red with black (heavily sabled) colour is permissible and is formally classed as a red.