Dachshund Trivia
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65 free Dachshund trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Dachshund trivia quiz digs into the badger dog from every angle: what the name means and why Germans say Dackel, the 18th-century 'badger crawler', the crook-legged ancestors that were twice the size of today's dogs, and the deliberately bred ears and tail. There are questions on the three coats and three sizes (including the FCI's rabbit-sized kaninchen and unofficial 'tweenies'), colours and dapple genetics, and the stubborn, rash temperament that E. B. White found untrainable. History and culture get plenty of room: Queen Victoria's fondness, 'liberty hounds' in World War I, Rommel and the Kaiser's pheasant-killing pair, Waldi at the 1972 Munich Olympics, wiener racing and earthdog trials, and the health facts every owner should know about backs and discs. Then the famous dogs and owners: Picasso's Lump, Chekhov's Bromide and Quinine, Warhol's Archie and Amos, Jack Ruby's Sheba, Grover Cleveland, Adele's Louie, Obie, Slinky Dog and Valerie of Kangaroo Island. Questions run from easy to expert with the difficulty shown on each one, and every answer was checked against a reference page and carries its citation. If you enjoy it, try our Dogs and Basset Hound quizzes next.
30 of 65 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The name Dachshund is German for what?
Badger dog
Badger dog is the literal meaning of Dachshund: Dachs is the German word for badger and Hund the word for dog, the two joined into a single compound noun.
Q 02In modern Germany, what short name is most commonly used for the Dachshund?
Dackel
Dackel is the everyday German name for the breed; the full word Dachshund is rarely used in ordinary German speech, and it was the English-speaking world that kept the formal name.
Q 03The Dachshund's short legs come from which inherited form of dwarfism?
Chondrodysplasia
Chondrodysplasia, a dwarfism that shortens the long bones, gives the Dachshund its legs; an extra copy of the FGF4 gene, a retrogene, drives it in short-legged breeds.
Q 04The miniature Dachshund was bred to hunt what?
Rabbits
Rabbits were the quarry the miniature Dachshund was bred for, with a chest small enough to follow them into their warrens, while the standard size took on larger burrowing game.
Q 05What is the Dachshund commonly nicknamed in the British Isles and Australasia?
Sausage dog
Sausage dog is the everyday nickname in Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, earned by the long, low body; North Americans prefer wiener dog, after the frankfurter.
Q 06Which British monarch was famously enamoured of Dachshunds?
Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria kept Dachshunds from the 1840s, after Prince Albert brought the breed over from Germany; her enthusiasm helped make the dogs fashionable in Britain.
Q 07Which name did early 18th-century German books use for the breed?
Dachs Kriecher
Dachs Kriecher, meaning crawler after its quarry, is the name early 18th-century books used for the breed; the alternative, Dachs Krieger, meant warrior.
Q 08How heavy were the original German Dachshunds compared with today's full-size dogs?
Heavier, at 31 to 40 lb
Heavier, at 31 to 40 lb (14 to 18 kg), was the weight of the original German Dachshund; the modern dog descends from its crook-legged rather than straight-legged variety.
Q 09In packs, Dachshunds were known to hunt game as large as wild boar and as fierce as which animal?
The wolverine
The wolverine, a notoriously ferocious mustelid, was among the quarry packs of Dachshunds were set on, along with wild boar; singly they trailed wounded deer and bolted foxes.
Q 10The Dachshund's flap-down ears were deliberately bred in for what purpose?
To keep grass seeds and dirt out of the ear canal
To keep grass seeds and dirt out of the ear canal is the purpose of the long, drooping ears, which close over the opening as the dog pushes through undergrowth and into tunnels.
Q 11What is one practical purpose of the Dachshund's famous curved tail?
To help haul the dog out of a burrow
To help haul the dog out of a burrow is one use of the curved tail: a hunter could grab it when the dog was stuck underground, and its upward curve also shows above long grass.
Q 12Which of the three Dachshund coat types is the oldest?
Smooth-haired
Smooth-haired is the original Dachshund coat, from which breeders developed the other two varieties; it needs the least grooming, a quick rub-down with a hound glove.
Q 13The rough-coated Dachshund may have been crossed with which hard-coated breed?
The Schnauzer
Q 21What are the Dachshund's disproportionately large, paddle-shaped front paws suited for?
Digging
Digging is what the big paddle-shaped front paws are built for, shovelling earth aside as the dog tunnels after its quarry; its loose skin also resists tearing in tight burrows.
Q 22Which coat variety is the most common in Germany?
Wire-haired
It was also the last of the three coats to appear in breeding standards.
Q 23Why did the Dachshund Club of America remove the term 'double-dapple' from its standard in 2007?
The gene commonly causes blindness and deafness
The Schnauzer is one suspected ancestor of the rough coat, along with the Dandie Dinmont and Scottish Terriers, all hard-coated breeds whose wiry hair gave the tunnelling dog extra protection.
Q 14Which German field marshal of World War II was known for keeping Dachshunds?
Erwin Rommel
Erwin Rommel, the 'Desert Fox', was known for keeping Dachshunds; the breed had long served political cartoonists as shorthand for Germany itself.
Q 15The Dachshund was chosen as the first official Olympic mascot for which Games?
Munich 1972
Munich 1972 introduced the first official Olympic mascot, a striped dachshund; the marathon route through the city was even laid out to trace the dog's outline.
Q 16What was the name of the Dachshund mascot of the 1972 Summer Olympics?
Waldi
Waldi was the name of the 1972 mascot, a dachshund in pastel stripes chosen for the breed's reputation for stamina; Schuss, a skier figure, had served Grenoble 1968 only unofficially.
Q 17Which designer, also responsible for the Lufthansa logo, created the 1972 Olympic Dachshund mascot?
Otl Aicher
Otl Aicher, who led the 1972 Games' design programme and its pictograms, created the mascot, modelling it on a real dachshund called Cherie von Birkenhof.
Q 18Which two colours were kept off the 1972 Olympic mascot's stripes over Nazi associations?
Black and red
Black and red were deliberately left out of the mascot's stripes and of the whole 1972 design scheme, because the Games' designers wanted nothing to recall the Nazi colours of Berlin 1936.
Q 19The 1972 Olympic mascot represented three athletic qualities: resistance, tenacity and what?
Agility
Agility completes the trio of qualities the mascot stood for, with resistance and tenacity, all traits the organisers attributed to the dachshund; some two million pieces of mascot merchandise were sold.
Q 20In the US and UK the Dachshund is classed among the hounds, but how does the FCI classify it?
In a group of its own
In a group of its own: the FCI gives the Dachshund Group 4 entirely to itself, while American and British clubs show it among the hounds.
The gene commonly causes blindness and deafness when a dog inherits it from both parents, so the Dachshund Club of America dropped 'double-dapple' and uses only 'dapple' in its standard.
Q 24What is the German name for the smallest Dachshund size, recognised by the FCI but not in the US or UK?
Kaninchen
Kaninchen is the FCI's smallest class, for dogs of 3.5 to 5 kg (8 to 11 lb) bred to go to ground after the smallest burrowing game; American and British clubs recognise only standard and miniature.
Q 25What are Dachshunds that fall between miniature and standard size unofficially called?
Tweenies
Tweenies is the informal American term for Dachshunds too heavy for the miniature class yet lighter than a standard; no kennel club recognises the in-between size.
Q 26How much does a full-grown standard Dachshund typically weigh?
16 to 32 lb
16 to 32 lb (7 to 14.5 kg) is the standard Dachshund's range under the AKC standard, which puts miniatures at 11 lb and under once they are a year old.
Q 27Some kennel clubs, such as Germany's, separate miniature from standard Dachshunds by measuring what?
Chest circumference
Chest circumference, measured once the dog is 15 months old, is how the FCI and Germany's breed club separate the three sizes; the AKC relies on weight instead.
Q 28Which essayist would 'rather train a striped zebra to balance an Indian club' than get his Dachshund Fred to obey?
E. B. White
E. B. White wrote that line about his dachshund Fred, who appears in several of the essays collected in One Man's Meat and The Second Tree from the Corner.
Q 29In a 2008 Pennsylvania study, what share of Dachshunds had bitten or tried to bite strangers?
20%
20% of Dachshunds had bitten or tried to bite strangers in the 2008 University of Pennsylvania owner survey, which rated the breed the most aggressive of those studied.
Q 30The AKC standard says a Dachshund is 'clever, lively and courageous to the point of' what?
Rashness
Rashness is the word: the AKC standard calls the Dachshund 'clever, lively and courageous to the point of rashness', and adds that any display of shyness is a serious fault.