As a companion in the house the Dachshund has perhaps no compeer.  He is a perfect gentleman; cleanly in his habits, obedient, unobtrusive, incapable of smallness, affectionate, very sensitive to rebuke or to unkindness, and amusingly jealous.  As a watch he is excellent, quick to detect a strange footstep, valiant to defend the threshold, and to challenge with deep voice any intruder, yet sensibly discerning his master’s friends, and not annoying them with prolonged growling and grumbling as many terriers do when a stranger is admitted.  Properly brought up, he is a perfectly safe and amusing companion for children, full of animal spirits, and ever ready to share in a romp, even though it be accompanied by rough and tumble play.  In Germany, where he is the most popular of all dogs, large or small, he is to be found in every home, from the Emperor’s palace downwards, and his quaint appearance, coupled with his entertaining personality, is daily seized upon by the comic papers to illustrate countless jokes at his expense.

The origin of the Dachshund is not very clear.  Some writers have professed to trace the breed or representations of it on the monuments of the Egyptians.  Some aver that it is a direct descendant of the French Basset-hound, and others that he is related to the old Turnspits—­the dogs so excellent in kitchen service, of whom Dr. Caius wrote that “when any meat is to be roasted they go into a wheel, where they, turning about with the weight of their bodies, so diligently look to their business that no drudge nor scullion can do the feat more cunningly, whom the popular sort hereupon term Turnspits.”  Certainly the dog commonly used in this occupation was long of body and short of leg, very much resembling the Dachshund.

In all probability the Dachshund is a manufactured breed—­a breed evolved from a large type of hound intermixed with a terrier to suit the special conditions involved in the pursuit and extermination of a quarry that, unchecked, was capable of seriously interfering with the cultivation of the land.  He comprises in his small person the characteristics of both hound and terrier—­his wonderful powers of scent, his long, pendulous ears, and, for his size, enormous bone, speak of his descent from the hound that hunts by scent.  In many respects he favours the Bloodhound, and one may often see Dachshunds which, having been bred from parents carefully selected to accentuate some fancy point, have exhibited the very pronounced “peak” (occipital bone), the protruding haw of the eye, the loose dewlap and the colour markings characteristic of the Bloodhound.  His small stature, iron heart, and willingness to enter the earth bespeak the terrier cross.