We don’t know anything about dachshunds when we first bring a puppy home, such as how much food we should give them, how much exercise we should provide, and many more things. I was also quite confused when I first bought a dachshund puppy, but at that time, I had enough experience with dachshund care and their health conditions.
In this blog, I will share some essential tips for dachshund owners. Everyone should have some knowledge about it when first owning a dachshund. Some of the things are important; if we don’t pay attention to them, this can cause serious problems in your future dog ownership, such as behavioural and many other.
How to take care of a Dachshund puppy as a beginner
Protect their fragile back
They are not like other dogs; they have a fragile back because of their long body and short legs, and can be injured by jumping from small places like a table or chair. That’s why we need to take care of their back. If we don’t give attention to their backs’ health, they can have back issues like IVDD. It is a condition that can affect your dogs’ nervous system and even cause paralysis.
To protect their back from injury, we need to consider a few things, such as their exercise and their healthy weight. We must avoid the exercises that can put strain on their back, like high-intensity training, running up stairs, and jumping. Those types of exercise can put strain on their back and potentially cause serious problems in the future.
Regular exercise
They are active dogs that need regular exercise to feel well. If you don’t provide them enough exercise, they may feel bored and potentially show unusual behaviour such as excessive barking or getting angry.
One of the main reasons for dachshunds’ exercise is that they are prone to obesity; we must avoid obesity to reduce the risk of their IVDD. If your dachshund is overweight, there is are higher chance of IVDD compared to a normally weighted dachshund because this extra weight puts stress on their back.. That’s why regular exercise is most important for your dachshund, as many dachshund owners have no understanding of this. You don’t need to worry about their exercise types, they can be okay with daily 30- 40 minutes of normal walking to manage their healthy weight.
Socilization
Early socialisation is most important for raising a well-behaved and happy dachshund was bred to hunt badgers and other burrowing animals; they can be aggressive in social situations when they are not interacting with different animals and people in their early stage. Socialising them from their early stage reduces the chance of your dachshund showing aggressive behaviour in social situations because socialisation helps dogs to familiarise themselves with many other animals and other people and helps to reduce anxiety in further social situations..
If you don’t socialize your dachshund from their childhood stage, they are likely to be an aggressive dog that barks or tries to bite when they see other people except their owner. If you don’t socialize them during their golden learning time, they may become aggressive by seeing other domesticated pets like a cat, and it will be difficult to get them outside to walk and travel.
Another main reason we need to socialize them from their childhood is that they are less prone to separation anxiety. Dachshunds are dogs are known for forming a strong bond with their owner or caretaker and feel separated when left alone. Separation anxiety is a condition where your dog feels anxious and hard to being alone in the home. Many dachshund owner found that socialization helps to overcome their dachshund separation anxiety.
I also see improvement my Toby’s separation anxiety after socialising him in an outer situation with different people and animals.
Provide a Nutritious feed
Dachshunds need various types of macro and micronutrients for optimal growth. Providing them a enough nutrient-rich food is most daily nutritional requirement is the most important thing for the optimal physical and mental growth of your dachshund. Their feed must be high in protein, vitamins, and minerals. Protein works as an energy booster in dachshunds, and vitamin and minerals helps to normal metabolization and hormone production. We need to provide them healthy, nutrition-rich feed that is made with a high-quality protein source avoid feed that includes low-quality protein sources that can affect your dogs’ health. Some feeds lack important nutrients like omega-3 fatty acids. You can meet their daily requirement by supplementing them.
Good quality and nutritious food also helps in healthy bone development, which is very important to protect from back-related issues like IVDD. Moreover, healthy food is also helpful in managing your weight and boosting immunity through healthy metabolism. Good immunity helps your dog protect itself from harmful bacterial and viral infections, even allergies.
We have written a detailed blog about dachshund feeds, you can check it after this one.
Comfortable environment
Making a comfortable environment is most important for dachshunds because your dog spends maximum time in this place. To make their living area comfortable, we need to provide a comfortable bed and, crate. Dachshunds also like to dig, so providing them a specific digging area is most important it works as a stress reliever for your dachshund. Reason for like to dig lies in their hunting instinct; they were bred to hunt burrowing animals that is why they likes to dig.
Comfortable environment made of good environment and good bonding. We can also include various toys for making environment more comfortable. You can read our previous written blog about dachshund toys to find best toys for your dachshund.
Bonding
Dachshunds are social dogs; as they love to be social, they are known to form a strong bond with their owner. A strong bond is most important for their emotional well-being. When we fail to form a strong bond with our dachshund, they may feel alone and potentially leads to separation anxiety.
Forming a strong bond with your pet needs consistency, trust, and understanding of their unique personality and needs. Dachshunds are smart, loyal, and can be a little stubborn, so building a solid relationship takes patience and love.
We can form a strong bonding with our dog by Spend quality time, use positive reinforcement, understanding their nature and providing them comfortable space. This will help to better understanding of each other which is most important for building a trust.
Conclusion
When we first bring a dachshund into our home, we don’t have enough knowledge and experience about owning this dog, I was also quite confused when I first brought my first dachshund home. You must face this issue if you have a dachshund at home. We need to consider a few things to raise a healthy and well-behaved dachshund. By including the point in the dachshund’s daily routine that I listed above, you can definitely raise a healthy and well-behaved dachshund. I hope you like these tips for dachshund owners when they first bring a dachshund puppy into their home.
