You may know them by weiner dog or doxie, but no matter what you call a Dachshund they make a great pet for almost any family. If you like to take life easy, they make great lap dogs, or if you want a dog to get up and go, go, go, your Dachshund is always up for an adventure, just so long as he is with you.

Below I will give you some pointers for raising a well-behaved and friendly Dachshund.

First, how to choose a puppy? Well, with the help of the internet you will be able to find several breeders in your area, just make sure they are a reputable breeder, willing to show you both mom and dad, as well as where the puppies have been kept, and that all areas are clean and free of foul odors.

If you’d rather rescue there a lot of great dachshund dog rescue sites with plenty of great little doxies in need of a new home.

Then, once you have your new friend you will need to think about the best way to potty train your puppy, this can be difficult for dachshunds, especially if you live in an area that gets lots of rain and/or snow, with their low bodies they don’t like their bellies rubbing wet and cold ground.

You may want to consider training your puppy to go in a litter pan or on one of the new potty patches. Just remember when housebreaking your dog that patience is of the utmost importance.

Reward when they do well, ignore the mistakes – more often than not it’s your fault your puppy couldn’t hold it. If needed, make a potty schedule so that everyone in the family is on the same page as to when they puppy was last out, what he did, and when he should be out again.

You may have noticed that I did not mention paper training. That is because paper training a puppy is very confusing to your puppy. Think about it from your puppy’s perspective, they learn where to potty by 2 things, scent and feel.

So here you come along and place this flat paper on a hard floor so that it feels exactly the same as the floor to your puppy. They see the paper and when pointed out will walk over to it, but often as they circle they end up on the edge and potty on the floor.

It is better to use a dog litter pan or a potty patch that feels like grass, both of these make your puppy step up into their potty area, and more clearly mare it as where they should go verse some paper that is always moving all over the floor.

Basic obedience is always a big part of caring for a dog. You can do this on your own or with a group. If you choose to join a group training class make sure they use positive reinforcement training and not correction training.

Let me explain why positive reinforcement works the best for doxies. Your Dachshund was originally a badger dog, meant to go in an underground tunnel to drag out the badger – hard to believe these tiny things were meant for such rough work.

But since the popularity of the Dachshund has risen they have been bred more and more for personality and to be a lap dog. With this new “lap dog” mentality your Dachshund has very little, if any, drive to please you, rather they look at life as “what are you going to do for me?”

Hence why positive reinforcement works better for them, they get a small treat, praise, or a toy for doing what they are asked. You will get no where trying to force your doxie into doing what you tell them, so why not just relax and enjoy training and allow them to have fun with it to.