A Dog Designed Like a Tool
The dachshund did not arrive at its shape by accident. German hunters in the 15th and 16th centuries needed a dog that could follow a badger, a surprisingly fierce animal, into a narrow underground burrow and either flush it out or hold it there until the hunter could dig down. The solution was a dog low to the ground, long in the body, with short legs powerful enough to dig and a chest wide enough to anchor itself inside a tunnel. The name itself is the blueprint: Dachs means badger, Hund means dog.
