“The Wirehaired Variety”
Download this page in PDF formatHere is another chapter of the DCA Standard whose writings are in bold while my comments are in regular print just behind the Standard writings.
Wirehaired Dachshunds – Coat – With the exception of jaw, eyebrows, and ears, the whole body is covered with a uniform tight, short, thick, rough, hard, outer coat but with finer, somewhat softer, shorter hairs (undercoat) everywhere distributed between the coarser hairs.
The first segment of the Wirehaired Dachshund category is a treatment of what the coat feels and looks like. The entire body, with the exception of jaw, eyebrows and ears, has a rough outercoat which is tight, rough and hard and with a shorter, softer undercoat distributed between the coarser hairs on the outside of the body.These provide the short, thick coat that the animal needs in the Field and what makes this coat great for not picking up anything on the outside when working or being shown. Be sure to run your hands over the coat and feel the harshness that the dog has to have to have a true Wirehaired Dachshund coat.
The absence of an undercoat is a fault.
The absence of the undercoat is a fault and many breeder-judges that we have known say that perhaps black and tan dogs do not have undercoat and, we guess, hold that against the black and tan ones as the absence of undercoat is a fault, even though what kind of fault (major, minor, small) is not listed in the Standard. Perhaps other Judges say the same thing about other coat colors lacking undercoat, but we have not heard this as a Judge in the Show Ring, but we would certainly note its absence on any kind of coat while we were looking at the dogs. We always look for the undercoat and make sure that it does do the job to keep the body covered and ready to go in the ring or the Field.
The distinctive facial furnishings include a beard and eyebrows.
The beard and eyebrows are slightly longer than that other hair on the face and help to give that look of a Dachshund an adult look, thanks to the eye and ear furnishings around those features.
On the ears the hair is shorter than on the body, almost smooth.
The hair on the ears is short and looks almost smooth. As a puppy, most have longer hair on the ears, but most people take that rough look off the ears and make the dog’s ears look like a Smooth, and losing that hair on the ears makes the dog look great and ready to go in the show ring.
The general arrangement of the hair is such that the wirehaired Dachshund, when viewed from a distance, resembles the smooth.
The look of the Wirehaired Dachshund resembles the Smooth Dachshund. This says that the lesser coated ones are the ones we want in this Variety, but that we look at them, from a distance, so that some are perhaps overcoated and some are undercoated, but the dog should always be long and low enough with neither too much nor too little coat to remain effective as a show or field worker. It first must always look like a Dachshund from near or afar. Remember, that Dachshund outline is what we are looking for and we must always have that in mind whn looking at the outline of the dog.
Any sort of soft hair in the outercoat, wherever found on the body, especially on the top of the head, is a fault.
No soft hair of any kind can be found anywhere on the body (especially on the top of the head) and should be penalized, but we are sometimes forgiving if the owner is a little new to the game, although they are probably one of the ones with every smooth hair gone!! Again, this sentence just means to always be aware of the soft hair in the coat and the Standard desires for Judges to penalize any sort left to find on the body as that is a fault.
The same is true of long, curly, or wavy hair, or hair that sticks out irregularly in all directions.
The hair can never be long, curly or wavy and there can never be hair sticking out in any direction. The dog has to be groomed and never out of coat with nothing wrong or out-of-line in laying next to the body as there should be a very nicely made coat lying as tightly as possible to the dog with the coat being very close and near the body.
Tail – Robust, thickly haired, gradually tapering to a point.
The tail is robustly and thickly haired and tapers to a point and that is about as uncontroversial as it appears to be from reading the Standard.
A flag tail is a fault.
There is no flag tail hanging down from the tail as there was in Longhair variety, but instead there is a nice tightly covered, rough tail at the rear and that tail looks great and is very typical for this Variety.
Color of Hair – While the most common colors are wild boar, black and tan, and various shades of red, all colors and patterns listed above are admissible.
All the common Dachshund colors are available for the Wirehaired: red, black and tan, wild boar, red boar, dappled, cream, blue and tan and a few other colors with piebald, brindle and sable as toppings for the Variety. All are accepted and, if you notice, some colors are NOT mentioned as recommended by the Standard, but many people go after them and , when they do, they do pay the price of not doing well in the Show Ring.
Wild boar (agouti) appears as banding of the individual hairs and imparts an overall grizzled effect which is most often seen on wirehaired Dachshunds, but may also appear on other coats. Tan points may or may not be evident.Variations include red boar and chocolate-and-tan boar.
Wild boar, which includes red boar and chocolate and tan boars, is one of the distinctive patterns of this Variety and is usually only seen in this coat, although a very few have been shown as Smooths. It is a dark wild boar which is almost black to a wheaten wild boar which is much lighter. All have coats which should be great and harsh and stick close to the body even though the individual dog may or may not have tan points on their body.
Nose, nails and eye rims are black on wild-boar and red-boar dachshunds.
Wild boar and red boar Dachshunds have nose, nails and eye rims that are black and that is the only color choice listed for them. Choices are fewer in this variety, I suppose, and as usual we pay attention to what the Standard calls for.
On chocolate-and-tan-boar dachshunds, nose, nails, eye rims and eyes are self-colored, the darker the better.
The nose , nails , eye rims and eyes are self-colored, and as dark as possible and that is really all that needs to be said here.
A small amount of white on the chest, although acceptable, is not desirable.
Again, a small amount of white is not desirable, but acceptable and I have no reason for this instruction to be here in the Standard, but here it is. Whether this is a major, minor or small fault is not mentioned, but I would consider it a VERY small fault.
Nose and nails – same as for the smooth variety.
Again, the nose and nails are the same as for the Smooth variety and most of them will be for the wild boar or reds/shaded reds and can be easily checked.
Dan Harrison
March 2021