Long-hair dachshund puppy!

Consider buying a longhair dachshund puppy.

Some folks think that the long-haired doxies will shed and be harder to keep looking nice and there will be grooming expenses.

The longhairs grow an undercoat for winter and it does shed out in the spring. I lather up the dog in the tub and use a wire grooming brush. I brush against the fur and the undercoat comes out as the result of about three baths. It is a little deal.

You do not have to have a longhair professionally groomed--ever.

As with the shorthairs, keep the ears clean and they will not smell.

Fleas love a longhair doxie, but the new treatments, like Advantage, take care of the fleas just fine.

A longhair doxie can take the cold better and will go outside to potty and he does not care if it is bitter outside. They bound through the deep snow like porpoises leaping out of the water. It is very cute.

If we have an extremely HOT summer I give them a haircut (not all over--not the legs or chest or tail) and they LOVE being shorthaired through the summer. It grows back in the fall and they are ready for the winter. You can purchase the cheapest clippers and do that yourself. Be sure the dog has been bathed before you clip him -- dirty fur dulls the clippers.

Spaniels were introduced into the line years ago and that's where the long hair comes from. (Wire hair came from Dandy Dinmont Terriers bred into the line of short hairs.)

Long and shorthaired doxies can be bred together and you will get some shorthair pups and some longhair, in the same litter. It is bad breeding to breed a wire to a longhair.

I usually charge $100 more for the longhair. We can not usually tell if a puppy is going to be longhaired until it is two weeks old, unless both parents are longhaired. Then we can assume that the pups will all be longhaired.

So, they are easy to care for; they don't shed and they're glamorous. And the red ones are thought to be little sawed-off Irish Setters.