stamp 202503300851
Why are so few normal sized Dachshunds recently, and so many small sized (minis and tweenies by Imperial standards, Kaninchens and dwarfs by European standards) - asked someone on the Dachshund subbreddit.
In my opinion was that although the breed is still a hunting breed and any newborn Dachshund can be trained to be a hunting dog, very few actually get trained so. Most Dachshunds today are family dogs.
Historically, a good Dachshund was small enough to get into a badger or fox den, but dense enough to actually face a badger and a fox in there. Today, a good Dachshund is one that’s easy to be carried up and down stairs.
This is a great example of the survival of the fittest, illustrating that “fit” doesn’t mean physically fit, but the one best fitting into their environment.
Related
- The original discussion on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Dachshund/s/LPGpNDwHi6
- Survival of the fittest in an office environment often means that the seemingly most useless coworkers survive, because they still possess non-work-related attributes that make them fit best into their environment.