What's a healthy body weight and condition for my Dachshund?
We often get asked "what should my Dachshund weigh?" and "how do I know if my Dachshund is overweight?". There's no single, right answer and, from a health perspective, you need to consider not only what your dog weighs but also its body condition. We developed this Body Condition Score chart to help you decide if you dog is too thin, too fat or just right.
In our 2015 DachsLife Health Survey, we asked owners to report the weight of their dog (in Kg). The charts below show the ranges of weights for Miniatures and Standards. The data excludes dogs under the age of 2 in order to remove puppies and dogs that weren't fully grown.
Roughly one-third of Miniatures weighed up to 5 Kg and another third weighed between 5.01 and 6Kg. The remaining third were over 6Kg.
For the Standards, a fifth weighed up 8.99 Kg and two-fifths weighed between 9 and 12 Kg. Roughly a third weighed more than 12 Kg.
The results of the 2015 survey were reported in a peer-reviewed paper. This paper also reported the median body weights for each of the 6 Dachshund varieties:
Mini Smooth 5.4Kg
Mini Long 5.5Kg
Mini Wire 5.5Kg
Smooth 9.5Kg
Long 12.6Kg
Wire 11.2Kg
Note that these medians include all ages of dog in the survey, including puppies so the average weight of mature dogs will be higher than these figures.
The paper also reported Body Condition Scores and, for each of the 6 varieties , between 74 and 86% of owners reported their dog as being the ideal BCS. Our survey showed between 4 and 10% were overweight as judged by their owners using BCS. A 2021 study from the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) revealed the scale of the overweight epidemic in dogs in the UK, with 1 in 14 (7%) dogs recorded by their vets as overweight each year.
The RVC also reported:
Dogs aged 6 to < 9 (years) had the highest risk of overweight status (x 2.99) compared with dogs < 3.
Neutered males had the highest risk (x 1.90) compared with entire females.
Insured dogs had 1.28 times the risk of overweight status compared with uninsured dogs.
For a healthy, happy Dachshund, you need to keep him at the right weight and body condition throughout his life. Being overweight, or indeed underweight, can lead to serious health risks. It is good to get into the habit of checking your Dachshund's weight on a regular basis.