How many types of dachshund are there?

It depends on the registry. Both the American Kennel Club and the FCI split the breed three ways by coat type — smooth, long-haired and wire-haired. The AKC then recognises two sizes, standard and miniature, which gives six varieties. The FCI recognises three sizes, adding the Kaninchen or rabbit size, which gives nine. The two standards also differ in how size is measured: the AKC uses weight, the FCI uses chest circumference taken at fifteen months or older.

Are dachshunds only brown?

No, and the word brown hides two different colours. What most people call brown is usually red, the breed's most common colour, ranging from pale golden to deep mahogany. Chocolate is a separate, recessive colour that produces a genuinely deep brown coat. Beyond those two the AKC registers fifteen colours in total and five colour patterns, including cream, black and tan, wild boar, dapple, brindle, piebald and sable. The FCI accepts a narrower list than that.

Do miniature dachshunds have less back risk than standards?

That claim is widely repeated and we could not find a published source that supports it. Disc disease in this breed tracks the body shape, which every variety shares, rather than body weight. We list the claim here only because you will meet it; we do not repeat it as fact.

Dachshund · Breed reference · Checked 9 Oct 2026

How many kinds of dachshund are there?

Q: Is a rare dachshund colour worth paying more for?

Treat the word rare as a marketing word rather than a registry category. Two of the colours most often sold as rare, the dilute blue and Isabella coats, are not accepted by the FCI at all and are associated in the veterinary literature with colour dilution alopecia, a progressive hair loss. The dapple pattern carries a real welfare problem when two dapples are paired. The colours that have been in the standard for a century are not the ones a breeder has to describe as rare.

Six, or nine, depending on which registry you ask — and the difference is not a matter of opinion. Both the American Kennel Club and the FCI split the breed three ways by coat, but they draw the size line in different places and they accept different colours. This page is the version with the registry documents behind it, so that when a breeder's page calls a colour rare, you can see what the standard actually says.

Read the two standards Jump to the colours

A silver dapple dachshund standing on a sunny lawn.

3 × 3 coat types multiplied by sizes — the arithmetic that gives six, or nine

3 coat types: smooth, long-haired, wire-haired

2 or 3 sizes, depending on whether the registry measures weight or chest girth

6 or 9 registered varieties — AKC and FCI respectively

The short version

Coat is the first split, and it is the one everybody agrees on. Smooth, long-haired and wire-haired, under both the AKC and the FCI standard. The first split is coat
Size is where the two registries disagree. AKC splits by weight into two classes; FCI splits by chest girth into three, which is why the breed counts as six varieties under one and nine under the other. The two standards, side by side
AKC registers fifteen colours. FCI accepts far fewer. Where the FCI column reads “not listed”, the reason is the closing line of its colour section: anything not previously mentioned is disqualifying. Colours, both columns
“Brown” is not a colour in this breed. What people mean by it is almost always red, the most common colour. True chocolate is a different, recessive colour and noticeably rarer. Red vs chocolate
Two colour names are also health information. Dapple bred to dapple and the dilute colours both carry consequences you should know about before a breeder uses the words loosely. Colours that carry information
Seven photographs, so the difference is something you see rather than read. Red against chocolate, dapple against a solid coat, smooth against long and wire. What the varieties actually look like

This page reads two registry documents and does not rate breeders or sell anything. What it does not do is listed at the end, and the photographs are the fastest way to settle an argument about a colour.

Why the count is not one number. A breed standard is a national document, not an international one. The AKC registers the dachshund for the United States; the FCI standard n° 148 covers the clubs in its member countries. They describe the same dog, and they were last revised years apart, so where they disagree the honest answer is to say which one you are quoting.

The two standards, side by side

Everything below is quoted from the two documents rather than from breed guides that summarise them. Where a row says the FCI does not list something, that is not our summary — the standard ends with a sentence making every unlisted colour and pattern a disqualifying fault.

What the standard defines	American Kennel Club	FCI, standard n° 148
Coat typesIdentical in both	Three: smooth, long-haired, wire-haired	Three: short-haired, long-haired, wire-haired
How size is measuredThe reason the counts differ	Weight, taken at twelve months of age and older	Chest circumference, taken at fifteen months of age or older
Sizes recognised	Two: standard (16–32 lb) and miniature (11 lb and under)	Three: standard (over 35 cm), miniature (30–35 cm) and Kaninchen or rabbit (under 30 cm)
Registered varieties	Six — three coats across two sizes	Nine — three coats across three sizes
Colours acceptedFull list further down	Fifteen colours registered, plus five patterns	A short list: red; black or brown with tan markings; wild boar in wire-haired; dapple; brindle
Notes on size you will meet in adverts	Dogs of 12–15 lb fall between the two classes. There is no AKC class for them.	The Kaninchen is a size class, not a different breed. A Kaninchen shown under AKC rules would simply be judged as a miniature.

Sources: the AKC breed standard and its published colour and marking registration list, and the FCI standard n° 148 (date of publication 14 March 2022). Both are quoted at the foot of this page.

The first split is coat, not colour

Coat type is the one thing the two standards agree on completely, and it is the split that actually changes what the dog is like to live with — how much grooming it needs, and in two of the three cases where its ancestors came from.

Smooth

The original coat, and the shortest to keep: a hound glove and a damp cloth. Note what the standard says about the hair — short, dense, shiny, tight and harsh. A soft, open coat is a fault, and it is also the coat you will see on most dachshund images online.

Long-haired

The standard asks for hair that extends beyond the lower edge of the ear, feathers on the back of the legs, and a full flag on the tail. It is a spaniel influence, and the grooming bill that comes with it is real: brush two to three times a week or it mats.

Wire-haired

A dense, close-fitting, harsh topcoat over an undercoat, with a clearly defined beard and bushy eyebrows. The standard treats a soft topknot as highly undesirable. This is the rarest of the three coats in the United States and the most common working coat in Germany.

Two smooth-haired dachshunds standing side by side on a plain grey background, one solid red and one black and tan. — Two registered varieties, same breed. The solid red and the black-and-tan differ in coat *and* in the pigment points that come with it — which is why coat type is the first split, not colour.

Colours: fifteen registered, and one word that hides two of them

Start with the term that causes most of the confusion. Brown is not a dachshund colour. What people mean by it is almost always red, the breed's most common colour, which runs from pale golden to deep mahogany. The colour actually called chocolate is a different thing again: a genuinely deep brown, produced by a recessive gene, and noticeably less common.

Colour	AKC	FCI n° 148
RedRust to deep mahogany. The most common colour	Registered	Accepted — with or without interspersed black hairs
Cream	Registered	Not listed
Wheaten	Registered	Not listed as such
BlackAs a solid colour, without tan markings	Registered	Not listed — black is accepted only with tan markings
ChocolateAs a solid colour, without tan markings	Registered	Not listed — brown is accepted only with tan markings
Black and tanBlack base with tan points. Tan markings too wide-spread are undesirable	Registered	Accepted — the historic colour
Chocolate and tan	Registered	Accepted, as brown and tan
Black and cream	Registered	Not listed
Chocolate and cream	Registered	Not listed
Blue and tanDilute black	Registered	Not listed
Blue and cream	Registered	Not listed
Fawn (Isabella) and tanDilute chocolate	Registered	Not listed
Fawn (Isabella) and cream	Registered	Not listed
Fawn	Registered	Not listed
Wild boarGrizzled black, grey and tan. Wire-haired only	Registered	Accepted for wire-haired, along with brown wild boar
DappleIrregular lighter patches on a dark base	Registered pattern	Accepted pattern — dapple is not to be bred to dapple
BrindleDark stripes on a red base	Registered pattern	Accepted pattern
PiebaldLarge white areas with coloured patches	Registered pattern	Not listed
SableBanded hairs, dark tips	Registered pattern	Not listed
Brindle piebald	Registered pattern	Not listed

Where the FCI column reads “not listed”, the reason is the closing line of the FCI colour section: colours and patterns not previously mentioned are disqualifying. The two lists cannot be mapped row for row, because the FCI’s one-coloured group covers a range of reds — an older wording of the same standard ran from red through reddish-yellow to yellow — which is roughly where the AKC’s wheaten and fawn entries sit. Treat the comparison as two documents, not one table.

What the varieties actually look like

Seven of the coat and colour combinations above, so that the difference between red and chocolate — and between dapple and a solid coat — is something you can see rather than read.

A red smooth-coated dachshund standing on a sunny lawn. — **Red, smooth**The colour most people call brown, and the breed’s most common.

A black and tan smooth-coated dachshund sitting upright on a light rug. — **Black and tan, smooth**The historic colour: black base, tan points above the eyes and on the legs.

A chocolate and tan smooth-coated dachshund sitting upright on a pale rug. — **Chocolate and tan, smooth**A different colour from red entirely, and recessive.

A cream long-haired dachshund resting on a pale linen cushion. — **Cream, long-haired**Hair past the ear tip and feathers on the legs, as the standard asks.

A wire-haired dachshund in wild boar colour standing on a light stone path. — **Wild boar, wire-haired**Grizzled black, grey and tan. The colour exists only in this coat.

A black and cream dachshund sitting upright on a pale floor. — **Black and cream, smooth**Black base with cream points — not registered by the FCI.

Red, smooth, in profileThe body shape every variety shares, whichever size class it lands in.

The photographs illustrating each variety on this page are generated illustrations of the coat and colour described, not photographs of registered show dogs, and they are not a colour chart. For judging an animal, the standard itself is the reference, and this page links to both.

Two colour names that are also health information

This is the part of the subject where being accurate matters, because both of these patterns are routinely advertised as rare and commanded-up in price.

Dapple bred to dapple. The dapple pattern is dominant, so one dapple parent and one solid parent can produce dapple puppies that are ordinary healthy dogs. Pair two dapples, however, and a quarter of the litter inherits the pattern from both sides. Those puppies — sometimes sold as “double dapple” and priced higher for it — can be born deaf, blind, or with abnormally small or missing eyes. Breed club guidance and the FCI standard both treat pairing two dapples as something not to be done.

Blue and Isabella. Both are dilution colours: blue is a diluted black, Isabella a diluted chocolate. Neither appears in the FCI list, and both are associated in the veterinary literature with colour dilution alopecia, a progressive hair loss with skin changes. This is one of the few places in coat colour where the genetic mechanism and the health outcome are linked in the same animal rather than in a statistic.

A claim we do not repeat. You will read that miniature dachshunds carry less disc risk than standards, and that the Kaninchen carries less again. We could not find a published source supporting that, and the mechanism usually cited for disc disease in this breed — the shape of the body and the cartilage it carries — is shared by every variety here. We mention the claim only so that meeting it does not surprise you.

What this page does not do

It does not rank breeders, kennels or registrations. Nothing here is for sale and no one paid to be described.
It does not tell you which variety to buy. Coat choice is grooming effort and taste; the size class is a measurement, not a temperament.
It is not a colour chart. Colour reproduction depends on your screen and on the photograph. The standards define the colours in words; go to the words.
It is not veterinary advice. The two health paragraphs above describe published associations in the breed and nothing more. Anything concerning your own dog’s coat, skin or hearing belongs with a veterinarian.

Sources, and what we did not verify

Checked on 9 October 2026. The varieties, sizes and measurement rules in the comparison table come from the AKC breed standard for the Dachshund and the FCI standard n° 148 (published 14 March 2022). The colour and pattern list in the fifteen-row table is the AKC’s published colour and marking registration list for the breed, which is the version that carries registration codes. The FCI column quotes the colour section of standard n° 148 coat by coat, including its closing sentence that unlisted colours and patterns are disqualifying.

What we did not do. We are not veterinarians and we have not examined any dog. The health paragraphs describe associations reported in veterinary and breed-club literature; they are not a diagnosis and not a screening test. We did not attempt to resolve every difference between the two standards, and where the two lists clearly cannot be aligned row for row we have said so rather than choosing a mapping.

No affiliate links on this page. Where we do use a paid link, it is labelled on the page it appears on, and it never decides what we publish.

Not veterinary or financial advice. DogDecide is not a veterinary practice and does not provide veterinary, legal, tax or financial advice. This page compares two published breed standards. For anything concerning your dog’s health, talk to a licensed veterinarian.

Where to go next

You own a dachshund and want the whole timeline rather than the breed reference: the back-health roadmap, year by year.
You want the factor in this breed where the mechanism is clearest: the eight-point spine check.
You are working out what the animal will actually cost to keep: the dog cost calculator.