06/02/2026
Let’s make a post about dachshund colours and patterns. I’ve seen many breeders recently making posts about this — but mine will be a little different 🤔
This is probably the *most* common complaint I see about dachshund breeders: breeding off-standard colours. “Greeders” or even “Colour Breeders”. Heck, I have even seen top show breeders who have dapples and creams with the vicious public finger pointing their way. “Fake show breeders”, they are called, despite their dogs earning titles one after another.
But it is really, really easy to point a finger at a breeder and say, at surface-value, your dogs are not bred to standard. How can they be, if they are off-standard colours?
But it takes a lot more effort to do a deep-dive on the history of our breed and *why* certain colours are not accepted. We often believe our standards value health above all. But in reality, most unaccepted colours were written out of the standard for either biased or outdated reasons — and not because of health.
The breed standard was, of course, written for a reason. The standard helps us breeders produce puppies with consistent, predictable temperaments and appearances, and uphold health, form, and function.
But what very few breeders address is that our breed standards were written by people. Yes, usually breeders and exhibitors — but still people, like you and me. Within our breed standards, there are biases that may have affected the creation of the standard. This is why standards change over time as these become amended.
In Dachshunds, piebald (white spotting) has been a part of the breed since its creation. And yet, it was not officially accepted into the breed standard until 1992 — literally hundreds of years after the breed’s creation. It is thought that breeders initially avoided piebald to better differentiate the Dachshund from the Basset Hound — so yes, it was a purely aesthetic reason, and not a health concern of any kind.
This said, there was still a LOT of controversy within the Dachshund Club of America about whether or not piebald should be removed from the breed standard.
In 2004, several board members motioned to remove piebald from the breed standard after many new breeders appeared with piebald champions.
This was not a health concern, nor even an aesthetic one. This was a group of powerful breeders who became frustrated with having more competition in the show ring. Prior to the piebald champions, there was not much controversy surrounding the colour.
In 2007, the breed standard was officially revised. In this revision, there were 2 very important changes:
Piebald was removed, and double dapples were removed — yes, the ones that are blind and deaf. Prior to this, double dapples could, and did, earn AKC Champion titles. At the same time, dapple piebalds were also removed from the standard. This was for good reason: genetic testing was not widely available yet, and so visually, it was very hard to tell the difference between a double merle and a dapple piebald.
Of course, that quickly changed with the introduction of widely available genetic testing like Embark and Gensol; but dapple piebalds are still unaccepted by the breed standard to this day.
Later, I believe in 2017, the standard was amended once again and piebald was added back as an acceptable colour.
Meanwhile, between all of this controversy with piebald, dilute is still a fully accepted breed colour — despite the risk of Colour Dilute Alopecia, a form of hair loss which can also cause itchy, sensitive skin and allergies.
My question for you is this: knowing the history, do you believe breeders who had piebald and dapple piebalds in their programs were “colour breeders” or “greeders” between 1992 and 2007, whenever it was fully accepted? What about between 2007 and 2017 — almost 10 years in which the piebald pattern was considered off-standard? Now dapple piebalds are no longer accepted — does that still make breeders who have them unethical?
In addition, are the breeders who produced double dapples before 2007 unethical, even though the double dapple was completely accepted within breed standard?
Whenever it comes to breeding, we also have to consider genetic diversity. The more colours we limit, the more limited the gene pool will become.
There is most definitely a place in our breed for breeders who show fully in AKC and have exceptional, within-standard dogs — but I believe there’s also a place for breeders who have off-standard colours — and I’m not shy in sharing that I have several who still benefit my program in type, conformation, temperament, and health. At the end of the day, this is what matters most in any breeding program.
https://www.dachshundclubofamerica.org/judges-education-materials/
www.12many.com/duchwood/piebaldhistory.html
www.12many.com/duchwood/dachscolorcrisis.html
