We’ve been making bespoke dog coats for dachshunds for some years now, in partnership with dog owners. Why do we say in partnership? Because our human clients do the measuring part, and we make the coats. The good news is that measuring dachshunds is easy if you follow our instructions. The other good news is that we sense-check all measurements, so you can order with confidence. Read on to find out more …

To buy a bespoke coat from the Barkmatic online store you don’t need to know the measurements of your dachshund.  Simply put the coats and accessories that you want in your cart and make the purchase.  We think it’s best for clients to be able to take measurements at their leisure, with a relaxed dog, a few treats,  and enough time to check and then check again.  Besides, if you’re shopping on your phone on the train to work, measuring just isn’t going to get done is it?!

The wriggle factor

Our website has a page of guidance, with a diagram, on where and how to measure your dachshund.  After your order has been placed, a human in our office will send you a link to an online form which you use to submit four measurements for your dachshund.

What are the most important points? Firstly, you should measure your dog while she’s standing up.  Secondly, you must use a soft tape, or failing that a piece of string. And thirdly, don’t hold the tape too tight or too loose. The biggest challenge while measuring your dachshund is what we call the wriggle factor.  If your dachshund isn’t in the mood for standing still then it can be difficult, or even impossible at that moment. We have the same problem - of course - even after years of measuring our dogs before making up samples and test coats!  All you can do is keep trying, or try a little later, and measure everything twice or three times.  

We check every measurement

You can be assured that we check each set of measurements as they come in.  If the set of measurements don’t seem to have the classic dachshund proportions (whether you have a big standard dachshund or a delicate mini) we’ll quickly contact you and ask you to re-measure your dog. For some reason, the back measurement is the one that clients tend to get wrong, but the mistake is generally obvious to us.

Only when we’re happy with the measurements will we finally get on with drafting the pattern for your dog and going to production.  We have been known to have WhatsApp video measuring sessions with clients, and are always happy to do that if you feel it would be helpful. We can do that before you buy if you prefer. 

Is your dog really a dachshund?

We hope that’s not a rude question.  Dachshunds that are pure-bred (or near enough) have body measurements that fall into the same proportions. This is useful for us, because we need only ask you for a few simple measurements, and our coat designs will take care of the rest of the sizing in dachshund proportions.  It’s the reason we only make coats for dachshunds, because that’s the breed we know and have worked with for years, and we understand their unique shape and proportions inside out.  

On occasion we receive an order where the measurements are clearly not those of a dachshund.  And sure enough, it always turns out that the dog is either not a dachshund, in which case we cancel the order.  But where the coat is for a dachshund-mix of some kind we’ll ask you to take some extra measurements and send us a few more photos.  When making custom-fit dog coats, everything is possible!


You can find the full range of our bespoke dachshund coats here.