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For most people, their dachshunds are considered part of the family, and it can make sense to take them with you if you take a long road trip so long as they can be accommodated with you at your destination. But travelling by road can be a stressful experience for dogs and there are a number of hazards to consider, so before you undertake any long journey you’ll need to ensure your dog will be comfortable and safe during the trip. We’re planning a long car trip, so we’ve been doing some research on the responsible way to take our standard dachshund with us. Read on to find out what we discovered about safe road trips with your dog.

If you live with dachshunds you know how wet and dirty underneath they can get, all year round. It’s pretty much unavoidable given their low slung body shape, with a tummy just inches off the ground. One of the things that inspired us to start Barkmatic was to solve the ‘underneath’ problem. Off the shelf dog raincoats and winter coats just don’t fit dachshunds without major customisation, which gets a little tiresome after a while. Our driving passion is to design dachshund coats that cover the chest and underside, and offer good protection underneath our dachshunds as well as over their back. Our custom-fit service delivers the right fit, right first time. Here’s an outline of our two of the most popular coats on our online shop for year-round tummy protection for your dachshund.

One of the exciting things about welcoming a new dog into your household is trying out the adventures and new experiences you can have together which are fun not just for you but also for your dog. This is equally true whether you are welcoming a puppy or younger dachshund, or adopting a rescued dachshund whose history and experiences are unknown. If you love being outdoors and active there’s an endless list of activities you and your dachshund can share, some of which play to their breed-specific skills and others which are just plain fun.

Dog welfare organisations all warn about how frightening and traumatic the unfamiliar bangs and flashes of fireworks can be to some dogs. Modern fireworks are very loud, and quite unlike anything your dog is likely to hear in their day to day life. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) offers the statistic that 45% of dogs show signs of fear at the sound of fireworks. Scared dogs may behave unpredictably, putting their safety or the safety of people around them, at risk. Read on to find out how you can help your dog.

Temperatures are dropping in the northern hemisphere, and along with that comes months of long dark evenings, fog, frost, ice, and snow, in various combinations. Dogs need daily exercise all year round unless there’s a medical reason to suspend it. So you’ll need to take your dachshund out in all weathers, while keeping them warm outside, and taking precautions against the effects of cold, snow, and ice on your dog. We’ve rounded up some helpful tips to help you make sure that your dachshund is kept warm and safe outside during the winter months.

We’ve just launched a new dog coat in our range of coats for dachshunds. We thought we’d share with you what inspires us in our work to design and make Barkmatic coats, and why we always keep innovating. All our dog coats are designed to make it easier for humans and their dachshunds to spend time together outdoors, doing the things they love. Read on to find out what’s great about our newest dachshund coat.

Visiting friends in Barcelona recently, we jumped on the metro with Sunny, and were told by a helpful passenger that dogs on the metro were required to wear a muzzle. In London it’s not something we are required to consider, although we are always careful not to let anyone get too close to Sunny without warning, whether that’s on public transport or on the street. Read on to see what we found out about dachshunds and the use of muzzles.

Some experts suggest that the majority of dogs will show early symptoms of dental disease by their third birthday. We’ve read that dachshunds as a breed are particularly prone to dental disease and teeth problems. Dental problems can cause, or be caused by, other health problems. In our household, we’ve found that brushing our dachshund’s teeth is not the easiest task. Even our vet admitted that she struggles to regularly brush her dog's teeth. But given that dental disease can be prevented, we thought we would brush up on our dog tooth care techniques. Read on to find out what we discovered.

We posted instructions for making an origami dachshund not so long ago, and were surprised to see how popular these instructions were. Since then we’ve been waiting for the first opportunity to share some wonderful dachshund-related ideas for things for you to make with your kids during school breaks. Read on to see these easy ideas. If you’re a dachshund parent, or you and your kids are thinking about it, or you all just love these beautiful and characterful dogs, then there are so many crafty things you can make or do. The unique and recognisable dachshund shape is a real bonus when it comes to making and using their shape for crafts. Here are just some of the ideas we found. Nearly all the projects we describe are available for free or at very low cost online, either as a downloadable or shapes and ideas you can print off and trace.

Weight and body condition can be sensitive subjects for humans to think about or discuss, and it’s probably the same when it comes to the animals we love and are responsible for. I was shocked to be told by the vet recently, at Sunny’s annual booster appointment, that he needed to lose some weight. We’ve kept him right in the middle of the Kennel Club weight range for standard dachshunds, which we thought was the best place to be. But the vet told me simply that “orthopaedically speaking, the closer he is to the bottom of the weight range the longer he’ll live and in better health”. After being told this, I went straight to my laptop to look again at dachshund weight and body condition. Read on to see what I found out.