Dachshund back problems by coat and size: what a 2026 study found

Back health in 4,295 dachshunds from the UK, Norway and Denmark, compared by coat (smooth, long or wire) and by size (small or standard). A US team led from Auburn University published it in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine in July 2026, using existing records from each country ¹:

• UK: 1,134 dachshunds aged 10 or older from the 2021 DachsLife online survey, whose owners reported whether their dog had shown signs of disc disease.
• Norway and Denmark: 1,170 and 1,991 dachshunds from the national clubs' breeding databases, x-rayed between 2 and 4 years of age to count calcified discs ¹.

Calcification is part of the way a disc degenerates, and it shows up clearly on x-rays by about age 2 ⁵. It predicts trouble: in a study of 61 dachshunds x-rayed at age 2, the odds of a disc herniation before age 8 rose about 1.4 times with each calcified disc ⁶. Five or more calcified discs count as high risk ¹.

On average, yes. In every country, smooth dachshunds had worse spinal health than long-haired or wire-haired dachshunds. Smooth comes out highest in every row of the study's figures ¹:

Across the three countries, smooth dachshunds had roughly twice the odds of worse spinal health of the other coats (odds ratios 1.8 to 2.6), and all six comparisons were statistically significant. Long-haired and wire-haired dachshunds did about equally well, with no significant difference in any country ¹.

This isn't the first hint. In DachsLife 2015, an earlier, mainly UK survey of 2,031 dachshunds, vet-diagnosed disc disease was most common in standard smooth dachshunds (24%) and least common in standard wire-haired ones (7%) ³.

Not consistently. Size mattered in some comparisons but not in others. What stood out was small size together with a smooth coat. In the study, "small" meant miniatures, counted together with the even smaller kaninchen ("rabbit") size ¹.

Within each coat, the size results pointed different ways. Small wire-haired dachshunds did worse than standard wires in the UK and Norway, but not in Denmark. Small smooth dachshunds did worse than standard smooths only in Norway. And in Denmark, small long-haired dachshunds had better x-ray scores than standard long-haired ones ¹.

Nobody knows yet. The authors' idea is that the genes that make each coat may also act on the discs. A smooth coat comes from a working FGF5 gene, a long coat from a version of FGF5 that doesn't work, and a wire coat from a variant of a gene called RSPO2 ¹. RSPO2 switches on a signaling pathway that matters for disc development, so the wire gene might protect the discs. FGF5 has no known role in discs, so the idea that the smooth version harms them has less behind it. The authors call both possibilities, not findings ¹.

What about CDDY, the best-known dachshund back gene? Almost all dachshunds carry this variant, which is linked to early disc degeneration ⁷. In genotype data from 3,580 Nordic dachshunds, it was no more common in smooth dogs, so it doesn't seem to explain the gap ¹. The authors see disc disease as the work of many genes, and warn that simple fixes, such as dropping every dog with one particular gene from breeding, could do more harm than good ¹.

Probably, though the strength of the link could differ. All the dogs lived in Europe, and the authors expect similar factors to be at work in every dachshund population. In the UK, Norway and Denmark, breeding across coat types isn't allowed and breeding across sizes is limited or banned, so each type is bred as its own group. The US has no similar rules, and crossing coat or size types happens there regularly, though in a minority of dogs. That could change how strong the link is, though the authors expect this less for coat than for size, because coat type is passed on in a simple way ¹.

There are other limits. The UK figures are owner reports, not vet records, and the Norwegian and Danish dogs were mostly possible breeding dogs, who may not be typical pets ¹. Still, the smooth-coat pattern held in all three countries, on two different measures.

Don't panic: these are averages, and the same habits help every dachshund's back. Even in the highest-risk group, about two in three small smooth dachshunds in the UK aged 10 or older had no signs of disc disease reported ¹.

• Keep your dachshund lean. DachsLife found no link with body condition as owners scored it ³, but in a UK study of 700 dogs of many breeds, being overweight raised the risk of a disc bursting in the middle of the back ².
• Keep them active. In DachsLife 2015, dogs exercised for more than an hour a day had lower odds of disc disease, though that may partly be because dogs with bad backs get walked less ³. Regular walks are a good start, and our hot and cold walk tips help in any weather.
• Collar or harness? There's no good evidence that either changes the risk of disc disease. If your dog pulls, training helps, and after neck disc trouble your vet may recommend a harness ⁸. Our harness or collar guide covers the fit.
• Choosing a puppy? Ask whether both parents had their spines x-rayed between 2 and 4 years of age, and how many calcified discs they had. Puppies from parents with few calcified discs tend to have few themselves ⁵. In the UK, the Kennel Club (now the Royal Kennel Club) has run the screening scheme since May 2021 ⁹.

Dachshund Health UK advises seeing your vet within 24 hours for back pain or mild wobbliness, and treating paralysis, or wobbliness that gets worse quickly, as an emergency. Until your dog is seen, keep them in a crate or small pen, with no running, jumping or climbing ⁴.