Search for dachshund haircuts and you will find a great deal of confident advice about summer cuts and before-and-afters. What almost nobody tells you first is the thing that decides everything else: most dachshunds do not get a haircut at all.
Groomably’s library holds 314 dachshund photos from Australian salons. Forty-six carry a grooming-style tag, and here is how they break down: 25 are a bath and dry. Only five are a full groom and three a teddy bear cut. More than half of every tagged dachshund groom in the country is a wash, a dry and a brush.
That is not salons cutting corners. It is the correct answer for two of the three dachshund coats — and knowing which one you own is the entire decision.
The long-haired dachshund is the only one of the three coats with a real haircut decision to make. Photo: Joni & Co, Fitzroy VIC — via Groomably
Three coats, three completely different answers
The dachshund comes in three coat varieties. They are the same breed and they need different things.
Smooth-coat — no haircut, ever
Short, glossy, close-lying single coat. There is nothing to cut and nothing that would benefit from cutting. A smooth dachshund needs a bath when it is dirty, nails kept short, ears checked, and a rubber curry mitt or hound glove once a week to lift dead hair and spread coat oils.
Smooth dachshunds do shed — more than owners expect from such a short coat — but the answer is a mitt and a bath, not a blade.
Salon service: bath and dry, nails, ears. That is it.
Wire-haired — stripped, not cut
A harsh, dense outer coat with a softer undercoat, plus the beard and eyebrows that give the wire its expression. Like other wire coats, the harsh texture is produced by the follicle only when the dead hair is pulled out by the root — hand-stripping — rather than cut.
Clip a wire dachshund and the blade shears through the soft undercoat instead. What grows back is progressively softer, woollier, paler in colour and quicker to hold dirt. Over a few clipped grooms the wire texture and the crisp colour go, and getting them back takes months of stripping.
Very few Australian salons hand-strip, and it is slower and dearer than clipping. Plenty of pet wire dachshunds are clipped, and their owners are mostly happy. Just make it a decision rather than a default — the trade-off is texture and colour now versus convenience.
Salon service: hand-stripping if you can find it and want to keep the coat; otherwise a clip plus a tidy on the beard, eyebrows and legs.
Long-haired — the one with actual haircuts
Silky, slightly wavy coat with feathering on the ears, the backs of the legs, the chest, the belly and a full plume on the tail. This is the coat every “long haired dachshund haircut before and after” photo is about, and the one this guide mostly covers.
The body coat is not the problem. The feathering is: it mats, it drags on the ground on a dog whose belly is four inches off it, and it collects everything.
Photo: Cooly Pet Spa, Coolangatta QLD — via Groomably
The long-haired dachshund haircuts, honestly
1. The tidy (what most groomers recommend)
The body coat is left alone. The groomer neatens only the parts that cause problems:
- Feet — hair between the pads trimmed flush, and the fringe around the foot shaped to a neat outline. On a dog this low, foot hair mops up everything on the ground.
- Belly and chest fringe — shortened enough to clear the ground. This is the single most useful trim on the breed.
- Sanitary trim — around the rear, and the belly on males.
- Ear feathering — thinned or shortened at the tips. Dachshund ears are long, drop, poorly ventilated and prone to infection; heavy feathering makes it worse.
- Tail plume — shaped, not shortened.
The dog still looks like a long-haired dachshund. Ask for “a bath, dry and a tidy on feet, belly fringe, sanitary and ears.”
2. The puppy cut / summer cut
One length over the body, usually 10–20mm, with the feathering taken right down and the ears and tail left slightly longer for shape. This is the “before and after” people search for, and the change is dramatic — a long-haired dachshund looks like a different dog.
It is a legitimate choice. The long-haired dachshund is a single-coated breed in the sense that matters here — it does not carry the dense woolly undercoat a husky or a border collie does, so clipping it does not carry the coat-damage risk that shaving a double coat does. The coat generally grows back as it was.
What you are trading is the breed’s outline and the feathering’s sun protection, and you are committing to a schedule: once clipped, it needs redoing every 8–10 weeks or it grows out unevenly.
Good reasons to choose it: recurring matting, a dog that swims or works in long grass, an owner who cannot commit to combing three times a week, or an older dog who finds long grooming sessions hard.
3. The teddy bear cut
Only three dachshunds in our whole library wear one, and it is worth understanding why it is rare. A teddy bear cut is built around a round, soft, full face — which suits a cavoodle or a shih tzu because they have the facial furnishings to shape. A dachshund has a long, narrow, fine-boned muzzle with short face hair. There is nothing there to round off.
What “teddy bear cut” usually means on a dachshund in practice is a puppy cut with the ear and chest feathering left fuller. It is fine. Just know that you cannot get the classic teddy face on this head shape, and be sceptical of any salon that promises it.
A tidy long-haired dachshund: body coat kept, edges neatened. Photo: Petite Paws Dog Grooming Salon, Keperra QLD — via Groomably
What the numbers say Australian salons actually do
All 46 style-tagged dachshund photos in the library:
| Service | Photos | Share of tagged dachshund photos |
|---|---|---|
| Bath and dry | 25 | 54% |
| De-shedding | 7 | 15% |
| Nail trimming | 7 | 15% |
| Full groom | 5 | 11% |
| Creative grooming | 4 | 9% |
| Teddy bear cut | 3 | 7% |
| Breed-specific trim | 1 | 2% |
| Anxious-pet handling | 1 | 2% |
Photos can carry more than one tag, so the column sums above 46.
Two things stand out.
Bath-and-dry at 54% is one of the highest shares of any breed we hold. Compare it to the poodle, where the same library is dominated by clipping, and the picture is clear: the dachshund is a wash-and-brush breed. Most appointments are hygiene, not hairdressing.
De-shedding at 15% is nearly double the library baseline of 8.5%, which surprises people. Smooth and long dachshunds both shed more than their size suggests, and a high-velocity dry removes a great deal of it.
Only eight of 46 photos carry any haircut tag at all.
Photo: W.A. Dog Grooming Academy, Kelmscott WA — via Groomably
The back — the thing that matters more than the haircut
No dachshund grooming guide is complete without this, because it is a genuine welfare issue and it changes how you should choose a salon.
Dachshunds are chondrodystrophic: selectively bred for short legs and a long spine, and as a result highly prone to intervertebral disc disease (IVDD). A significant proportion of the breed will have a disc episode in its life, and some are catastrophic.
What that means at the groomer:
- The dog must be supported under the chest and hindquarters when lifted — never scooped under the front legs alone, never lifted by the ribcage with the back end hanging.
- No jumping on or off the grooming table. Ever. A competent groomer lifts a dachshund on and off and does not let it launch itself down.
- Sessions kept short, without long periods standing on a hard table.
- A non-slip surface on the table and in the bath.
This is a fair question to ask on the phone, and a good groomer will be pleased you asked. If a salon is vague about how they handle and lift dachshunds, use a different salon.
Nail length matters more here too. Overgrown nails change the dog’s posture and how it loads its spine — see nail trimming. Every 4–6 weeks for most dachshunds.
Ears, and why they need checking
Long, drop, heavy ears with poor airflow — dachshunds get ear infections. Check weekly for redness, smell or discharge, keep the ear feathering on a long-hair from getting heavy and matted, and have the groomer include an ear clean in the appointment. Do not put anything down the canal yourself; that is a vet’s call.
How often should a dachshund be groomed?
| Coat | Professional | At home |
|---|---|---|
| Smooth | Bath every 8–12 weeks; nails every 4–6 | Hound glove or curry mitt weekly |
| Wire | Strip or clip every 8–12 weeks | Comb beard and legs 2× weekly |
| Long-haired (tidy) | Every 6–8 weeks | Comb feathering 3× weekly |
| Long-haired (clipped) | Every 8–10 weeks | Brush 2× weekly |
For long-hairs the tool that matters is a steel comb, not a brush. Run it through the ear feathering, the armpits, the chest fringe, the trousers and behind the elbows. A slicker brush glides over the surface of a forming mat and leaves it in place; a comb finds it while it is still brushable.
Our general guide to how often you should groom your dog covers the reasoning across coat types.
Frequently asked questions
Do dachshunds need haircuts? Smooth-coats never. Wire-coats need stripping or clipping to maintain the pattern. Long-haired dachshunds do not strictly need one — a tidy on feet, belly fringe, ears and sanitary is enough for most — but a puppy cut is a reasonable choice if the feathering mats or the dog is outdoors a lot.
Can you shave a long-haired dachshund? Yes, more safely than most long-coated breeds, because it does not carry the dense woolly undercoat that makes shaving a husky or border collie a problem. The coat usually returns normally. You lose the outline and some sun protection, and you commit to re-clipping every 8–10 weeks.
How do I stop my long-haired dachshund matting? Comb — not brush — the feathering three times a week, focusing on behind the ears, the armpits, the chest fringe and behind the elbows. Keep the belly fringe short enough to clear the ground. Comb after any swim or wet walk, because feathering felts as it dries.
What is the best haircut for a long-haired dachshund in summer? A short body clip with the feathering taken down, feet trimmed flush, belly cleared. Keep some length on the back if the dog is outdoors in strong sun. Trimmed pads and short belly fringe also make grass-seed checks far easier — those are a real problem in an Australian summer for a dog whose chest is inches off the ground.
How much does dachshund grooming cost? It is a small-breed service, and a bath-and-tidy is cheaper than a full clip. See our dog grooming cost guide for current Australian ranges.
Find a dachshund groomer
Browse Australian salons with real dachshund work in their galleries on our dachshund page, or search the full directory by suburb. Every photo in this guide is a real dog at a real salon, credited to the business that groomed it.
