
Recently, we had the honor of being recognized as one of the top 9 dachshund breeders in Minnesota by the independent website dachworld.com. With over 20 years of experience in breeding and raising dachshunds, including miniature dachshunds, we strive to produce happy, healthy, and well-rounded puppies that adhere to the breed standard, making them excellent family pets. All our puppies are sold as pets ONLY without registration papers. Raised in our home in a loving environment that includes kids, people, and other dogs, our puppies experience the normal hustle and bustle of an active household. They go to their new homes current on vaccinations and deworming, and each puppy is examined by a licensed veterinarian, with documentation provided. We also offer a written health and genetic guarantee. Every puppy comes home with a goodie basket that includes a bag of food, toys, chewies, and a blanket with the scent of mom and littermates to ease their transition into their new family. All our adult dachshunds have undergone health checks and DNA testing to confirm they are 100% purebred dachshunds and to assess any predisposition to genetic disorders for their specific colors and patterns. Any puppy can be put on hold before they are ready to go at 8 weeks with a $200 NONREFUNDABLE deposit. At Darling Doxies MN, we take pride in being one of the trusted dachshund breeders in MN.
As one of the leading dachshund breeders in Minnesota, we offer a lifetime of support to our new puppy families. This means that if you have any questions, comments, or concerns—whether it’s just one day after purchase or five years down the road—we want to ensure you have a wonderful experience with your new family member throughout their lifetime. We also love to hear updates from our clients over the years, and as darling doxies MN, we truly enjoy receiving pictures and videos of your adorable pups! Whether you’re looking for miniature dachshund breeders in Minnesota or simply exploring dachshund breeders MN, we are here for you every step of the way.
We will get your puppy started on learning to go potty outside using the crate training method recommended by reputable sources such as the darling doxies mn website. We encourage you to continue this method once you bring your puppy home. If you are looking for dachshund breeders in Minnesota, it's important to avoid puppy pads if you want your puppy to use the outdoors as their designated bathroom area.
We are proud to be one of the leading dachshund breeders in Minnesota, located in Elk River, which is about 45 minutes NW of Minneapolis. We encourage our puppy buyers to pick up their puppy from our home in person. Additionally, we allow one in-home visit prior to pick up once a deposit has been received. For the safety of our family, our children, and our dogs and puppies, we can no longer permit visitors unless a deposit has been made. Before the deposit, we are more than happy to discuss details over the phone, conduct video chats, or send any requested pictures. When you visit, please note that we may ask you to leave young children at home, depending on the age of the puppies and your children, so please inquire when scheduling your visit.
***When scheduling a visit or pick-up time, we ask that you be respectful of our time, as we have lives outside of our dogs and puppies. Our family, including nieces and nephews, is involved in school and various activities. We often have multiple puppies leaving in a day, so we try to organize pick-ups to avoid overlap, allowing us ample time to thoroughly discuss instructions for taking your new puppy home and answer any questions. If you will be arriving more than 15 minutes early or late, please let us know. If you are more than 15 minutes late, we may unfortunately need to reschedule.
As one of the trusted miniature dachshund breeders in Minnesota, we also offer the option to meet part way or deliver your puppy for a fee. While we typically do not offer shipping, there are certain circumstances where it may be possible. Instead of shipping, we often meet puppy families at the airport, allowing them to fly home with their new puppy safely inside the cabin of the plane. We also have the availability to personally fly your puppy to you. We do this ourselves as we prefer to keep the puppy in our care until delivery. We do not use third party puppy nannies. We do charge a $300 fee in addition to the cost of the flight to personally fly your puppy to you. Please inquire with us about the possibility of flying your puppy to you to figure out exact details. At Darling Doxies MN, we are committed to ensuring a smooth and joyful experience for all our puppy families.

Did you know there is a definite difference between a male and female? While there truly is!
Male vs. Female
Does a male or a female make a better pet for you and your family?
It’s not uncommon for people to believe that a female dog will make a better pet. We get a lot of calls for people wanting that “special little girl”. For whatever reason they don’t think that females will exhibit “alpha” behaviors like humping and/or marking. A lot of people think that females are more passive and friendly and that they don’t take part in fighting over dominance, which could NOT be farther from the truth. If you check out the structure of dog packs, the females determine the pecking order and rule the roost. The result of that behavior is that the females become more stubborn, independent, and territorial than the males. These females are much more intent on exercising their control by participating in that “alpha” behavior like humping. Most fighting will usually break out between two females.
Males tend to be more affectionate, exuberant, attentive, and even more demanding of attention. The males are very attached to their owners, tending to be more dedicated, reliable and less temperamental. They are more sociable, more accepting of other pets, playful for years, and take quicker to children. Most boys are easily motivated by treats/food, words of praise and are so eager to please that training actually becomes easier. Their playful nature, however, can make males more easily distracted. The boys are more likely to act silly and more puppy-like, always wanting to play games, no matter what their age. The boys are fun-loving until the day they die, whereas girls tend to be more standoffish and dignified the older they get.
Neutered males rarely exhibit secondary sexual behavior such as marking and lifting their legs or humping. Once the testosterone levels recede after neutering, most of these behaviors will disappear if they ever existed. Boys who were neutered early (by five months of age) usually don’t ever raise their leg to urinate.
So before making your decision on that age old dilemma of male verses female, hopefully this will give you some helpful info to think about.
Technically to be considered a "mini" the dog must be 11 lbs. Or less and while most of our adults are 11 lbs or smaller we do have a few slighty larger. We also cannot guarantee the adult size of our puppies as the mini dachshund was originally bred down from the standard even 2 small parents can produce a puppy that ends up being larger that anticipated. This is a fairly common practice for most reputable, responsible breeders. Please be wary of any breeder that "guarantees" adult size of a dachshund.
This depends on if you want your puppy to learn to exclusively potty outdoors. If that is your ultimate goal we recommend against potty pads as they are counter productive. If the goal is to learn to potty outside then we do not want to encourage eliminating inside in any capacity. Once you start using potty pads it is extremely difficult to get rid of them and often puppies/dogs will see other objects laying on the floor such as rugs, blankets etc as a place to go potty. If you intend to always have a potty pad available throughout your dogs life then they can definitely be a very effective training aid. Also its very important to know that you should never put one in your puppies crate. Potty pads encourage the puppy to eliminate in that spot and you should never encourage elimination inside the crate. The entire purpose behind using a crate is to teach your puppy to "hold it" and not mess their crate. Also if left unintended in a crate with a potty pad most of the time the puppy will chew and shred the pad and they can be very harmful if swallowed.
We do suggest you spay or neuter your dachshund, but we highly recommend waiting until over a year old. There are several new studies suggesting it is very beneficial to wait until over a year old to spay/neuter. We have included a link to an in-depth explanation of why it is very beneficial. We do not require our families to wait we just ask you to do your own independent research on what is best for you and your new family member.
When you adopted your Dachshund, or purchased him or her from a breeder, you were probably told whether your Dachshund was a miniature or standard.
But when you made some Dachshund friends, you noticed that your Dachshund was larger than other miniatures or smaller than other standards.
You began to wonder if what the breeder, shelter, or rescue told you is incorrect.
Now you’re wondering if your Dachshund is a mini or standard.
The general, brief answer to this question is that miniature Dachshunds, in the US, are 11 lbs or under at 12 months of age and anything larger than that is a standard size.
However, there are a few nuances to the different classifications, as well as some controversy over what to call the size between 12 lbs and the “typical” 16 lbs of a small standard Dachshund.
In this article, explain those details as well as what this “in between” size is called.
Do know that, although you can make predictions, one can’t definitively determine whether a Dachshund is a standard or miniature until they are full grown.
Smaller dogs mature earlier in life than larger dogs.
The general consensus is that Dachshunds are considered “full grown” by 12 months old.
After 12 months, your Dachshund may continue to fill out (gain muscle and get wider) until they are about two years old but they won’t get much larger than their 12 month size unless they become overweight.
What you probably really want to know is how big your Dachshund puppy will be as an adult.
By six weeks old, you can make a prediction about what your Dachshund will weight when they are full grown.
There’s no way to be absolutely sure how big your Dachshund will be when full grown until they reach maturity at 12 months of age.
However, there are some formulas you can use to guess.
This is one of the calculations I found to be the easiest and most accurate (many others were extremely off from my experience).
For this growth prediction, weigh your puppy at 6 weeks old.
Then take that weight and double it. Then double it again.
For example, if a Dachshund puppy weighs 3lbs at six weeks old, they are predicted to weigh around 12lbs as an adult (3 x 2 = 6 x 2 = 12).
In the case of my Dachshund puppy, Summit, this was was significant over-estimation though.
Using this formula, I anticipated that she could be 16 lbs when fully grown (she was 4 lbs at 6 weeks).
However, she stopped growing when she reached 10.5 lbs. So, she doubled the weight she was at 8 weeks (5 lbs).
So remember that any calculation is just an estimate.
If you search out other puppy growth charts and calculators, make sure you are looking at one that specifies it’s for small dogs.
The growth rate is different for medium, large, and giant dogs.
I live in the United States and and this article is written for people who also live in the United States.
In the US, standard and miniature Dachshunds are considered the same dog breed.
Generally, they have the same genetics (except small variations that dictate things like color).
The only difference between a standard and miniature Dachshund is their weight and height.
You can only tell whether your Dachshund is a mini or standard when they have completed the majority of their growth, and Dachshund is considered full grown by 12 months of age.
The main difference between a miniature and standard Dachshund is their height and weight. They aren’t different breeds.
Miniature Dachshunds weigh 11 lbs or under and are 5-6 inches tall, or 13 and 18 cm, at their withers (measured from the floor to the high point between the shoulder blades) when they are full grown.
Standard Dachshunds weigh from 16-32 lbs and will be about 8-9 inches, or 20–22 cm, tall at their withers at full maturity.
So, once your Dachshund is 12 months old, you can easily determine if they’re a miniature or standard using a weight scale and tape measure.
Note: If you are visiting my blog from the UK, the breed standard in your country defines a miniature vs standard Dachshund based on what there parent’s were registered as, regardless of weight or height. In fact, it is my understanding that if a doxie has one standard parent and one miniature, they are considered a “mixed breed”.
Since the American Kennel Club (AKC) breed standard for Dachshunds does not clearly define dogs that fall in the 12-15 lb range, it has led to some confusion as whether Dachshunds in that weight range are considered standard or miniature.
Among owners in the Doxie community, Dachshunds that weight between 12-15 lbs are affectionately referred to as “tweenies.”
According to the AKC, all Dachshunds weighing over 11 lbs would be classified as standard. “weenie” is not Dachshund weight classification recognized by the organization.
You might have been told that your Dachshund was a standard or mini and they turned out to be larger or smaller than you expected.
When that happens, many owners assume that their breeder lied to them about whether their Dachshund was standard or miniature.
If you are buying a Dachshund puppy from a responsible breeder, they will mate only miniature Dachshunds with each other (and only standards with standards).
However, since standard and miniature Dachshunds are genetically the same breed, a breeder can’t guarantee what size their puppies will be when full grown.
Trustworthy breeders cannot predict how much your Dachshund will weigh full grown but will however be able to give you an estimate based on the size of the parents. However this may not always be accurate as explained they can end up smaller or larger than anticipated.
It’s not uncommon for two miniature Dachshunds to have puppies that grow large enough to be considered a tweenie or standard when full grown.
Conversely, but more rare in my experience, two standard parents can produce mini Dachshunds.
The more established the breeder, the more accurately they will be able to predict the full grown size of their puppies.
This is because they know more about their Dachshund’s lineage and already have experience with one or several litters from the same parents.
If a breeder is less experienced, they may predict incorrectly how big their Doxie puppies will be as adults.
So if your Dachshund ends up being bigger or smaller than you expected, it’s not necessarily a case that the breeder lied to you.
Miniature Dachshund parents can produce standard Dachshunds and mini parents can product standards.
But there’s something else to consider, and that’s if your Dachshund is the correct weight.
If your Dachshund is over 11lbs, take a close and honest look at how much “padding” they have on their body.
If you put your 12 lbs Dachshund on a diet and exercise regimen, would they be 10lbs when in ideal physical condition?
Your veterinarian can help you determine if your Dachshund is overweight.
If so, you may indeed have a miniature Dachshund trapped inside an overweight body.
If you’re not sure about your Doxie’s diet or ideal body weight, I suggest having a conversation with your veterinarian.
Both miniature and standard Dachshunds are considered the same breed genetically in the United States, although there are gene variations that influence things like color and bone structure.
Although predictions can be made, ultimately, a Dachshund’s full grown size and weight is not completely known until, well, they are completely full grown.
Of course, you’re more likely to have a miniature Dachshund if both parents are miniature size and a standard if both parents are standard size.
But, remember it is possible for two standard parents to give birth to a miniature and visa versa though.
A miniature Dachshund stands 5-6 inches at the shoulder, and is 11 lbs or under, when fully grown.
If your Dachshund is closer to 8 -9 inches tall at the shoulder, and weighs 12lbs or more as an adult, then it is considered a standard.
Note that Dachshunds that fall between 12-15 lbs are sometimes affectionately called “tweeenies” by Dachshund owners but that is not a formal size recognized the AKC.
Our babies from the best dachshund breeders in Minnesota are adopted quickly, so reach out to reserve your furever friend or ask any questions. Our puppies, offered by darling doxies MN, are typically sold or put on hold on a first come first serve basis after we have had contact with you and determined that a dachshund is a good fit for your situation. We specialize in miniature dachshund breeders in Minnesota, ensuring you find the perfect companion.
763.273.3019 You can call or text we prefer texts. If you reach our voicemail please leave a message so we can return your call. We dont check emails often so texting or calling is the best way to reach us.