AWARDS
2006 IPPY Independent Publisher Book Awards
Honorable Mention - Animals/Pets
For the
Love of Dachshunds is the most deeply researched,
brilliantly argued, and archly entertaining book on the
Dachshund ever written. In 112 full-color photographs, a
prestigious group of dog photographers captures the spirit of
the Dachshund as a living companion. Robert Hutchinson’s text
peers deep into the ancient soul of the fifth most popular dog
breed in the United States today and reveals for the first
time its whole fascinating story. Many of his discoveries
contradict the standard breed literature. This is a book that
must be reckoned with by all students of the breed and savored
like a ballpark frankfurter by all Dachshund lovers.
The first chapter, “Everyone Loves a Wiener,” traces the
time-honored association between Dachshunds and hot dogs;
shows how the Dachshund’s temperament and body form mimic
those of its traditional prey; and sorts out the modern
systems of dividing the breed up into show classes.
Hutchinson’s second chapter, “Dachondroplasia,” compares and
contrasts the genetics of dwarfing in Dachshunds, other dwarf
breeds, and human beings. “The Low-Down on Dachshunds and
Bassets” documents the proposition that Dachshund has for most
of its long history been indistinguishable from the basset.
This chapter features chronologically ordered, fully
annotated, and newly translated citations of every reference
to the word Dachshund in German literature and art, from its
first appearance in 1682 until the end of the eighteenth
century. The French sources from which most of the German
citations were derived are also fully cited. The final
chapter, “The Dirt on Dachshunds and Terriers,” argues that
the Dachshund is functionally a terrier; that no terriers
prior to the sixteenth century qualify as short-legged
forerunners of the Dachshund; that Elizabethan terriers were
in fact French-style bassets; and that modern Scottish
terriers took their short-leggedness from Dachshunds smuggled
into Scotland by Gypsies in the eighteenth century.
Author’s Credentials:
ROBERT HUTCHINSON is the author
of many critically acclaimed books on the natural and social
history of dog breeds. He was a research scientist at the
American Museum of Natural History and studied paleontology at
Columbia University.
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