Contrary to popular belief, dogs are not descended from wolves. Rather they share a common ancestry, diverging as species between 27,000 and 40,000 years ago. Nevertheless wolves and dogs have very similar mitochondrial DNA (differing by about 0.2%) and are therefore able to interbreed. This accounts for the resemblance some varieties of dog have to wolves, e.g. Huskies, Alsatians. However, it does not explain how Dachshunds happened. Their name may be a translation from the German, meaning ‘badger hound’ but I don’t reckon they just ended up that way as a result of a staple diet of badgers necessitating the development of shorter legs (to go down holes in the ground) via natural selection.