La selezione
Bred to an idea.
Francesca formed it in her first years, and set the Wanhelsing selection upon it.
Lo scopo
Francesca never set out to breed. When KevinCostner del Gotha sired his first litter and she saw what was born, the house filled with joy — and she chose to relive that joy, and to share it.
Selection is how that choice stays honest. The house breeds for a wirehaired dachshund true to its standard and to its work: sound in body, balanced in character, made for a long family life. The ring proves the work. The other ninety-nine days are what it is for.
Il tipo
The ideal, in her words.
On the story page it stands as six short principles. Here it is entire — almost exactly as she set it down.
«Il mio bassotto ideale deve essere corto di reni, con la schiena dritta, non molto alto negli arti ma soprattutto in taglia e con le giuste angolazioni del posteriore; il maschio deve avere una testa importante mentre la femmina deve rispecchiare la sua femminilità.»
“My ideal dachshund must be short in the loin, with a straight back, not very tall on the legs — and above all not in size — with the correct angulations of the hindquarters; a male must carry an important head, while a female must mirror her femininity.”
— Francesca, from the house’s founding text
Each clause is a working judgment: a body kept moderate and compact for the breed’s work, and a head that carries the type. Nothing in it is fashion.
Il carattere
Type without temperament is half a dog. Francesca’s rule is written into the same founding text: the quality of a dog depends also on the balance of its character.
The character in question is a definite one. These are hunting dogs by descent — decisive, territorial, devoted to their own people and reserved with strangers. Early socialisation matters; a balanced temperament is bred for first, then raised for.
La salute
Health before fashion.
Fashion sometimes pulls a breed toward the extreme — longer, lower, more. The house’s answer has been to decline. One conviction has governed the selection for almost forty years:
«Sono contraria a qualunque esasperazione morfologica…»
“I am against any morphological exaggeration — which, among other things, can put the dog’s health at risk.”
— Francesca
A Wanhelsing dachshund is bred moderate. It looks like an aesthetic choice. It is a health decision.
Our health practices
Being documented. The protocols the house follows — veterinary checks, screening, how a litter is watched over before entrustment — are being written up for expert review and will be published here. Until then, ask us directly.
L’accoppiamento
A litter starts long before it is born. Every mating is weighed before it is ever made — morphology, temperament, genetics, and the life the puppies will live. Pairings are studied, and planned well in advance.
When the right pairing is not there, the house waits. That patience is most of the method.
La crescita
Raised in the house.
Litters are born and raised in the family’s home, and the dogs are part of the family’s every day. A puppy’s first world is a household — its rooms, its voices, its garden.
Socialisation begins there, early, because the breed asks for it: a small, decisive hunter learns to live well with people by living with them. And the old advice of the house still stands — these dogs need ground under their feet, permission to dig and to run, and an owner who takes that seriously.
Come and see how the dogs live. Visits are by appointment.
The ethics of small numbers
Pochi cani
Wanhelsing was never meant to be large. Each litter is rare because each pairing is studied; each puppy is known by name and placed one family at a time. Almost forty years of the archive are written that way — a generation at a time, not a season at a time.
Few dogs, known by name.
Documented a generation at a time.
Planned well in advance; rare by design.
Matched to a family, not queued for one.
Answered in year one — and in year ten.
La famiglia
The last selection is not of dogs at all. When a litter is on the ground the question changes: which family, for which puppy. The match matters more than the order of requests — and an enquiry is a beginning, not a reservation.
I cuccioli — how a puppy joins a familyL’affidamento — the path, step by step
Per la vita
The selection ends. The responsibility does not.
A puppy here is never simply sold. It is entrusted — with care and responsibility on both sides. And the family that takes it is answered in year one, and in year ten.